Homekit Automations are broken in iOS 16

My hub is an Apple TV HD. I did try turning off and on the “make Apple TV a hub” option but will try it again.

Just noticed a firmware update for my Meross smart plugs that mentioned something about responsiveness.

What a **** show. Will be tossing all my smart plugs and going forward with matter, thank god I’m not too invested in regular HomeKit hw.

So all was well for a few days, but just as before, all my thread devices -- only thread -- nanoleaf, eve, wemo -- have all stopped working: "no response." I have been using only one HP mini. So frustrating since iOS 16 caused all of this. Am losing confidence in Apple tech.

I don’t know if discussing beta software is allowed in the forums here, but I’ve had a quick skim of the tos and couldn’t see a specific mention of it so 🤷.

Since coming across these issues, i installed the 16.2 beta on my HomePod minis. This seems to have improved things enormously. As anticipated the beta on my iOS / iPadOS devices made no difference at all.

My AppleTV is still on 16.1 (I couldn’t be bothered with the faff of installing the beta on it) but it didn’t seem necessary as it appears the homehub naturally defaults to the devices running the latest software.

So as Apple has just today announced the release candidate of 16.2, I expect the rest of you will all soon see a big improvement.

Robin Phillips1 wrote:

I don’t know if discussing beta software is allowed in the forums here, but I’ve had a quick skim of the tos and couldn’t see a specific mention of it so 🤷.

It isn't really allowed. Probably covered by prohibition on Speculation or rumors about unannounced products, but should also be covered by the beta NDA.

tt2

I did encounter that. Went ahead and deleted the pod. Wasn't too bad as you're simply downloading the Homekit from the cloud in the app store and all your settings, scenes, devices, automations are back again. Just reinstall the pod and done.

Disabling and then reenabling the home hub also fixes it. This seems like a much easier solution than deleting and recreating automations, especially if the bug hits more than one of them. Making a change to the automation still requires you to repeat the procedure, but it's still the easier temporary fix to use until Apple figures out the real solution. Nothing seems to be gained by dealing with it in the many harder ways suggested in this thread.

i only use HomePods as home hubs and I have 3 in my home. When I disable one, another picks up. By doing this, my logic doorbell circle view gets all messed up since it uses a home hub to record and view. It’s a domino effect I try to avoid. Then, by disabling HomePods (unplugging them is only way) and it bounces around, I’ll have one or 2 of my HomeKit accessories go “not responding” another domino. So deleting and re adding automation is a faster solution.

So frustrating! I have tried everything else a full nuking of my Home system (48 devices). My issue is unlike anyone else's in that only my 14 thread-capable devices stop working (Eve/Wemo/Nano). I am currently only using one HP-mini (have unplugged/disabled 2 HP-minis and 3 ATVs). I delete all automations, reset my one HP-mini and then all works well for a few days, and then "bam," all thread devices stop working again with "device not responding." My system worked flawlessly (including all thread devices) prior to iOS 16. I will wait until 16.2 to see if the issue is resolved; if not, I am done with Apple Home. As an "All Apple" person I am very disappointed that Apple will not even acknowledge the issue, but it appears this problem only affects a small percentage because I see no other complaints other write-ups on other forums.

deleting all your automations and ‘nuking’ everything is throwing the baby out with the bathwater. People have found solutions they’re listed up above.. instead of saying you’re so frustrated Read what other people have done to fix us. hint: it’s usually a device that doesn’t have the most recent update, or updated itself incorrectly.

This is what I have tried.

Removing automations and re-creating them – did not work

Reset Apple TV – did not work

Removed all my devices from HomeKit entirely and reinstalling them scanning their setup codes – did not work.

Pretty sure that I disabled home hub and re-enable that on my Apple TV in this didn’t work.

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The only other quirk woth my Setup is that my ethernet port on my Apple TV HD is blown out.

My understanding is that the Apple TV is communicating via Bluetooth to trigger my devices or is it communicating of a Wi-Fi? it has to be Wi-Fi as some of my devices are outdoors - stuff like my garage door opener is pretty spotty with its respond sometimes.

Waiting for the magic. iOS update has been talked about🙈🙈🙈🤮🤮🤮🤮

My best fix (as recommended by someone in here) was to remove the Home Pod Mini, then delete the HomeKit app, now REBOOT THE PHONE, and reinstall the HomeKit (which kept all of the automations and scenes in the Cloud BTW) and then simply reinstall the pod. Pretty simple really. This fixed all of my automation issues.

I can see why this might be the easier workaround in your case, but quite a few with this problem are using an AppleTV as their home hub. So for them it seems disabling/reenabling the home hub is quicker and easier. Lots are trying far more drastic measures that don't seem to do more than this in the end.

The mystery of this problem is why it seem to afflict some automations and not others, even though as in my case they are almost identical.

One night, 3 automations ran successfully, which had started working after I created new scenes but had quit triggering after a couple of days. Everything ran properly last night after the HomeKit removal, phone reboot, and HomeKit and Home Pod Mini reinstall, including the original individual accessories automations I had been using and the new scene automations created after the issue developed last week.

Have found that all these solutions are only temporary.  It’s like if your car doesn’t start, remove the battery, spark plugs and tires and reinstall and see if that fixes the problem.   I feel like we’re the beta testers.  Come on Apple, get it together!

So you know, when you reinstall the HomeKit app it comes from the Cloud and all of your accessories, scenes and automations are saved and back again. Be certain to REBOOT THE PHONE after uninstalling the HomeKit. It's pretty simple really. You'll have to delete the HomePod from the HomeKit in order to remove it but reinstalling that is easy.