How to Solve the 360 S6 Robot Vacuum Connection Issue

Michael • Updated on: Aug 29, 2019

Some users have troubles in connecting the 360 S6 to the 360Smart app, so I decided to collect all the solutions our readers have found in the comments in our 360 S6 review.

As far as we know, there are a few different modifications of the 360 S6 robot vacuum on the market:

an international version. This version has an English manual in the box and speaks English.
a Chinese version: has a Chinese manual and Chinese voice.
some other local versions of the robot.

Some of the latest Chinese modifications are location locked. They were designed for the local China market, but for some reasons there are sellers on Aliexpress (and maybe other stores) sell it worldwide. Those devices can't be connected to the app outside of Сhina. However, there is a solution posted by Paul with a GPS Spoofing and proxy.

How to know if your device is locked? When connecting the device, you will get an error, something like this: "The product can be used in China only".

If your device is not locked or you have an international version

Before connecting the robot make sure that:

Your Wi-Fi router works on the 2.4Ghz frequency band (not 5 GHz)
Your Wi-Fi password must contain only Latin letters and numbers (if not — change it).
Check if your Wi-Fi router uses WPA or WPA2 encryption (but not WEP or without encryption). You should log in to your router settings page (192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1) and change the encryption mode to WPA or WPA2.
Go to the phone settings and check if the location permission for the 360Smart app is enabled.
Turn off mobile data before connecting the robot.
Move the robot and your phone closer to your Wi-Fi router.
Reset the robot Wi-Fi settings by pressing and holding the "Power" and "Home" buttons simultaneously for a few seconds.
Try to connect the robot. Sometimes app may ask you for manual connection, in this case, you should follow the instructions on the screen. If you followed all those steps, but your robot still won't connect:

Try to reboot the robot (power off/on)
Try to reinstall the app
Install the latest beta version of the app.

If you have a locked Chinse version of the 360 S6

Paul posted this solution, and other users verified it:

Follow all the steps described above for an international release.
Uninstall the 360Smart app. Install the 3.1.0.0 version of the app Joshua Speer confirmed in the comments below that this method works with the latest version of the app.
Install the Hola GPS Spoofer
Install the Hola Free VPN Proxy
Change the language of your phone to English
Change the timezone of your phone to Shangai UPDATE: This step can be skipped.
Run the Hola Free VPN Proxy and GPS Spoofer and set the location to Shangai and Proxy to China
Run the 360Smart app from the Hola Proxy, and cross your fingers.

Follow the normal binding steps. If you have more than one Wi-Fi hotspot in your house, forget the others in your phone settings. Mobile data should be turned off.

When the binding of the device finished, you can use the app without the proxy and GPS Spoofer.

Please post your questions and solutions in the comments below.

89 comments

Have anyone recently bind sucessfully to the Chinese version of 360 X90? I tried several VPN but none of them work. The 360Robot app always shows a message that requires me to enter the robot serial number to apply for activation. Will that work? Is there any chance that the manufacturer will unlock the app for me?

I think it's possible to transform a Chinese version robot into an International version.
For example, a French guy has done this modification to a Xiaomi robot :
https://xiaomirobot.wordpress.com/xiaomi-robot-roborock-mainland-china-continental-europe/
Regards

Hi,
I think it must be possible to set the internal parameters to the global version.
FYI, a guy has done this modification to an Aqara hub and it's working very well.
You can see "Xiaomi Aqara Hub (CN) on European server" on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-4iIm6nlck and https://kaspa.rs/xiaomi-aqara-hub-cn-on-european-server/
Regards

Hi everybody
I sorted the issue of wifi connection, but the way I did makes me conclude this robot for the point of view of this feature is a shit.
I basically am forced to get a home wifi connection paying for wifi ISP.
I can not be free to have my phone only which for the internet service related to my sim card has infinity gigabyte per month. So with my phone just pay the monthly fee, I have more than enough internet for me. I can hotspot my PC or smart TV but this stupid robot can not work if I don't have a wifi router separately. Indeed as Michael Fisher told me above I used a second phone as a hotspot router and I managed to bind robot with my phone that was connected to the other phone too.

I am going to send back the robot and ask for refund, searching for another vacuum cleaner smarter than this one.

Thanks for your suggestion here however.

Hi Luigi,
Unfortunately, that's how all the robot vacuum (or almost all, not sure) with Wi-Fi and app works. For example, all Roomba models require a wi-fi router too (or a second phone). Roborock, Ecovacs, and Neato robot vacuums work the same.

Got it Michael but one friend of mine said roomba works for him even without a home wifi or a second phone use to give wifi connection to the robot and to the phone where app is installed. However i am thinking about if sending it back or keeping it. After all it is a very good device and does its job good.
Thank you all

Ciao luigi, quindi dovrei impiegare 2 telefoni attivi per poter utilizzare l'app del robot?

Hi everybody
I still have problems with binding my robot so to my Samsung galaxy a40 - android based obviously.
I reset my network settings and also apn settings as I found on Samsung support community.
This is the procedure I follows:
I have no modem in my house and so I use my tethering router if I want to provide my desktop PC with internet connection or if I want to watch a movie on my smart TV. This premise to say that my connection comes from my phone.
To link the robot normally I turn on my wifi. I see 360 al clean robot x95 0103000680 network and I tap on it. It immediately says connected but with no internet access and I can understand if this is correct or not.
In the meantime I open the 360 app 3.6 version, and when I have to say which network use, I can not always see immediately the 360 network I mentioned above. This is another strange thing.
I go back to window of the app where asks me if robot is turned on, I tap yes, window where I have to set which network use pops up and finally I see 360 network.
Here I have a doubt, should i put any password? Logically i think I should not since 360 network comes with no password. If I put my tethering router password connect gets lost immediately indeed.

So no password, loading up 100% in 5 mins, and at the end says impossible to connect try again.

Another procedure I tried is to activate also my tethering router and in the options list I turn on also "share wifi connection"
Then I can turn on my wifi in my phone (differently I could not turn on tethering router and wifi at the same time, they would conflict). I repeat the other steps above. Going back and forward in the app windows so that I finally see the 360 network to select, I select and this time I put my tethering password with no special characters. I wait for 100% loading and see again impossible to connect as output of this binding configuration. Sometime it does not even start the the binding config.
Why?

Where I make mistake?
Is it my phone or my robot or me causing issues?

I don't think it's possible to pair the robot with one phone which you use as a wi-fi tethering device. But perhaps it will work with two phones, one for wi-fi tethering, and another one for the 360 app. Do you have a second phone to try?

Hi
Thx for your answer. Yes. I will try
Anyway is quite strange i can not use my phone to control the robot and provide him with internet connection at the same time.
1. I already connected a wifi device to my phone which is exactly as the same network structure as the robot. It was my small drone. I downloaded the app, followed the steps for configuring and pairing with my phone, activated my wifi network on my phone and done.
Instead with robot seems no way to make it work.
2. I think I must not turn on both tethering router and wifi network on my phone. Bcs my phone works already as a router connected to home phone line. I mean if I had a router this would be connected to internet plug in my home wall as I would have a contract with a phone company (I hope I made myself explained). Phone acts already as a router as above said. So I think I must just turn on my wifi on my phone and robot should be able to pair.

I think people should not be forced to use VPN line, gps fake spoofer etc to make the robot paired with their phone. Let alone finding a solution to getting "a robot with region lock trap" worked
For those problems the manufacturer should be liable for. Meaning robot are not working correctly from point of view of app management and connection

Micheal, anyway, about my first 2 questiona in my firat post, could you let me know something?

Queries were:

1. I turn on my wifi. I see 360 al clean robot x95 0103000680 network and I tap on it. It immediately says connected but with no internet access. Is this msg right?

2. should i put any password?
If so which one, my tethering router password?
For me would sound like illogical

In your opinion is it possible to connect the S9 directly to the Smartphone with Android?
Thanks

I bought 360 S7 vaccum cleaner it worked fine with out app for 2 days now it just does not charge
The charging dock power led does not light up even after been plugged into power scoket
And when I try to power on vaccum cleaner manually it says not enough battery
I am struck can you please help how to trouble shoot this charging issue

great blog

360 S9 (x90) Chinese version with latest IOS app store version 6.7.0.0
Finally got it to bind after countless attempts with android and ios. It seems to be really down to the VPN. If you get an error saying region locked to mainland china, try a different VPN.

What worked:
1. Install 3u on pc, set coordinates to Shenzhen
2. Install KanCN vpn and connect to the free vpn (mine was Shenzhen)
3. Bind.

What didn't work
Android - Using 3.1.0.0/3.6.0.0/6.7.0.0 apk

Below VPN's on IOS, Android as well as hotspot pass through's from laptop

VPN's
Transrock
Hola VPN
NordVPN
HideMyAssVPN
ExpressVPN
X-VPN

360 S6 binding issue resolved.
I could not find the vacuum to my router. I solved this problem through trial and error as the recommendations in this forum did not work for me. What I did was, with my data off, I entered the app up until the connect to WiFi page using my home's WiFi. I then switched over to the wifi that said AI360... within my phone's WiFi setup area. The AI360... was not connected to the internet, but through the app, I selected my home's WiFi and entered its password. Only when I was logged in on the WiFi on my phone that was called AI360... would the vacuum itself have say a voice message prompt that it was trying to bind with the WiFi. As soon as I got the vacuum to say that it was trying to connect, I switched my phone's WiFi back to my home's WiFi and it paired the vacuum to the home's WiFi perfectly. Had I remained on the AI360 wifi or never logged into the AI360 wifi in the first place, it would have never binded. I spent around an hour trying to figure this out. But it is working now. I hope that helps someone and resolves their issues.
I bought the vacuum on AliExpress and it is the international version.

Hello friends Help me with my robot vacuum cleaner I live in Korea I bought a vacuum cleaner 360 S7 but I can’t connect it to Wi-Fi.

I want to thank everyone's suggestions. Finally got our China version working using the following:
S7 vacuum- speaks in Chinese
Fake GPS Location spoofer set to Guangzhou
Hui Guo VPN
Huaiwei Nova 3 phone

We had to try 20 times though... Don't give up!

Hello;

I have the chinese version of S50 and i can not use the mi home app due to region lock.

Could you please explain step by step how did you succeed?

Phone: Huawei mate 20

That's a different brand mate. This thread is talking about the brand 360.

Hey Friends

We do have the latest version of the smartrobot S7 and struggel at point 7.
We can not change the location & Proxy to Shanghai and China.
Do you have any idea where the problem is?

Thanks Lin

Nope, Chinese rsion. I argued, unsuccessfully that the seller should replace it. They said they would, but I would have to return this one at my expense.When I checked on it, the return cost is $400.00 (US to Hong Kong). The 1-yr warranty is a scam too. I had to replace my router and now I can not re-bind the vacuum to my iPhone.

I see. It's strange why it worked with your previous router in this case. I would be glad to tell you step by step how to use these apps, but I've never tried this method by myself since I have an international version of the S6. It is not necessary to use exactly these apps, you can try to find alternative apps in the App Store that do the same things. For example, this and this one.
Did you try to pair it with your old router? If it works with your previous router, you can assign the same SSID and password to your new router, so you will not need to pair it again with the new router.

Eureka! I found a solution for my iPhone XR. Use the Hui Guo VPN for SE Asia. Once the accelerator was turned on (in the app) it worked in about 10 seconds,.. no problem at all. Thanks to all for the help.

Bought S6 in 11/18, worked great until 9/19.Now it won't bind. I have downloaded Fake GPS Location (Patel) app and Transocks app as suggested, but I don't know what to do with them. Transocks is all Chinese and I can't read any of it. What do I do (and when) to use these in the binding routine, I use an iPhone xr. I am not a geek so please be specific.

If it worked great until 9/19, you don't need to use Fake GPS to bind the robot with the app. This is a required step only for those who bought a Chinese version. Considering the fact that you were able to use it before, I assume that you own an international version of the 360 S6.

chinese version
Andriod
360 S7

This worked for me.
Struggled 2 hours on latest version of the app.
Succeed with this version this version ManuUI said.
The lastest version works as well after it bind one time.

I didnt changed the langauge of the phone(japanese)

This worked for me

Sharing my experience here as I know how frustrated it can get. I’m a very low tech guy. Bought an S6 China version and tried to link it with a Huawei phone (international version). Tried most of tricks here (Hola GPS and Hola VPN, Transocks VPN, direct connection to the device, etc) without success. I don’t know how to change router configuration or SSID address etc.

When I was about to give up I tried with a Xiaomi tablet which I bought in China. China version I suspect with no google installed and I had to download a google apk to get google play and all the app.

I downloaded the latest version of smart 360 app (don’t know where to find the old version), downloaded Transocks vpn and turned it on. At the end it works!

I don’t know why it works, I suspect it is the device (Xiaomi Mipad 4) and the built-in os it carries more than the VPN.

Hope it helps. By the way I am based in Hong Kong.

Thanks for sharing! Glad that it works with the latest version of the app as well.

Hi,

I'm contributing my experience here. Since I had benefited from the contributions and suggestions here.

I've gotten the Chinese set recently. And I have binded the cleaner to the latest app version, as well as updated the latest firmware sucessfully for the cleaner as well.

I followed the instructions shared by Michael Fisher. Only diff I did was using transock vpn (which was suggested by someone above too) and using GPS spoofer from hola. First step is to download latest 360smart app, followed by transock vpn app for web and app, lastly hola gps spoofer from Google play store.

Before starting the apps, I went to create an email specifically for the cleaner.

For Google wifi users:
Since, I'm using Google wifi that does it's own smart band allocation, it never allocates 2.4ghz band to any of my devices, I just need to use another of my phone as the hotspot instead. The hotspot ssid name is up to your preference. The cleaner needs to connect to the same ssid as the device where the app is located. Should you change the ssid after the cleaner is binded to the app, even if your phone connects to that sucessfully. The cleaner will not be able to speak to the app in your device after binding, because it will only store the previous ssid name. And tells you that it has abnormal network or peers disconnection etc. So, just rename your wifi ssid to the previous ssid name. Unbind the cleaner to the app. And set the ssid to your new preferred ssid and repeat binding steps.

Continue to binding:
After setting up the hotspot. I opened transock app, followed by hola gps spoofer. Take note that hola GPS spoofer requires you to be in developer mode and allows permission to mock GPS location. You can choose any location in China, Shanghai. And lastly, open 360smart app, register via the email created earlier. Follow the instructions given. And the cleaner will be binded successfully.

Firmware update:
Of course, it is up to you if you would like to update the firmware. Before the firmware update, my cleaner cannot find it's docking station after its cleaning. Going everywhere else in the house except the docking station. After the update, it goes directly back to the docking station without loitering around. Just beware that the firmware don't allow roll back, so consider it carefully before you do it.

And now I have a very good helper. A big thank you to all the contributors for sharing. You guys are awesome!

Hi,
thank you for sharing your experience, glad that it works for you! Do you have the S6 model? Would be great to know if this method works for the S7 and S5 models.

Hi,

Yes, forgot to include that mine is a s6 model. During the binding process, it prompted me to choose the model of cleaner. So, I reckon, perhaps it is worth a try if anyone bought a chinese version of s7 or s5 model.

Hello,
my girl and me got our first robot cleaner.
A relative of her works in china from time to time and he brought us the new 360 S7 model. But we have struggle to get the app working, we didn't know there are region locked models.
We tried your guide but the connection always fails. Maybe the V3.1of the app isn't available anymore? Is there another solution for the 360 S7 model?
I already checked our router and changed the password. It looks like it is connected to our network but the app still says no.

Thank you in advance.

Greetings from Germany.

Hi Michael,
Unfortunately, the older 3.1 version has been removed. Anyway, it seems like the S7 will not work with the v3.1, since it supports only the older S6 model.
Try to use a Chinese proxy (Hola VPN) and a GPS spoofing app (Hola Fake GPS). I don't know if it will work with the latest version of the app, but you can try this method. As Darren mentioned in the comment above, it works with China-locked Roborock T6, I think this method can work with the 360 S7 as well.

I wanted to share my experience with the Chinese-only version of the 360 S6. I was one of the earliest adopters buying the S6 right when it hit the offshore shopping sites and before there was an 'international' version that spoke English. Back then there was apparently no region lock as she binded with no issue. For over a year she's been faithfully chugging away sweeping up my messes.

We recently upgraded our Wifi infrastructure and changed the SSID and network keys. The instructions to change the Wifi on the S6 are basically the binding instructions and the binding would fail every time with the 'outside China mainland' error. Much to my surprise, though, she did adopt the updated Wifi settings and remained bound to my SMS account.

I'm still counting the days until they find a new way to enforce the region lock and she dies forever but until then she's still chugging away.

Thank you for this helpful guide!
While setting up my 360 S6 I figured out that the WiFi password's length might be an issue as well. After several unsuccessful attempts, I simply changed the WPA 2 key from ~50 to < 25 chars and - bingo - the setup and connection worked pretty well.

You're welcome! I'm glad to help!

How to use Roborock T6 (China version) in UK:
https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=588650934

Quick follow-up, since the latest update I keep getting messages on my phone that there is an issue connecting to my S6. The S6 is switched off when not in use, however the app keeps trying to connect non stop even when closed. Pretty annoying.

I have a Chinese version of S6 360. I was able to activate it thanks the instruction that you wrote in this forum. Many thanks.
Now, I received a notification of a new version of firmware and new version of Android app.
Has anyone update the firmware and the app to the latest version? Everything still working?

I heard bad things about Firmware 2.9.37_7116 even though not enough feedback from people/testers to actually tell.

I think this Chinese S6 Forum is the only place you can get some ideas.

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://bbs.360.cn/thread-15663769-1-1.html&xid=17259,15700023,15700186,15700191,15700248&usg=ALkJrhim_mS3rh0lUZcOV2vxro08Oowjlg

https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.co.uk&sl=auto&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://bbs.360.cn/thread-15652590-1-1.html&xid=17259,15700023,15700186,15700191,15700248&usg=ALkJrhh_1JLYzYf2xVu9tVPnISHZr-PeYw

I haven't upgraded from version 7068, I did update to latest 3.8 App.

All good for me. (app and firmware on latest)

Perceived changes:
- It finally doesn't align the pattern/map to north anymore so it moves parallell to the walls.
- it tends to redraw the map on full cleans (but does fine with spot cleans, but would be bad if I had permanent restricted zones)
- The tiling got a bit less predictable because of the redraws.

I'm a busy single mom and I like my house *very* clean and I truly love my roomba. It runs while I'm out of the house every day and makes it so I don't see dust, crumbs, or hair. My current one is 3 years old and going strong, I had another one before that for several years. I'm happy every day for it.

I would agree it's loud enough that I don't want it running while I'm here. but since it goes on a schedule, that's a problem I can easily avoid. My current house is 2 stories and I simply rotate where I leave it so both levels get done a few times a week.

Hi
maybe someone will be able to help me, i also bought a chinese version of the s6 vacuum cleaner.
I tried everything. three different phones. two different wifi networks. VPN five applications. three gps programs. from oldest to latest app pump. and my best result was loading 98% of the program.
Anything listed in these requirements is fine. I no longer know what to do.

Hi,
sorry to hear that. Everything we know at this moment you can find here, unfortunately, it's hard to say why it doesn't work in your case. You can also check comments in our review, some guys have the same problem - binding goes up to 99%, but I don't know if they solved their problem.

Hi everyone,

I might be onto something - not sure if it was a fluke, but it worked - so after spending the past 2 weeks in the forum I owe you that much to share it and hope it will help others.

Yup, 2 weeks... Tried over and over and over, tweaking some attempts and changing some steps in the guide here and there, but after an hour I would give up, bad mouth the annoying chinese girl in the voice prompts and try again the following day. Today it suddenly gave me successful binding message on the screen when I least expected it, and you'll understand why in a sec, and I will try to point out all the tech info for the record:

App: Eventually what worked for me was the 3.1.0.0 version apk from the link above, but I did try 3.6.0.0 to begin with. I saw some users had an issue signing up with SMS. I personally haven't (and it's an EU mobile number, not US and definitely not Chinese), but just so you know it is possible to sign up with an email on the app version 3.1.0.0 - I did that although the SMS sign up went well just in case the system will somehow realize I'm not in China if only by the mobile number.
Either way, I want to emphasize that if it did in fact work for someone with version 3.6.0.0 it might have to do with the OS - I could not pass the 13% with that version no matter what I tried changing. It is evident that this version recognizes the location even behind a double VPN, let alone one, regardless of an IP and GPS location in China, your system's clock or language - so I would suggest not to waste your time on trying with the updated version, but then again maybe it was just me. I installed 3.1.0.0, and when it finished clicked "done" and not "open" - then went first thing to Google Play to disable auto updates (because they managed in few cases to be faster than me and auto-update before I went through the entire process).

System: Android Oreo 8.0.0 (yeah, not even 8.1. Apparently LG has more burning stuff to do. But, don't be alarmed if you're not on Pie, that's not it). Needed or not, I set the time manually to China Standard (GMT+7) to be on the safe side, and the language is anyway set to English.

Location: Changed the setting from High Accuracy to GPS only. Again, dunno if it's vital since you are going through a VPN, but what have you got to lose from limiting the system to have only one option to determine your location.

Internet connection: Now, I know my ISP router is not the smartest piece of technology around, so in attempt to get the best possible signal even through a VPN (that one was very touch n go. At times I could not even log in to the app and received an error that the network has bad connection, which a speed test confirmed) I disabled temporarily the 5 network and left only the 2.4; Also, since I normally use custom DNS I've disabled that (if you don't know what it is, you're not using it so don't worry). On the phone I've turned off the mobile data, reset network settings (it's in the network menu), and reconnected to the wifi, which was now broadcasting only on the 2.4 network anyway.

VPN: well, Hola. Never been a huge fan, but then again you can't complain about a free service. The thing is, their work model to give it to you free is making you a peer so Hola is using some of your bandwidth for other users who want to connect to a server near you. Like I didn't have enough to deal with here, I need to rely on other Hola users and hope I get lucky. Of course, I didn't. Countless attempts all failed and in cases I did manage to log in to the 360 app, it either got me to 15-20% and gave an error or the more enjoyable error at 99%... I tried several other (paid) major VPN providers, both on the phone level and on the router level, but it seems that indeed the way is with Hola since that is directly on the app level. The solution: forget Hola Free and sign up for the 3 day trial of Hola Plus. You won't be charged as long as you remember to cancel the subscription during the trial period and you can guarantee having a connection way more reliable than the free peer-to-peer one.

With everything set, I reset the robot (pin through the tiny hole behind the rubber piece covering the usb port, when the dust bin is ejected) and restarted it; placed myself in the Hola GPS app on some unnamed road in the middle of Beijing; and opened the 360 app via the Hola Plus. Signed in, and started the binding process for probably the 360th time.
Now... I'm not totally sure what happened next and how this would have ended if the following didn't occur, so my best advice would be to follow it through with the binding as usual and if it still doesn't work try recreating this scenario:
Binding ongoing and when reaching the 15% mark the annoying girl's voice appears and talking to me in Chinese again which I already know means it failed although the app would keep going to 99% and then give me an error, I eject the dust bin and got the pin in hand ready to reset the robot again when Spike, my cat, decides to shove his head to see what's going on. No worries, you won't need a cat for this - but I'm telling this because during the split second that I looked up from the phone screen to make sure I'm not poking him in the eye with the pin, the "binding successful" screen appeared. Sadly, until my astonished brain registered what just happened my hand was quicker and reset the robot. That was the point when I didn't know whether I should bang my head or the robot against the wall... finally it bound and I reset it?! But lo and behold... the app was searching for the robot, and as soon as the latter rebooted itself it was still there. The first few seconds were lagging, but once I updated the firmware through the app and the robot automatically rebooted again, everything was fine. I then reversed all the changes made in the phone and router, disconnected from the VPN and updated the app itself. I should note that although you can update from within the app, I opted for not playing with fire now that I am no longer pretending to be in the middle of some road in Beijing and updated the app through Google Play. It updated to 3.5.0.0 which is the latest offered through Google and not 3.6.0.0 - but honestly? I couldn't care less. Everything was working fine, the app is completely in English, and the only thing I can't get rid of is the annoying Chinese girl (though I did set her volume to minimum). Did a few runs with the robot since, turned phone on and off, rebooted the router even - but the robot is there, bound. Nailed you, mofo.

So to recap: try following all those settings and steps described and then bind (from a fresh start, i.e clean installation of the app, and do try with 3.1.0.0 first, before you update from within the app to 3.6.0.0), but it still won't work:
- start binding
- at the voice prompt around 15% eject dustbin and reset robot with a pin
- cross fingers and restart robot
You can borrow Spike for good luck, but I should warn you he's trying to hunt the side brushes.

Hope it helps! Good luck :)

Meh. Only now I see the Transocks option suggested above. i did try a bunch of Chinese VPN providers but missed this one... So maybe try that first before you sign up for a Hola Plus trial, just in case you'll be so excited that you managed to bind it and forget to cancel the subscription...

#sigh #wishIknew

Michael, i cant confirm it, as I had it installed on my phone, but I am not sure did I used it in time of "connecting" robot and app, or I didnt. I just cant remember.

But with transocks got my robot connected in 10 seconds and everything works perfectly.

Update! Got it working. For iphone apps I used Fake GPS by Riddhi Rakeshbhai Patel and for VPN I used Transocks. Transocks is in Chinese and I'm not sure how it works, but I pressed the Connect button and then tried to bind the robot and it worked. Transocks has some ads too and when I searched for "What is my IP?" it showed I was still in North America despite being connected to the VPN. So not sure why it worked, but it worked nonethless. I tried other VPN proxys with Fake GPS but only Transocks seemed to work plus it's free.

Man you are the King ;)

Transocks VPN for Android also worked, finally have my robot connected ;)

I have black chinese version of s6 360 robot, and as D suggested, used transocks (from play store) VPN and just hit connect, and after 10 second I got my robot binded - connected to app. Updated firmware of robot and app to 3.6.0.0 and everything works perfectly.

Hi,
thanks, now we have a solution for iOS users, I'll add this to the guide.

I think transocks VPN is also solution for Android.... As I did it with transocks and got my robot connected to app. I am just not sure does we need hola gps spoofer or not .... I had it installed and set to Shanghai anyway.

A lot of Android users have troubles with the Hola Free VPN Proxy, so maybe the Transocks VPN works better. So you have connected the robot without the GPS spoofer?

Yes, another Android user checking in: Transocks VPN works better indeed. Suspect Hola VPN not enough bandwidth, too many users perhaps. I used the Hola GPS spoofer anyways. Just need it to "bind" (activate) the robot vacuum. And I used it for the latest S7 model, it works.

Hi Thomas,
where did you buy the 360 S7 model? Thanks.

Thanks, D. Transocks works, and with latest S7 model.

I have downloaded Fake GPS (Patel) and Transocks on my iPhone XR. Now, what do I do to use them? I have a Chinese 360 S6, purchased 11/18. Worked great until 9/19, now can not bind with app. Not a geek, don’t know what to do with downloads,...Help please.

Hi David,
I would be glad to help, but I've never tried this method by myself. As far as I understand, in the Fake GPS app, you need to set your location to some city in China, and in the Transocks app, you need to choose an IP-address from the same city. Then you can run the 360Smart app, it will think that you are located in China, since your IP and GPS location will be faked to China.

Hi everyone. After half a day of frustration of not being able to connect my 360 to my app I found a solution in a German robo forum.

There is a beta version of the app (3.5.0.8_beta), which is not available in Google Play, but offered by 360 directly. It solved the issue for me as well as other users in the German forum.

Here's the link: https://www.mediafire.com/file/8x0t0sjc0i3o1uq/release_360SmartHome_V3.5.0.8_V190_2018-11-21_10_43_37_35fc3ebe63ee7511bfdcbb91ba066b9144983415.apk/file

Not sure when this will be implemented in a new official release, but that did it for me.

Cheers

Hello Manu,

You have chinese version or robot or International one?
I tried with this apk too (without vpn), but still receiving "mainland China" message.

Hi, I've got the international version. This fix is only for the bug in the App (connection failed message). Not for getting the chinese version to run outside of China.

Hi,
great! You can find the link to this beta app in this guide too, maybe you just missed it:)

I am adding a new post so that the issue is not lost in the above thread. D did some good detective work and found out that his Chinese version of the robot was using Channel 13 for WiFi. Since the US only uses channels 1-11, this might explain why some are having issues connecting. I believe each time you start a new linking sessions (purple light flashing) it will choose an an open WiFi channel to use for broadcasting itself. Since 12 and 13 are not used in the US, it probably sees those as open and uses one of those most of the time. But eventually, if you try rebooting and start a new linking session, it will use a channel in 1-11 and that will allow you to bind.

Just conjecture, but might be worth more looking in to.

Hi, is rebooting simply making sure the robot is not in the charger and press the power button? Then power up (blinking blue), press both buttons to purple? I've restarted about 10 times and it's still on channel 13.

An alternative, I have a borrowed iphone and I can see channel 13. However, I now need a good VPN proxy and GPS Spoofer for ios. Any suggestions? Otherwise, I'll keep rebooting the robot for my android

Hello,

for me not working Hola Free VPN Proxy China server, so can't use that app. Tried with Hong Kong server, got China Mainland error. Also tried private China proxy, but the problem with this is that when Smart 360 app connecting to robot WiFi network the phone is disconnecting from my home WiFi network and also the phone is turning off VPN switch (the key icon), so when the Smart 360 app reconnecting to my home network back my IP address is not anymore under China proxy. So I think I need the phone app which can proxyfie only the Smart 360 app (like the Hola VPN app doing) not the whole phone, so the proxy is not tied to WiFi network, but just the chosen app, so when Smart 360 app switching between the WiFi networks the proxy is not turning off/disabling. Also tried other free VPN apps and they also disconnecting when WiFi network is switched. Premium paid VPN didn't tried, because I don't want to pay if I don't know if theirs mobile apps will succeed to bind the Smart 360 app to robot.

Also wrote the complain to the Smart 360 app support and got response from them that I need to contact their official after-sales by phone +86 400 6822360, but I don't think that they can provide me the international version of firmware.

Only two ways for now I see, is to return back the robot to Aliexpress seller (he agree to accept the return for full refund plus shipping fee) and buy new one with International version firmware. Or to wait for maybe that manufacturer will make the fix for Chinese versions to unlock region locks, provide international firmware or that maybe someone will make modified 360 Smart app where will be disabled the region check like it was done with app for Roborock s5 in one Russian forum.

Linas,

When you say Hola VPN China server is not working for you, is the Hola app working, but just not that one server? In that case, it might just have been down for a bit. It was down when I first played with the app, but was up about 6 hours later when I did the binding. So maybe try again later??

Hello Linas;

I have the chinise version of Roborock S5. I'm trying to solve region lock problem. Could you please give more information about disabled region check ?

This also does not work for me. I've tried all the suggestions on the original comment thread this information came from as well as these. I'm thinking some received a different firmware revision on their robot. Mine is also from Perfection Technology. Even knowing the issue with these they continue to list them for sale outside of China. I'd think they'd pull them if they were serious about it. The company just referred me to try what is instructed here but I've already done that. I've tried 2 different phones and a tablet as well as verified that both the gps and vpn were in fact reflecting Shanghai China along with the time zone changes. No luck. My wife and I would like to keep it for the basement but not at the cost it is with such limited function not utilizing the app.

Joshua, what error message are you getting when you try to bind the robot? Can you do a screen capture of your phone and post it here?

UPDATE: I was getting a connection error. It turns out it was the VPN suggested. It just doesn't connect for me on any device. I did figure it out. I had an extra router that I could plug the VPN details into for PureVPN. They have a couple Chinese locations. I had to pay for their service but I've been meaning to get a a VPN provider anyway. I then connected that between my primary switch and POE switch with WiFi AP's. Then waited a minute for it to connect to China and was able to register the damn thing. Removed the VPN router and reconnected the regular way. While dealing with this I purchased a white international one on Amazon from the 360 company. I'm hoping that some day someone will release a method to sideload the ROM so I can get the Chinese one to use the international firmware. Also I did not need to adjust my timezone just spoof the GPS. The router was compatible with and using ddwrt firmware. Also I used the current app version. There was no need to get the old one.

Hi Joshua,
Thanks for your update! I've fixed the guide.

I also got a Chinese version and unfortunately none of the above solutions works for me ... does anybody succeed to retuen it back and to get a refund?
p.s. I bought it at aliexpress, seller was Perfection Technology

Mine was also Ali Express from Perfection Technology. It was ordered on Nov 23 and arrived Dec 6. I did sent a note asking for help but have not heard back yet. From another post I saw, Perfection Technology was willing to do a refund (YMMV). BTW, while I got it to work just fine with the App on iPhone (after binding it with an Android device), it is still giving Chinese language voice prompts. I see no way to change that to English at this point. But that is really just a minor annoyance. The app itself is of course in English so I can do everything I want.

Sorry cannot create a new comment, but only reply. I also have the chinese version from Ali. I cannot see the 360AI-CleanRobot wifi signal on my phone. From my computer and running a wifi scan, I can see it is on channel 13. Is there a way I can get my phone to see the robot's wifi signal (I am in North America so only ch 1-11 is visible from the phone I believe). Or alternatively, is there a way I can use my computer to run the apk since my computer can connect to the robot?

You may have just figured out the issues we have been having with connecting to the wifi for the Chinese version! Yes, Europe and Japan (and I assume China) use channels 1-13 for wifi, whereas in the US we only use 1-11. So my guess is that the robot comes up with various channels when it boots, and if it chooses 12 or 13, that creates the issue for us trying to connect. That would explain why I had to reboot the robot numerous times before it finally came up with a channel that was in the US range. This is just conjecture, but seems to make sense. Since 12 and 13 are unused in the US, and wifi hot spots will tend to try to use a channel that is open, that might explain why so often it is going with those channels. But if you keep rebooting, it will eventually use a channel you can see. See if several reboots eventually will work to get a 1-11 channel.

Hello guys. New app is released 3.6.0.0 and I downloaded it. Did anybody notice any problems with this version ( cleaning,finding dock..)? Thx. Bw

I also bought a Chinese version on Alieexpress and I’m struggling with the same problem: connection failed. I tried the steps described above but I can’t install the new version of the app. Can you give me more instructions on this? Does this work on iPhones as well?

Hi Hans,
In the comment above, blueman2 has been able to connect the robot with the 3.6.0.0 version of the app (which is already available for Android) and the described method. I don't know if there is an update for iOS devices, if not - it should be in the Apple Store in the coming days. I have no proofs this method works with an Apple phone. However, you can ask your friends for an Android device to connect your robot. When it is connected, you can use your iOS device with the robot, as well as blueman2 did.
If you want to try this method on an iPhone, you need to find in the App Store and install a GPS spoofer and VPN proxy.

Do you maybe know which version of android is necessary to solve this issue?
I have android version 6.0 and can not connect/bind to a robot ... and I have tried everything here mentioned with all app360 versions

Hi,
Looks like the latest version of the app for Android 6 is 3.5.0.0, the newest version 3.6.0.0 released last week only for Android Oreo and Pie as I know. I don't know if there are some fixes related to the connection problem, but it can be a reason if you tried everything and it doesn't work. You can try to install an older version (3.1.0), there were a few users who connected the robot with the described method and this version of the app.

... and what could be robot's wifi password if I would like to bind it manually?

It must be your wifi router password.

router password is not the right one, tryin to understand why should it be?

Can I use a 360Smart account with a US number for the China version binding process above? I was not sure since we are setting to China location when we do the binding. I cannot create a China account since I do not have a China phone number.

You need to do an email registration instead of phone number reg. The sellers of Aliexpress also advise the email registration method.

Success!!! Aliexpress "Mainland China Only" version was finally able to bind and works perfectly. I tried using 360Smart Android App v3.1.0.0 as recommended above, but the old Android phone I was using had a low resolution screen which cut off the bottom of the app, so we could not select the "Purple Lights Flash" button. So we downloaded the latest 3.6.0.0 version of the Android App from Play Store, which did fit on the screen correctly. We started it from Hola VPN, selected GPS in China, set the robot in binding mode, pressed "Purple Lights Flash" button on the app, and it linked!!!

I was then able to log in with my iPhone 7 using the latest version of the App (3.5 I think on the iPhone) and it works!

Biggest issue I had was the robot is VERY finicky in broadcasting its WiFi for setup. I kept getting an error message to check my wifi. I had to turn the robot off and on several times, putting into link mode each time, in order to finally get it to broadcast its WiFi for linking. Once I got that working (you can check using your phone's wifi setting to see if the robot is sending out an SSID), it was a very simple process to bind it.

So another confirmation that Ali Express versions with "Mainland China Only" issue can be linked just fine. We still have to live with the Chinese voice for the robot, but that is acceptable.

Thanks for the help.

Cheers

For me is not working, no matter the app version. It goes to 99% and it stays there, sometimes it throws network error. Same issue on 2 different phones. i think i will go for the refund.

Try this. After you put the robot in linking mode (purple lights flashing) and before you use the 360Smart program to bind it, use your phone or some other device to do a wifi scan. See if the robot's SSID is there. I cannot recall what mine was, but it was obvious since it was the only other SSID my phone was seeing that I was not familiar with. And it was at the top of the list since the signal was so strong. I had LOTS of issues getting the robot to turn on it's wifi for the linking process. Not sure why, but I had to turn the robot off, on, then put in linking mode many times before it finally turned on wifi and I could see the SSID. Once you confirm the SSID is visible on your phone, THEN try to do the binding with the 3.6.0.0 app with GPS and VPN spoofs running.

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