I’ve spent the last couple of days learning a lot about Matter over Thread thanks to this little diabolical lock turner. I’m just about ready to throw in the towel, but maybe the experts here can help me out. (Note I’m using HA in Dutch, so some of the names of sections may be translated a little incorrectly)
What happens:
When I go to Devices and Services > Add Integration > Add Matter device > Scan Nuki QR Code, everything goes well, until it says ‘checking network connection of [WiFi]’. At that point, without fail, it will tell me that HA can’t reach the Nuki device and asks me to check that the phone has access to WiFi. The process stalls here. Yes, Phone and Nuki are properly connected to the WiFi.
What do I have:
A Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra, with a UniFi 6+ AP to connect;
The HA Green is plugged directly into the router;
OTBR - HA has been installed and configured for NAT64
HA has a zbt-1 configured as a Thread Border Router;
I have synchronized the Thread Authorisation in my Android app > Companion app > Troubleshooting menu;
The HA is set up less than 2 meters from my front door, so well within range of the Nuki.
I have made sure that my router is configured for IPv6 in the fd00:01::/64 subnet. After configuring this, I rebooted router, Nuki, and HA to make sure the new IP settings held.
The Nuki has been factory reset already, so I can do it again if necessary.
Is anybody able to help me, or ask strategic questions about things I missed in my description above?
There should not be any need to manually change IPv6 subnets on your router (and not sure if this causes conflicts).
Found a similar case within the Home Assistant forums that was solved by enabling IPv6 within Home Assistant (but this should be on by default to my knowledge).
Speaking from personal experience most of the time Matter commissioning with HA + Android companion app failed if there was a Google Nest Hub in the same network (Android companion app tries to use the wrong Thread network then) or the smartphone and HA were in different networks (communication blocked by firewall rules).
Often it helped to clear data of the “Google Play Services” app (not “Google Play Store”) but keep in mind that this will cause other issues on the phone (need to re-signin on all Goggle account, payment cards in Google Wallet are gone, …)
I also have a problem like that, maybe the same. I installed OTBD addon and Matter server addon. I added the intregrations and selected my Thread firmwared border router. I went to OTBD Integration and selected as iPhone app credentials, than went into the Troubleshooting in the mobile app and choosed the right thread network. In Nuki app I enabled the Matter feature. I go to Integrations clicking to add Matter device, scanning the QR code and it waits 2-3 minutes and Pairing Failed. Tried it more than 30 times now and tried to reinstall everything also and even restart all the devices including Nuki.
Im out of ideas really. That was the only feature why I choosed Nuki.
Unfortunately, yeah, it was already on and activated. One of the things I checked after figuring out that Thread required IPv6.
I have no Nest Hub, I bought the ZBT-1 specifically to work as a Thread border device. Do you think it would still be advisable to clear my Google Play data? As you say, it’ll cause quite a hassle, but if it’d help, I’m willing to try.
Meanwhile, I DID get the Nuki working over MQTT. I understand that Thread consumes less power than WiFi, though, so I’m still preferring to get this to work.
That… and a bit of sunk cost fallacy, given I’ve specifically bought the ZBT-1 for this purpose
Im totally in the same shoe. I bought a border router just for this to consume less power via Matter. I also enabled IPV6 earlier. I spent the night to solve this issue but without any result.
No, I think in that case it won’t help.
For me there were still some remains of the Google Nest thread network somehow in the Google APIs that the Android companion app uses and clearing the app data helped. But If you never used a Nest Hub (or Nest WiFi) then there should be no remains of another Thread network.
The ZBT-1 should be used with the extension cord as directly attaching it to USB could cause some interferences but this should only lead to limited range and not to general commissioning failures.
You can try this alternative approach to add the Smart Lock to OTBR (I never tested this as my HA Yellow has no BLE):
I’ve, again, been learning a lot. I got stuck in that process, because I don’t have a bluetooth device attached to my HomeAssistant. I assume that has to do with this way of setting up…
I’m throwing in the towel. My HomeAssistant doesn’t have enough usb ports for -another- dongle after the Zigbee and Thread devices.
Thanks for the support, though!
I have a bluetooth in my Raspberry Pi 5. I turned on Passive setting in the bluetooth integration, that was helping for a second because the settings went through when I was adding the nuki to matter integration but at the end it still ended with another error message that I need a Thread Border Router ( what I have of course ). I tried nearly everything with this matter server communication via JSON, but this is also not working as you see on the screenshot.
Your screenshot also says “bluetooth commissioning is not available” so I guess there is not even an connection attempt via BLE made.
You may try asking in the Home Assistant forums how to further debug this.
Oh man, thanks for your hints, I finally solved it, anyhow everything was perfect in my case, except Matter over Thread does not like Xiaomi AX3600 routers… if I used the same network but through a powerline adapter, it was working perfectly for first try…
A one last question than I does not need contact via support by email, if I was using mqtt until now and I want to use matter from now, to save battery time, how can I disable WiFi? I went to Built-in-WiFi but it says I have already matter integration what I can use.
If “Remote access” on the Matter screen is enabled then WiFi is disabled automatically.
MQTT will use Thread connection provided by Matter to still rech your MQTT broker.
However due to a bug in current HA OTBR plugin releases you need to provide an IP address of the MQTT broker. Hostname won’t work.
If you don’t want to use MQTT any more at all you need to disable MQTT in the Smart Locks settings.
Thank you mate, I thought this is something like that. Based on your experience is it better to use MQTT or the simple Matter connection to Home Assistant ( what I did actually )?
If Matter provides everything you need, then I’d just use that.
MQTT offers a few more possibilities that are not yet doable via Matter (execute Lock ‘n’ Go, show Door sensor or Keypad battery status)
Just a little update from my side, I’ve figured the problem out without all kinds of POST messages and the likes… it turns out that Matter and/or Thread doesn’t like it if the phone with which you’re pairing the Nuki to the Home Assistant is connected over VPN. I was connected to my home WiFi, but with a Wireguard VPN connecting to that network running, too.
When I turned off Wireguard, the pairing succeeded first try.
NOWHERE in all of the troubleshooting websites I visit was this mentioned. I hope it helps some other poor sods in the future
Good for you! I did not have a VPN on my iPhone but needed over 30 trials before finally the Matter “connection” was “established”. And after a week this “connection” “broke off” and the whole circus started from the beginning. I think to got some indications in mystically wordings from Nuki that Matter also has to be “switched on” on their server-side. Since the last firmware updates the Matter “connection” seems to be more stable though.
