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Homekit automation rules

Is there a way to turn off automated lights more than 60 minutes later? I would like to turn on a porch light at sunset, and have it go off at 11:00 pm or sunrise.

Posted on Mar 31, 2019 11:23 AM

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Posted on Apr 1, 2019 2:17 PM

When creating automations that activate relative to sunrise/sunset, 60 minutes is the max.


Best practice would be to create one automation to turn your porch light ON at sunset, and another separate automation to turn the porch light OFF at sunrise, or 11:00pm, whichever one you decide.


If unfamiliar with creating automations, I wrote the steps out quick: 


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250268476


Hope that helps.

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Question marked as Best reply

Apr 1, 2019 2:17 PM in response to Allen Beebe

When creating automations that activate relative to sunrise/sunset, 60 minutes is the max.


Best practice would be to create one automation to turn your porch light ON at sunset, and another separate automation to turn the porch light OFF at sunrise, or 11:00pm, whichever one you decide.


If unfamiliar with creating automations, I wrote the steps out quick: 


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250268476


Hope that helps.

Apr 1, 2019 3:24 AM in response to Vancouver22

I had already read the apple documentation and found it to not be helpful on what should be a simple, straightforward task.


However, I think I finally figured it out by playing with the rules on my Mac instead of on iOS. The answer appears to be that you need to create a whole separate rule to turn off things at a specific time.


This is excrutiatingly un-intuitive for Apple for two reasons: the pick list that allows you to turn something off up to 60 minutes later in the 'turn on' rule misleads you into thinking that is the only place to do it, and second, the action to turn something off is obscure at best.

Homekit automation rules

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