What to Do When Your System Is Unresponsive

Complete guide to rebooting your entire smart home system when everything stops responding.

Smart Home Automation

Full System Reboot Guide

If your entire smart home system is unresponsive — lights, audio, video, and app all not working — a full system reboot will usually bring everything back online.

Before You Start

  • This process takes about 10 minutes total
  • All devices will come back with their existing settings — nothing will be lost
  • You will temporarily lose all smart control during the reboot

Step-by-Step Reboot

Phase 1: Network (do this first)
  1. Unplug your modem (ISP device) — wait 60 seconds
  2. Unplug your router/gateway — wait 30 seconds
  3. Unplug your network switch — wait 15 seconds
  4. Plug in the modem, wait for all lights to be solid (2-3 minutes)
  5. Plug in the router/gateway, wait 2 minutes
  6. Plug in the switch, wait 1 minute
Phase 2: Control System
  1. Unplug your Control4 controller (or Crestron processor) — wait 30 seconds
  2. Plug it back in and wait 3-5 minutes for full boot
Phase 3: Verify
  1. Open the Control4 app — it should find your system
  2. Test a light switch, try playing music, check a camera feed
  3. Give all devices 5-10 minutes to reconnect to the network

If Using a WattBox

If you have a WattBox IP power conditioner, call Smart Systems and we can reboot your equipment remotely. This is often the fastest resolution.

Still Not Working?

If the system remains unresponsive after a full reboot, there may be a hardware failure or network issue that requires a service call. Contact Smart Systems with a description of what is and isn't working.