BT Wholehome wifi firmware downgrade

[dnairb0011]

I have been running v1.02.12build02 firmware on my wholehome setup since December 2020 and had no issues. I disabled auto update and stayed on this firmware because it worked well after issues I had with a previous firmware update. I finally took the plunge and updated the firmware in mid Feb 2023 to the latest v1.02.13 build07.

The only reason I updated this time was due to the constant reminder of a firmware update every time I opened the app, and assumed after all this time it would / should be safe to update. Other people I know had updated to v1.02.13 build07 without issue so I tried it.

Big mistake, and one I seriously regret. I've had to reboot my network more than once since the update and regularly get discs go offline. I've had to move 1 disc to get a 'decent' connection, though it still loses connectivity. None of the discs are any further than 5 meters apart. 1 other disc that often loses connectivity now impacts on my security devices as the apps now regularly fail when trying to remotely unlock and or monitor my front door.

Is it possible to revert back to the previous firmware I was on as that was faultless in comparison and everything worked.

[Andy_00]

Hope this helps, found it on another post on here

http://mybtdevice.home/rollback.htm

[dnairb0011]

Thanks for the link.

I have already obtained this and performed a rollback after losing access to everything multiple times when I was away from home for a while. 

Sadly, even though I am back on the previous firmware the system does not appear to be as stable as it was originally. I had to restart the network twice in 1 evening after receiving notifications that devices had lost connection.

I have turned off auto updates again and hoping things will stabilise once more, failing that, the Wholehome system will be replaced as I can't rely on a WiFi mesh system that regularly goes offline.

[dnairb0011]

Spoke too soon. Went out for a while and while I was out my Wholehome went offline again, disconnecting everything that was using the wifi.

When I got in I decided to factory reset the discs again as I hadn't done it after reverting to the original firmware. When it came to the final disc, which was not one of the original set, I had to plug it into the router. As soon as it was detected, it performed a firmware update (automatically as I had disabled auto updates in the app) and now all of the discs are running the latest firmware version again. 

What a waste of time!!!!!

[Les-Gibson]

You could try doing the same thing again only this time, when you connect the final disc to the router, disconnect your hub from the line first.

Hopefully the two will still communicate with each other and the app over your local network but with no internet connection to the hub it won't be able to update the disc

[dnairb0011]

That is something to consider.

Now everything is back up and running I'll monitor it to see how it performs before deciding on my next option. Not sure I can be bothered to keep messing about with this set much longer as it's currently proving to be pretty unreliable now.

I need a setup I can rely on, this setup no longer fills me with confidence.

[johnaa]

My neighbours are having problems with these discs. I have looked at the logs on all of the discs. The master disc is crashing, just stopping dead, no error message, no stack dump.  Then the disc restarts.  It happens two or three times a day. That takes two or three minutes each time.  Regardless of the environment,  firmware should never crash like this.  Either there is a bug in every version of the firmware.  Or BT have introduced a bug in a later version which is what might have happened here with v1.02.13 build07.

I think it is appalling that BT has just abandoned support for these discs and essentially committed a lot of hardware prematurely to landfill.  Equipment manufacturers should be legally obliged to either make the firmware open source so bug fixes can be made by the open source community or, at least, provide a way of unlocking the boot loader so third party firmware like OpenWRT can be installed.

[dnairb0011]

My discs were all replaced as I got so fed up with them going offline daily, sometimes multiple times a day. I was sending logs daily, which was a waste of time as I don't think anyone looked at them or knew how to interpret them as the questions I was being asked would have been answered by checking the logs. This did surprise me somewhat as I worked with routers and would often interpret logs to identify issues.

Sadly though, even the replacement discs weren't / aren't faultless. I ended up swapping the channels and now they often go for several day, or even a couple of weeks without going offline but as soon as there is 1 disc that goes offline there are usually a number of issues over a couple of days, from 1 disc to all of them going offline.

Fortunately I have devices connected to the discs now that alert me via an app when discs go offline and I am able to reboot individual discs or the whole network remotely. Not ideal but a useful workaround.

I'm currently contemplating binning the lot and looking at another brand as it's still frustrating that the issues persist.

[johnaa]

Thanks for replying to this old thread. Were the replacement discs also BT Wholehome?   Can I confirm that you're now running the last and presumably final version of the software v1.02.13 build07.

I think you are right that the first level BT support staff were probably not able to analyse the logs or have the time.  I guess that staff that were able to analyse the logs would be moved on to supporting later products which were being used by customers inside the warranty period.  By the way, I had to merge the logs for the 3 discs before I could see what was going on.    

[Andy_00]

Is the latest build now safe to use ?