HomeKit Home hub priority changes

[Rychiar]

Not sure if this is happening to anyone else but for the past month or more my home hub defaults to my Apple TVs only… for years I wanted this to happen, as I assumed wired Apple TVs would be more reliable than wifi HomePods… but turns out I was wrong, the Apple TVs make for terrible home hubs. My house often doesn’t know when I leave or arrive, or is very slow to react when I do and certain thread devices fall off network more than they ever would before. These things worked fine when the HomePods were the home hub. I have 2 Apple TVs and even if I restart both of them and it jumps to a HomePod briefly, it quickly winds up back on one of the Apple TVs.

 

[Itinj24]

Yes, I’ve been getting this phenomenon for quite a few months now. Maybe since iOS 17, can’t remember. It’s only two AppleTVs that it switches between though. However, my experience differs from yours. I always knew when a HomePod took over. Automations were either really slow or didn’t fire. A lot of accessories went offline. Laggy scenes, etc. AppleTVs are generally rock solid for me. For the record, all of my AppleTVs are new/newish 4Ks and are all hardwired.

If you can hold off for a couple more months… Not sure if you were made aware and this wasn’t mentioned at the KeyNote but Apple is letting us pick our primary hub with iOS 18.

 

[Rychiar]

Yes, I’ve been getting this phenomenon for quite a few months now. Maybe since iOS 17, can’t remember. It’s only two AppleTVs that it switches between though. However, my experience differs from yours. I always knew when a HomePod took over. Automations were either really slow or didn’t fire. A lot of accessories went offline. Laggy scenes, etc. AppleTVs are generally rock solid for me. For the record, all of my AppleTVs are new/newish 4Ks and are all hardwired.

If you can hold off for a couple more months… Not sure if you were made aware and this wasn’t mentioned at the KeyNote but Apple is letting us pick our primary hub with iOS 18.

some of my HomePods are like that but oddly my first HomePod mini is still the most solid. I was shocked my latest model high end Apple TV 4K that's hardwired such a mess. I think maybe the wireless signals can't get out where it is or something. I dunno. def looking forward to iOS 18!

 

[andyw715]

Since you have a HomePod, why not just disable the hub capability of the ATVs? The downside is that you lose the backup.

Until, as mentioned above, iOS 18 where a primary hub can be provisioned.

I only have ATVs and they have been great as hubs. Lotta variables tho

 

[Itinj24]

Since you have a HomePod, why not just disable the hub capability of the ATVs? The downside is that you lose the backup.

Until, as mentioned above, iOS 18 where a primary hub can be provisioned.

I only have ATVs and they have been great as hubs. Lotta variables tho

Apple removed the option to disable the ATV as a hub. Forget which TVOS it was. 15 or 16?

 

[dotme]

Apple removed the option to disable the ATV as a hub. Forget which TVOS it was. 15 or 16?

Yes, I think it was the new architecture that did that. I'm still running old architecture for now, so I can still turn off AppleTVs as hubs even on the latest TVOS but I imagine that's not the case for most folks. I have 4 AppleTVs, and they weren't great hubs and I never have figured out why. I have a big network, but it's flat and not complicated. My hard-wired AppleTVs would often fail to execute time of day automations, along with assorted other quirks. I'm all-HomePods for hubs these days and running smoothly.

 

[Itinj24]

Yes, I think it was the new architecture that did that. I'm still running old architecture for now, so I can still turn off AppleTVs as hubs even on the latest TVOS but I imagine that's not the case for most folks. I have 4 AppleTVs, and they weren't great hubs and I never have figured out why. I have a big network, but it's flat and not complicated. My hard-wired AppleTVs would often fail to execute time of day automations, along with assorted other quirks. I'm all-HomePods for hubs these days and running smoothly.

I switched from eero to UniFi a few months ago and my network has been much more stable since, more noticeably with the HomePods and AirPlay2 (Siri still has her quirks). I haven’t seen any of my HomePods as a hub in what seems like a couple years but I’m curious. I’m pretty stable now but not without the occasional hiccup. I’ll just wait till iOS 18 to check it out.