Suddenly S50 Will Not Connect To Seestar App

Fleshed

After unsuccessfully attempting to transfer files using Station Mode, now my S50 will not connect to my Seestar app on my iPhone 14. I get the "powering on - ready to connect" message ok when I power on the S50. I tap the "Connect" button on the app and the S50 wifi appears on the app as normal. When I tap on "Connect" there the app momentarily shows "Connecting to Bluetooth" then shows "Connecting to the wifi of my Seestar" and also on the app I get a popup saying "Seestar wants to join WiFi Network S50_f617c353". I tap on "Join" and the app shows "Connecting". Everything is absolutely normal up to this point, but I never get get the Connected" message on the app. It just sits there in that mode indefinitely, although if I go to my wifi settings on iPhone, it shows me fully connected to the S50 wifi. Furthermore, if I use my Macbook to connect with the S50 wifi, I can access and download the files in the S50 album.

I uninstalled then reinstalled the app on my iPhone with no success. I also just completed a full reset on my S50, but it still will not let the app connect.

Skynet

Fleshed I am now having the exact same issue.

Wildey

Fleshed I did the same

erewhon

Interestingly, this just started happening to me with one of my two Seestars. Actually, I think it's the same issue.

I have an iPhone 15. App sees the Seestar via Bluetooth, offers to connect via Wifi, iOS asks me to join network. It joins but then it just sits there indefinitely "Connecting to the Wifi of your Seestar". I also tried connecting to the Seestar network before starting the app. Same thing.

I am able to connect the Seestar to my laptop and it mounts properly as a drive, and I was able to copy things off of it using a USB cable. But I can't connect from the phone app and do anything with it.

erewhon

Interestingly, I was able to get in. I reset the Wifi (long press of Wifi reset button), tried connecting with app, and after pressing the reset button to associate it, app asked me update the firmware. After the firmware updated, I was able to connect again. Really odd. I haven't run into this previously... (The other Seestar I was able to update the firmware and never got locked out like this.)

Fleshed

erewhon When I tried pushing the RESET button on the S50 this morning I did get the message to reload the firmware. I thought that was going to be the fix, but after installing the firmware I still can not connect the S50 to the Seestar App. I did however get a message that the S50 could not pair with my iPhone Bluetooth. I checked my Bluetooth devices and I see no connections for ZWO or S50 or Seestar. When your S50 is connected in the app, do you see anything in your BT connected devices having to do with Seestar?

Roger Pittock

I had a long-term (and long-since reported but closed without solving) bug on connecting the S50 to my Galaxy M33 - with similar symptoms from the off, for which my work-around was the following (other phones older and newer went straight in without issue):

Join the S50's Wi Fi with the M33 (success - but App would not connect)
Go deeper into Wi-Fi settings on the M33 - and swap the Mac address from Native to Random (or Vice versa)
App then would connect and all would be fine. However, if for any reason (eg temporary change of Wi-Fi to access internet, going out of range...) on re-joining the S50's Wi-Fi, app would not reconnect to telescope. HOWEVER, by repeating operation 2 above (but reversing - if selected native before select random now etc), it reconnected perfectly.

The latest firmware release has cured this irritant. I wonder if in doing so they've inadvertently screwed it for some iPhones? If this is a red herring, apologies. However, the coincidence is strong - if reversed.

erewhon

I'll have to check in a bit, but if I recall correctly it did show a connection to the Seestar via Bluetooth. But I'm not sure if that was when it worked, or just when it hung while connecting.

Fleshed

I loaded Seestar App into my iPad and the app and my S50 connected right up. Very Strange. I hope I hear something from ZWO Support. Also, I see no BT connection while it is connected.

erewhon

I use Station Mode on mine. I just put that out there in case that's a factor.

I had to reset the Wifi on my other Seestar as well. It had the same symptoms... The good thing is once I did that, I was able to re-enabled station mode and I was able to image multiple targets. But it is more than a little disconcerting.

Wildey

erewhon hi how do you put it in station mode.

Wildey

I too have had the same issues for 2 days. What is the fix for it. Regards

Skynet

I sent an email to support. Waiting on a response. Nothing I have tried worked. Very frustrating to encounter when the skies cleared up.

Fleshed

I just received a reply from ZWO that said they will be releasing a fix for the problem as soon as possible, so they must obviously be aware that there is indeed a software issue. This is what they say...

"You can try a temporary solution by turning off your mobile data and then reconnecting it, or by connecting after enabling Airplane mode. We will release a new version to address this issue as soon as possible. Therefore, we will expedite the adaptation work to ensure that you can resume normal use".

I have not tried the suggestions yet.

Skynet

Fleshed thanks for posting the response. Will try the airplane mode connection.

Skynet

Skynet so putting iPhone into airplane mode and turning on bt and WiFi worked. Thanks!

erewhon

I see an update to the iOS app showed up today. It does mention "Fixed an issue where some iOS users could not connect to Sestar due to carrier reasons." That's intriguingly... cryptic. Going to try it out soon...

Fleshed

Big 👍🏻 to ZWO for jumping on this problem!