HomeKit Home Invitation not delivered

When I invite another member of my family to my HomeKit Home, an invitation is issued but never received by the intended recipient. This has worked in the past, but not at present. The invitation remains in "pending" status indefinitely. The recipient's account is active and functional. For instance, it has access to family calendars and family iCloud, but the problem appears to be user (account) specific somehow. This problem was first seen with both iPhones (issuer and invitee) at IOS version 16.2. We have upgraded both iPhones to the latest IOS release (16.3), to no avail. We have called in to Apple Support, and they tried to help us, but they were not able to.


So it appears we have a family member who cannot receive HomeKit invitations even though that family member interacts perfectly normally with IOS messaging, calendars, iCloud, etc.


Any suggestions?

Posted on Jan 27, 2023 4:31 PM

Reply
18 replies

Jan 30, 2023 9:11 AM in response to kaweah

Hello kaweah,


Please check out the information outlined in the following link to ensure the correct process is being used to invite someone to control your home, and that the requirements are met, so we can make sure there's not an issue there: Share control of your home


"If you can't share control of a home


  • If you can no longer connect to a home, or receive or accept a home invitation, learn what to do.
  • To invite people to control your home while you're away and edit permissions for them, you need to set up a home hub. If you don't have a home hub set up, you can only invite people when you're home and connected to your home Wi-Fi network. Matter-enabled accessories require a home hub, such as Apple TV 4K or HomePod mini.
  • If Home has been upgraded to the new Home architecture, you must set up a home hub to share control of your home.
  • You and the people you invite need the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, or macOS.
  • Make sure that you and the people you invite are signed in to iCloud on iPhone, iPad, or Mac. In iCloud settings, turn on Home.
  • Make sure that you and the people you invite haven't blocked each other's phone number or Apple ID. Learn how to manage blocked phone numbers, contacts, and emails on iPhone or iPad and how to manage blocked callers on Mac."


If you continue to experience an issue, please contact Apple Support for assistance. You may be able to reach Apple Support here: Contact Apple Support


Thank you.

Feb 11, 2023 5:27 AM in response to Brittany1416

Thanks, Brittany.


Unfortunately, this hasn't got me past the problem, so I'll call Apple Support again (we've called before, but Apple Support only gave us a similar list of steps that didn't help). Bear in mind that this one account that is not receiving notifications is perfectly functional as a family member on iCloud and Apple Music, interacts perfectly well on Messages, Notes, and Calendar, and otherwise has no incidents of failing to receive notifications. iOS versions have matched from the beginning. Upgrading (together) has not helped. This appears to be a HomeKit issue.


Thank you for your time and effort,

Kaweah

Jun 15, 2023 2:09 PM in response to Brittany1416

I followed all of these directions and nothing works. This is not helpful at all. It is beyond disappointing that Apple cannot fix this issue and provides such poor support.


I have purchased $500 worth of Apple Homekit compatible equipment and already installed it but cannot invite my wife or children to see my home.


Should I have just purchased a Ring camera?

Jun 21, 2023 8:42 AM in response to kaweah

Same kind if issue invited my wife to join and no invitation appeared on her phone. Then I went into the home.app on her phone to see if our home showed up. No luck either. But when I went to resend the invite to her phone, my phone gave me a "Cannot Send Invitation: You can add people using an iCloud account email address with Home enabled." Her phones Home.app doesn't even have anything setup on it. Apple Home App is so totally broken. I have had nothing but issues with it, same goes with the HomePod. The quality of Apples software is going down hill, fix it already.

Jul 10, 2023 8:30 PM in response to kaweah

I've had success with the following:


  1. Remove user from homekit (even if invitation is pending).
  2. Reboot all hubs
  3. Reboot device sending invitation.
  4. Ensure new users device doesn't already have a home. If so remove it.
  5. Reboot users device.
  6. Resend invitation and then accept.


Select the hubs from the HomeKit owner’s iphone, in the settings, scroll all the way down to find reset/reboot. I know it's a lot of reboots but it works for me. Don’t forget to check your Hue hub too, from the owners iphone. I had to reconnect to it (Pressing top button on the Phillips Hue hub) without knowing it wasn't already connected.

Sep 20, 2023 2:39 AM in response to Brittany1416

Unfortunately this does not solve this issue. But the plot thickens:


Besides the fact that the iPhone with iOS 16.6 is not able to receive the invitation for Homekit, it is also not possible to add this AppleID as a new user to the AppleTV 4K. After adding this user and typing the matching code, the spinning wheel turns forever. Besides that, iMessages from this user to other members of the family are sent, but not received.

All family members can be added to my Home and AppleTV except for this one, there seems to be an issue with the iCloud at the side of Apple.


(and yes, this user is not blocked, 2FA is on, iOS 16.6)

HomeKit Home Invitation not delivered

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