When you open a gift during the holidays, you’re always excited to play with it and you usually expect it to work right out of the box. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for new owners of Philips Hue smart bulbs, who ran into some problems setting up their new connected light bulbs. Philips confirmed that it has been experiencing issues that have prevented users from being able to enjoy their products and chalked the problem up to the massive influx of new product activations.
The company confirmed it was experiencing issues on Wednesday, December 26, tweeting out notice of ongoing problems being experienced by some Philips Hue users. “We’re currently seeing a lot of new activations which may result in some customers not being able to create a new account, log in, or link their account to third parties. We hope to have this solved soon and like to ask you to try again later,” the company said. “Apologies and happy holidays!” The message came after nearly a full day of users reporting issues.
We’re currently seeing a lot of new activations which may result in some customers not being able to create a new account, log in, or link their account to third parties. We hope to have this solved soon and like to ask you to try again later. Apologies and happy holidays!
— Philips Hue (@tweethue) December 26, 2018
That wasn’t a particularly satisfying answer for some users who were looking forward to getting the smart lighting system online. Users took to social media to complain, noting they were unable to create new accounts, log in to existing ones, or link their MyHue account to third-party services and devices like the Amazon Echo or other smart speakers. Needless to say, it wasn’t the first impression Philips was likely hoping to make with new users.
In a statement provided to TechCrunch, Philips explained the situation further. “Following the holidays, we are seeing a high number of users setting up their Hue accounts. Unfortunately, this is causing a delay for some customers who have not been able to create their Hue account or link Hue to their voice assistant,” the company said. “We are working to support this increased traffic and help our customers complete their setup. We expect to have the issue corrected shortly.”
Hue started informing users on Thursday that its systems should be up and running again, allowing folks to create new accounts or log in to their existing one and set up their new smart home devices with their Hue system.
