Siri - Unable to run Good Night scene…

For the last couple of days, virtual AI assistant Siri is unable to run one of the standard Apple scenes “Good Night”.


After making my very polite request, I even say please. The response from Siri is…”shortcuts says could not run control home an unknown error occurred”. Not even a Sorry!


I'm able to trigger the scene by selecting it via the Apple Home App, or Eve APP; but it will not trigger verbally via Siri by just saying... " Goodnight". The scene will trigger via Siri if I use the phrase… “Activate the Good Night scene”.


Today… Siri has changed (it’s) mind and the rather overly enthusiastic response to my polite request is… “That’s Done” or “OK”. Which is actually a deception on behalf of the AI, because in actual fact, nothings done - status quo remains. Again, the scene is triggered via Siri if I use the phrase… “Activate the Good Night scene”.


What’s occurred? How do I fix this? 


It's rather a mouthful to say “Activate the Good Night scene” when I'm stumbling into bed, or with a mouthful of toothpaste, or giving the wife a peck on the cheek.

HomePod

Posted on Feb 24, 2022 8:23 AM

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Posted on Mar 27, 2022 3:07 PM

It appears the issue is with using the default Goodnight scene that homkit provides. If you create a 'Goodnight X' scene where X is whatever name you want it to be, it will work with Siri. Clearly this is a new bug, and it seems to have appeared with 15.4

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21 replies

Apr 11, 2022 1:10 AM in response to mariotheplumber

Sorry, bad English.


I just changed the name of the scene to the correct one in the, to Siri, spoken language (what I'm actually saying in English)

God Natt --> Good Night (Swedish preset phrase/name to the English equivalent)


There is no Swedish Siri on HomePod yet.

Apple TV forces me to use Swedish Siri. (The Swedish phrases still work here even thou I changed the names to English as with HomePod before)

On my phone I can choose the language.


Been lucky so far that she new with scene no matter the name. The change worked for all my other scenes swell.

Apr 17, 2022 12:47 AM in response to Fred Gioia

So finally had opportunity to look at this again… good news. GoodNight is back. I had to delete / re-add all devices back into the scene, then it worked.


An aside… Siri has taken to turning on one group of lights at reduced brightness (but only during “daylight” hours). Never had Adaptive Lighting switched on, so not sure what going on here, but as it’s only during daylight that the error occurs, sounds related.


Thanks again for the assistance.

Mar 24, 2022 6:08 AM in response to Fred Gioia

Try the phrase..."Run the Goodnight Scene".


Yes, the majority of scenes work, however there are a large number that don't AND what's irritating is they differ across devices, despite all devices having latest update.


It's definitely since iOS 15 and 15.4 just made matters much worse for me. Siri no longer plays nicely with HomePod & HomePod Mini's.


Few examples:


# Request..."Transfer / Resume music in room X" - just brings about total chaos, with varying responses. Which is hilarious, because when it does succeed, Siri comes back all super enthusiastic..."I successfully resumed playback in the room x". I almost wet myself the first time.


# Request…”Desk Light” - now Siri replies...“Which room?”. There’s always been just 1 desk light


# Request…”Kitchen Lights” - Siri's response now is…”I’ve set the lights to xx%” 


# Request…”Kitchen” - Siri's response is…”It’s dark in the kitchen”. No it isn’t, I have just turned the lights on (because Siri wouldn't do it) and its the middle of the day with bright blue sky outside


# No longer able to execute… “skip track” on HomePod in one room, but can on HomePod Mini in other room


# No longer able to execute…”Don’t play this track again” on HomePod in one room, but can on HomePod Mini in other room


# Goodnight scene - Now Siri just replies something like... “Nighty Night” or “Goodnight”


Many other requests return… “Ummh that’s taking too long” / “Somethings gone wrong”


I've found that rephrasing some requests will sometimes work, however by the time I've been through half a dozen options, I've generally lost interest.


Par for the course, I now have an AI who ignores me alongside my better half. :-)


Hopefully the next update will improve matters, otherwise it's time to make this AI redundant.


Apr 10, 2022 2:26 AM in response to ilega

Lucky you. Hopefully nothing changes and it stays fixed. Be nice to your AI and remember your please and thankyous. :-)


Still the same response for me …”GoodNight“ or the irritating “Nighty Night”.


To be honest the whole Siri experience is really fast becoming more and more disappointing and frustrating, each update seems to introduce another ‘bug’ or in real language… screwup.


Yesterday Siri on HomePod Mini decided it was no longer able to find any of my Apple Music playlists - Why?… because I had signed out on my Mac. Which should have zero effect and indeed has quite happily worked for ages without being signed in on the Mac.


I followed Fred Gioio’s advice and created an alternatively named GoodNight scene - works consistently.


Good luck with your other routines.

Mar 25, 2022 8:12 AM in response to Fred Gioia

Network definitely sounds like it shouldn't be an issue. But surely that would only manifest as slow/failed response rather than the reactions experienced anyway.


Brown noise track is definitely weird, not heard/come across that before. Haven't played with them, but aren't background noises part of Accessibility settings? Didn't think they worked with Siri though, so strange.


HomePod OG now also refuses to run Goodnight scene however it's phrased and just replies "Nighty, Night". However, one pair of HPMini's will run the scene when phrased as previously discussed. What gives?!


I have reset all my home data previously and as you say, it's a pain. I did look briefly at one iOS App (Controller for HomeKit) which I think creates a Backup, but not sure what kind and how good it is as a Restore point. I'll take a look when I get some time.


Actually I don't have that many HomeKit scenes configured, so maybe I'll reset again if the next update doesn't resolve some issues, especially if the App proves to be useful. I had thought of deleting Siri history on all devices, but not sure what the result would be.


Just seeing the funny side everytime there's a non compliance, although patience is wearing thin.


Best of luck.


Apr 9, 2022 4:12 PM in response to mariotheplumber

I’m running into the same issue where a simple “hey Siri, goodnight” only wishes me a good night, instead of setting the scene. Same for “hey Siri, I’m home” or “I’m leaving”.


Moreover, other automations seem to have stopped working as well. Leaving my home no longer triggers the “leave home” scene. Recreating the automation didn’t help. I’m afraid another full reset is the only option left…


Does Apple know that you have to test software before release?

Mar 24, 2022 10:31 AM in response to mariotheplumber

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately “run the goodnight scene” still has Siri respond ‘good night’ but no scene is run. I have deleted the scene and recreated it to no avail. I have also tried renaming it and it still doesn’t work. Very strange. 


Another issue is that i have the HomePods play a brown noise track from Apple Music on the “goodnight’ scene. For some reason the track will intermittently pause and restart. I am skeptical that my network the issue, as I have a UDM Pro SE and a LR 6 for Wi-Fi. The unifi apps display 97% signal to the HomePods. This also started to occur on all the HomePods in the house after 15.4.


I really would hate to reset all of my home data (I have done it before and its a big pain). I am not sure what the issues is. It is time to make AI redundant! 

Mar 28, 2022 3:31 AM in response to Fred Gioia

Thanks for the tip. Just don't try "Goodnight Siri or Goodnight AI"


Questions are: 1) Will the "bug" disappear with the next update, or do we have to live with it? 2) What about all the other bugs?


Personally the term "bug" annoys me. Mistake or error in design or source code, generally picked up and mitigated through "adequate debugging or acceptance testing". Ahem! Nah, let's have another Emoji instead.


Thanks again for the tip.




Apr 11, 2022 12:29 AM in response to Fred Gioia

All updated and still broken, with same irritating response… “Nighty night”.


Yesterday, also had another freaky Siri “bug” on OG HomePod. Created another discussion.


Never once had a good old fashioned light switch or plug refuse to cooperate, thinking about it candles also had a high reliability factor - back to the 19th century for me. :-)

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Siri - Unable to run Good Night scene…

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