Switchbot Blinds Bluetooth Connection Issues

[bj61251]

The problem

As of the last few days, my switchbot blinds refuse to react to commands from home assistant. They show up fine on the Bluetooth connections with reasonable signal strength, but if I try to open or close them, they either don't work at all, or take multiple minutes before they react. If I open or close them via the switchbot app, however, I see their status react in home assistant immediately, so it's at least able to communicate with them to get their attributes fine.

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

2026.1.3

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

Switchbot

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/switchbot

Diagnostics information

config_entry-switchbot-01KG9RD7RX40FXQR5W06F6TZSJ.json

Example YAML snippet

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

Logger: switchbot.devices.device
Source: /usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/switchbot/devices/device.py:392
First occurred: 5:26:14 AM (2 occurrences)
Last logged: 5:27:33 AM

None (E2:9C:78:B5:06:57): device not found, no longer in range, or poor RSSI: -36
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak/backends/bluezdbus/client.py", line 300, in connect
    reply = await self._bus.call(
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<6 lines>...
    )
    ^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/dbus_fast/aio/message_bus.py", line 409, in call
    await future
asyncio.exceptions.CancelledError

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak_retry_connector/__init__.py", line 474, in establish_connection
    await client.connect(
    ...<2 lines>...
    )
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/habluetooth/wrappers.py", line 364, in connect
    await super().connect(**kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak/__init__.py", line 623, in connect
    await self._backend.connect(self._pair_before_connect, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak/backends/bluezdbus/client.py", line 158, in connect
    async with async_timeout(timeout):
               ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/asyncio/timeouts.py", line 116, in __aexit__
    raise TimeoutError from exc_val
TimeoutError

The above exception was the direct cause of the following exception:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/switchbot/devices/device.py", line 390, in _send_command_locked_with_retry
    return await self._send_command_locked(key, command)
           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/switchbot/devices/device.py", line 642, in _send_command_locked
    await self._ensure_connected()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/switchbot/devices/device.py", line 502, in _ensure_connected
    client: BleakClientWithServiceCache = await establish_connection(
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    ...<6 lines>...
    )
    ^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak_retry_connector/__init__.py", line 497, in establish_connection
    _raise_if_needed(name, device.address, exc)
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/site-packages/bleak_retry_connector/__init__.py", line 428, in _raise_if_needed
    raise BleakNotFoundError(msg) from exc
bleak_retry_connector.BleakNotFoundError: None (E2:9C:78:B5:06:57) - E2:9C:78:B5:06:57: Failed to connect after 6 attempt(s): TimeoutError

Additional information

No response

[home-assistant]

Hey there @Danielhiversen, @RenierM26, @murtas, @Eloston, @dsypniewski, @zerzhang, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (switchbot) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

Code owner commands

Code owners of switchbot can trigger bot actions by commenting:

• @home-assistant close Closes the issue.
• @home-assistant rename Awesome new title Renames the issue.
• @home-assistant reopen Reopen the issue.
• @home-assistant unassign switchbot Removes the current integration label and assignees on the issue, add the integration domain after the command.
• @home-assistant add-label needs-more-information Add a label (needs-more-information, problem in dependency, problem in custom component, problem in config, problem in device, feature-request) to the issue.
• @home-assistant remove-label needs-more-information Remove a label (needs-more-information, problem in dependency, problem in custom component, problem in config, problem in device, feature-request) on the issue.

_{^{(message by CodeOwnersMention)}}

---

@bj61251 Thanks for reporting this issue!

Before we dive in, please make sure this isn't a duplicate by searching through existing issues. Also check recently closed issues, as your problem might already be fixed but not yet released.

https://github.com/home-assistant/core/issues?q=%20label%3A%22integration%3A%20switchbot%22%20
_{^{(message by IssueContext)}}

---

switchbot documentation
switchbot source
_{^{(message by IssueLinks)}}

[bj61251]

I will note that I recently (as in a few weeks ago) upgraded from a raspberry 4 to a raspberry 5. However, they worked perfectly fine for the first few weeks so I don't think that has anything to do with it, unless the Bluetooth module has gone bad. Switchbot is the only integration I use with Bluetooth. I've removed the devices and re-added them, and home assistant immediately detects that they are available, so I really don't think it's a Bluetooth issue.

[bj61251]

Did a bit more testing, and attempted to manipulate the blinds and then went and looked at active Bluetooth connections. I can see connections appear and disappear very quickly ( not sure if this is expected or not, I imagine it doesn't have to connect for very long to send the command), but you can see that it tries multiple times and at the very end of the video home assistant reports the error at the very bottom of the screen.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/w3SWWGb7KeFEJ9sY9

[bj61251]

Just noting that this is still happening in 2026.2.0

[bj61251]

So I bought an external Bluetooth USB adapter, and installed that, and disabled the Bluetooth adapter built into the Raspberry Pi 5. Despite reporting significantly weaker signal strength connecting to my blinds, there are no longer any errors and the blinds work like they used to.

What could be the cause of this? Did my internal Bluetooth adapter go bad? Could it still somehow be a software issue?

[wljohnson05]

I've been having pretty much the same issue. I've got 9 shades in the house, and it seems more or less random if one decides to react or not. I'm running bluetooth proxies around the house. I was also wondering if it was an esphome issue with the proxy, but I'm really not sure.

[tezgno]

I'm having a similar issue as well. This started with 2026.1. Prior to that my Blind Tilts all worked just fine. After updating, I will now randomly get a blind tilt that will no longer respond. Rebooting HA seems to resolve the issue for a day or two and then it returns. Someone else posted this:

#160940

I haven't seen this error in mine, but I'm definitely seeing connection issues randomly all of a sudden as well.

[tezgno]

Upon looking at this further, I think this may be a OS issue and not a HA issue. I noticed some errors in bluetooth on the OS 17.1 screen. I'm using a USB-BT500 and what caught my attention is the fact that the switchbot integration is saying my BT adapter is passive when it is in fact set to active. Wondering if that's the cause.

[randoogle]

I'm fairly certain this is a problem with HA, and not the OS. I installed a fresh version of HA container version 2025.12.5
on a separate server, and I could control my blinds again. After upgrading that container to 2026.1.3, I could no longer control the blinds.
After trying to control the blinds, I see an error after a while at the bottom of the screen:

Failed to perform the action cover/set_cover_tilt_position. [org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.UnknownObject] Method "WriteValue" with signature "aya{sv}" on interface "org.bluez.GattCharacteristic1" doesn't exist

Rolling back to 2025.12.5, I could control them again.