Ever since the January 19, 2026 G4 geomagnetic solar storm, IoX cannot connect with many of my Insteon devices. It could be that all of those were damaged by the solar storm, but I figured it was more likely damaged powerline modem (PLM). I replaced the PLM after browsing the wiki for advice on this, and used what I think is the approved procedure for replacing a PLM:

A PDF posted on the forum says:

Replace Modem (PLM)

This operation is most useful when you need to replace a defective PLM and the EISY/POLISY is rebooted with a new PLM. When the communication links were established via the Link Management Menu, the PLM and INSTEON devices adds each device addresses it is linked to, in its own link table.

The EISY/POLISY also reads and stores the PLM’s address at boot up. The EISY/POLISY stores all the configurations settings in the device tree. If you are replacing a PLM the EISY/POLISY will have the old PLM address link stored in it.

Warning: Never replace your PLM while the EISY/POLISY is running because it will assume it is still connected with the old PLM. The EISY/POLISY will appear to work, but it will be writing the address of the old PLM into the device links, thus you will not see devices updates etc. If this menu option is selected, the EISY/POLISY goes through all INSTEON devices looking for old and new PLM address links. If an old PLM address link is found, it replaces them with the address of the new PLM and adds the corresponding device link to the new PLM.

Here is what I did, after taking out the old PLM and ordering a brand new one from insteon.com:

To update corrupted tables in a PLM (modified from posts on the wiki):

- Take the power plug out of the EISY to do a power-off cold reboot

- Disconnect the data cable between the PLM and EISY (NOT necessary to unplug the RJ-45 ethernet cable if you use one to connect your EISY to the internet or local network

- Take PLM out of the AC power outlet (this does NOT by itself reboot the PLM AKA reset the PLM tables)

- New reboot the PLM, AKA factory reset:

- [hold the set button in on the PLM while plugging it in and continue to hold until the PLM stops buzzing, then all links are cleared. (Steve Lee, Insteon Support) Nope, this didn't work for me]

- Reset the PLM:

"To reset PowerLinc Modem to its original factory settings, unplug from wall outlet and wait 10 seconds. Press and hold Set button; while continuing to press and hold, plug back in. A long beep will sound; continue holding Set button until beep stops, then release. After several seconds, status LED will turn on to indicate reset is complete]

- Connect the PLM to the EISY/POLISY with the data cable

- Plug the power cord back into the EISY

- Go to Admin Console and wait for system initialization to complete

- [ignored probably irrelevant information about waiting for battery powered units and looking for a battery icon in IoX; I don't see a battery icon, nor is there any buttcon with a hover state indicating battery; these buttcons – buttons with icons – need a mouse hover state that explains what they are) Click on the Battery icon at the top. This will prevent EISY/POLISY from trying to update programming on your RF devices which are probably in sleep mode]

- File > Restore Modem (PLM) menu

- Wait until the "System Busy" at the bottom left goes away, and the green 1011 icons quit appearing

- In case EISY/POLISY cannot communicate (or decides not to if it’s an RF device during the process, you will have a series of nodes with green 1011 icons in the device tree. For each one of those nodes:

- If an RF device, ensure that the device is in Programming mode (awake)

- Right mouse click > Write Updates to Device.

If the above procedure fails on many of your devices, it's highly recommended that you follow the instructions for Restore Devices.

Looked in https://wiki.universal-devices.com/Eisy:User_Guide and searched the forum for Restore Devices, and found nothing useful.

See the picture for the number of devices IoX can't communicate with.

I tried rebooting both the EISY and my PC, after which IoX showed no errors! But then I went through the list and tried to turn each of the Insteon units on and off and you can see how many failed. I started at the bottom and tried "Write updates to device" and "Restore Device" both without doing anything to the Insteon unit and after putting the Insteon unit. Both failed for the bottom two units with a big red exclamation point at which time I gave up and created this post. I would hate to have to replace this many Insteon units without knowing that it would solve the problem. I thought, "maybe I need phase a signal bridge" and then "no, with so many dual wireless/powerline Insteon units, I have no need for a physical phase signal bridge."

Have you tried doing a device restore on a non responding device? If only some don't work, then the PLM is somewhat functional. Sounds more like memory (link table) corruption. Start with units closest to the PLM to re-establish the network.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Guy Lavoie