Fix UniFi Devices Disconnecting/Adoption Failed

The initial release of the UniFi 6.x controller was plagued with bugs that even brought entire networks down. It seems that one bug which was present in other versions of the controller has resurfaced. Upon upgrading, I noticed that two of my UniFi devices are disconnecting at seemingly random times. They subsequently displayed “Disconnected”, “Adopting”, or “Adoption Failed.” This guide is specifically for controller version 6.0.23, but should work with other controllers to fix the issue of UniFi devices disconnecting.

Accessing the access points through SSH and running set-inform http://unifi:8080/inform fixed the problem, but only for a short while. After a few hours, the access points would revert to being in their disconnected state. The radios on the access points would continue to function, and the issue was not present, at least for me, in previous releases of the UniFi controller. I’ll show you how to fix UniFi devices disconnecting. My devices have stayed connected to the controller for several days and are working great.

1. Determine Controller IP Address

For most of us, this step should be pretty straight forward. If you’re not sure, you can runnslookup unifi in a terminal to determine your controller’s IP.

In this case, the IP address of my UniFi controller is 10.0.0.5.

2. Fix UniFi Devices Disconnecting by Force Overriding Inform Host

After signing in, navigate to Settings > Controller. Under Controller Settings, enter the IP address of your controller and make sure the Override inform host with controller hostname/IP box is checked.

I would recommend double-checking the IP address you entered since after you click apply, there’s no going back. Your devices will repeatedly try to connect to a nonexistent controller. To recover from this, you will need either shell or physical access. After you double check, you can click apply settings towards the bottom of the page.

After this step, hopefully all goes well. I hope this post was helpful, as it was an annoying issue seeing my access points sporadically disconnect from my controller. Even if you are not having this issue, I would recommend applying this fix to prevent this from happening in the future, especially if you are remotely managing the network.