Homekit Automations are broken in iOS 16

My iOS 16 problems extended further than automations. Ever since the iOS 16 updates, my spouse couldn't use Siri to play her own music, and frequently it wouldn't work for me either. So today I decided on the whole slash-and-burn method.

1. On both Apple TVs, I removed them from Home and signed out of iCloud completely.
2. On both HomePod minis, I removed both and then did the complete physical reset on both (unplug, plug in, wait 10 secs, hold finger on top until it turns red, wait for 3 tones).
3. I removed all family from Home, then removed my Home.
4. Created a new Home, and added only one HomePod mini. I actually had to reset the HP twice before it started behaving itself.

Currently in the process of adding all my devices and automations. It sucks, but I'm using the opportunity to swap out a few old non-Thread Meross plugs with new Eve Energy Thread plugs. They added without a hitch and are so much more responsive than the non-Thread ones.

Once everything is set up the way I want it, then I'll add the second HomePod mini and the Apple TVs to the Home, so they can get copies of the new configuration. And finally add my family members back.

Fingers crossed all this effort pays off.

majapp, your problems with Thread devices is a real mystery. I was able to add four Eve Thread-compatible smart plugs without a problem, but then I had also completely nuked my entire Home setup (removed all family, deleted the HP minis, deleted the Home setup, deleted the Home app, factory reset the HPs) and rebuilt everything from scratch. So far so good, but I haven't added my two AppleTV 4Ks to the HomeKit soup yet. Maybe this weekend I'll take that step.

I didn't see if you went this far with your setup—and I wouldn't fault you if you didn't want to—but this seems to be what cured most of my issues. There is also the possibility one or more devices on your network aren't behaving properly, and interfering with the Thread network you're trying to set up. Although that's a reach since one of the big concepts behind Thread is it's able to work around problem devices.

If I were in your situation, I would do what I did: fully reset everything, delete the app, create a brand new Home, factory reset and add a single HP speaker, and then try adding a Full Thread device.

• If you still can't add any Thread devices at all, you probably have something very wrong with the HP mini failing to act as the Thread main router (I believe this is the "Leader"). At this point you can restart with a different HP mini speaker or an ATV 4K as the initial hub.
• If you're able to add a single Thread device, continue adding one vendor's devices at a time. First all the Eve devices, then all the Wemos, then the Nanoleaf, etc. At first only add the Full Thread devices—these are the mains powered devices like plugs and wired switches that act as Thread network nodes. Save adding any battery powered Thread devices (sensors) for last as those are only endpoints. I would monitor the Eve app's Settings > Thread Network pane as you're building your Thread network out, as it can report on the role (border router, endpoint, etc.) each device sets itself up with. Since no one is using Matter right now, it might take some time for each one to show up in Eve. Wait until you see one before adding the next.
• If adding a particular device kills the Thread network, maybe it needs to be replaced. It could be that two devices are trying to be the "leader" and conflicting with each other, or…something else. It isn't supposed to happen in Thread, but it probably can, because "technology."
• With any luck you'd be able to add all your Thread devices successfully, then you can add all your non-Thread devices, and start rebuilding the rest of your Home configuration.
• Once the Home configuration is to your liking, add those other ATVs and HP minis one at a time, waiting long enough in between to be sure each updates with the current Home data.

I understand this is a terrible, awful, miserably time consuming amount of effort (I set aside a weekend) but at this point I wouldn't count on a "magic bullet" iOS update from Apple that will solve any of our existing HomeKit issues. Even though many of us are tech-savvy home automation users, we haven't been given many tools outside of the trial-and-error method to investigate and troubleshoot problems.

Good luck, and I'll burn a pile of CAT-3 cables in offering to the technology deities for you 🤖

I thought I’d add my two cents.

I’m a new HomeKit user and only recently set up a home. I’ve got 8 HomePod Minis, 12 Nanoleaf bulbs, two smart thermostats, 9 smart thermostatic valves, a smart TV with HomeKit compatibility and a HomeKit compatible surround system.

This was all set up quite recently, on iOS 16.

The automation is hit or miss. Sometimes it’ll work and other times it won’t. The automations that fail are a mixture of types:

• when somebody arrives;
• when somebody leaves;
• when a time of day occurs; and
• when an accessory is controlled.

They’re all intermittent.

Yesterday, when my wife came home, the heating turned on. That’s as desired and expected. At 21:00, it should turn off. It didn’t.

Does anybody know if the new HomeKit architecture will help with this?

The most consistent fix I have found is this .....

1. determine the current active home hub
2. restart this hub - if problems with ID, restart again (don't just unplug, restart)
3. the active hub will jump to a new device
4. restart this new active hub, just to be sure

that's it, the system will now work (at least for my system), until something new is added - then go to 1 again if it starts acting quirky

The one thing I didn’t do was a full scorched earth remove all devices and reinstall in HomeKit. I do have a pretty complex setup and just not willing to go through resetting all those devices back up in HomeKit. Right now I have:

• 28 Blinds
• 2 doors
• 17 hubs and bridges (HomePods, appleTVs, HomeBridge, Home Assistant, etc.)
• 1 lock
• 6 sensors
• 3 network routers (mesh)
• 4 family members
• 37 lights and switches
• 4 smart plugs
• 2 ceiling fans
• 1 thermostat
• 1 security panel
• 1 smart water valve
• 14 different scenes
• Around 10 HomeKit automations
• Probably 15 or 20 Home Assistant automations

The above is a combination of HomeKit compliant devices that connect directly to HomeKit that I also publish to Home Assistant, and some devices that aren’t HomeKit compliant I push to HomeKit through either Home Assistant or HomeBridge. Actually typing this out I’m amazed it works at all, but no way am I going to recreate all that for just a handful of HomeKit automations that aren’t working. Given how unpredictable HomeKit has been since iOS 16 they might just start working again. Who knows at this point.

I’ve actually moved almost all my critical automations to Home Assistant as it is more reliable. There are just a few automations that are so much easier on HomeKit (like knowing when family members are home).

I don’t even mess with support anymore, almost always useless and they will just pass the buck to blame Home Assistant, HomeBridge, partial lunar eclipse, whatever is obvious. I do post to feedback though.

OK, the Problem (for me)…

4 HomePods. I have created a Scene for all 4 to play a particular radio station. I set up an Automation for the Scene to start at a specific time. It didn’t, or rather usually didn’t because every now & then, it worked but God knows why. Usually though, it failed.

Solutions tried, none of which worked…

1. Deleted Home, deregistered the HomePods from my account and then reinstalled the lot… Home app, HomePods, Scene & Automation
2. Same again but signing out of my Apple ID as well
3. Full factory reset of iPhone, restored from MacBook

Solution that did work, courtesy of Grennch on here…

1. Create Scene as before to play the radio station. Tested OK
2. In Shortcuts (important) click + Automation
3. Create Home Automation
4. Select Time of Day & Days, then Next
5. DO NOT select the Scene
6. Scroll down to Convert to Shortcut
7. Set the Scene on the next screen
8. Done on next screen
9. On next screen, scroll down to bottom right arrow & test the Automation by pressing it
10. Next & Done. It takes 5 seconds for the new Automation to appear

That’s it. Don’t ask me why it works, it just does 😜

Glennch’s resolution worked for me.

1. Delete all HomeKit automations that are problematic.
2. Close HomeKit.
3. Open the Shortcuts app, go to Automations and follow the prompts to create a new HomeKit automation from within the Shortcuts app.

Be patient. The created automations take 5”-40” to show up in the Shortcuts app. They will eventually show up in the HomeKit app as well.

Since following this prescription, the automations have remained stable and function as configured.

Apple, please take a look at this and correct this bug.

Good luck!

Some background info for anyone new to HomeKit

Every device plays apart in the HomeKit operation and every device is dependent on other devices.

Restarting hubs and i devices has helped me on occasion.

i devices are the interface to interact with hubs settings and Hubs communicate to you smart devices

And because of this, I have had many issues when the hub and the i devices are on different software versions

(I believe this happens when one version has newer security protocols)

I have had the most issues when running multiple hubs (ie Apple TV and HomePod)

when the Active Hub changes for what ever reason many smart devices seem to have a tough time changing over.

the OP original issue is almost certainly an issue with the iOS 16, I solved my issue (same as op) by updating the HomePod to the latest beta, and it is still working perfectly, so the next release should solve this issue.

3 take away point I have learned the hard way

and is good practice.

• less is more when it comes to hubs
• ALL devices should be software updated together
• restart your hub regularly (like once a fortnight)

hope this is helpful.

Yet it fixed my automation issue which is still working perfectly. One MUST remove the hub in order to delete the HomeKit app then reinstall the HomeKit and hub after rebooting the phone. I didn’t tell you to run HomeKit without a hub. As far as automations go, the hub and HomeKit work together.

There are a few reasons a hub is necessary: 

1. Remote access. If you want to access your HomeKit devices remotely, you need a hub. 
2. Automations. If you want other people in your house to be able to run automations, or you want those automations to run when your device is unavailable, you need a hub. 
3. If you want to use Thread devices, you need a hub — but it may not need to be a HomeKit hub 
4. If you want to use BlueTooth devices (not recommended), you may need a hub 
5. If you want to use Zigbee or other protocols (e.g. Lutron ClearConnect), you will need a hub… but it won't be a HomeKit Hub

BTW, iPads cannot be used as hubs with the rollout of IOS 16.

Apple has put a renewed emphasis on HomeKit this year with iOS 16, bringing a completely redesigned Home app ahead of the looming Matter standard launch. One key aspect of HomeKit is having a home hub, which allows for features like out-of-home control, automations, and more. 

Apple has traditionally allowed HomePod, Apple TV, and iPad devices to serve as home hubs. With the release of iOS and iPadOS 16 this year, however, iPads will no longer be supported as home hubs.

I might add the following observations:

• a mix of HomePod 1 and HomePod Mini and Appletv 4K 2017 home hubs seems to cause Thread and Bluetooth instructions to get lost frequently. I dramatically improved thread reliability by placing HomePod mini in the room of my thread devices and moving HomePod 1 out of that room and disabling Appletv as a hub (on 2017 model is possible)
• HomePod 1 needs a very strong wireless connection. At 1 wlan bar out of 3 on my iPhone standing right next to it and able to surf the web HomePod 1 frequently states “I’m having trouble connecting to the internet”. It’s very flaky. Again, I made sure this HomePod is NOT the “connected” hub which dramatically improved automation reliability. Pick a hub with solid internet access.
• Thread devices require a main net powered router in the vicinity to operate properly. I moved one HomePod mini near at least 1 thread device.

I can reproduce all of the above upon request. The worst offender of the 3 is appletv, followed by HomePod 1 and then Thread. I think generally speaking homepod doesn’t route requests to the hub with best connection quality to a device. It seems to try it locally and then is unable to reach. Hence switching to a hub with nearer connectivity has such a dramatic impact. You really wonder how simplistic HomeKit is internally?

they dont really tell us as far as I know what version homekit we are using. but everything broke not with IOS 16 but with the upgrade of HomeKit. all versions of IOS 16x and macOS13 are affected. for me everything that uses the script function or the time function is busted. I have factory reset my entire environment and I get the same results.

it is impossible to add an if statement of any kind since the update of homekit.

you can no longer set a volume level on the HomePods in a scene or a automation. it just fails.

when someone arrives or leaves broke but after factory reset its working again.

What did Glennch suggest? I called Apple support last night bc my time of day automations are working but not the arrival or leaving. If everyone or some of you guys can call and create a ticket that would be most helpful. They haven’t had a lot of calls on it. We also found out that under privacy—system locations that HomeKit arrow wasn’t purple. It was gray, which is an issue. Please call Apple and create tickets

ive been using homekit for 4 years now. I have found the shotgun method is really the only one that solves anything. with each upgrade from apple things break and calling them to get it resolved never amounts to a solution. the only thing that ever resolves anything is factory reset you stuff. as for using Mac home to program your stuff. that used to work until iOS 16/macOS 13. none of the scripting works but you can create the scripting automations with an iOS device. just dont edit an existing automation that uses scripting with the Mac home. it will break the automation. as always im sure the macOS functionality will be corrected in the next release just like all the past issues do.

if you see the image I uploaded you can see that the scripting functions does not load. but still loads fine on IOS

One thing I haven’t done in 16.2 is start the transition to the new home system.

Given 16.2 seems to be working well for me, I’m somewhat unsure about rocking the boat by implementing more change having just got things working again a week or two ago.

Anyone tried this?

Hey. I have two Mini HomePod, Philips Hue lights, and a Smartmi purifier. Classics automation are working with iOS 16.0.1 but automations like when I’m going out or coming home are not working anymore.

I solved this issue one time by disconnecting all my iPhone from iCloud and resetting my HomePod Mini. Then reconnect iPhone and restart HomePod mini…