My X1 has learned most of my remotes so it does work, most of the time. I have 2 Panasonic remotes that transmit the same codes one it will learn the other it won't. In my opinion its down to the remote design, the one it will learn has the IR transmitter in plain sight the one it won't is hidden behind dark plastic. I have another remote (another with dark plastic) that it will only learn if the room is in darkness. I only have one remote that I have tried, where the IR transmitter is visible, that it won't learn and that's for an air con unit.

The trick to achieve this effect is to create an Activity called OFF. The only time I ever use the Off button at the top of the remote is when we go on holiday the rest of the time I use my Off Activity. It turns everything off but has buttons assigned to operate my Air Con and lights.

The“Back”button for the apps and normal operation is where it should be, next to the Home button. The second “Back” button is for SCREEN BACK ONLY. I do agree it's in a terrible place but is only needed if you use Favourites or Macros from the screen, I can't remember the last time I needed to use it. They shouldn't really call them Favourites its more obscure commands I use now and again but don't want to get the original remote out. Had it been in a better place I would use Favourites more.

As this can only be done in one long paragraph I'll try to help in multiple posts. “(some basic commands added by the setup process were wrong - and you can't delete them in the 'edit' page - WHY???)”.......... They can be reordered and any commands or delays YOU add can be deleted or moved, but if you need to DELETE any of the commands set up automatically at the very beginning you have not set the Device up correctly. Check your configuration settings till you don't need to delete anything then start adding your own commands and delays as needed. This will be what is causing your switching between Activites to not work as they should (assuming you have CEC turned off on everything). I have 14 devises and 10 Activates and they all switch without using Off.

Or you can switch the Aura remote into IR mode, the LED will be red instead of green and you can then use it to teach the Sofabaton.

As well as distance being in the wrong place can also cause Lost Hub. I had never had issues with mine losing hub till I moved house and I decided the best place to put the hub was beside one of my rear speakers and I got Lost Hub no matter how close the remote was to it so I moved it to a different location in the room and never seen it since.

The X1 series has a steep learning curve and can be frustrating to start with but if you want to get the most out of what is easily the best universal remote, for the money, you will need something you clearly don't have, patience, so just send it back.

When you say it doesn’t work “consistently” implies to me it works sometimes so is probably due to the IR receiver being in a stupid place on the XG2V2 (as its intended to for RF use). Turn the XG2V2 over and look at the bottom front edge, you should see a tiny plastic rectangle along the curved edge, if the X1S Hub and/or a Blaster does not have a good line of site to it then this will be your problem. If I misunderstood your problem you could try unpairing the original remote this MAY switch it into IR mode so you can teach the X1S.

It amazes me how people constantly compare Harmony with Sofabaton, Harmony was around for about 20 years and apparently, they weren't very good to start with and were never perfect even after all that time. I'm surprised how good the X1 is now after only a few years and rumour has it the X2 will have this feature, along with more things people have been asking for. When the X1s was launched the X1 got the new features that didn't require new hardware so you never know.

As has been said this is a well known issue. If it's under warranty Sofabaton should replace it, they did with me. Contact cleaner will solve it for a while but I ended up with the new one doing it as well, and at the point of spraying it every few days and out of warranty. The only long term solution is to take it apart, strip the ball down and clean it properly. Having now done this I haven't needed to spray for a few months now. Dirt/grease gets in between the rubber outside and plastic inside of the ball and slips.