I use a Shelly Plug M Gen3 to monitor my homeserver’s power consumption with a custom Prometheus exporter.
After a router restart, the device disappeared from the network. I tried the official Shelly Cloud app to re-onboard it, but the app demanded location permissions, wanted to upload my WiFi password to Shelly’s cloud, and still failed to add the device. Frustrated, I figured out the offline setup process.
This works for initial setup or after a factory reset (hold the button for 10 seconds within 60 seconds of power-up).
The Setup Process
1. Enable 2.4 GHz WiFi
Shelly devices only support 2.4 GHz. If your router uses band steering, disable it temporarily. My router required this to broadcast both bands separately.
2. Connect to Shelly’s Access Point
After factory reset, the device creates its own WiFi access point:
Connect to it from your phone or laptop.
3. Configure WiFi
Open a browser and go to http://192.168.33.1 (no password required).
Navigate to the WiFi settings and add your network credentials:
The device will connect to your network. Check your router’s web interface to find the assigned IP address.
4. Disable the Access Point (Optional)
Once on your network, you can disable Shelly’s AP to prevent it from broadcasting:
LED Indicator Settings
The LED is useful for debugging but annoyingly bright at night. You can configure or disable it:
Go to Home → click the switch icon:
Click LED indicator:
Adjust as needed:
Why This Matters
The official app requires:
- Precise location permissions
- Internet connection during setup
- Uploading your WiFi credentials to Shelly’s cloud
The offline method skips all of that. You configure the device directly over its local access point, and it never talks to Shelly’s servers unless you explicitly enable cloud features later.
This is the setup I should have used from the start.