App blank says needs subscription

My app is now blank and saying I need to subscribe. I thought the subscription was only for the Cloud and you would still be able to run your system from home. I used to have home and away options. I was assuming the home one would work. Have they now killed the app for non subscribers? How much is subscription? How do you even subscribe?

2 Likes

Same. Literally can’t even view energy flows locally.

Could first thing this morning so must have been changed in last few hours.

No app update available either.

So literally cannot monitor status of own device using Givenergy provided software.

This is not what they told us would happen! Is there even anyone to complain to at the moment?

3 Likes

EDIT 2:
Have also just discovered that (like others commenting below) the ā€œinverter settingsā€ section of the menu - used to change among other things your import/export currents is now behind a pay wall even locally.
My only option is to toggle ā€œbuyā€, ā€œsellā€ or ā€œpauseā€ in the tiled calendar now on the home page or to navigate into the ā€˜direct control’ which displays the engineer/installer level settings which I obviously would prefer to remain distant from.

Absurd!


EDIT: As of 1219 today, the app itself notified me of an update required. On searching in the IOS App store - Version 4.0.5 available.

It remembered my credentials, searched and found my ā€˜local inverters’ and logged me in to the dashboard as usual.
The app startup sequence of ā€œgetting readyā€ seems to take longer than usual, even beyond the ā€˜first time’ setup.

UI is radically different other than the usual 4 bubbles displaying energy flow that we are used to.

Several areas I previously had access to locally such as energy history and graphs are off limits to those who don’t have a paid subscription - features that i use every day, several times a day.

On navigating to the menu using the ellipsis - I encountered a total freeze/crash and had to close and restart the app.

I understand the paid ā€˜remote’ functionality when ā€œawayā€, but not to be able to access the features locally is appalling. At the time of purchase/install around 6 months ago, I was given the option of Tesla vs GivEnergy and I decided on Givenergy - hugely regretting my decision now.
GivEnergy has it all nicely tied up in their EULA Ts and Cs that they can do this with no recourse, but frankly - its just bad customer service.

Within the space of a month, I went from an incredibly happy customer - to a very dissatisfied and disappointed one.


Exactly the same as Bob - was looking at the IOS mobile App only earlier today and was functioning as normal.
Just tried to check again at around midday today got a red warning banner saying subscription needed.
I am at home and connected to my home network - but nothing just the central module (a circle with a house in it normally designating load/usage).

Cant change any battery import/export settings, cant view current or past stats - cant see or use anything.

3 Likes

I just reinstalled the app. It now functions and provides readings. It’s less easy to use. Looks like a deliberate downgrade to punish non subscribers.

I think you have to press logout in the app, then press the offline mode (which will only work from home *)

(* It might work away from home if you have a VPN setup at home that your mobile can jump onto. But unless you’re very techy, you probably haven’t got that).

FYI : if you register with Axle Grid Services they will pay your subs, also pay you £10pm minimum for battery use.

Deleting and redownloading the app brought back my home dashboard as the user above said (thank you!), but now I have another problem.

I’m sure I read a while back that the smart tariff feature would still work on the free tier for Octopus customers, but that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore!

For GivEnergy general support to disappear and for the app to lock features we previously had behind a paywall all in the space of a few weeks is incredibly poor.

Earler this morning before ther app was updated, I pressed the Pause radio button so that all my solar would go to my EV and not the battery.
Now the app has updated and looks totally alien.
My battery is stuck on pause and the old radio buttons for pause/play/discharge etc have gone

Ive spent ages looking at the bits of the app I can acess for free but cannot find anyway to locally control my battery anymore

Anyone found a way to activate pause/play etc on this new app?

Cheers

Fyi if you are an android user. Store doesn’t seem to have picked up there’s update available in the normal app update page but if you actually search for Givenergy app and go to it manually it will detect there is an update available for the app and can just click update.

I don’t think I’m allowed to on my octopus tariff (IOG) and I’m not rocking the boat - don’t want to loose the 3.99p/kWh overnight rate I’m on!!

The ā€˜Direct Control’ section of the app is probably where I need to set things manually now that we have been downgraded, but it makes zero sense to me.

Absolutely awful.

Yes the direct control looks like it’s been made deliberately awful.

In direct control I see a pause end time maybe try setting that for a few minutes time.

All I can see at the moment.

And maybe make sure eco mode is on.

@NCummings
Have documented this above

The direct control section was previously held within the installer level settings - I would approach with caution moving stuff about in there.

1 Like

Well, I was considering paying for the subscription but now having seen the new app update…

Was this developed by someone with zero coding and UX experience using chatGPT or something? It is ABYSMAL. Whilst the previous app had its quirks, it was nicely laid out, relatively easy to use with simple toggles and sliders for those most used features. What even is that nonsense at the bottom of the screen about Battery Schedule because it seems to be completely different to the charge/discharge schedules we’ve had before and doesn’t correlate with what I have set up.

Thank goodness I’m tech savvy and I have Homeassistant set up to use local control with a nicely laid out and logical interface (and also provide remote access via Tailscale).

Fortunately I’ve had my system for coming up to four years so most of it has at least paid for itself. I was also considering expanding the system before the hardware side of things went belly-up. This is the final nail in the coffin for Givenergy as far as I’m concerned. I really feel for anyone who has a much newer system.

The current value on Pause battery end time as showing as 00:00

I eneterd a new time of 13:15 (its 13:12 at the moment) and pressed the arrow

Could not write register 320. check the connection and value and try again

URGH

Looks like we have lost any control of our batteries

To any GivEnergy devs that might be monitoring this thread.

Echoing other users above and my comments in the attached thread post below - I agree with what @ChunkyBloke has said.
The UI does not match what is displayed on the settings held within the ā€˜direct control’ and as such is misrepresentative.
Equally, a user would only find out this is misrepresentative when they get their bill from their energy provider - as you have stripped out local monitoring functionality (unless you stand there staring at the live app feedback).

In an attempt to make some sense of the settings and perhaps see if the web version is laid out any better or offers any better controls, I have attempted to access my dashboard using SSO at givenergy.cloud but am faced with an endless loading screen - no error, no access, no freezing - just loading…

GivEnergy has stripped core functionality from the app, which an argument can be made for the cost of storing and hosting history and analytic data, but a simple UI to locally control battery/inverter settings, which previously existed in the immediately preceding version of this app… removing it and putting it behind a paywall… bonkers frankly bordering on exploitative.

I tried using the tiles at the bottom to set some slots to ā€˜use’ and others to ā€˜pause’, to try and get it set to charge the battery to roughly half overnight while on the cheap rate, but then the app tells me that I can’t mix ā€˜use’ and ā€˜pause’ slots in a schedule unless I pay!

This is absolutely outrageous behaviour from a company that has already given us massive headaches this year.

Hi All,
Just joined today and am like you suffering from the GE App change, compounded by the fact that I had an installation upgrade completed just yesterday.

There is some light however. Some weeks back I installed Home Assistant on a RPi5 monitoring pretty much all the house, ASHP, Solar generation, battery storage etc.
I’ve just been checking through the sensors and settings and its happily showing all the detail the GivEnergy app was albeit in a different format. e.g. the battery charge state, temperature, voltage, battery cycles. I can also see all the battery charge and discharge slots, etc. I can also change the slot details, e.g. TOD charge/discharge levels etc.

What I’m saying is that whilst GE are trying to put a monthly charge to monitor/ change settings it may not be totally necessary. I need to make a load of checks to ensure what I’m implying works across the board but if so this may be a way out.