Philips Hue lights are setting themselves to full brightness

Have you been having issues with your Philips Hue lights and bulbs behaving erratically? Many users, myself included, have found that their lights are randomly turning to 100% brightness. I had been bamboozled by the issue as I couldn’t spot a pattern or cause, but every now and then my lights would turn to full brightness, and I’d have to return them to their previous state using the app. Philips Hue has now confirmed that it is aware of the issue, knows what is causing it, and is working on a fix.

What is causing my Hue lights to come on full brightness?

What’s the matter with Matter?

Signify, the parent company of Philips Hue, has stated that it is aware of the problem, and that it is due to an “interoperability issue with the Matter smarthome standard, in which random temporary radio traffic disruptions are incorrectly recognized as legacy switch power toggles.” In other words, if you’ve connected your Hue lights over Matter, they can sometimes mistake fluctuations in the Matter signal as commands to turn your lights all the way up.

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As far as your lights are concerned, they’ve received a message sent directly from you, asking them to turn all the way, so that’s what they do. It’s not yet clear whether this is a general issue with Matter, which would be concerning for a protocol intended to improve compatibility between smart home devices, or a problem with the way Philip’s Hue lights integrate with Matter. Whoever is responsible, Signify has said that a permanent fix for the problem is in progress and should be rolling out soon.

How do I stop my Hue lights from coming on full brightness?

Until the fix arrives, there’s a temporary solution

While we’re waiting for a patch, our Hue lights may still keep randomly turning to full brightness. Signify suggests that you disconnect your Hue Bridge from Matter to stop the brightness of your lights from randomly changing. You should still be able to control your lights over Zigbee via the Hue Bridge. Once you’ve disconnected your Hue Bridge from your smart home system of choice, you need to ensure that you don’t reconnect through the Hue app, as this is likely to create a new Matter connection.

1. Open the Hue app.
2. Tap the Settings icon at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll down to the Smart Integrations section.
4. Select Smart Home.
5. Tap the smart home system that is able to control your Hue lights over Matter.
6. At the very bottom of the screen, tap the Unlink button.
7. Tap Unlink app to confirm your decision.
8. To add back control via the Apple Home app, don’t add it via the Hue app. Instead, scan the QR code on the bottom of your Hue Bridge in the Home app.
9. If this doesn’t work, factory reset the Hue Bridge, pair the Hue Bridge to the Home app using the code on the bottom of the Hue Bridge, then add the Hue Bridge to the Hue app.
10. For Alexa, don’t connect via the Hue app. Instead, install and use the Philips Hue skill.
11. For Google, connect to the Hue Bridge via Google Home app rather than through the Hue app.