Smart meter not sending readings to Octopus

Hi ​@DJKS ,

I can try to advise, but I need to see photos of your meter first.

Thanks!

There are events which can cause this ​@DJKS but usually, the meter can be encouraged back into transmission. 
The best method is to report your missing readings via their customer support. If you’ve already tried email, then follow up via Twitter (X) and ask for a manual pull of your readings. 
Just occasionally, a meter reset is required (power cycle) but often that is not necessary.

Your meter should hold the readings for some time ready for reconnection 

Hey ​@DJKS 

Sorry to hear of the issues you’re having

We have a number of topics which may have some helpful advice:
 

Thank you for the reply. To check - how are you suggesting I report my missing readings? Is there some way of pulling the data from the meter? I’ve tried using Bright App but that didn’t work (my IHD is showing usage so I know it’s not a local issue). 
 

were you suggesting I just manually record the readings (it would be quite cumbersome given the smart tariff requiring multiple readings each day)?  I wasn’t sure what you meant by asking for a “manual pull” of my readings?  Octopus have said they don’t seem to be able to connect from their end.  Thanks

Earlier this year, a number of meter/coms hub combinations stopped transmitting data possibly due to a faulty firmware update. 
Users reported this and some were told (myself included) that the meter needed to be power cycled. 
My own experience was that after initially being told this from their customer support, I continued to ask for missing data to be recovered and I believe they provided a firmware fix, possibly via DCC, the central data hub. 
I found the best contact route available was via a DM to their Twitter feed which resulted in them manually requesting a data pull which sorted the problem (normally the data requests are batch loaded and automated).

Your meter will retain a few months of data records (I think possibly 3) and so this allows for retrospective data recovery.

Some CS agents don’t appear to be trained in this aspect and so that is why it’s best to continue to ask for your data to be recovered. 
You mentioned Bright. Did you have data previously via that route and if so have you reported the missing data via them? They have been very helpful in getting to the bottom of this issue with other customers 

​@BPLightlog interesting you mention a potential faulty firmware upgrade. Mine stopped communicating mid-October, and I suggested a power-cycle, but currently awaiting the next steps from the tentacled-one. Apparently it's a bit of a strange one and has been escalated, so perhaps it is firmware related.

It took me a while to track down and get things sorted but there has been quite a few reports from users with different suppliers who had problems. 

I use a Hildebrand Glow IHD and so continued to get local reports but Hildebrand themselves saw a pattern with a spike in users reporting missing data. I was told that my meter needed a power cycle but after several probes to OE support, I believe that my system had an update and it’s been fine since then. 
Being an unusual issue, I suppose it’s not surprising that it took a while to diagnose and sort. 

Thanks for the reply. I’ll give the Twitter feed a try and ask about the manual pull + firmware update.  Certainly going via regular CS on phone didn’t get anywhere besides the long queue for a power cycle.  The CS rep said they tried a couple of times to re-establish the link but whatever they tried didn’t work.  

Re Bright - no I’d not used them or the App before, I just downloaded to try to see if there was any way of pulling the data locally in fear/anticipation of Octopus wiping everything on the meter and getting charged a flat rate for 2 months+ energy.  The advice from the Hildebrand team was that they thought my Communications Hub is no longer on the WAN and therefore not reporting back to the DCC (as they were not able to get a response from my meters).  This is despite the WAN light flashing every 5 secs which I’d understood was normal.  

So by way of update, I contacted the Twitter team, asking about the manual pull and whether it could have been a firmware issue (citing your and others’ examples of this resolving the issue).  Unfortunately and despite a couple of requests, they just came back to say the power cycle was the recommended solution.  It’s booked for next week so hopefully it get resolved then.

 ​@DJKS There’s a handy little utility that may be able to return a report on the state of your communication devices: n3rgy data Smart Meter check. Enter your MPAN and tick the tiny confirmation box. 

It will only work if the meter is communicating, so if you do see the report, you know that WAN communication is established. You can safely ignore warnings about security certificates, like this one:

Warning: Security Certification will expire in less than 3 months or has already expired …

It would be strange if (a) you get a positive report and (b) the WAN lamp is flashing at 5 second intervals, but no data are getting through to users (i.e. Octopus or Hildebrand). Let’s hope kicking the CH by power-cycling it will help.
 

[You never did post the photos that Blastoise asked for on day 1 - they’re always helpful when we’re trying to help diagnose meter problems.]