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Homekit invite fails and breaks the home entirely

I know there has been a LOT of discussion of HomeKit problems on the forums. However, I wanted to share a screenshot along with an explanation, and see if it triggers any new ideas.


I recently set up a home to include my Apple TVs, my one HomePod mini, and my Ecobee thermostat. Setup was all very simple and went just fine. However, everything after that didn't. Details that might help are to follow:


  1. I am using iCloud family sharing with myself, my wife, and a universal account for my kids iPads.
  2. I set up the home on my iPhone 12 on IOS 14.6 using my iCloud account.
  3. I then proceeded to invite my wife using her iCloud account that I chose from the "family" list within the "Invite People" list.
    1. The invite popped up immediately on my wife's iPad. However, what I clicked accept, that's where things went wrong. Here's what happens:


      1. On my iPhone, her icon immediately disappeared from the "People" list.
      2. On her iPad, the Home app hung for a long time on "Accepting Invitation".
      3. Then, on my iPhone I lost all admin privileges to the home. At the same time, her iPad simply said "There was an error accepting the invitation"
      4. The most important bit of this might be in the following screenshot though. After I lose all control of the home, this is what I see when I click on my icon in the "People" list. Notice the part below my name.... what on earth?! It seems like it is accidentally trying to transfer the entire home to my wife's iCloud account, rather than inviting her as a guest??


Has anyone ran into this before? Might this help an Apple engineer that looks at this have an idea of something to look for? The problem only happens between my wife's account and my own. I can add my kids universal account just fine.


Yes, before everyone asks, I have rebooted everything and signed out of iCloud and back in and done all of those usual things. I even had a call with Apple, but didn't have any luck getting very far.


[Image Edited by Moderator to Remove Personal Information]


Posted on Jul 1, 2021 3:31 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 2, 2021 2:36 PM

Hi rutman286,

We appreciate you reaching out to us about the Home app. Rest assured that we'll do our best to assist you or get you pointed in the right direction.

We understand that you are experiencing issues sharing the control to your home on your Home app.

Have you had the chance to try the steps under the "If you can't share control of a home" section in the article below?

Share control of your home

Please keep us posted.



Take care!

Similar questions

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 2, 2021 2:36 PM in response to rutman286

Hi rutman286,

We appreciate you reaching out to us about the Home app. Rest assured that we'll do our best to assist you or get you pointed in the right direction.

We understand that you are experiencing issues sharing the control to your home on your Home app.

Have you had the chance to try the steps under the "If you can't share control of a home" section in the article below?

Share control of your home

Please keep us posted.



Take care!

Homekit invite fails and breaks the home entirely

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