HomeKit Home Widget not controlling door on second home

[sparky672]

• iPhone 15 Pro - iOS 17.2.1 (mine)
• Apple TV 4K 64 GB (latest) - tvOS 17.2 (parents' house)
• Meross MSG100 door opener - firmware 4.2.12 (parents' house)

I have my own Home app setup for my house with my own iCloud account. I have Homescreen Home widgets setup and clicking on them activates scenes and devices. I use Meross smart switches and garage door openers. I use an Apple TV 4K (2nd gen) as my hub. All works good.

For my parents' house, 25 miles away, where I do not live, I also setup the Home app on my mom's iPhone, using her own iCloud account, with a Meross smart switch and a garage door opener. They use an Apple TV 4K (64 GB, 3rd gen) as their hub. Similar setup as mine and all works good there too.

I then had my mom invite me as a user to her Home and I accepted. In the Home app, I can switch from my house to their house, and everything works perfectly while using the Home app from my iPhone. It shows me as a "Resident" of their house who can "Control Accessories Remotely".

Since switching between houses in the Home app is a cumbersome process especially when I simply want to open/close their garage door from my car, I setup a Homescreen Home Widget on my iPhone. When choosing accessories for the Widget, I set "WidgetHomePicker" to my parents' house. I then added their garage door opener and light switch to my iPhone.

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Here's the odd part: When I am not on the parents' Wifi, I cannot open/close the garage door via the Widget. It turns white after I tap it and nothing happens - the door does not move. It's not a Hub or network issue, since it works flawlessly via the Home app; and the Widget always updates immediately to show the correct open/close status of the door. It's just a p.i.t.a. to open the Home app, switch the Home, find and tap the tile... would rather just tap a Homescreen Widget icon. The light switch works using the same Widget... just not the door opener. BTW - all my other Home Widgets, which are connected to my primary residence have never had this issue.

EDIT: I set up my Home app to automatically switch the house based on location, but don't know if I want this, since I assume it will stay on last used location when I'm away from both houses. I prefer to keep Home app on my primary house at all times and control secondary house via the Widget.

I have deleted and recreated the Widget several times with the same end result. I have not had a chance to play around with it; like controlling a Scene via Widget as a workaround.

Any ideas or is this just another weird Apple HomeKit issue?

 

[waw74]

don't have a lot of experience with garage doors and HomeKit, so a lot of this is an educated guess.

garage door might be a "security device". Door locks and home alarms have some limitations, not sure if the same applies to garage doors. You can't unlock the door with Siri if your phone is locked. Don't know how those are handled with shared homes.

You may be able to do it with a location triggered shortcut, but that would open the door every time you drove up to their house. You'd have to try it out to see if it would work. And also not sure if it always opening is acceptable to you.

another option would be a "dummy device" that triggers a shortcut when it turns on, you could either do a virtual one using home bridge (probably less desirable option as you would need hardware at their house) Or you could just get a smart outlet and not plug anything into it. Then make a shortcut that opens the door when that "light" turns on.
You could use the garage light shown in your pic, but every time that light came on the door would open.
You should be able to add an "only when sparky is home" condition to it so it won't happen if you're not there.

you could also just make a basic shortcut, call it "open parent's garage door" then just "hey Siri, open parents garage door" and not worry about having it be automatically trigger. you may have to use a dummy device for this also.

the dummy device gets around the security device limitations, since you're not controlling the security device directly, the shortcut is.

 

[sparky672]

Thank you for responding.

garage door might be a "security device". Door locks and home alarms have some limitations, not sure if the same applies to garage doors. You can't unlock the door with Siri if your phone is locked. Don't know how those are handled with shared homes.

I was wondering the same. I have no problem unlocking my Schlage deadbolt from a Widget without any workarounds... so what if others lived in my house and I shared my home with them? They can unlock with the Home app, but not allowed to use a Widget? (Need some further confirmation on this I guess)

If that's the case, then why is the accessory allowed to be added to the Widget in the first place? Why turn white and do nothing when it's clicked? Shouldn't there be a security warning or some better GUI? I have been properly authorized to fully control this device... so what's the "security" issue being created by a Widget that's not also a security issue when using the Home app?

You may be able to do it with a location triggered shortcut, but that would open the door every time you drove up to their house.

Not doing that. In my experience the geofence/location triggered automations have been very slow and unreliable.

another option would be a "dummy device" that triggers a shortcut when it turns on...

I am familiar with this security workaround and never felt the need for it. I simply unlock my iPhone and don't use the geofence/location options.

you could also just make a basic shortcut, call it "open parent's garage door" then just "hey Siri, open parents garage door" and not worry about having it be automatically trigger. you may have to use a dummy device for this also.

Next time I am there, I was thinking about creating a Scene for opening the door to see if controlling the Scene via a Widget behaved the same way. I have no issues controlling devices/locks at my own house directly with Widgets or via Scenes with Widgets.

I guess for now "security reasons" is the assumption, but so many questions about this weird behavior if that's really the case.

 

[sparky672]

This just keeps getting stupider and goofier.

Yesterday, when I was at a restaurant miles away from both houses, I noticed a "choose scene or accessory" message on the Widgets associated with my primary house...

These Widgets never exhibited this behavior before. So then I looked at the Widget for my parents' house and it looked normal. I went into the Home app and saw that my Parents' house was selected. When I switched back to my own house, my Widgets returned back to normal. I was then expecting the Widget for my parents' to show the "choose scene or accessory" message, but it did not. I decided to delete and recreate the Widget for my Parents, and then it showed the "choose scene or accessory" message.

Aha... when toggling between the two houses in Home app, the Widgets for the other house are disabled and show the message. Not ideal for my purposes, but at least a more consistent and logical GUI experience.

HOWEVER, once I returned back to my parents' house, this behavior ceased, never to be seen again. It does not matter if I am at either house or some other location, toggling the house within the Home app now has no effect on the Widget appearance. They look the same as always now. I am on latest iOS, no software updates, so seeing this once and never seeing it again is not explainable.

I have also proven that the behavior I am reporting in my OP, also affects my house's Widgets when my parents' house is selected in the Home app. When my parents' house is selected in Home app, my garage door widget is not functional.

To add to the confusion, when on my parents' wifi, it does not really matter which house is selected in the Home app, the Widget seems to work.

FWIW: With multiple houses, always use the Home app; Widgets are way too unpredictable.

CONCLUSION: It appears that in order for Widgets to work reliably, their corresponding house needs to first be selected from within the Home app. What a pain in the a. At that point, if I'm forced into the Home app, this completely negates any convenience of a Widget.

Now, if only the Home app could automatically switch the house based on location...

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As far as the setting for automatically selecting/switching houses based on location:

1. The automatic "Home Switching" does NOT work. I have it enabled and it basically does nothing. I return home and my parents' house remains selected. (I arrive at my parents, and my default house remains selected. Complete garbage.)
2. When you're at neither house, it would be nice for Widgets to work without having to go into the Home app first to re-select the house. (I don't even know why this needs to happen, since there should be no confusion internally; the devices and accessories are completely unique and remotely controlled by their own Home hub.)

Go to Home Settings under the three dots...

Then on the next screen, tap on "< Homes" in the upper-left to enter another screen that is literally hiding under your nose. Seriously... took me forever to find this and it's right there the whole time disguised like a "go back" button.

Then toggle the "Home Switching" feature, which I have yet to see do anything at all, ever.

 

[sparky672]

After working with this for a couple weeks, the limitations of HomeKit and Home widgets have become more apparent.

Yes, I do believe this is considered a security device like a lock, so the Home widget is apparently inoperable (without reliable visual indication) when you're not at the location and/or Home app is not set to the correct Home/House. Although automations simply need your phone to be unlocked... widgets need you to be in the correct house in the Home app. (I believe the widget for my own door locks/openers are working the same way, but I almost never use them.)

I have set Home app to automatically switch houses based on location. This behaves somewhat oddly. When the option is set, it ignores whatever house you select and always defaults back to the last house you were at. It also takes sitting in the driveway for a little while before it switches over to the new house location. If you happen to be inside the Home app, it stays on whatever house until you leave the app and come back into it... it's "sticky", but not in a good way. If I am at "neither" location, then it should simply allow me to select whatever house I choose... not stick and show the location icon at the last one, even when I am miles away.

Ideally, I think Apple has overcomplicated this. If Home widgets simply functioned no matter where you are located, none of this house switching or location tracking would be needed. I know... security; but this is normally overcome simply by unlocking your screen. For Home widgets, you need the extra step of making sure the house is selected from the Home app, rendering widgets pointless enough to negate their convenience.