Homekit Automations are broken in iOS 16

Hi.

Try to reset your HomePod Mini and be sur it will not appear anymore in your iCloud devices, reset your network settings. Shut down your iPhone, HomePod Mini and power on your iPhone set the network and initial your HomePod mini back. Check your iOS version of your iPhone and you HomePod Mini.

Apple SW engineers are aware of this problem, but individual issues are very unique so be certain to go to apple.com/feedback, select Home and submit particulars of your Home issue. My problems only involves new Thread devices that were working perfectly prior to iOS 16 install. My Home App will now not even allow me to add back any new Thread devices, but I can add back any new non-Thread devices. But some users have different problems that what I am experiencing. You can also use the Apple Support App on your iPhone to submit a concern about Home App. And do place a call to Apple Support so they can walk you through on how to send them your specific data in your Home App logs. The more info Apple has the sooner we might get an explanation and a fix. From what I have read in this community postings, we all are experiencing different specific issues with Home App..

majapp wrote:

Apple SW engineers are aware of this problem, but individual issues are very unique so be certain to go to apple.com/feedback, select Home and submit particulars of your Home issue. My problems only involves new Thread devices that were working perfectly prior to iOS 16 install. My Home App will now not even allow me to add back any new Thread devices, but I can add back any new non-Thread devices. But some users have different problems that what I am experiencing. You can also use the Apple Support App on your iPhone to submit a concern about Home App. And do place a call to Apple Support so they can walk you through on how to send them your specific data in your Home App logs. The more info Apple has the sooner we might get an explanation and a fix. From what I have read in this community postings, we all are experiencing different specific issues with Home App..

Well I hope they get this fixed soon the workarounds seem all over the place but I do not want to install my automations even though I certainly dont have as many or even “crucial” ones just some security light setups mainly for when gone, except one room that I always have going.

Keep us posted if they tell you anything more. I am not sure what all the issues are here. But this seems to be one of the biggest problems affecting users since devices updated to 16.x I have seen.

My Home App is Fixed (for now);  Could there be a bug in tvOS 16 Home and/or IOS 16?

Just to recap: I have been using Home devices in my Smarthome for about 4 years.  lt was working great (Hey Siri commands, timers, remote control all working flawlessly).  But within hours of downloading iOS 16, all my 12 Thread devices stopped responding.  My other 29 non-Thread devices still worked OK.  I removed and did factory resets on the failed Thread devices (Eve/NanoLeaf/Wemo) and then tried many times to add them back into Home but all failed.  Frustrated, I removed from storage some older non-Thread devices and added them in to Home to replace the Thread failed devices:  all the non-Thread older devices I added back worked OK.

So I read a lot in the forum Support pages and saw several people with issues, but mine appeared to be unique in that it was only my Thread devices that failed.  I deleted Home App, factory reseted router, but was **** if I was going to start from scratch all over.  Even though my Thread devices communicated much faster I could live without them, but I was still very ****** that something in iOS 16 broke my Home setup.

Yesterday I was looking in my Home settings and noticed I had five (5) Hubs listed: two HomePod minis and three Apple TV 4Ks.  All three 4K were disabled; one HP mini was connected and the other HP mini was Standby.  I remember when I bought my three 4Ks back in May 2021 I decided I did not want or need them to control Home App so I Disabled Hub setting on all three.  I felt my two HP minis were adequate and I would never need to control any of my devices from the Home App on any of the three Apple TV.  I remembered reading in the Support forum that one user deleted his Apple TV as a Hub and got favorable results.  So, I decided to “Sign Out of iCloud on all my three Apple TVs.  The minute I did that I got a push notice on my iPhone that the front door is closed (Eve sensor (Thread) I forgot to remove).  Now I have been successful in adding back three Eve motion (Thread) sensors and they are all working fine.  I will wait a few days until I add back the other Thread devices.

But here is my dilemma:  In order for me to enjoy Apple TV+ programming on any of my 3 ATV 4Ks, I have to sign in with my Apple ID.  The screen prompts me to bring an iPhone/iPad close in or to sign in manually.  If I use my iPhone to get the ATV signed it, the ATV forces me to install Home App.  Of course I could “Disable” Home in the TV settings but I am Leary it will cause issues again.  So, I have elected to sign in “manually” my Apple ID on my ATVs which did not force me to install Home.

So is there an issue with tvOS 16 and Home and/or iOS 16.  For Apple:  please don’t force me to install Home on my TV 4ks cuz I will never command control my Home like this, and since I have two iPod minis I will never use my ATV 4Ks as hubs.  Even though my three 4K TVs had Home disabled for several months, something in either tvOS 16 or iOS 16 triggered and knocked all my 12 Thread devices off-line.  All seems to be working fine now:  Home devices are faster and more robust with Thread so I hope problem stay away.

Still puzzling is why Apple forces Home install on an Apple TV if and iPhone or iPad is used to auto sign-in, but if manually sign-in with an Apple ID is select no Home App is installed.

Hope all the above helps others.

A possible issue/fix is that my Apple TV was connected by ethernet. I unplugged the cable so it is connected by wifi and Homekit seems more stable. There are reports of Apple TV misbehaving when connected with ethernet.

I will monitor how it goes over the next 24 hrs when my Automations activate (or not).

I've updated to the beta with the HomeKit architecture changes, and have upgraded my home.

My initial assessment of it is good. It's quick to respond and the automations appear to be working again.

I'll come back here and update as the days go on, to let you know if it's more stable.

The "turn off" function is in an automation. It has been working for months but seemed to stop working a few days ago. Nothing else had changed (no competing automation).

This morning, while I was asleep, my 5am automations did not work! At 6:45 I started using my Apple TV which woke up my Original Homepods and a 7am automation worked. One of these Homepods is the primary Home Hub.

So... I will re-enable an automation that keeps the Homepods playing a song all night (at near zero volume) to see if that gets the automations working. I disabled this after installing 16.1 on the Homepods as that update seemed to fix the problems but, in my case, this has not lasted long. I won't be trying 16.2 beta.

Guys, you do NOT have to rebuild HomeKit from scratch. Has anyone read what I posted? If you delete automaton, sign out of iCloud from iPhone, re create automations, it should work. Mine definitely has for a few weeks now.

I turner of the option to use Apple tv as HomeKit Hub, while waiting 5 minutes to turn on the functionality on the apple tv, automation started work running from my phone as well. When Apple TV was selected as HomeKit Hub, automation still runs nicely.

My Wemo smart plugs all shat the bed as well as other devices - I just have bulbs and outlets. Removing them from HomeKit and adding then back USING THE WEMO APP on my phone worked. I recall some automations were saved when I re-added them to HomeKit, at least it asked my if I wanted to use some I had made in the past.

It does seem like Apple has neglected this, why no backup of automations etc ??

I have 2 homes set up, iPhone 14 pro max, iPhone 12 Pro Max, Apple Watch 7, iPad Pro, MacBook Pro M1, Mac mini M1, 2 MacBook Airs, many OG homepods, 1 HomePod mini, 3 ATV 4K, 2 ATV, 5 OG HomePods, 1 minipod (for thread only - I held my breath buying it). Hundreds and hundreds of smart home devices from irrigation, lift gates, garage, 3 thermostats, 1 radiant floor thermostat, lights, locks, cameras, sensors, appliances, crazy town. I have an Eero mesh network in my main home.

I noticed HomeKit automations not completing, not firing, and then nothing. All stopped. I read through this string and others. I called support and shortly gave up and did the following.

I signed out of every ATV, deleted every HomePod and the HomePod mini inactivating them, shut down my iPhones. And then... started up primary iPhone, and resigned in to every ATV one at a time, set up and configured every HomePod and HomePod mini, and set the configurations again. Hours of work.

Automations have worked the past 24 hours.

Besides determined to find a replacement for HomeKit, trash all homepods, and never buy a new category from Apple again, is that they don't have a category for support issues to log HomeKit or Home issues.

How do they track the issues like these? They don't share known issues, even support levels are either unaware or unable to say, but perfectly willing to let us test their products and software updates.

If you can wait for apple's fix to arrive - great. I can't. I also know this has been unable to make this work reliably and consistently for some time. Siri, homepods, HomeKit.

I did submit my feedback in Apple's app for Home and even that humoursly thinks we have 1 device of each category and what software version is it on. So cute and uselessly time consuming.

Apple doesn't just work anymore. And we're still paying premium margins for it.

iOS 16.2 now and still issues noticed of automations that are working half, others refusing to launch at certain time, automation that are triggerd by devices changes not always working etc. I’m now converting every automation and devices to home assistant, and started to build the automations in home assistent instead.

Within home assistent I created a HomeKit bridge so I can still use everything in Apple home as a “dumb” switch.

So extremely disappointed in Apple because of this.

And singing out, singing in, deleting app, reinstalling app and whatsoever tricks we can invent to solve it. Sorry guys, but that’s not a solution…

Well, I tried changing the order of steps and it still didn’t work. I then unplugged the AppleTV and left it off, so now the HomePod is the only hub and voila it appears to be working now! Will be interesting to see it it keeps working when the AppleTV is turned back on but I ran out of time. Will try that later. I also still have my unedited xmas light off at midnight automation there so will be interesting to see if that works tonight…

Just this evening I’ve updated my appletv to 16.2 so it will now also act as homehub again. Previously it was just my HomePods that were on 16.2 and so they always seemed to retain the role of homehub.

If I start seeing problems again then I’ll know the cause.

With version 16, I have found that if I edit anything at all on my existing time of day automations, they will fail to run afterwards. The only way to resolve it to delete the automation and add it back.