I have a Neato Botvac Connected with software version 2.2.0 (build 296). Last year, I lost wifi connectivity with it and since then, I’ve tried many times to get it connected again. No luck. I’ve read the troubleshooting guide, videos, etc. but to no avail. Reflashed the latest firmare too. I cannot get the BotVac to go into wifi pairing mode (ie. as a wifi access point), that is, I cannot get the wifi icon to appear on the screen.
In the top left corner of the BotVac’s screen, it alternates between displaying a cross (X) symbol for a few seconds, and then that X gets replaced by a set of vertical bars for a few seconds (looks like the icon used to show the 4G signal strength on a mobile phone - see photo below). From what I have read (and what I recall when I originally set up the BotVac), there should be a wifi icon in that position (i.e. the BotVac goes into pairing mode) which would allow the Neato app on my mobile phone to connect to the BotVac.
Unfortunately, I just cannot get that wifi icon to appear. I have tried resetting the BotVac, disabling and enabling the wifi, removing the existing network, etc. but nothing has helped.
When I enter the wifi settings on the BotVac, it shows me the option to ‘Remove Network’, but when I select that, and come back to the same screen, it appears again. It’s like the BotVac is remembering a previous wifi network, and won’t remove it.
Other than the wifi not working, the BotVac works perfectly and vaccums our house once a week without fail.
I have exactly the same problem since a week.
I first had an issue that the map in the app after cleaning stopped working.
On request of Neato support, I deleted the botvac from the app.
They made the problem worse!
I can no longer get the botvac in pairing mode since.
Neato support don’t want to help me because the botvac it out of warranty.
I’m very unhappy about this.
It always reconnects to the last wifi configuration.
I see a wifi icon because it reconnects.
It even connects to the neato servers.
But to add the it again to the app I need to repair.
It’s ridiculous because in theory Neato should be able the add it to my app account manually because it’s still connected to there servers.
It definitely a software issue.
I forgot to mention than when I disable my wifi, that is stays a big X because it’s unable to connect. But even then I’m unable to force it in pairing mode by deleting the wifi settings.
If we just could force it into factory settings, that should do the trick.
Nobody aware of another hidden switch? On the motherboard maybe?
I will put together a video showing the behaviour of my Botvac. When I try to remove the previous wifi network, it does nothing, and keeps showing that there is a previous network there.
I’m sorry to hear that Neato isn’t helping at all.
I’ve managed to talk with the online support on chat and they confirmed that the Neato BotVac Connected was still supported.
I’m looking to see if it is possible to perform a Factory Reset from the main Settings menu.
I’ve posted a video showing what happens when I try to remove the existing network from my Botvac. It just keeps reappearing. Before doing this, I switched of our wifi router at home, to make sure the Botvac wasn’t somehow connecting to Neato servers automatically. As you can see in the video, instead of the wifi icon appearing, it only shows the the cross symbol (X).
BTW, when I tried doing the same steps with our wifi router switched on, I was able to get the vertical bars showing (as per the photo in my first post). The icon was flashing on and off every few seconds, which seemed like the Botvac was in pairing mode. As I said earlier, I was unable to connect to it using the neato app on both iPhone and Android devices. I wonder what that icon actually represents (4 vertical bars)?
On another forum, someone posted this information regarding the vertical bars that are displayed on the Botvac screen:
The Wi-Fi icon indicates pairing mode (robot creates its own network). Flashing bars like a phone’s signal indicator mean the robot is connected to your network and is trying to reach Neato servers. Solid bars indicate a successful connection to your network and to Neato servers.
So, it looks like the issue we are seeing is that our Botvacs are not removing the existing network? In my case, the bars flash slowly (shown for a few seconds, hidden for a few seconds), so I guess my Botvac is connected to my wifi and trying to connect to Neato servers. Too bad I haven’t been able to fully reset the Botvac to factory settings to remove all traces of any previous networks.
