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Troubleshooting Common Issues

Data transfer stopped​

If data transfer was working before but stopped suddenly, please check the status page and see if there is any ongoing incident with Helium Packet Router.

If there was no incident, please check if your OUI was locked due to insufficient DC balance. Lock status can be verified by checking whether the "locked" field for each of your route is true or false. Query your routes by running

$ helium-config-service-cli route list --commit

OUI DC balance can be checked with the DC balance widget.

Please first follow the same advice on investigating why your device transfer might be unsuccessful.

If those scenarios were ruled out, it's helpful to double-check route and device configuration. A common mistake is that routes are not properly configured or the devEUI of the testing device is not added to the route.

Review the routing configuration guides.

LNS receives Join Requests but device unable to join​

Device may have issue joining the Network if the RSSI/SNR values are sub-optimal. In practice, difficulty to join tends to show up when the RSSI value is worse than -120.

As outlined in the Understanding Max Copies section, join performance can be improved with max copies setting.

If RSSI/SNR values continue to be low even after the max copies setting, it may be necessary to deploy additional coverage. Review the data-only Hotspot guides for steps on adding Helium functionality to any existing LoRaWAN gateway.

If the join process is successful but no further data is delivered, a common issue is that the Session Key Filter is enabled for the route, but the session key of the specific device has not been submitted. This effectively blocks all downlink activity for the omitted device.

Check if your route has enabled Session Key Filter. If so, check if the device's Network Session Key is registered in that route by running

helium-config-service-cli route skfs list --route-id <route-id>

You can find your device's Network Session Key in Chirpstack in the device's Activation tab.

Cannot perform routing changes​

If you cannot perform routing changes such as updating EUI list, SKF list, max copy setting OR if all of your old devices are sending data but not your newly provisioned devices. Please check the status page and see if there is any ongoing incident with Configuration Service.

Community Support​

Helium developers and community members are active in Discord and GitHub.

As a closing note, these docs are open for contributions. If there are areas to improve the content here, please consider opening a pull request.