Homekit Automations are broken in iOS 16

Same here. On 16.0 (20A362) and my automations are broken. I:

• restarted my phone
• restarted my hubs
• restarted the Philips Hue hub
• disabled and re-enabled existing automations
• deleted and recreated some automations

Nothing has resolved the issue. I too will need to setup these automations in the 3rd-party branded hub the accessories are connected to until they fix this.

I too suffered from my automations no longer working after upgrading my AppleTV's (4K and HD) to TV OS 16. After about 5 days of troubleshooting I cannot say what specifically is wrong but I can provide what seems to be a consistent way to create HomeKit automations that consistently work on IOS 16 / TV OS 16.

1. First, the iphone / ipad you run this procedure on must be running IOS 16 for this to work.
2. Delete the automation in question (either via the Home app or the Shortcuts app)
3. Create the automation in the latest version of the shortcut app (Do NOT use the Home App).
4. In the shortcut application when you create your automation, do not select your scene or accessory in the first menu, instead scroll down to the bottom and select "Convert to shortcut"
5. In the shortcut menu select your scene or accessory as you normally would.
6. Before hitting "Done" in the Shortcut menu, select the small arrow at the very bottom right of the screen to test your script. Assuming it works as desired you can select "Done" in the Shortcut menu.
7. Now don't panic, it takes approximately 3-5 seconds to copy the new automation to your home hub before it will be listed in the Automations screen.

This has worked consistently for me for both simple automations such as turning on a light at a certain time as well as complex automations based on location that SSH into a remote server.

Good Luck

Sorry to hear it. The only thing that is still unreliable here is creating time of day automations from the

Apple Home App.

Some comments below. Good luck regardless.

1. I have the experience that if you delete accessories and then add them back on there can be "no response" issues as there is a conflict with the previous instance of the same accessory . Maybe try logging in and out from your iCloud account on all devices to "clear out the cache" there?
2. Use the Eve app for Time of day rules until Apple fixes their Home app.

1. Also, not too helpful now, but for complicated setups and for the next time, try something like this to make a backup so you do not have to start from scratch and redo all manually:

Had some success with this: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/controller-for-homekit/id1198176727?l=en

Same here, just to tell you that automations are restored with daily restarts on the homepod mini just to stop to work some hours later. Terrible.

Again Apple continues to think about HomeKit as a toy instead of a very serious thing.

Most of the suggestions here were helpful and I tried them. Clearly not enough testing on Homekit before iOS 16 release. After trying pretty much everything I ended up deleting many of my existing scenes and recreating them in the third party app Home + which did seem to work in terms of recognizing me leaving and coming home (this all broke in iOS16). All my music homepod stuff broke in spite of restarting, etc. Home + Scenes worked but as noted elsewhere i had to create ON/OFF separate scenes.

Not the experience I expect from Apple. I sent feedback as well. Apple pay attention to this stuff if you ever want Home to gain market share. It is too buggy and only people who are persistent seem to have success.

Ok, I ran into the same problems with automations failing to initiate. I have 37+ devices s well as several automations and scenes. What worked for me was a simple starting point. I deleted the home app and rebooted the phone. I then reinstalled the app, verified devices populated again. Then nervously sat back and waited for the 10:00 pm bed time automation (all but two lights turn off) Lo and behold the automation worked perfectly as before. Hopefully it works for others with the same issue. Hope it helps

Sorry, this is simply false.

The homehubs perform a very different role to other devices (eg iOS, macOS, non homehub iPadOS devices).

Try running HomeKit, especially automations without a homehub and get back to us.

Set up your HomePod, HomePod mini, Apple TV, or iPad as a home hub - Apple Support

Same here, nothing to do with any Beta install (which I’ve not installed) but rather with IOS 16 itself or Home app update :

• Automations were working fine since multiple years (garden sprinklers, pool, lights, shutter)
• Automations still working fine if triggered manually
• deactivation/reactivation of automations doesn’t solve anything

No way to save and restore accessories and/or automation in Home app…

If I had the fact that my IPhone 13 Pro have had a whole day not being able anymore to make a simple phone call after IOS16 update, that my Apple TV is now requesting me all the time the password of a known family member, that my IPad Pro doesn’t see at all the IOS16 update, that FaceTime call is not possible anymore (old IOS versions devices have to call me so that it works)…

that’s by far the worst IOS update Apple ever made… For a “user experience” driven company, it kind of a shame. Did they validate this OS update ?

Early adopter, I was already bothered by the fact that apple Home appli doesn’t handle any energy metering oriented device… I may now open my Apple ecosystem and leave Apple Home for more reliable and advanced third party Apps…

Update to my cranky message above:

I was on hold with Apple Support when I decided to follow the suggestion of someone either on this thread or this reddit thread:

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeKit/comments/xdt2iz/ios_16_time_of_day_based_automations_not_working/

The gist of the thread was to sign out of your Apple TV and sign back in again. Given I was on hold, I figured, what the hey, why not try it.

The second I had signed back in, the lights in the room (on a motion sensor and not working), flicked back on, as if to chide me for calling support in the first place.

Try:

1. Removing all Homepods from your Home and re-adding (doesn't affect automations / accessories).
2. Deleting / Reinstalling Home App (doesn't affect automations / accessories)
3. Signing out / signing in of Apple TV (this is what fixed it for me)

I think going forward, I may turn off automatic updates on my Hubs to avoid getting bitten by this. The Apple support agent also recommended making a backup prior to these updates, which is a good recommendation.

After following this thread since the beginning and trying many things myself, here is what worked for me although I’m not sure which of the two ultimately did the trick:

1. Delete and reinstall the Home app on your iPhone (and iPad?). You won’t lose anything. You will have to remove any HomePods and re-add them after reinstalling the Home app.
2. *Log out of iCloud on all AppleTVs, reboot them all, then log back in starting with the one you want to be the main (connected) hub.

*This is what I suspect did the job.

I haven’t seen where anyone that has removed/re-added devices, scenes, or automations have had total success. After the above two steps, I have not had a single issue and I did them over a week ago.

Good luck!

• five speakers  1 biggie, 4 mini’s and a few thread switches
• 8 eve wall switches
• 10 Philips lights
• 2 Wemo and (iDevice plug-ins i removed)
• eve door sensor
• 2 apple TVs
• ecobee themostat
• 2 eve motion sensors
• 2 hue motion sensors (like these better)
• 2 eve temp sensors
• eero pro and two extenders (installed about a year ago and  greatly increased stability)

ipad on ios5.7

phone on ios16.0.3

make sure after factory reset you install any  mini upgrades also.

the only thing else i noticed is that scenes need to be tested first if they are part of an automation (easiest to do this with your phone on ios16). i had a few logic conflicts with one scene doing the opposite of the other.

• i cannot select what hub capable deviceis used - but the atv’s are in control today and they work well
• the two ios version seem to work equally well
• the wemo devices seem to have wifi connection problems - don’t like them but they usually work unless i turn them on/off rapidly - then the seem to get confused - probably will eventually replace but for now they are used for non-critical lights (halloween pumpkins and are inexpensive)

i have a few of the new eve wall switches but also don’t plan to install until i see better stability

overall Apple has decreased in many areas of reliability - is it the work from home standard? who knows - but this is showing up especially in their non-flag ship products like homekit. i can appreciate the complexity of doing an alpha testing of new software - the combination of possible failure modes can be staggering. i have also seen it in the iWatch, but it is still unacceptable

, are we seeing the high water mark for Apple? hope not

I wrote about what helped me a while back and I thought it might be helpful if I added exactly what I have done and what my setup consists of.

I have:

• 4 original HomePods - all with up to date software.
• 2 HomePod Minis that are a stereo pair for my Living Room AppleTV. Software is all up to date.
• 3 AppleTVs - 2 are 2nd Generation 4K and 1 is 4th Generation HD Software is all up to date
• iPhone 14 pro with iOS16.02
• Numerous iPads and Macs that all have up to date software.

I also have:

• 17 Insteon switches, dimmers, outlets all on an Insteon Hub Pro which is HomeKit enabled (only made for a couple years)
• 4 Wemo Thread plugs
• 1 Lennox iComfort Thermostat
• 1 Eve Aqua water controller

I have 13 Automations and have cut my scenes down to only 2. I handle turning off lights at bedtime using a Shortcut that turns off both Scenes and individual devices.

I had to update iOS16 when I first got my new iPhone but everything still worked fine. I believe the HomePods and AppleTVs did not update as quickly and I left town for a few weeks right after getting the new iPhone. I turned off all my automations before leaving my house for my trip. My AppleTVs are set to automatically update as do the all the HomePods though if you can control the HomePod updates I'd like to hear how. They were all up to date when I got back from my trip.

While on my trip I updated my iPhone to iOS16.02. I turned back on my automations while still traveling expecting to have lights on when I got home and the heat on too. Nope. All my automations were not working but I could manually control all devices and scenes.

After looking at the early posts to this thread I went into the settings on all my AppleTVs and disabled them from my Home. I then reconnected only 1 of the newer AppleTVs. After a little while everything seemed OK but after accessing my home and the automations from outside my area via cellular some of the automations failed.

I then deleted all my automations and recreated them and I have no idea if this had any impact, but I did do this.

I then logged out of my iCloud account on the only connected AppleTV and logged back in. I then reset all the HomePods including the two Minis. I have created new test automations and tried turning them on outside my WIFI network and turned others off and on from outside my network and all things are working just as they should with no problems.

The above steps are all I have done and in the order in which I did them. I believe what worked was disabling and reconnecting the AppleTV to my Home and the logging out and in to my iCloud Account. I believe the issue is with the AppleTVs and not iOS16. The iPads and Macs don't seem to have anything to do with these problem but again that's just an opinion.

OK, so I also got my automatons to function again. Granted I don't have as complicated as a setup like some of you, but I did follow some of your suggestions and was able to finally resolve my location-based automation issues (time-based and motion-sensor based automations were always working for me).

After completing all the previous steps (restarts of all devices, and only signing out of icloud on my Apple TV and back in again after a restart), my location-based automations still refused to function.

Following suggestions from many of you, I deleted my Home app, reinstalled it, and also deleted and recreated my automations. Now my automations work. When I left the apt, the "Leaving Home" automation turned off all my lights. When I returned home, my "Coming Home" automation engaged my lights scene successfully.

So in all, here's what I did that resolved this:

1. Signed out of iCloud on my Apple TV
2. Restarted Apple TV
3. Removed my HomePod and HomePod minis from the Home app
4. Fully deleted the Home app
5. Reinstalled the Home app
6. Signed back into iCloud on my Apple TV
7. Re-enabled my Apple TV as a home hub
8. Setup each of my HomePods once again
9. Confirmed all HomePods appeared as home hubs in the Home app
10. Deleted my automations
11. Recreated each automation as they were before

I don't know if each of those steps is necessary, or maybe one set or two, but now everything is back to normal. To be clear, my Apple TV is my connected home hub once again, just as it was before the issue and during the issue. I suspect HomeKit data (possibly in both iCloud and in the home app and/or on the home hubs) was corrupted upon upgrading to iOS 16. Signing out of iCloud and then back in on my Apple TV, restoring the HomePods, deleting the app, reconnecting my Apple devices, and recreating the automations seems to have worked.

I've been submitting bugs and sending logs for a couple of weeks now, every time an automation failed to engage. Hopefully Apple is getting enough data to resolve this. I also sent them the above info in another followup so they are aware of what possibly resolved this for me.