Pending connection

What the message means

The device is not talking to the Shelly server. That is all the message says — and it covers two quite different situations.

Either the device never joined your Wi-Fi, or it joined but cannot get out to the internet.

The four common causes

1. The Wi-Fi password is wrong

By far the most frequent, and the one people are most certain they have ruled out.

Check it rather than trust it. Next time the app asks which network to join, tap Edit, type the password again, and use the eye icon to read what you actually entered. A trailing space or a capital in the wrong place looks identical to a correct password.

2. Both bands share one network name

Many routers broadcast 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz under the same SSID, and some actively push clients onto 5 GHz. A Shelly cannot use 5 GHz, so it is being handed a network it cannot join.

Separate the bands and give them different names. The router is usually reachable at 192.168.0.1, 192.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1 — check its manual. See Wi-Fi and router setup for the full set of settings worth changing while you are in there.

3. The signal is too weak

Both ends matter: the device needs a usable signal, and so does the phone you are setting it up from.

Stand next to the device with the phone on the 2.4 GHz network while you commission it. If it works there and fails in place, the problem is coverage, not configuration.

4. Cloud is switched off on the device

If cloud access was disabled — deliberately or by someone else — the device runs perfectly on the local network and never appears in the app.

Open the device’s IP address in a browser, then go to Settings → Cloud and enable it. See the web interface.

Advanced router settings

When the four above are ruled out, the router is usually doing something on purpose.

• Firewall blocking outbound traffic. Some routers block outgoing connections from unrecognised devices by default. The Shelly is on the network and still cannot reach the server.
• VPN or custom DNS. A router-level VPN or a custom DNS server can stop the device resolving the Shelly cloud hostname.
• IP address conflict. Two devices assigned the same address will both behave unpredictably. Reserving the address in the router solves it permanently.
• Captive portal. Guest and public networks that require accepting terms in a browser cannot be used at all. The device has no browser and no way to click accept.
• Client limit reached. Some ISP routers cap Wi-Fi clients at ten, and often the limit cannot be raised.

When nothing works

Start the device over and configure it by hand, which removes the app from the equation entirely:

1. Factory reset the device — hold the button for 10 seconds until the LED blinks
2. Join the device’s own access point
3. Open http://192.168.33.1 and enter the Wi-Fi credentials directly
4. Enable cloud access in the same interface

This is method 2 in add a device, and it is worth knowing well: it shows you which step fails, where the app only reports that something did.

Tips & best practices

• Check signal strength before closing the wall. Anything weaker than about −70 dBm will do this to you eventually.
• A device can be perfectly healthy and still say pending. Cloud disabled means local control keeps working — the app is simply blind to it.
• Guest networks never work. If the customer only has guest Wi-Fi to offer, the answer is a proper network, not a workaround.
• Reserve the address for anything used by webhooks, scripts or Home Assistant, and IP conflicts stop happening.
• Update the firmware once it is online. Several connection bugs are already fixed — see update device firmware.

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