I installed the mobile smartphone plug-in today, and it bricked my Vera. I started getting an error message saying “Communication error while retrieving local database” whenever I tried to access Vera’s UI. I searched the forums and found a few other people who had the same problem after installing the smartphone plug-in. The recommended solution was to upgrade to the latest firmware (.944). I tried doing that, but it seems to have made the situation worse. Now, I get an error message saying “sysinfo.json: NOT LOADED”, and Vera is completely unresponsive. Even the links to upgrade the firmware, request tech support, etc. don’t work anymore. I’ve even tried resetting Vera by double-clicking the black button on the back, and by unplugging her. Nothing works.
Can anyone advise me as to what I should do to get my Vera working again?
Depends on what your lights are doing and the flashing pattern etc?
I’ve really only ever properly bricked mine during a firmware update; other times its been the fault of a bad plugin etc!
Anyway, if you can get into the box via SSH and run /bin/firstboot (seems to set it back to defaults) its recovered mine a few times and allowed the web interface to come back up.
The recovery procedure is pretty good and the only problems you may have are:
-If using win7, you may have to install the TFTP program in xp compatibility mode
-Make sure the LAN cable is plugged into LAN1 (not the WAN port)
-Make sure you configure your network settings on the local PC manually to match the settings that Vera will now need as detailed in the wiki. (Dont use DHCP)
-Unplug the power for 20 Seconds and plug it back in only after you have held the black button FIRST . You’ll know when it works because the power light will start to flash.
Sorry for taking so long to reply to this thread. I’ve been away on vacation and just got a chance to try the firmware flash utility this weekend.
Unfortunately, it didn’t work. I followed all the steps in the wiki, including setting the static IP, making sure I was connected to LAN1, etc. I tried it on two different computers, but the “rescue.exe” utility was never able to find my Vera. I found some other threads in these forums that say the utility only works on Windows XP, which I don’t have available. All of my computers are running Windows 7, so maybe that’s the problem.
Nonetheless, my Vera is still bricked with absolutely no way of connecting to it. The web interface doesn’t work, it won’t let me SSH in, and the rescue utility can’t locate it. I think this may be hopeless.
Did you install the utility in comparability mode with Win7? Also i’m not not sure if it’ll make any difference but i have the windows firewall completely turned off and Win 7 worked fine for me…?
Can you ping it perhaps and see if your PC and Vera can see each other? If that doesn’t work then you either have a really dead Vera or something is wrong with the network?
I didn’t try running it in XP compatability mode, but I did try pinging the Vera and that didn’t work. I even tried creating a physical network map, and Windows said it didn’t detect any network devices connected.
My Vera2 got bricked during the 1.1.319 firmware upgrade because I tried to do it while I was remote. There was no instruction that you had to be local. I called MCV and they sent me the recovery tool and it did not work either. I have Windows 7 but they said that was not an issue. After that failed they sent me a new Vera 2 with 1.0.994 installed (UI2). I like it better than UI3. Ovidiu from tech support was very helpful so I suggest you call them.
@BigstickCarpet: I’m sorry that you decided to get a refund. With the new UI4, the upgrade process is well improved and we’re using swap to store the firmware image during the process. This will assure that no other Vera unit will crash during the upgrade (unless you unplug the power supply). I hope we hear from you soon and that you will decide to try the new UI4 when it will be in a stable version. Thanks!
Ovidiu,
Thank you for all of your help and fast responses. I definitely appreciate it. Please don’t think that this issue was the only reason I decided to return my Vera for a refund. It was just the final straw in a long series of problems.
The reason I bought Vera in the first place was that it had a nice simple UI that would be intuitive for my wife, kids, and other family members to use. However, between the terrible UI3 which had zero usability, and the myriad firmware updates that constantly caused things to stop working, the result was a system that was unstable, frustrating, and that nobody in my house had any desire to use.
In the end, I have decided to switch to HomeSeer. It’s far more expensive, not as easy to set up or manage, and has a terrible interface, but it’s incredibly stable and much more powerful than Vera. I’m still on the lookout for a solution that combines the power of HomeSeer with a decent user interface. If Vera ever fill that void, I’ll be happy to give it another try.
The rescue utility will NOT work with Windows 7 unless Windows XP compatibility mode is used. Compatibility mode is only available in some version of Windows 7. The instruction given in this post are accurate and should work every time. Unfortunately the community has lost a Vera user due to M$ Windows version issue. I think BigstickCarpet would have change his opinion of Vera if he were to wait a few weeks for UI4.
We are very sad when a customer devices to leave us and it’s not at all about the money, it’s the fact that our goal is exactly what @BigstickCarpet complained. I’m sure that the UI4 will kill all this bad impression of Vera and that in a few weeks, everything will be bulletproof and we’re focus more on features/support for new devices and much more less on stability.
Definitely, the support and feedback from our community helped a lot and we thank you all for that because now we’re sure that Vera looks and feels more like YOU, the customers, want!
I also had the same problems. I ditribute vera in Colombia an I still hope to see this UI4 you talk about. We are shocked with the fact that having a stable UI2, you made a totally unstable UI3 that messed everything up. We want to know the release date of UI4, because we won’t work anymore with UI3. We already commented the benefits of Vera with our clients but we won’t be able to distribute Vera with this firmware. We are very sorry.
In later UI3 releases it was actually quite stable and once you got used to it not too bad after you got round the learning curve!
I’ve been testing UI4 and save for a few browser problems at the moment, I think you will happy again to endorse the product! Its a real step forward and I hope they release a new version again soon with some of the browser problems fixed as we’ve been waiting nearly 2 weeks now and I think everyone should get the benefit from it!
I’m guessing the delay is that some users were also having problems with the replacement of findvera service.
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