---
title: "Troubleshoot a device that is offline"
description: "Work the chain from power to radio to network to cloud when an IoTFlows device stops reporting: what the signal icon's three levels mean in dBm, why a device that drops several times a day is nearly always a signal problem rather than a failed sensor, and how to tell a dead device from a dead link when a machine reads as stopped."
category: "Manage"
source_url: "https://www.iotflows.com/docs/hardware/troubleshoot-offline-device/"
---
# Troubleshoot a device that is offline

Find out why a device stopped reporting, and what to change.

A device that is not reporting has broken one of four links: it has no power, its radio is not associated, its network cannot reach the internet, or the cloud is not receiving what it sends. Each break has a different fix, and they look nearly identical on the dashboard. Working them in order is faster than guessing.

**Prerequisites:** physical access to the device, and access to the devices page to see its status. Provisioning a network needs the mobile app, in [Connect a device to Wi-Fi](/docs/hardware/connect-to-wifi/).

## Start here: three checks
Diagram: A chain of four stages joined left to right by arrows: Power, the device has power; Radio, it joins Wi-Fi or LTE; Network, it reaches the internet; Cloud, IoTFlows receives the stream. A marker under each stage names the failure that breaks it: a dark LED or blank screen at Power; a 5 GHz network or wrong passphrase at Radio; no DHCP address or outbound port 443 blocked at Network; and a device that is online but sends no readings at Cloud.

*Where the chain can break: power, radio, network, cloud. Work along it in that order.*

Do these three before anything else. They separate the four cases in about a minute.

1. **Look at the device.** A SenseAi shows its state on the LED, a BeamTracker on its screen. Both are decoded in [LED and screen status codes](/docs/hardware/led-and-status-codes/). A dark device is a power problem, not a network one.
2. **Look at the signal icon** on the devices page. A struck-through icon means the platform has no signal reading at all. One arc means the device is associated but weak.
3. **Check a second device on the same network.** If every device on one access point went quiet together, the problem is the network or the access point, not any device.

Use the table to jump to the right section.

| Symptom | Likely cause | Check | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Never appeared after install | Provisioning did not complete | LED or screen state | [Device never came online](#never-online) |
| Online, then offline, repeatedly | Weak or contended signal | Signal icon, then the RSSI chart | [Device drops repeatedly](#drops) |
| Online but the machine reads stopped | Sensor detached, or nothing to report | Machine actually running? | [Device is online but sends no data](#no-data) |
| One arc on the signal icon | Distance, metal, or interference | RSSI chart while running | [Weak signal](#signal) |
| Button or screen will not start setup | Hold time too short | LED color while holding | [Will not enter setup mode](#setup-mode) |
| App cannot find the device | Bluetooth range or permissions | Phone Bluetooth and location | [Bluetooth pairing fails](#bluetooth) |

## Device never came online
A device that has never reported since installation almost always failed provisioning rather than hardware.

1. Confirm the device has power and has finished booting. Give a BeamTracker two to three minutes.
2. Confirm the network is **2.4 GHz**. The radios do not join 5 GHz networks, and a dual-band network advertising one name may hand the device the wrong band.
3. Confirm the security is WPA or WPA2. WEP is not supported, and a hidden network will not be found by a scan.
4. Re-enter the passphrase. It is case-sensitive, and a wrong one fails identically to a network that is out of range.
5. Confirm the access point issues DHCP addresses and is not filtering by MAC. If it filters, add the device's MAC, shown on its label and in its device panel.
6. Confirm outbound **port 443** is open. The devices reach the cloud over HTTPS and MQTTS, and a firewall that allows browsing may still block them.

If the app reports **Wi-Fi connection failed, please try again**, the device heard the credentials and could not join. That is a wrong passphrase or the wrong band, not a broken device.

If the dashboard reports **Device must be online to add a network. Please use the IoTFlows iOS or Android app for Wi-Fi provisioning.**, you have hit the rule rather than a fault: the web dashboard can only add a network to a device it can already reach. A device that is offline has to be provisioned over Bluetooth from the mobile app.

## Device drops repeatedly
**Check the signal before you check the sensor.** A device that drops several times a day is nearly always a signal problem, and swapping the sensor moves the problem to a new serial number rather than fixing it.

1. Read the signal icon on the devices page. One arc is enough to explain repeated drops on its own.
2. Open the device and read the **WiFi RSSI** chart on its **Analyze** tab, which plots the live value in dBm.
3. Watch it while the machine runs a full cycle. A signal that is adequate on an idle machine and collapses under load is being blocked by something that moves.
4. If the value is fine and drops continue, restart the access point and check how many clients it is carrying.

The RSSI chart streams live rather than replaying history, so it shows nothing for a device that is offline right now. Read it during a good period to find out how much margin you have, not after a drop to find out what happened.

## Device is online but sends no data
An online device with no new data is reporting honestly about a machine that is not running, or it has lost contact with the machine.

1. Confirm the machine is actually running and producing.
2. Confirm the sensor is still attached. A SenseAi that has been knocked off its mounting surface stays online and reads nothing.
3. For a BeamTracker, confirm parts still cross the beam and nothing has moved the aim.
4. If the machine is running and the device is mounted, the thresholds are wrong rather than the hardware. See [Calibrate BeamTracker](/docs/hardware/calibrate-beamtracker/) or the SenseAi equivalent.

![An asset status bar running from before noon to after 2pm, its green running stretches and red downtime stretches broken up by a dozen gray stretches where the device was not reporting](/images/hardware/hw-trouble-03.webp)

*Two hours of a shift in which the device kept dropping. The gray stretches are time the sensor was not reporting, not downtime the machine ran up.*

### Not sure whether the machine or the link is down?
A machine whose sensor went offline still reads as stopped, because the card carries the last state the cloud recorded. The status bar is what tells the two apart: the stretch of the shift where the device was not reporting is grayed out rather than colored as downtime.

That makes intermittent trouble visible as well. A device that keeps losing power or network through a shift leaves the bar striped with gray, which is the signature of a connection problem rather than a machine that genuinely keeps stopping. Work that as [a device that drops repeatedly](#drops).

Open the asset itself and the live sensor tile goes gray instead of stopped, for the same reason: nothing is arriving to say either way.

## Weak signal
The signal icon has three strength levels and a struck-through state, each standing for a band of received signal strength in dBm. A less negative number is stronger.

Diagram: Four signal icons side by side, each over the band it stands for. Three arcs means above -50 dBm, a comfortable margin. Two arcs means -50 to -60 dBm, workable but worth watching. One arc means -60 dBm or below, where drops are expected. A struck-through icon means no reading at all, so the device is offline or is not reporting its signal.

*The four states of the signal icon, and the band of received signal strength each one stands for. One arc, or a struck-through icon, explains repeated drops on its own.*

Fix it by shortening the path or clearing it. Keep the device within about 100 ft (30 m) of the access point it joins, move that access point closer if you can, and reposition the external antenna away from metal. Machine enclosures, metal walls and other 2.4 GHz equipment all cost you signal.

Choose the [IoTFlows 4G/LTE router](/docs/hardware/use-the-lte-router/) when the facility network cannot be improved, when plant IT will not admit the devices, or when the machine sits outside coverage. You do not need it where the devices already hold three arcs.

## Will not enter setup mode
*Setup mode* is the state in which a device accepts new network credentials over Bluetooth.

On a SenseAi or SenseAi Embedded, hold the Wi-Fi button for a full 10 seconds. The LED blinks purple and then turns red, and only then do you release it. Releasing early is the usual reason nothing happens.

On a BeamTracker, setup mode is on the screen: wait for the boot to finish, then open **Settings** and the network option. If the screen shows nothing, power cycle it and let it boot fully before touching it.

## Bluetooth pairing fails
1. Confirm Bluetooth is on and the phone is within about 10 ft (3 m) of the device.
2. On Android, grant the app location permission. Android will not scan for Bluetooth devices without it, and the failure looks like an absent device.
3. Confirm the device is in setup mode before scanning.
4. Force close the app and reopen it, then retry.

## Still stuck
Two messages on the dashboard are not about your device at all. **Waiting for Network** means your own browser has lost its realtime connection to IoTFlows, so reload the page. **Something went wrong** and **An error occurred** are the platform's generic failures: the request did not complete and nothing was saved, so retry it.

If the device has power, the correct band and an open path to the internet and still will not report, [contact support](/docs/get-started/get-support/) with the device serial, the network it is on, and what the LED or screen shows.

## See also
- [LED and screen status codes](/docs/hardware/led-and-status-codes/)
- [Connect a device to Wi-Fi](/docs/hardware/connect-to-wifi/)
- [Connect a device through the 4G/LTE router](/docs/hardware/use-the-lte-router/)
- [Get support](/docs/get-started/get-support/)