Yeelight Classic Reviews

by East-lovin' Angeleno

I bought the strip light through a crowd funding campaign and after several failed attempts to pair YeelightClassic with my network it finally worked—for about two years, anyway. About 3 months ago YeelightClassic inexplicably lost connection; tech support’s response was to ask me to send them a video of me going through the steps. It’s a little hard to do since the camera is part of the phone that has YeelightClassic but I suppose I could ask someone to do the recording.
But that’s besides the point. That’s not a viable solution, it’s taking a pass. I’ve followed the instructions repeatedly and I’ve gotten nowhere; YeelightClassic fails to connect, never progressing beyond 0% even after 20 minutes of processing. There’s no alternate way to troubleshoot, and I’m just expected to repeat the process ad nauseum, which I believe I’ve reached. I’m done. It’s a shame, the device is poorly supported but when it works it’s great. I guess it’s time to try a different product.

by Prod10

YeelightClassic itself is pretty buggy, but I will say that most of the time I am able to get it to work. However, the last few times I’ve opened it, it’s automatically captured whatever the last thing was that I copied. The new iOS alerts you when things are being pasted and I hadn’t clicked anything and I wasn’t even typing anywhere. Luckily there was nothing important copied but be careful

by User4545643

I’m setting up a new W3 light bulb. There’s a page to set the WiFi name and passcode. When clicking the name field, it takes me to the system settings for the Yeelight but doesn’t tell me what to do. I can enable all permissions but returning to the Yeelight app I am still unable to enter the WiFi name. Clicking again takes me back to the same system settings page. I am not able to pass this step and am unable to set up my light bulb.

by Bennnyzhuu

Are you serious? You added advertisements to an app that is suppose to support a consumer good? For anyone reading this, skip these lights. YeelightClassic isn’t worth it and my two Yeelights don’t sync up. Ones brighter than the other and when I use my Alexa it constantly glitches. They spent no effort in the software development and now they are adding ads. Buy a philips hue or something else with a better application to use because this one is trash.

by 👀👀👀✌️

YeelightClassic forces you to create an account, which is absolutely unnecessary. I want to emphasize how significant it is to provide your name, email address, IP address, your WiFi password, and how you agree to two separate privacy policies. The first is for YeelightClassic , but now you need to create a Xiaomi account to even use it. As if Xiaomi does not have enough of a bad reputation for providing data to the Chinese government, when reading the Xiaomi privacy policy, it says:

1.2 You are fully informed that we may collect and use personal information without your consent if:
1.2.1 The personal information is vital to national security and defense;
1.2.2 The personal information is vital to public safety, public health, and major public interests;
1.2.3 The personal information is related to criminal investigations, prosecutions, trials, or execution of judgments;

LOL no thanks. These lights are going straight in the trash.

by Snagtooth

Privacy concerns aside, the process to add the Yeelight Pro light bar is a nightmare and absolute garbage. You are instructed to reset the light by unplugging and then cycling on and off five times repeatedly - which you must do using the puck controller. However, dozens of attempts to follow this procedure leads to zero success in getting the light to reset. Since it cannot be reset and then connected to - you are unable to connect YeelightClassic to the light for any customization and control. This is supposed to be a premium product with a premium asking price and YeelightClassic experience is subpar - not even qualifying as a budget experience.

by Skunk_ape

Had problems with this ever since first bought 3 yrs ago, gave it time thinking bugs would be worked out. NOT user friendly. Have to constantly reconnect to phones as the color bulb II is listed as ‘offline’. Resetting bulb does nothing, and when attempting to re-add a device, when prompted to select and/or enter WiFi Information, I am taken to YeelightClassic settings. Sets up for a very frustrating digital loop. Even has my wife, who works for a major software company, scratching her head. Was considering buying more bulbs with newly purchased mesh system, but don’t want to deal with the continued app frustrations. Sad because bulbs are actually a good product.

by Joshvickerson

YeelightClassic is extremely unreliable. It crashes frequently, particularly during device setup which makes configuring lights unbearable. It can eventually setup most devices, but it will take many tries.

iOS also tends to intercept the setup and offers to setup HomeKit devices directly in HomeKit, which usually works well. Yeelight will then prompt to add devices from HomeKit, but this always fails. The result is some lights can only be controlled via HomeKit and often get colors wrong when set to dim.

Overall, YeelightClassic is somewhat required and does eventually work. But it’s so unreliable it’s hard to give this a decent rating.

Update: downgrading from 2 stars to 1 star because after multiple updates of “bug fixes” since my last review, YeelightClassic is still just an unreliable. Setup of new devices is still awful. I have a light bulb that desperately needs a firmware update, but YeelightClassic never successfully installs it. Overall I’m incredibly frustrated and don’t plan on buying or recommending any more Yeelight products until these issues are resolved.

by Keith C

I opened YeelightClassic and was greeted with a notification that YeelightClassic pasted the contents of my clipboard. Just, on its own. Immediately on launch. Creepy as all get out. Deleting this application immediately, and getting a new light bulb. DO NOT INSTALL.

(N.B. YeelightClassic developer has responded to comments regarding this claiming it is an issue related to sharing custom lighting. To be clear, Yeelight isn’t copying something ON TO my clipboard, as it would need to do for me to share something. It is PASTING the CONTENTS OF MY CLIPBOARD, from safari, including say, if I had copied a one time password in order to paste it, or an address or phone number, and doing who-knows-what with the information it is taking. There is no good excuse for doing this. Uninstall and delete YeelightClassic.)

by Ujyrctjfcfchdr

i have 3 yeelight bulbs. 2 new ones and one of the old ones. the other day i was forced to resign in and to reconnect all of my bulbs. not sure why. the new bulbs (one of which came defective and turns on red if i use YeelightClassic to turn it on instead of the light switch. nothing will change it from red back to white other than turning it off then on again with the light switch basically removing half of the point of a smart light in the 1st place) connected just fine. the old bulb, no matter what i do or what settings i change, absolutely will not connect no matter what. i’m able to connect to it in my phones settings but the yeelight app just won’t finish the setup. it’s not even worth using as a regular bulb bc of the horrible default color. it’s just trash now bc YeelightClassic randomly decided i needed to sign back in and reconnect all my perfectly good bulbs. if you’re looking for a frustrating time and janky bulbs, you’ve found the right place. i’ve been a yeelight customer for 3 years or so and the money you save compared to other brands is 1000% not worth it.

by Ahadcove

I bought over 10 yeelights to be used with Lumia Stream so I can use them in my Twitch streams. A year ago these lights worked extremely well with Lumia. It was very responsive and worked flawlessly. Then they released an update that first broke Lan control and then after they so called “fixed” it, the lights barely stay connected and most of the time don’t even respond with Lumia. I’ve already sold almost every bulb that I could so far.

I raised my concerns thinking it was Lumia's fault for a while until they came back and told me it’s Yeelight and they’re not even responding. Yeelight, you should support the apps that support you. It makes you and the brands look bad when the users are the ones taking the hit

If you’re a streamer get a better brand that supports Lumia like LifX or even Philips wiz which works better than these craps on Lumia

by ICJ

Sign In with Apple does not work. I created a new account using Sign In with Apple and YeelightClassic still wouldn’t sign me in. YeelightClassic wanted to have my actual email address (after I requested to hide my real email using Sign In with Apple) and it wanted me to change my password after signing in with Apple?? Sounds shady to me…

I can never get past the login screen because YeelightClassic is so dang buggy and poorly written.

YeelightClassic looks suspicious and highly questionable to me.

Apple should really review YeelightClassic for security.

I ended up deleting YeelightClassic and I’m going to try to run the HomeKit device from the Home app if I can. Not sure if I’ll be able to update the lamp I purchased with out YeelightClassic but we’ll see.

by Chug The First

To make it work with YeelightClassic , they require you set up an account with them. The ‘instructions’ are written on 3”x3” pages in micro type. If you don’t want an account with them, the unit is is crippled from its full functionality. All you have is an expensive glowing led that dims. YeelightClassic should be fully functional whether you have an account or not.

by TribalRomp

At first, I was able to add my 1S color bulbs to YeelightClassic and update the firmware. I then successfully added them to HomeKit. After moving the lamp and plugging it back in, the bulbs were no longer connected. I deleted them from YeelightClassic and tried to add them back, but no luck. I downloaded the Mi Home app and was able to add them using that app. Odd.

by Ale Vale

When you set it up, it is not a clear process, it takes patience and a lot of twining to make it work.
But eventually (takes patience, again), you set up everything, it works wit siri, you can voice control your mi lights, lightstrips, add it to the home app of apple.
BUT THEN, they upgrade YeelightClassic every few months, and then it looses all your info!!!
It gets into a login loop, and eventually you have to re program everything!!!!!
And if you set it up to another family member to use, it is double the work...
in theory it is nice, but it is NOT up to apple or anyone’s standards.
Great lights, terrible app.
And since they just updated it again, nothing is working AGAIN...

by UI Guy

While I really enjoy the Yeelight light fixture, YeelightClassic is difficult and frustrating to use. I am a UX Designer (and have worked at Apple, Palm & Yahoo!), so I speak with some knowledge.

The Yeelight app breaks UI standards throughout its interface. Worse, though are the bugs. If I set up a “flow” and save it as a “favorite,” and then set up a second flow with different parameters and also favorite it, YeelightClassic obliterates the settings for the first flow I saved. Every time. There is no user-friendly error handling that I see; YeelightClassic just resets all the flow parameters and the favorite becomes a static one-color choice.

It’s clear that YeelightClassic developer(s) don’t have a good grasp of iOS/iPadOS guidelines (or good UX principles in general), nor are they fluent in English (not a bad thing in-and-of-itself, but at least spend the money to have the UI text localized correctly if you’re less than fluent).

Foe me, YeelightClassic ruins the user experience for the hardware, which is a real shame.

by Figjaro

2 stars because YeelightClassic can be made to work, but it fails often, is very poorly designed, and overall is incredibly frustrating to use. I went with these lights because they are cheaper than other smart bulbs, but if I knew how poorly supported YeelightClassic is I wouldn’t have bothered.

by 23PH

A little hard to connect and reconnect devices when couldn’t be identified. App is good enough to play around the effects and settings of each device. App login also sometimes takes forever.

by Hahahahhahahwbfgrbsy

YeelightClassic for the most part is very easy to navigate and use. The glaring flaw is it will log you out on its own as well as not read that the bulb is connected. Fix YeelightClassic problems for a 5 star.

by HandyHillbily

Seems to work as advertised. I had trouble until I changed out router because of too many devices. Old routers only run about five devices and it takes a new router to run up to 50. The lights are good but I do wish they would get a little brighter

by Laskaya Tigra

Dear sirs, all worked fine until today-I was logged out unexpectedly and cannot log in. I’m constantly being navigated to Mi hope app and a white screen appears with no buttons or any other controls. How can I log into YeelightClassic in some other way? I reinstalled it twice, I’ve restarted my iPhone-it didn’t help.
Looking forward to hearing from you.

by S Ann

After finally getting logged in (the login screen didn’t line up right on my phone so I couldn’t hit the button), it’s working great. I’m still getting used to the programmed dimming, which doesn’t work as well as my old system (Osram Lightify). I finally figured out how to create a customized dimming scene but it took more investigating than it should have. The interface could be more user-friendly, such as placing customized scenes and programs next to the preset ones that come with YeelightClassic . Or the ability to modify or delete preset scenes that you don’t like. YeelightClassic flow isn’t intuitive but once you figure it out, you can make it work.