Fan with Remote issue

Question

I just got a fan that came with a remote. I have one wall that has 2 switches 1 for the light and 1 for the fan. You can also turn that same light on from 2 other switches. I wired everything up, but for some reason the fan remote doesn’t work for the light. It works for the fan. What did I not wire correctly? Please help and thanks!

My ceiling has white black red and ground coming out.

This is what I used as a reference to wire

(C) Ceiling / ac supply: white, black & Red

(RI) Receiver In: white, blue & black

(RO) Receiver out: white & black

(F) Fan: white, black & blue

Connections

• C white & RO white
• RI white & F white
• RI black & F black
• RI blue (alone)
• RO white & C white
• RO black & C black
• C red & F blue

Answer 1

You wrote

(RI) Receiver In: white, blue & black

(RO) Receiver out: white & black

I think you have this reversed. The receiver controls the fan and light separately with inputs of white and black (neutral and hot, respectively) and outputs of white, blue and black (neutral, switched hot for light and switched hot for fan, respectively).

You could have only one wall switch provide input to the receiver and use the remote to control the fan and light independently. The other switch and its hot would be unused. If you mount the receiver on the wall switch, this might satisfy the requirement that there be a light switch on the wall. You could cover the unused switch with a shabbat light switch cover, e.g. these.

If you want to forego having the light controlled by the remote, and just have the light controlled by the wall switch (to satisfy the code requirement), you could operate the fan with the remote, and have the line hot to the receiver be the switched hot from the fan wall switch. But the blue output from the receiver to the light would not be used. Instead you would connect the hot from the light wall switch directly to the blue wire to the light. You can do this because there is a common neutral white in the cable from the wall to the ceiling box.

Answer 2

I'd dispense with the remote that came with the fan and substitute something else in its stead

The remotes that come with ceiling fans are bottom-of-the-barrel designs intended to get someone going if they have no other options for fan control. As a result of this, they do not play nicely with just about anything else, including wall switches.

The solution to this, if you want remote control of the fan and light, is to ditch the remote that came with the fan and swap the wall switches controlling the fan and light with suitable "smart" remote switches; Lutron makes a dimmer and a fan controller in their Caseta line that are both suitable for this application, as long as the switch box has a neutral available at it.

Answer 3

You wired it correctly.

We could rewire this thing so the light operates on the remote instead of the switches. Just one problem with that. The Building Codes require those wired switches actually switch a light, so that guests don't get hurt tripping around the room trying to find a light, and First Responders can get a light on quickly to do their job. Installing additional room lights to replace the fan's light is a pretty big undertaking.

You can't wire it so the remote's light switch works with the 3 existing switches, because that requires a relay and more wires than you have available in the cable between switch and fan. You would need to change that to a /4+ground cable, then we could talk.

It may be possible to achieve that functionality with a matched set of smart switches, fan module, and remote*, but that will require you change to a different module and remote.