Rachio v3 not connecting to the cloud? CALL SUPPORT

Received my Rachio 3 two weeks ago. Installed it last week, replacing a v2. Going from a 16 zone V2 to an 8 zone V3, so I had to redo my whole config. That sucks, and there’s no actual technical reason it should be that way. I understand if you have a 16-zone AND you’re using more than 8 zones, you can’t automatically fit them in 8 slots - but if you have a 16-zone and you were never using more than 8 . . . . but I digress.

In any case - removed the v2, installed the v3, installed all the zone cables, power on, connect through app (running on iPhone). I see the controller, connect controller to my WiFi network, it says “Firmware upgrade in process”. OK. After the firmware upgrade, it made me do the whole setup from scratch - but would fail after the wi-fi configuration. And here’s the first gotcha - when you touch on HELP on the app, it sends you to a web page with WiFi config help . . . for v2. And there’s no help for v3. Talk about shipping the product now, and shipping the documentation later . . .

In any case, after multiple attempts (and multiple failures), I ended calling support. They quickly diagnosed the issue as “a rare issue that in some cases prevents the Rachio controller to connect to the cloud”. And there’s nothing the user can do - they have to do some magic on their side (basically, associate the unit to your account manually). So after two hours and two calls to the support line, my Rachio was online and I was able to start the painstaking process of manually migrating my configuration (by basically having two tabs open on my browser, and switching from V2 tab to V3 tab).

Anyhow - if you get stuck after the firmware upgrade, call support.

Also - who the hell @ product development decided it was a good idea to do a firmware upgrade during initial setup ? Dude, no - do the setup, make sure everything works - and THEN do the firmware upgrade. Unless of course the firmware upgrade is required to prevent a catastrophic failure during setup . . .