Fixing HomeKit devices showing "No Response" in Home

Question

Fixing HomeKit devices showing "No Response" in Home

I had several devices that had been working with HomeKit start showing No Response in the Home app. I believe this started happening after a power outage.

All the devices are from Meross, though I'm not sure this is necessarily relevant. However, not all of my Meross devices were showing No Response: I have a Meross smart lamp that was showing No Response, an outdoor smart dimmer that was showing No Response, and an outdoor smart plug that was showing No Response but in addition I have 2 indoor smart plugs (they are identical, purchased in a 2-pack I believe) and while one of them was showing No Reponse, the other was functioning properly with HomeKit and the Home app. All devices worked properly with the Meross app (except for the outdoor smart dimmer which I don't have added in the Meross app).

I tried powering the devices off, leaving them unpowered for in excess of 30 seconds, and then powering them back on. This did eliminate the issue for the outdoor smart plug, but not for the other devices (so I still had 3 devices showing No Response).

If you search you will find lots of people that tell you if you power the device off and back on and it still shows No Response you should remove it from Home and add it again and it always comes across as if this is no big deal which baffles me: do people not use scenes and automations? If you remove a device from Home and add it again, all the scenes and automations it was previously associated with must be reconfigured for the now "new device" and this can take a large amount of time if you have the device associated with numerous scenes and automations. So no, I'm not going to just remove the devices from home and add them back without exhausting every possible avenue.

Posted on Dec 15, 2024 11:42 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Dec 15, 2024 11:50 AM in response to jladams97-apple

Fortunately, in my case I was able to find a solution that did not involve removing the devices from Apple Home and adding them again. In the Home app in iOS/iPadOS 18 you can now choose your Preferred Home Hub and this came in handy, though I imagine I could have worked my way to a solution even without it. Here's what I did:

I touched the icon in the upper right corner of the app with the circle around the 3 dots.
Then on the menu that appeared I touched Home Settings.
Then I scrolled down to the Home Hubs & Bridges option and touched that.
In the Preferred Home Hub section (I already had Automatic Selection turned off; this is required for you to see the Preferred Home Hub section) I touched another home hub (I have several Apple TVs and HomePod minis).
Then I touched the Back link at the top and waited a few seconds for the change to be implemented.
Then I again touched the Home Hubs & Bridges option and verified that the Active Home Hub listed at top was the new hub I had selected.

And that was it. That solved the problem, all the remaining devices that had been listed as No Response were then working properly.

But here's the kicker: when I changed the Preferred Home Hub back to the original home hub, all devices that had been showing No Response before I changed the Preferred Home Hub to another home hub (so that was 3 devices) all once again showed No Response. This indicated beyond any doubt that the issue was that something was "out of whack" with that specific home hub as pertains to how it communicated (or didn't, as the case may be) with these specific devices. And so from there I knew what to do: I unplugged that home hub (which happened to be an Apple TV), waited a few seconds, and plugged it back in. After letting the home hub boot back up, I checked it and was showing as the Active Home Hub and all the devices were still properly responding, which was yet further indication that the issue had been with that specific Apple TV.

So, if you encounter one of your devices suddenly start showing No Response, do try disconnecting the device from power for 10+ seconds then reconnecting it, but if it doesn't work to get the device to stop showing No Response, your next move should be to try switching your Preferred Home Hub, if you have multiple, and if that resolves the issue then you should reboot the problematic home hub at which point you should be able to set it again as your Preferred Home Hub if you would like; if you only have a single home hub then you would want to immediately try rebooting it.

Honestly, it's a little shocking that all these people tell you when this issue happens you should try rebooting the device and then they just jump right to telling you to remove the device from Apple Home and add it again without first suggesting that you reboot the Home hub. I mean, if rebooting the device might help, doesn't it makes sense that it might also help to reboot the Home hub? In any case, as my experience shows, it can in fact help to reboot the Home hub.

Reply