Issues with my BT Wholehome wifi discs

[PJ-ST]

Hi all

I purchased a set of 3 BT Wholehome Wi-Fi discs a couple of years ago, followed by two add on discs. I have been very pleased and had no issues until last week. The system wouldn't start, and a red light appeared on the discs?

Hoping to get things sorted quickly before Christmas, I purchased a new set of 3 BT Wholehome Wi-Fi discs, the aim was to get the three new ones working and then add the others as additional discs.

The good news was the 3 new discs were set up and working very quickly, so I have some Wi-Fi access in the home.

The problems arose when I wanted to add the older discs.

With the new three discs working, I did the following...

- I inserted an ethanet cable from the Virgin router Hub 3, to the back of the first disc.

- I then inserted the power cable into the disc

- In the App I went to 'settings' then 'Add another disc', it ran through the purple to blue light and then again to update the firmware, after a steady blue I disconnected the disc and followed the same procedure with each additional disc (5 total)

- The App only allowed me to add 6 discs, and they were visible on the two pages, I renamed them before disconnecting them, plus 1, plus 2, and plus 3. So far so good, although I was hoping to add 8 in total.

The next job was to take them to their proposed positions, the first two going back where the previous discs 4 and 5 were before the current problems.

This is where my issues began!

The first disc tried was disc 4, named plus 1, I connected it and added the power waiting while it set itself up, but the red light came on! So I switched off and tried again, same issue, the dreaded red light.

So I tried another disc, named plus 2, same issues, the dreaded red light!

Finally, I tried disc plus 3, this one set up correctly with no issues, which leaves me rather baffled.

Any help will be most appreciated.

Thank you in advance

Paul

[Keith_Beddoe]

@PJ-ST 

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

You would be best asking the product helpdesk, as they will be able to answer this for you. Call them on 0808 100 6116 (Monday to Friday 9am to 5.30pm, Saturday 9am to 2pm) or drop them an email to: btconnectedhome@bt.com

[PJ-ST]

Thank you Keith

[PJ-ST]

Hi Keith,

I am very deaf and struggle on the telephone, my wife normally takes calls for me but, let me just say, my wife and technology don't mix.

I will email then, many thanks for your help, hopefully it can be sorted quickly.

Do you know if BT are going to make the Wholehome Wi-Fi able to take up to eight discs?

Paul

[Keith_Beddoe]

Here is a help page https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/Problem-with-Whole-Home-Wi-Fi-Please-read-this-first/td-p/202...

There are a number of threads on this devices board, which you may find useful.

https://community.bt.com/t5/Archive-Staging/Whole-Home-Adding-Extra-Discs/m-p/2012376

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/Whole-Home-Wi-Fi-App-v3-14-8-Full-Release/td-p/2216280

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Devices/Premium-amp-Whole-Home-Wi-Fi-6-SGAB-C20832C-now-live/td-p/221...

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

[Les-Gibson]

The good news was the 3 new discs were set up and working very quickly, so I have some Wi-Fi access in the home.

The problems arose when I wanted to add the older discs.

With the new three discs working, I did the following...

- I inserted an ethanet cable from the Virgin router Hub 3, to the back of the first disc.

If I understand the above correctly, you now have two discs connected to your hub by ethernet cable, if so that may be the problem.
Read the following link for a brief explanation of the different versions of Wholehome Discs and why you may not be able to connect two to your hub in that manner (see "Can I connect more than one disc to my hub (router) using the Ethernet cables?")

BT Whole Home Wi-Fi FAQs - Set-up and installation | BT Help

[PJ-ST]

Hi Les

Sorry if not explained clearly.

I have one disc connected to the virgin router, making it the master disc.

I then have two discs, from the new set of three, connected by Wi-Fi.

Those were a new set of three following issues with my old set turning red.

Then I add one old disc to another port into the router to prepare it for adding as an extra disc. Once this has been set and added to my APP as disc 4, I rename it and disconnect it. Set being when it had gone purple, to blue, back to purple to upgrade the firmware, then stopping on steady blue.

Then I aimed to do the same with the other discs, eight in total, 3 new ones, 3 old ones from a set two and a half years ago, and 2 additions I purchased not long after buying the first set of three. BUT, the APP will only allow up to 6 discs, so I could only prepare 3 of the five discs, which gave me 6 total in the APP, 3 from the new set live and 3 from the old discs showing in Red.

Then I aimed to place the discs, one at a time, where I wanted them, the first 2, disc 4 and 5, were going in the places my previous ones were. It should have been simple, I thought, but the App system failed to add disc 4, the light again turned Red. I then tried to add disc 5, the light on this one ended Red.

Finally, I tried disc 6, and this one was accepted. One out of three, this baffled me, after two rejections I expected the last one to do the same.

So my current situation is...

- 3 new discs just purchased working correctly.

- 1 of the previous 5 discs added and working.

- 2 of the previous discs, prepared on the additional port for adding, were rejected.

- 2 additional previous discs, not tried, as App only allowed me to commission 6 of the 8.

I could, I guess, commission the 2 remaining discs and try them, but have not done so at this stage as I contacted BT via email and await a reply from them this coming week. Having a rethink on this, I will remove the 2 failed Red discs from the App, then commission the other 2 discs on a separate router port and see if they will work? If they do, it would bring me up to 6 discs, if they don't, I would know I have 3 or 4 discs not working and needing a fix.

Hopefully BT will make it possible to have 8 discs soon

Paul

[PJ-ST]

Thanks for sharing the links Keith.

I had done a search prior to posting and had seen some of these.

You guys are very helpful

[DavidM]

Hi @PJ-ST and welcome to our community.

Thanks for posting about your WiFi discs. I see you've had great advice from both @Les-Gibson  and @Keith_Beddoe and I'd be very interested to know how this is resolved so please keep us updated on your progress.

Cheers

David

[PJ-ST · Accepted solution]

@Keith_Beddoe  @Les-Gibson  @DavidM 

UPDATE

The following was the procedure BT recommended, and it has worked.

I now have 6 discs working again.

I would love to have all 8 but at present the App only allows up to 6 discs.

• Please press the Factory Reset button on the back of the non working discs.
• Wait for the solid red/blue light to come back on
• then connect the disc to one of the working discs by Ethernet cable.
• Wait for the disc to go sold blue then leave it for another 5 minutes,
• If the light is still sold blue switch the disc off and move it back to where required.

Thank you all for your help

Best wishes for Christmas

Paul