HomeKit How do you handle smart-home accessories software wise?

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

So I have a single Philips Hue gen. 2 bridge, several Hue lightstrips, bulbs, sensors, switches, and two Eve power controllers, and I am trying to get everything to work properly.

Back when I set it up, it wasn't Apple Home compatible, so it was pretty straight forward. But I have now moved to a new house, and am moving things around to new rooms/locations, and I am trying to really get everything to function properly, and for whatever reason I just can't get it to work. To me it makes sense to have everything work in Apple Home, since it will be easier to get a glance of everything. But changes I make in the Hue app doesn't seem to carry over to the Home app, and I now have different settings and names for accessories in the Hue and Home app, along with different rooms and zones. And at this point two of my sensors seem to active the things they should, but don't turn them off at the right time despite being set up in both, and the third one doesn't seem to work at all despite being triggered correctly. I am going nuts!

So how do you guys handle setup of everything, from a software POV? I will only get more smart things and when things are set up and work properly they don't need to be messed with, and some of the smart things are just so convenient to have in a busy life for me not to have them.

Thanks for any input!

 

[Itinj24]

I strictly use the Apple Home app when ever I could. This goes for automations, scenes, etc, since all different manufacturers work together under one roof. I mostly ignore the Hue app so I don’t care what it says in there with regards to rooms, zones, light bulb names, etc. I just use the Hue app for connecting a new Hue accessory and firmware updates. Also to export the occasional pre loaded Hue scene into the Home app. Once you start trying to use multiple apps, you can run into issues like contradicting automations and such.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

I strictly use the Apple Home app when ever I could. This goes for automations, scenes, etc, since all different manufacturers work together under one roof. I mostly ignore the Hue app so I don’t care what it says in there with regards to rooms, zones, light bulb names, etc. I just use the Hue app for connecting a new Hue accessory and firmware updates. Also to export the occasional pre loaded Hue scene into the Home app. Once you start trying to use multiple apps, you can run into issues like contradicting automations and such.

Thanks a lot. based on your advice, I ended up resetting both my Hue bridge, and my Home app, and set up everything from the Home app. Things appear to be working now, so That was great advice! My only lack is that sensor automation can't distinguish between week days and weekend days, but that is a minor annoyance.

 

[Itinj24]

Thanks a lot. based on your advice, I ended up resetting both my Hue bridge, and my Home app, and set up everything from the Home app. Things appear to be working now, so That was great advice! My only lack is that sensor automation can't distinguish between week days and weekend days, but that is a minor annoyance.

Yeah, unfortunately I don’t see an option to select days of the week using a sensor based automation. However, it looks like you can do it in the free Eve app. The Apple Home app and the Eve app go hand in hand so anything you add to one will port over to the other. It has a much more robust automation script. There are other paid apps too that can accomplish this such has the Home+ app and Controller for HomeKit. You can also try converting the automation to a Shortcut. That may or may not work. I haven’t tried yet.

Glad to hear everything else worked out for you.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Thanks for the suggestion of the Eve app, I will try that out, since I am already using it.

In general though, I do think the interface in the Home app is crazily convoluted, and could use some streamlining.