The red "clean" button comes on but after we emptied thr tray and put the tablet in when prompted, the display stays on "empty trays" and the cleaning cycle does not start.
After I cleaned the tabs really well, I still had the same problem. So, I took the back off so I could get to the "switches" that close the feedback circuits for the "Trays Missing" and "Clean Trays" messages. Long story short, you DON'T need to take the back off. You can solve the problem if you remove the trays and carefully remove the right side metal tab. This will stop the false readings, at least it did for me. Save the tab if for some reason you need to it later.
To remove the right side tab, use something like an eye glass screwdriver or butter knife to pry it up and out of the two small holding tabs. Then rotate the metal tab up and away from the tray and it will fall right off. Pictures below. 
If you don't clean the contacts at the back of the tray it sometimes thinks the trays are still full. try giving the contacts a good scrub and put the trays back
Don't forget to clean the receiving contacts in the back bowels of the tray receptacle (not the tray itself but this is where the tray contacts connect) as well every once in a while. I had the same problem. Took a long swab with alcohol and reached back in there to clean them. Didn't work. Took small nail file, taped it to a skewer and "sanded" the contacts to get corrosion/dirt off. Haven't had a recurrence in over a year!
I also got tired of the whole "empty tray" concept and blocked the vertical portion of the tray contacts to about 90% of their height with silicon gel (which hardens as it dries). Now the water doesn't touch them until it really IS full!
Make sure the contacts at the end of the tray are clean - especially between the 2 contacts. Dirt / water accumulates between the contacts and the machine "thinks" that the tray is full.
Did you find a solution to this? Same thing happened to mine and even after emptying the tray it still says "empty trays"!
attached is a picture of the whole unit and also a detail of the split.
I did try to repair with super glue but it does not stick to this veryhard plastic
cost including postage about 17 gbp
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We switched it off, left it overnight and started the procedure again - it worked! Seems we did one thing out of step.
I have the same problem and the cause is not dirty contacts. I can clean the contacts 10 times and the machine still does not recover from a cleaning cycle. The machine simply gets gets stuck in a loop between "empty trays" and "trays missing" whenever a cleaning cycle is initiated or tries to complete.This is a design flaw and Bosch needs to admit it and take care of their customers.
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