HomeKit hub problems – automations temporarily stop working

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Level 1

6 points

HomeKit hub problems – automations temporarily stop working

I have an Apple TV HD (tvOS 14.0.1) plus a stereo pair of HomePods (iOS 13.4.8) acting as HomeKit hubs. Most of the time, the Apple TV is the "connected" one.

Once or twice a day, at seemingly random times, all my automations stop working. When this happens, I can still set any of my scenes, including those used only for automations, by using the buttons in the Home app or by asking Siri. All of my accessories, including those bridged by HomeBridge, Hue, Aqara and Lutron, still work and are reported in the Home app. If I do nothing, the automations magically start working again after half an hour or so.

If I don't care to wait that long, I can reliably restore the automations simply by restarting the active hub. Apart from the failure of the automations, the hubs—both active and standby—all work perfectly during the outages. The automation issue was also present when the hubs were running previous versions of tvOS/iOS. Every time there is an update, I cross my fingers and hope that the automations will start working reliably; but so far my wish has not been granted.

Various solutions have been suggested for the problem, such as rebooting the router, rebooting accessories, or logging out of iCloud then back in. While I have enjoyed temporary relief from some of these, with hindsight I can't eliminate the possibility that the automations would have returned on their own even if I hadn't intervened. For me, rebooting the active hub always and immediately fixes the problem – until it inevitably recurs. The one common characteristic of all the remedies is that they assume local network access. At present, that is not a problem for me; but I agree with one user who raised the issue of how to recover from an automation flame-out that occurs when situated remotely.

Can anybody out there shed any more light on this extremely annoying problem? It is so easy to become reliant on automations that "just work", until they just don't.

Apple TV (4th generation)

Posted on Oct 12, 2020 12:03 AM

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Answer 1

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Oct 16, 2020 12:44 PM in response to derekbrumley

Hi derekbrumley,

We appreciate you reaching out to us about HomeKit. We understand that you are experiencing HomeKit issues at random times, and rebooting the HomeKit hub immediately fixes the issue. Otherwise, waiting for an hour or so will automatically resolve the issue.

Have you had the chance to set up your HomePod as a home hub? If yes, are you experiencing a similar issue if the HomePod is set as a home hub? These details can help us further isolate the issue.

This article can guide you on how to set up your HomePod as a home hub: Set up your HomePod, Apple TV, or iPad as a home hub

If the issue persists while your HomePod is set up as a home hub, we'd like you to review the "If your home hub isn't working as expected" section in that article we've provided.

It is also possible that the issue is caused by your Wi-Fi router or access point if the issue persists if you experience a similar issue with the HomePod set up as a home hub. We recommend reaching out to your router manufacturer or internet service provider for assistance.

If you are only experiencing the issue when using your Apple TV as a home hub, we recommend that you reach out to our Apple TV experts to find a resolution: Apple TV Support

Please keep us posted if you have additional questions. We are committed to making sure that you get the most out of your Apple devices, rest assured that we’ll do our best to assist you.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

i_rina

Community Specialist

Oct 18, 2020 1:55 PM in response to derekbrumley

derekbrumley,

We appreciate you teaming up with us. Based on the details you’ve provided and the steps you’ve performed, the next best step is to get in touch with our Phone Advisors.

We recommend that you reach out to a Phone Advisor in your country or region to further look into these issues. You can use this article to check the support hotline for your country or region: Contact Apple for support and service

Depending on your country or region, you may also be able to schedule a callback here: Get Support

Cheers!

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Answer 3

sterling r

Community Specialist

Oct 16, 2020 8:02 PM in response to derekbrumley

derekbrumley,

We appreciate you trying the steps that we recommended. Would you please tell us more about the automations you are experiencing issues with? Are these automations based on an accessory's action or who's home? Did you have it set to automate accessories at a certain time?

Also, have you had the chance to delete an automation, then set it up again? These details can help us further isolate the issue.

You can use this article as a guide and reference: Create home automations with the Home app

Take Care!

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Answer 4

derekbrumley Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 16, 2020 5:19 PM in response to Jeff_W.

As I mentioned in the OP, I do have a pair of HomePods that are also set up as hubs. They are almost always on standby, however, as HomeKit seems to prefer the Apple TV when assigning hub duties.

As part of my own attempt to troubleshoot the automations issue, I disabled the Apple TV from acting as a hub – this forced a HomePod to take over the hub duties. I found that the automations issue was still present but seemed to occur less frequently with one or other of the HomePods in play. I should stress, however, that it is difficult to make a definitive statement on the prevalence of the issue as a function of the hub in use, since the problem occurs so randomly.

When the automations stopped working with a HomePod as hub, rebooting the HomePod did immediately restore the automations.

I believe that I have eliminated the LAN as a contributor to the problem per my observations that all non-hub functions of the relevant Apple TV or HomePod are completely unaffected during the automations outages and that all LAN-connected HomeKit accessories can still be addressed and controlled by my iPhones and iPads even as all automations fail. In my Home, the Apple TV is connected by wired ethernet while the HomePods are respectively 1 ft and 6 ft from the nearest Wi-Fi access point (an AirPort Express connected to the LAN by wired ethernet).

I have re-checked all four bulleted points in the "If your home hub isn't working as expected" section of the article you cited and can confirm complete compliance.

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Answer 5

derekbrumley Author

Level 1

6 points

Oct 16, 2020 11:59 PM in response to sterling r

Most of my automations are triggered by motion sensors (a mix of Hue, Aqara and Eve) or smart switches (Hue and Aqara); but I do have one that triggers at a particular clock time, three that trigger around sunset or sunrise, plus a few that trigger when HomeBridge dummy switches change state. I also have one that triggers when someone comes home plus one that triggers when anyone comes home; but I can't test these last two at present because I don't plan to leave home until the vaccine arrives!

Most of the automations are conditional on the state of other motion sensors, whether someone is home, or the state of a bunch of HomeBridge dummy switches. (It's amazing what one can conjure up when confined to the home with nothing better to do than order stuff from Amazon!)

I haven't tried deleting then re-establishing any particular automation; but I'm adding new ones all the time and every single one—both old and new—is equally affected when the automations all simultaneously go AWOL then later "return to base".

The problem is so pervasive that I have now added smart outlets that enable me to power cycle any of the hubs by simply touching an icon on the Home app. It's much more convenient than groping under the furniture for power cords!

I sure wish that HomeKit generated user-readable logs...

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Answer 6

Nov 8, 2020 1:00 PM in response to i_rina

Hi

I am experiencing an issue similar to the one described.

I try to be as clear as possibile.

I have an iPad set as hub. I installed a motion sensor that triggers some automations to turn on some lights, depending on the daytime.

Here is the problem: everything works EVERYTIME that the iPad is “active” (the screen is not in sleep mode) or il the iPad is under charge.

when the iPad screen is turned off the automations do not work at the first attempt. It takes two o three attemps to make it working, like if I said “ehi iPad, wake up!”.

I checked every parameters that can influence the behavior of the automations (geolocalizing, timing, iCloud, ecc...).

the scenario thatI tried to described has not a solution.

any suggestions?

thanks a lot

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HomeKit hub problems – automations temporarily stop working

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