Homekit automations not working ios15

I had same problem for nearly a week, HomeKit wasn’t working no lights or cameras were responding.

tried everything reset all lights, everything had latest updates.

the solution for me I unplugged my HomePods and waited until Apple TV 4K became the hub, which you can check through the home app settings, plugged HomePods back in, Apple TV remained the hub and now everything works.

hope this helps people

!WORKAROUND!

I created a new 'scene' in the home app, then used apple shortcuts to automate that scene. It works.

I tried everything and I'm beyond annoyed the built-in HomeKit automations just won't run. I started messing around with apple 'shortcuts' and it appears to be working pretty well.

Here's what I did:

1) Using iPhone HOME app

• go to the room with your devices (mine is favorites as everything is in there)
• hit the + sign in upper left corner
• select Add New Scene
• select Custom
• add a scene name and then select Add Accessories
• select the devices for this scene, then hit done
• on the next screen MAKE SURE you set the state of the devices (ie. on or off) by tapping on each added accessories
• hit done

2) Use the iPhone SHORTCUT app

• Open shortcut app and select Automation on bottom tab
• select the + in the upper right corner
• select Create Personal Automation
• select your trigger (I used Time of Day)
• set the time and hit next
• Select 'Add Action'
• in the 'search for apps' enter Home
• Then select 'Control my home'
• then select 'scenes and accessories
• the select your newly created SCENE
• then hit Next
• then hit DONE
• then hit NEXT
• then turn off the 'ask before running' button (make it NOT green)
• then hit done

While this probably isn't the most efficient shortcut, it's what I dd and for now, my outside lights are turning on and off automatically, which is my end goal. Hope it works for you

Is Apple TV your only HomeKit Hub? Others can be an iPad or HomePod.

Without having to completely Reset Apple TV, you can try resetting the AirPlay & HomeKit on it.

Try these steps:

On the Apple TV in settings - Users Accounts- your name - iCloud- sign out. 

Restart Apple TV - then sign back in after it restarts

Set up AirPlay & HomeKit again on the ATV - you will see a red badge alerting you to do this because you signed out.

In my setup two Apple TVs and three HomePod mini were working. With the update to iOS 15.2, audioOS 15.2 and tvOS 15 one day later automations has been stopped working at all!

In the meantime I did several tests and investigation the last two weeks (since I've raised upport requests @Apple as well). I found out, as long as at least one HomePod mini is part of the setup, the issue is replicable any time. Remove the HomePod mini and remain the Apple TV as HomeKit hub, any automation will work as expected (at least a day later/assume iCloud sync over this time).

My guess: HomePod mini have problems with Thread. If a HomePod mini takes the ownership as leader w/ or w/o being a connected as HomeKit hub (you can see this in the Home app), the problem begins. As stated, remove all HomePod mini from the setup, and the problems go away after a short while.

Whether a HomePod mini or Apple TV is acting in the Thread network can be checked with the EVE-app for iOS, for instance. Unfortunately, as we all know there is no other simple option to have a look into some logs or status of Homekit.

I'm going to wait whether Apple will fix the issues with audioOS 15.3. If not I quite consider to throw them out of my setup. The situation makes me really angry. Apple support has neither provided any satisfying answer to my two service requests I've raised in the meantime more solved the problem so far.

Had the same situation, finally figured it out.

Some background - I have an AppleTV HD 4th generation (not the 4k) which is set up as a hub in one location. Then at a completely different location with a different WiFi, I have a HomePod mini set up as a hub.

The first thing you have to realize is that "Home" in the HomeKit app literally means a home. Not a room in a home, but I'm talking in terms of, "I have a home in Los Angeles, and I have another home in New York". So when you are setting this thing up, if you are dealing with two different locations with two different WiFi, make a separate "Home" for each.

The problem - I could turn on or off a device using the HomeKit app, but the automations absolutely would not work.

To resolve the problem, I first made two "Homes", and then set up each device at the appropriate location using it's Wifi connection.

Next, and this is a key point - When you go to test these devices turn OFF the WiFi on your iPhone and use your carrier signal to connect to the internet. You are supposed to be able to control this from anywhere in the world. This thing operates differently when you are directly connected to the WiFi network than if you are off the network (away).

Once you do that, navigate to the HomeKit app, then check each "home" (or if you only have one, check that) and see if the devices are showing their status. Does it say "Off" or "On", or does it say, "No Response". If it says "No Response" then that hub is having issues. In my case, the location that had the HomePod mini were showing it's devices status correctly but the location with the AppleTV acting as a hub was getting "no response". By doing that, I was able to narrow down the issue to AppleTV.

On my AppleTV, I have it set to "Auto Update" the software. Except that it didn't. I did a manual AppleTV software update that was huge, it took 30 minutes to complete. Once I updated the AppleTV, everything started working properly. I think most of these issues are related to iPhone/iPad/AppleTV/HomePod being on different software versions. You update your iPhone but forget to update your AppleTV or HomePod, etc.

Again, on your iPhone make sure your wifi is off and you're using your phone company carrier signal to test your hubs with the HomeKit app. Once you can connect from outside of your home, your automations should all work.

WORKAROUND

While this works, it'd be best if Apple FIXED it.

I created a new 'scene' in the home app, then used apple shortcuts to automate that scene. It works.

I tried everything and I'm beyond annoyed the built-in HomeKit automations just won't run. I started messing around with apple 'shortcuts' and it appears to be working pretty well.

Here's what I did:

1) Using iPhone HOME app

• go to the room with your devices (mine is favorites as everything is in there)
• hit the + sign in upper left corner
• select Add New Scene
• select Custom
• add a scene name and then select Add Accessories
• select the devices for this scene, then hit done
• on the next screen MAKE SURE you set the state of the devices (ie. on or off) by tapping on each added accessories
• hit done

2) Use the iPhone SHORTCUT app

• Open shortcut app and select Automation on bottom tab
• select the + in the upper right corner
• select Create Personal Automation
• select your trigger (I used Time of Day)
• set the time and hit next
• Select 'Add Action'
• in the 'search for apps' enter Home
• Then select 'Control my home'
• then select 'scenes and accessories
• the select your newly created SCENE
• then hit Next
• then hit DONE
• then hit NEXT
• then turn off the 'ask before running' button (make it NOT green)
• then hit done

While this probably isn't the most efficient shortcut, it's what I dd and for now, my outside lights are turning on and off automatically, which is my end goal. Hope it works for you

Hey everyone!

i had same problem for a while. i have philips hue bridge and some lights and also 2 apple TV in the house. i tried all ways for fix it but i couldn't. deleted apple TVs and hue bridge, reseted the TVs and bridges and even iphone, ipad but didn't work:)

but today i opened home app on my mac just for organize my lights again and i tried to add automation and IT WORKED:) now i added a leaving home automation as turn off all lights when last person leaves and it seems will work.

i still can not add a automation on iphone but i can see my current otomation which created on Mac.

hope will work tomorrow and i will update my post again!

After much tearing of hair and rending of garments, for me it turned out the problem was that cellular data was turned OFF for the Home app in settings. Turned that on, and presto it works 👌 It would sure be nice if the app squawked about that when you set up a “when I/everyone leave/s” automation. Ymmv etc etc but hopefully that helps at least someone else!

After setting up an automation it worked once and then not again. My older automations were working so I really didn’t understand this. I tried everything before coming across this thread. As per Vancouver22’s recommendation I logged out of iCloud on my Apple TV (I missed the step to restart the Apple TV) logged in again and voila it works now.

Running Ecobee 3 Lite thermostats (3) and Hue lights (15+) throughout the house. I have 3 HomePods with latest updates, 3 ATVs of various vintages with latest updates, iPad (15.7), iPhone (16.0.2), MacPro (12.6). Homekit connections to lights drop daily, thermostats are more often absent than not. Tried setting up a new home, resetting all hubs, etc. What I just tried with 100% success so far is unplugging my LinkSys Velsop mesh network and allowing all devices to connect only to the main router. All "Updating..." and "No Response" status messages are gone. Going to leave satellite mesh units unplugged for now. With the short-sighted demise of Airport, I switched to LinkSys last year based on Apple Homekit compatibility (still appears on Apple store). Initially worked but started dropping accessories with successive Apples software updates. Aggravating that Apple has such disregard for Homekit customers.

Update: with iOS 15.4.1 and all HomePods and Apple tv’s updates, seems like automations with locate works again. Finally!

I think, I have at least solved one piece of the puzzle. Using automations with shortcuts now makes it necessary to generate individual scenes with only devices that are always available. Let me provide examples:

• Combination of light switch and bulbs (that only become available after the switch is on) -> and afterwards playing sounds on the HomePod fails miserably
• Only using the switches (i.e. no color in the lights) -> and then the HomePod playing sounds works successfully

This means: between iOS 14 and 15, there seems to be some new feature introduced with "waiting for feedback on the result" and "maximum runtime". Maybe it only got slower and now misses the thresholds.

Dear Apple: what about triggering everything at once and afterwards checking what worked and maybe even re-trying. Remember: the bulbs come online after the switch is set and it might take a few seconds until bridges like Hue see them.

This does still not explain, why sometimes nothing is working, when the HomePods are in control. But I have another guess there: they are just too slow for a 160 device home with plenty of automations. So another suggestion from a dumb customer. If I have Apple TVs and an iPad fixed on the wall, why the **** is a slow HomePod ever becoming active as a control unit? Why can I turn this off for iPad and Apple TV, but not the slow devices? It just doesn't make any sense.

i had the same problem with my hue bulbs, thanks to this answers I unplugged my HomePods and that was the solution, strange enough these days my hue app has been disconnected from HomeKit automatically two time, so hope that will fix it to with this.

SOLVED!

I've struggled with my automations (and HomeKit in general) for years. Tons of 'not responding' accessories or my automations work for sometime, then stop. I've tried changing hubs, rearranging their order, all the different settings, etc. Additionally, the same BS occurred even after I moved to a new house.

Reading a review of the HOME app replacements, I download Home+5 ($$) and everything has been working flawlessly for over a week now! I deleted the automations from the HOME App, then set them up in the Home+ 5 app and things worked right away.

It's possible it's something else, however, for me, it's well worth the additional money to just have things work as expected.

If the problem creep back in, I'll come back and update this post. 

Happy Automations to all.

Had no success with HomeKit, the software would not control my window blinds no matter what I tried. I read and attempted all of the suggestions on this thread without success. Purchased Home+5 and had automation working in 5 minutes! Big fan of Apple so I find this really disturbing that they cannot seem to fix this problem in their software.