Device Offline and bad data?

I see that there are a number of “Offline” reports, and I am wondering if at least in some of these cases, sending bad data is not a cause?

I have two BYO devices Device1 and Device2 being fed by Node-Red via MQTT.
Device1 is untouched and always is online (ie no Offline banner and not greyed out).
I then created Device2 which inotially was not greyed out and did not show the “Offline” banner.
Whilst setting up the data feed to Device2 I mistakenly sent the data payload on the wrong format ie “20.0” instead of “temp,c=20.0”.
Device2 then went offline - and I couldn’t get it back online even though I Reset the Dashboard, restarted Node-red. and rebooted the RPi.

Since Device1 remains online throughout, it isn’t an internet connection problem.

The only way I can get Device2 back online is by deleting it and then recreating it - and being careful not to send it bad data again! I have tested this scenario twice - and would really like a method to reset the device.

Any confirmation that bad data could be causing a device to go (and stay!) offline?

Hi @alport,

We legitimately had an issue with MQTT devices reporting offline when they were still online (even in some cases their dashboards were updating with live values in this state).

I’m writing because I’m happy to say we’ve pushed a fix for this today, and I want your feedback on whether it has resolved any of the issues you’re writing about here.

As a test, I published some values in an unexpected format (like just “20.0” as you’ve described here.). At least currently, that does not appear to be affecting or exacerbating any online/offline bug – I concede that it may have been before today’s fix. Would definitely be interested to hear how things are working for you (or anyone else reading) now that today’s fix is in place.