I found a temporary workaround, if one can call it that.
Kill the ewelink application.
Restart the application.
Immediately request the device state change.
If you are fast enough, you may change one or two devices before it gets the Orange !Refreshing of Death.
So what is the app doing, and why does it have to do it so much!
I'm experiencing the same problem for the past 2 weeks. Up to then everything was fine. Only change on my behalf was added one more Basic wifi switch module.
I have 13 devices in total
2 x S26 Plugs
10 x Basic2 switch
1 x Basic switch
Devices become non responsive in the Ewelink app, sometimes appear offline only to return to normal state and then begin to work properly again for a time. It seems when I open the app a refreshing of something happens that causes the devices to lose connectivity to the cloud service.
Alexa integration not working either, Google Home manages to successfully operate devices about 50% of the time.
Ewelink Scenes and Schedules also not working.
After performing so well last Christmas, Sonoff has really let me down this year.
I've a ticket open with Itead support for a week now and they're provided no advice or help.
They want me to run around the house and make a video while this refresh is happening now.
So frustrating !
Until late 2019 I had a lot of problems with the Orange Refreshing problem, then it all seemed to work perfectly. Now (Late Feb 2020 onwards) it's come back again. I have a dozen different devices. It does make it rather unusable. Probably coronavirus!
I've also just noticed that if I do a force stop on the ewelink app (via android settings) and re activate it then it works for a while, but only a few minutes.
This problem I had with android 4.4, not with 9 and 10.
Robert Barta
6 people have this problem