Why Can't I Clear a Trouble Condition On My 2GIG GC3 or GC3e?

You can't clear a trouble condition on your 2GIG GC3 or GC3e because of an error in the system's firmware. The issue has been known to occur on GC3 and GC3e Systems that have Smart Area Partitions enabled. There is currently no fix for the problem, but it does not impact system performance.

When a trouble condition arises on a 2GIG GC3 or 2GIG GC3e System with Smart Areas enabled, the Smart Areas button on the main screen turns yellow. Under normal circumstances you can restore the system to normal by fixing the cause of the trouble, then clicking on the yellow Smart Areas button, entering the system's Master Code, and lastly clicking the "speech bubble" next to the partition associated with the trouble. This tells the system that you have acknowledged the trouble, and it should clear the trouble condition from the system. Once this happens, the Smart Areas button should go back to its normal blue coloring, which indicates that everything is okay. For more information on clearing GC3 and GC3e troubles, please refer to this helpful FAQ.

However there have been multiple reports of incidents where the trouble button will not return to blue after following this process. Basically, the Smart Areas button stays yellow, even though there is no active trouble condition, and the trouble has been properly acknowledged. For example, some users have reported trouble conditions of "Console Broadband Network Failure" and "Cellphone Communication Failure". Even after correcting the trouble condition and following the steps to clear the trouble indication the Smart Areas button remains yellow. In each case, the trouble condition has been confirmed to have been resolved by successfully communicating with Alarm.com across the supposedly affected communication path.

A similar instance in which this occurs is if you enroll a sensor with a GC3 or GC3e, put it into a trouble condition (e.g. a cover tamper or a loss of RF supervision), and then delete the sensor without physically correcting the trouble and allowing it to report a restore condition to the panel. If you do that, then you will be stuck with a trouble condition that cannot be cleared. This indicates that the issue of unclearable trouble conditions sometimes occurs when there is some trouble condition, but then there is no way to actually correct it, so even acknowledging the trouble doesn't work. There have been various methods attempting to fix the problem, but none have worked. These methods have included disabling and reenabling partitions, powering down the panel for a hard reboot, performing a reboot through System Manager, and upgrading the system firmware. But no matter what method is attempted, the trouble remains.

Although this issue is a bit bothersome, it doesn't actually affect system performance. The system will stop beeping after the trouble condition has been acknowledged. It's just that the Smart Areas button remains yellow. If a new and unrelated trouble condition occurs, then the system will once again begin beeping. Additionally, the user can still receive alerts for new trouble conditions from Alarm.com. This makes it possible for a user to recognize a new trouble condition, even if the Smart Areas button remains the yellow color.

At the time of this writing in December 2020, this issue is still present in the latest GC3 Firmware and the latest GC3e Firmware. The latest firmware version for these systems at this time is Version 3.2.5. The hope is that the issue is corrected in Firmware Version 3.2.6. There is currently no estimate for when Firmware Version 3.2.6 will be made available, and 2GIG has not promised that a fix will be implemented. For now, the only option is to simply live with the Smart Areas button remaining yellow. The good news is that you can still use the panel beeping and Alarm.com notifications to determine if a new trouble condition occurs. And remember if you do notice a trouble condition on the system, then just try to clear it using the conventional method. If the Smart Areas button remains yellow even after performing the proper troubleshooting steps, then just do your best to ignore it. Your system will still operate normally and report to Alarm.com in the event of an emergency as long as you are monitored.