HomeKit iOS 14.2 Breaks HomeKit

[ThatTechGuy]

Ever since updating to 14.2 HomeKit has been broken in my smart home. I have about 60+ HomeKit accessories and for a few days I couldn't control them in the Home app. I signed out of iCloud, did some hard resets, and then somehow manual control through the Home App returned. However, another issue I still have is with automations. I have about a dozen automations setup: some based on time of day, geolocation, and/or sensors around the house. None of them work.

For example, I have a Hue motion sensor in my office and an automation setup to turn on the lights when motion is detected from sunset to sunrise. Right now, I can see that the sensor is detecting motion, but the automation does not activate.

Any ideas? I've contacted Apple and they get back to me about once a week with some new tasks from the engineers to try out, but nothing has worked so far.

 

[Five_Oh]

What do you have for a hub? Does it show connected?

 

[ThatTechGuy]

What do you have for a hub? Does it show connected?

I have two Apple TV 4K’s connected as hubs. One is connected and one is in standby. Some more info:

- All devices in my home are running the most current software.
- I originally updated my iPhone to 14.2, noticed the issues, but my wife’s phone on 14.1 was still able to control all of our devices. I then updated hers to 14.2 and she started to experience the same thing as me
- I have signed out of iCloud on both Apple TV’s and signed back in. This didn’t fix anything.
- I also have Philips Hue and Lutron Caseta hubs which are both up to date.

 

[malcky77]

@ThatTechGuy In my house, every single light bulb, several motion sensors and many many light strips are ALL by Philips hue.....and every IOS in my house is also running 14.2 and I don't have any issues controlling any of the lights in my house....locally or remotely.

So I am not sure what is causing your issues with 14.2?

 

[ThatTechGuy]

@ThatTechGuy In my house, every single light bulb, several motion sensors and many many light strips are ALL by Philips hue.....and every IOS in my house is also running 14.2 and I don't have any issues controlling any of the lights in my house....locally or remotely.

So I am not sure what is causing your issues with 14.2?

I can now control the devices manually through the Home app, but none of my automations work and Siri cannot control any devices. She only works with Scenes.

 

[malcky77]

Wow that is bonkers...I wouldn’t even know where to start with that issue.

I never mentioned it, but Siri works for me inside the house and outside the house too...and the automations seem to work as well, although mines are really simple ones.

 

[ThatTechGuy]

Wow that is bonkers...I wouldn’t even know where to start with that issue.

I never mentioned it, but Siri works for me inside the house and outside the house too...and the automations seem to work as well, although mines are really simple ones.

Yeah not sure what to do other than erase my entire Home and start from scratch. But with so many accessories, that would be a ton of work to set back up, and with no guarantee that it would fix the issue I don’t want to go that route.

 

[Alfie]

Ever since updating to 14.2 HomeKit has been broken in my smart home. I have about 60+ HomeKit accessories and for a few days I couldn't control them in the Home app. I signed out of iCloud, did some hard resets, and then somehow manual control through the Home App returned. However, another issue I still have is with automations. I have about a dozen automations setup: some based on time of day, geolocation, and/or sensors around the house. None of them work.

For example, I have a Hue motion sensor in my office and an automation setup to turn on the lights when motion is detected from sunset to sunrise. Right now, I can see that the sensor is detecting motion, but the automation does not activate.

Any ideas? I've contacted Apple and they get back to me about once a week with some new tasks from the engineers to try out, but nothing has worked so far.

I have the same thing happening in my home. I have Apple TV’s, HomePods and even some new HomePod minis that can serve as hubs. I have tried everything you have tried and even went as far as removing all the devices from the home and started over. Nothing has helped.

The hubs just are not talking to the smart devices. As you said, I can run everything through the Home app on my phone and it works fine. I can even use Siri on my phone to run devices and that works. If you ask a Homepod to do the same command, it fails. However, if you use the Hompods to do things like make a phone call or add items to a reminders list, that works. So the homepod is communicating with iCloud in some ways, but not in regard to smart home.

I also get notifications all the time that my cameras are dropping offline and coming online. I don’t think they are most of the time...they are just losing touch with Homekit. Again, communication with the hub and iCloud seem to be failing. I rebooted my entire network and everything other than Homekit is running fine, so I don’t think it’s my network.

At this point, all I can do is wait for 14.3 and hope that there are some bug fixes....

 

[ThatTechGuy]

I have the same thing happening in my home. I have Apple TV’s, HomePods and even some new HomePod minis that can serve as hubs. I have tried everything you have tried and even went as far as removing all the devices from the home and started over. Nothing has helped.

The hubs just are not talking to the smart devices. As you said, I can run everything through the Home app on my phone and it works fine. I can even use Siri on my phone to run devices and that works. If you ask a Homepod to do the same command, it fails. However, if you use the Hompods to do things like make a phone call or add items to a reminders list, that works. So the homepod is communicating with iCloud in some ways, but not in regard to smart home.

I also get notifications all the time that my cameras are dropping offline and coming online. I don’t think they are most of the time...they are just losing touch with Homekit. Again, communication with the hub and iCloud seem to be failing. I rebooted my entire network and everything other than Homekit is running fine, so I don’t think it’s my network.

At this point, all I can do is wait for 14.3 and hope that there are some bug fixes....

Sorry to hear you’re in the same boat but I’m glad I’m not alone!

I should mention I’ve also reset my home network as well and that has not resolved anything.

I’m glad I haven’t erased my home and started from scratch as you have because it sounds like that didn’t fix it for you.

I’m in the same boat—just waiting for the next update! Hopefully it fixes whatever is going on behind the scenes.

 

[Alfie]

Yes, I’m glad you posted your issues so I know that it’s not just me. I haven‘t seen any other recent Homekit issues like this reported online, so I was beginning to think I was crazy.

 

[ThatTechGuy]

Yes, I’m glad you posted your issues so I know that it’s not just me. I haven‘t seen any other recent Homekit issues like this reported online, so I was beginning to think I was crazy.

The only thing I’ve seen is someone having similar issues with the beta version of 14.2. Sounds like Apple didn’t fix it for the General release!

I’ve been working with a “senior level” tech at Apple who is working with the engineering team. I get weekly calls with new things to try. I’m not hopeful they will fix it through these calls. I don’t know what makes these guys “senior level” techs. This guy didn’t even sound like he knew what HomeKit was when I called and he continues to call the automations “animations”. Ill update this post as I continue to work with him.

Anyway, looking forward to installing the next update to see if it fixes it.

 

[ThatTechGuy]

Yes, I’m glad you posted your issues so I know that it’s not just me. I haven‘t seen any other recent Homekit issues like this reported online, so I was beginning to think I was crazy.

Okay I don’t want to jinx anything, but I just went on to my family room Apple TV and toggled the Home Hub setting from Connected to Disconnected and then back to Connected. I then tried one of my “test” automations by setting the christmas tree to turn off at 4:42pm (one minute from then). To my amazement it worked. By chance, sunset was 3 minutes later and that automation also worked, turning on my exterior lights.

I don’t know why toggling that one more time has seemed to do the trick, but you should try it out!

 

[ThatTechGuy]

Okay I don’t want to jinx anything, but I just went on to my family room Apple TV and toggled the Home Hub setting from Connected to Disconnected and then back to Connected. I then tried one of my “test” automations by setting the christmas tree to turn off at 4:42pm (one minute from then). To my amazement it worked. By chance, sunset was 3 minutes later and that automation also worked, turning on my exterior lights.

I don’t know why toggling that one more time has seemed to do the trick, but you should try it out!

I just walked into the garage and then into my office and both automations worked there. I have Hue sensors setup to turn the lights and/or fan on and they both turned on.

I didn’t have to toggle anything directly with the automations. The only thing I toggled was the Home hub setting on the Apple TV.

 

[slipper]

I noticed problems yesterday and today, but i'm not sure when iOS was updated to 14.2. My Yale/August lock is not auto-locking, and i discovered that twice in the last two days. Not sure if it's associated with this update, but that's kinda scary knowing i left everything open.

 

[Alfie]

Okay I don’t want to jinx anything, but I just went on to my family room Apple TV and toggled the Home Hub setting from Connected to Disconnected and then back to Connected. I then tried one of my “test” automations by setting the christmas tree to turn off at 4:42pm (one minute from then). To my amazement it worked. By chance, sunset was 3 minutes later and that automation also worked, turning on my exterior lights.

I don’t know why toggling that one more time has seemed to do the trick, but you should try it out!

Glad things are working better for you now. Hope it holds up. I’ve tried several combinations of enabling/disabling hubs and can’t get anything to work. Now I’ve even lost the ability to manually control things from my phone. The only device that I can control things from is my iPad. Soon, I may have to resort to actually using a light switch like an animal! ?. I even tried updating my Apple TV’s to the beta for tvOS 14.3. No help there either.

 

[JonL77]

Hi. I’d just like to chime in and say I’m having similar issues. First it appeared the home app wasn’t recognising my Apple ID (even though I only have one). Same with my HomePod - Apple ID not recognised. I ended up removing my home and signing out completely. Rebooted phone, signed back in and added everything back. 17 hue bulbs, 5 hue motion sensors, 2 outlets, 2 cameras, Apple TV 4K and a HomePod. Things worked great for two days then all of a sudden every single device became unresponsive... EXCEPT the HomePod which continued to work fine. So confused. I’m sure I’m clutching at straws here but I did notice that the active hub had switched to the HomePod from the Apple TV. I also logged into my MacBook for the first time since setting up HomeKit ?‍♂️. Another thing I’m wondering.. I have an Orbi mesh Wi-Fi setup (router + satellite) could this be a cause? What do you guys have?

 

[malcky77]

@JonL77 I personally have Ubiquiti Unifi router, switches & access points in my house...with separate SSID's for the 5Ghz & 2.4Ghz wifi.

I personally have never had any issues with my HomeKit set up.....although it is only Philips Hue (about 60+ items) and Tado heating system that is in my house.

Edit: The only time I have had an issue was when I tried to access the home app on my phone when I was out in the sticks and had a really really crap phone network signal....and think it failed to connect correctly to my active home hub, which then put the home hub into a disconnected state and I could not do anything until that hub was re-booted....(the native Philips Hue & Tado app were still able to be used though).

 

[JonL77]

I use Netgear Orbi and from what I can see, it only allows for one SSID used for both. Whether this could potentially cause problems I have no idea. I do wonder though if what might cause problems is when a device switches from the router to a satellite.. ?‍♂️ I’m not technical so that’s just me clutching at straws again. But it is getting to the point that I don’t trust HomeKit or find it reliable. There’s no rhyme or reason why it would just lose connection to all devices at once.. unless it IS the mesh network...

 

[Alfie]

I have a Netgear Orbi system as well. I guess it's possible that 14.2 is somehow not liking that mesh system, but since others not using Orbi are having similar issues, I don't think that's it. Also, when I use Siri from my phone to run the lights or scenes in the house, I get immediate response....and the phone is on that same wifi.

I really feel like 14.2 broke something in the hubs' (homepod, Apple TV) communication with smart home devices. As I've said, I can still use them to check weather, add reminders, play music, etc. It's just that smart home hub functionality that doesn't work from the homepods specifically.

The frustrating part is that I live in a family of non-techie people and I was just starting to see them trust Homekit to do things. Turn lights on/off, set scenes, ask for music from Siri, etc. After weeks of this, I'm afraid I'm going to be back at square one with all that. I hope 14.3 comes soon and fixes these things.

 

[Five_Oh]

Good to hear the OP's situation appears to be resolved at least. Feel for the others that are still dealing with it. It is VERY frustrating, especially for other members of the family.

I had a similar issue about a month ago that was apparently hub related. In my case, I inadvertently cut power to the 4K ATV that had been acting as a hub. This switched hub duties to a HomePod (according to the home app), where they remained even after power to the ATV was restored.

Every device worked...but only locally. No remote access, and no automations were functioning. I fiddled with unplugging the HomePod, and rebooting my ATVs and HomePods in succession a bunch of times, with no effect. With the HomePod unplugged, the ATVs would not "take over" and still showed "standby" while the HomePod showed "disconnected". I toggled hub settings for each of the ATVs. Nothing. I even reset the HomePod and removed it from my iCloud account.

I finally gave up, deleted the Home and started over, which was a major pain. At least everything has been functioning perfectly since. I'm still a little nervous for the next time I turn off or lose power to the ATV.

So, which device do you think became the hub, the ethernet wired 4K ATV with a gigabit connection? Or perhaps the centrally located HomePod? Nope, it's now a wifi connected 4th gen ATV located in a far corner bedroom.

Who knows how they pick ?‍♂️

 

[JonL77]

I have a Netgear Orbi system as well. I guess it's possible that 14.2 is somehow not liking that mesh system, but since others not using Orbi are having similar issues, I don't think that's it. Also, when I use Siri from my phone to run the lights or scenes in the house, I get immediate response....and the phone is on that same wifi.

I really feel like 14.2 broke something in the hubs' (homepod, Apple TV) communication with smart home devices. As I've said, I can still use them to check weather, add reminders, play music, etc. It's just that smart home hub functionality that doesn't work from the homepods specifically.

I’ve had that problem too. Where HomePod ‘isn’t hearing back from devices’ and yet my phone has instant control. Right now everything is setup again and working great ?. At this point however, I fully expect it to crash and burn again in the next couple of days. So much for ‘the apple experience’ ?

 

[JonL77]

Just adding something I mentioned earlier.. before the last ‘crash’ I had my HomePod and Apple TV 4K as hubs. I noticed that the ATV was the active hub and HomePod was on standby. Apple TV was wired to the main orbi router and I believe the HomePod was connected to the satellite. What if the hubs switched causing it to crash? The HomePod was working fine but all accessories were unresponsive. Any merit to this perhaps?

The straw clutcher

 

[malcky77]

@ThatTechGuy Seems like when you toggled the disconnect/connect option that is has forced a re-sync of HomeKit/iCloud or something just to have everything back in sync for you......I take it everything is still working okay for you after a couple of days doing that toggle?

 

[Alfie]

Just adding something I mentioned earlier.. before the last ‘crash’ I had my HomePod and Apple TV 4K as hubs. I noticed that the ATV was the active hub and HomePod was on standby. Apple TV was wired to the main orbi router and I believe the HomePod was connected to the satellite. What if the hubs switched causing it to crash? The HomePod was working fine but all accessories were unresponsive. Any merit to this perhaps?

The straw clutcher

I agree that hub switching can have an effect. Right now, I feel my Apple TV’s are working better as hubs than if a Homepod has taken over. Maybe its all in my head.

In my house, my devices have settled on one of my Apple TV’s as the hub for the moment. The Apple TV is running the beta for 14.3. Things are relatively stable with most of my devices staying connected to the system. I‘m also getting hit and miss success with asking the Homepods to do things like turn on lights. One homepod will work correctly, so I’ll get excited and run to the next room and ask a different Homepod and it fails. Then I go back to the first one and it fails too. Totally sporadic. At least with the 14.3 beta device as the hub, my devices are staying connected to the home...that’s better than what I had before.

 

[Alfie]

Did anyone get any benefit from 14.2.1? I was excited last night after updating everything when Homepods started completing smart home commands....By this morning, I'm back to where I was. Homepods fail about 90% of the time to turn on lights, run scenes, etc. The Homepods also fail miserably when acting as the Homekit hub. Devices connecting and disconnecting all over the place. Eventually I can get the Apple TV to take over and then my devices stay connected for the most part....but the Homepods still won't complete any commands. Totally frustrated.