Am I missing the trick?
I’ve a Dongle-M, connected with static IP using POE, internet connection is fine, WiFi AP was also ok although now disabled. As I try to enable with Zigbee Router Mode or Zigbee Coordinator Mode, I’m met with “Flash Failed”. This is the same whether I’m using ESP32 firmware 1.0.5 or 1.0.7. The ERF32 firmware is still on 1.0.0
Was the advertised feature I could use this as a host for my Zigbee devices a myth?
It appears that the Zigbee Router Mode or Zigbee Coordinator enable failure may be caused by a network issue.
Have you tried upgrading the firmware directly from the console? Does it complete successfully there?
If not, please go to Settings → Debug Logs → Enable Debug Log, enable debug logging, and then attempt to reproduce the upgrade failure.
After reproducing the issue, download the logs and send them to me via DM. We’ll review them promptly and help identify the cause.
Thanks for the response. I was not trying to update the ESP firmware - that worked fine both times to 1.0.5 and 1.0.7 respectively. The error comes when I try to enable Zigbee for either Router or Coordinator modes.
Since switching mode involves both downloading the firmware and flashing it, we need to rule out any potential network issues first.
Please go to Settings → Debug Logs → Enable Debug Log, enable debug logging, and then try to reproduce the failure when switching modes.
After the issue occurs again, download the logs and send them to me via direct message. We’ll analyze them as soon as possible to identify the cause.
Thank you for your guidance. The log was showing…
Esp-TLS: couldn’t get hostage for : dongle-ota.sonoff.co: getaddrinfo() returns 202, addrinfo=0x0?[0m
… so I checked the local subnet could resolve that address through the same local DNS and gateway. Changed DNS 1&2 to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 and miraculously the firmware flashed successfully.
Therefore, why will the dongle not work with my local gateway as the DNS?
What was your previous DNS configuration?
[quote=“njdt, post:5, topic:207730”]
[dongle-ota.sonoff.co](http://
Just checked and I can ping that address. I have an AdGuard Home filtering my main router and so I know when I pinged that address it must have gone via my router. Upstream routers mainly to quad9 encrypted. There are other providers but I can’t remember who. It’s not the router. Must be who the dns is set to by your ISP. Try looking at your router to see what DNS it gets sent and using those addresses. I know my ISP keeps sending me stuff about family protection and given how much my filter gets wrong I bet they do too.
Just bought a new Dongle-Max and apparently came dead on arrival. Led does not power on at all. Failed to flash firmware with sonoff flasher website.
Hi, thank you very much for using Dongle-M, and sorry for the issue.
Would you please provide the debug log of SONOFF Dongle Flasher? You can download the debug log by clicking the top right button after you encounter the error (maybe wait for several more seconds).
If you are using Windows, please update Silicon Labs CP210N driver to the latest version v11.5.0.
81bc2df9_sonoff_dongle_flasher_for_ihost_2026-03-03T22-00-15.562Z.log (240.8 KB) logs from home assistant flasher addon
1772553597704.log (343.5 KB) log from sonoff flasher website
Symptoms (as new out of the box):
No LED activity at all after powering on.
Detected by Windows 11 as Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge and also on TrueNAS as cp210x attached to ttyUSB0.
However, the ESP32 side does not respond to flashing/bootloader.
What I tried:
Tested on Windows 11 with CP210x driver installed; COM port appears and opens.
Installed esptool v5.2.0 and attempted recovery/flash operations:
chip-id on COM3 (also tested another COM when present).
Forced BOOT/download mode (holding TOP BUTTON while plugging in), different USB ports/cables.
Result is always the same: “Failed to connect to ESP32: No serial data received.”
–trace confirms data is transmitted (SYNC frames sent) but zero bytes are ever received back.
Conclusion:
The USB-serial interface is present, but the ESP32 does not respond even in ROM bootloader mode
Are there any other ways to fix this ?
Thanks.
The logs do indicate an issue with the ESP32 — after sending commands, we don’t receive any corresponding response.
Please check the cable you’re using and try switching to a different cable, then attempt flashing again to see whether the dongle can be detected and flashed successfully.
Also, can you confirm that this happened with your Dongle-M in a completely brand-new state, with no firmware ever flashed and no prior operations?
If you’ve performed any actions on it before, please let us know so we can try to reproduce the issue.
This happened with the completely brand new unit purchased yesterday. First thing i noticed was that the LED light on the unit was not lighting up at all. Then i tried to check with the sonoff web firmware flasher to see what’s going on. Tried different cables as well. No luck. Also tried with home assistant sonoff flasher addon. Also tried to do a chip read command via esptool. Esp32 chip not responding at all.
Where did you buy this Dongle-M from? Amazon? Aliexpress? eBay? We will definitely arrange new one for you, but we want to collect the old one so we could further look into the issue.
I had purchased it From WifiStore online shop in Romania (WIFISTORE.RO S.R.L.) . I can provide the invoice when needed. Thank you ! Here is the product link: SONOFF Dongle Max Zigbee/Thread PoE
OK, no problem.
The default gateway was the DNS e.g. 192.168.0.1. Which, when a laptop using that as the DNS gateway, resolves addresses without problem.
My big problem now is that there appears no way to connect the Dongle-M to my eWeLink environment. I don’t want to bind it to Home Assistant, or MQTT etc
There is nowhere in the sales and marketing literature that states it doesn’t work within the EWeLink ecosystem so one assumes it works in a similar, yet more powerful manner than other Zigbee bridges.
My big problem now is that there appears no way to connect the Dongle-M to my eWeLink environment. I don’t want to bind it to Home Assistant, or MQTT etc
Hi, sorry for the confusion. SONOFF Dongle Max (aka. Dongle-M) is not to be used with eWeLink App or eWeLink Cloud. It is a Zigbee/Thread adapter for Home Assistant, Zigbee2MQTT, OpenHAB, ioBroker, etc. It also works with eWeLink CUBE OS.
There is nowhere in the sales and marketing literature that states it doesn’t work within the EWeLink ecosystem so one assumes it works in a similar, yet more powerful manner than other Zigbee bridges.
The Dongle-M product page has never said it work within the eWeLink ecosystem.
But don’t worry, you can return it if you don’t want it. All SONOFF official sales channels provide money back guarantee.
If your goal is to use the devices in the eWeLink App and at the same time have them available in other Matter-compatible apps like Apple Home, then the hub you should look at is SONOFF ZBBridge-U
Hi Michael, it’s about time that Sonoff got their messaging in gear… the EWeLink app is fundamental to Sonoff, if a product doesn’t support it, when aligned with other products that do, you can’t assume that users won’t make the assumption. Be clear on what is possible. This issues goes back to the early times of the IHost.
