Sometimes you just need to see the light and start over

We all know that technology isn’t perfect. Fortunately, the all-powerful practice of turning a malfunctioning device off and on again can tackle a myriad of problems, no matter how dire things may seem. And if your Philips Hue smart lights are acting up, you can, fortunately, do the same.

While Philips Hue arguably makes the best smart bulbs some of the most reliable and easy-to-use smart lights on the market, we all run into the occasional problem. If this happens to you, you’re in luck, as the ability to reset these devices is nearly as easy as installing them.

While things may vary a little, depending on your smart home setup, resetting your Philips Hue bulbs should only take a few simple steps. Whether it be through the bridge or a smart home app, this process won’t have you banging your head against the wall.

If you use a Philips Hue Bridge for your smart home setup, you'll want to reset your smart bulbs in the Hue app. To be clear, though, “resetting” a Philips Hue light or bulb entails simply deleting it and reinstalling it; the reset process is not a factory reset, as it is with many other smart home products.

As for the actual process, you’ve likely already downloaded the Hue app to set up your smart home, so just open it up to get started. Once you’re there, do the following:

And, boom! Your light is reset and disconnected from your system, so you’ll be free to reconnect it at your leisure. Here’s how you do that:

In most cases, users are pairing virtual assistants with smart bulbs, so they can say stuff like “turn on the living room” or “let there be light” to illuminate their homes. Now, if you’re using Alexa or Google Assistant to set up your smart lights, there are a few other ways you can reset your Philips Hue bulbs and lights.

The process for Alexa users is actually quite similar to that of the Hue app in user experience and design, honestly.

Now, for Google Assistant, the process is a bit more complicated and doesn’t follow the same design to a tee. Additionally, there’s no way to reset a single light, but you can unlink Philips Hue from your Google account, which will allow you to reconnect your whole setup if you want to start over. Here’s how:

Philips Hue lights and bulbs are some of the best, most intuitive smart lights available today, so you really shouldn’t run into many problems that warrant a reset. But when you do, it should be simple enough that it won’t ruin your day.

While smart home hardware tends to be fragmented and confusing at the moment, things are about to improve. The upcoming Matter smart home standard will make many of the current platforms and work together seamlessly.

Conor has been staunchly in favor of Android since graduating to a smartphone from his hot pink Motorola RAZR. In fact, he'll gladly ruin a friendly dinner in service of lambasting Apple devices to those that use them, which he admits is one of his worst personality traits. After being talked out of sports writing by someone working for ESPN Chicago ("it's the same thing every year, it's like purgatory"), Conor decided that the ever-evolving world of tech would be a much more interesting topic to focus on. Now, more than half a decade later, he covers everything from new devices and big conferences to small startups and business trends. In addition to freelancing for Android Police, Conor is the Lead Writer for Tech.co, a tech publication focused on helping small businesses grow and succeed. He's worked with the likes of Forbes, WeWork, General Assembly, Chase Bank, Tech in Motion, and SXSW, among others, through Tech.co in service of making tech a bit more accessible. Conor also can't properly pronounce the word "colloquially," but honestly, who can?