Unable to set up Apple TV (4th gen) as Home Hub

I oversee IT for my organization, and I'm about 18-20 hours into trying to fix this and still don't have a solution. What's strange is I used to see the connection status for Homekit on the ATV4 and everything worked great remotely. But, mysteriously it disappeared about a month ago and remote access hasn't worked since. When I say I've tried everything in every possible order, I'm not exaggerating. Here are some of the details:

Hardware

• Three Apple TV 4th Gen - two were ethernet connected and one was wifi.
• iPhone 7 Plus
• iPad Pro
• iPhone 6
• iPhone 6 Plus (Wife's phone, separate iCloud account but linked through family settings)
• iPad 2
• Philips Hue system with about 12 bulbs
• Lutron system with about 6 connected wall switches (These were added after home hub disappeared.)

Here's what I have tried as far as hardware

AppleTV

1. Factory reset all three ATVs at least 2-3 times

2. Tried wifi on all three, on two of three, factory reset and booted back on wifi, etc.

3. Unplugged two of them completely and tried a single device (with factory reset)

iPhones/iPads

1. Factory reset the iPhone 6

Software

Everything is running the most current OS. On the Home app, I have tried:

1. Removing my home and starting over completely at least 3 times from the iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 6 and iPad Pro

iCloud

Two Factor is on, Keychain is on. Here's what I've tried as far as iCloud:

1. Changing my iCloud password

2. Logging out of iCloud completely on every device, turning them on in every conceivable order, then logging in

3. Turning keychain off on one or all, rebooting, etc.

4. Turning homekit off on one or all, rebooting, etc.

5. Turning two factor OFF, logging out of everything, rebooting, etc.

6. Even tried creating a new iCloud account on the iPhone 6 and logging in on one AppleTV with those new credentials

7. At the appleid.apple.com website, I've removed everything from the Device list and added every combination from 1 to all back.

Closing Thoughts

Cartaa - I do not see an option to "reset homekit" in either the privacy menu or location services menu.

One thing I can't figure out (which could be part of the problem): Even after removing the Apple TVs from the devices iCloud menu, then factory resetting, when I configure the AppleTV as new, the name doesn't match in the devices. For example, if I change the name from the default "Apple TV" to something like "Living Room", then log into iCloud, under the devices menu in iCloud settings, it shows the approved device as "Sun Room" (or whatever room it used to be called BEFORE the factory reset).

I've rebooted devices more times than I can count. Talked to Apple Customer Care for over an hour, but I'm still stuck. The crazy thing is, if I set up the iPad Pro to serve as the hub, it works. But, it's not practical because I have the iPad Pro with me when I'm away from home. I have never been so frustrated. If there is ANYTHING you think I should try, please tell me. I'm desperate! Thanks!

I tried setting up the two factor authentication and had nothing but issues. I absolutely hated it. I set up home hub with my iPad for remote access.

The two factor authentication was more of a pain trying to access my own purchases or make purchases. I will not use it.

I did two things without checking which worked:

First, I went to https://appleid.apple.com and looked over my account. I noticed that a secondary email address I use had a "verify" button. I went ahead and verified the email.

Secondly, I turned off "HomeKit" on the iCloud settings on my iPhone, and rebooted the iPhone with it turned off. Then I turned it back on. After doing these two things, I noticed that the Home iOS app no longer had a dialogue about not being able to access remotely. Turned off wifi and was able to access my lamp via cellular.

Of course, all of this is after signing out/singing in again multiple times on my Apple TV, so I'm not sure what did the trick. I know Apple's aim is to have things "just work", but it would have been helpful to have some kind of diagnostic checklist showing why something is or is not working. Same wifi? Check. Two Factor On? Check. Account Needs Attention? Please visit appleid.apple.com and update some info. Is there usually a delay before this works? Make the user aware.

I spent hours with apple on the phone, elevated levels of tech support, discovered my ipad would connect but my gen 4 atv would not. I was told it was my wireless router (as they had no solution) after over 2 hours on the phone, resetting my appletv, logging in and out of icloud on multiple devices, etc. This was 3/16/17. I gave up as I didn't want my ipad on all the time. I figured this morning I'd try again since iOS11 and TVOS 11.0 was out. Still no luck. Homekit wouldn't show under my apple id. I rebooted the atv, logged in and out of my id and nothing. I toggled my ipad on and off homekit and still nothing. After a reset of the ATV it finally took.

I'm so disgusted at Apple for wasting hours of my time and pointing the finger other places besides themselves. Thanks for everyone's posts on here. Very helpful to finally get this Apple defect working. Great company but sometimes you have to look within for the solution.

Here is the solution:

1. Make sure Home Kit is working on your phone or iPad and you can control a device

2. Make sure your AppleTV 4-gen is running latest os

3. Enble Two-factor Authentication on you device (this is a process so search how to do it)

4. Sign out of iCloud on AppleTV

5. Sign in to iCloud on AppleTV using Two-factor Authentication

6. On your iOS device from step 1, control a device, make it do something like turn a light on or change temp

7. Restart your AppleTV

8. Go to Settings>Accounts>iCloud and HomeKit should now be there

This is crazy. I have just run into the same issue of the Apple TV4 not working as a HomeKit Hub for LTE connectivity to my HomeKit-compatible devices.

I followed all the steps that Apple outlines for troubleshooting of this issue:

1. Make sure that the iPhone where the HomeKit "home" was created is on Wi-Fi

2. Sign out of the iCloud account on Apple TV4

3. Sign in with the same iCloud account to the Apple TV4 as the iCloud account that created a HomeKit "home"

4. On Apple TV4, in Settings, navigate to Accounts > iCloud

5 If you don't see the name of the "home" there, reboot Apple TV

6. Try the above steps again.

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None of this worked. Then, I went to my office and got my old iPad Air, which was already logged in to the same iCloud account. I almost never use this iPad, so it was out of battery. I plugged it in, and as soon as it powered up, I went to Settings > Accounts &Passwords, then tapped on the name logged into the iCloud account and then tapped on Devices. I saw that the Apple TV was showing there (just like it was showing on my iPhone in the same place). At this point, on Apple TV4, I went to Settings > Accounts > iCloud, and guess what? The "home" (that was created in the iPhone under the same iCloud account) showed up in Apple TV4 in Settings > Accounts > iCloud.

Another thing that I did prior to powering up my iPad was

1. Log out of my account on Apple TV4

2. Delete Apple TV4 on my iPhone from Accounts & Passwords > *my_account_name* > Devices

3. Log in with my iCloud account on Apple TV4 (Settings > Accounts > iCloud)

4. Authenticate the Apple TV4 from my iPhone via the 2-factor-authentication prompt that showed up on my iPhone

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I hope this helps someone. I think Apple is crazy to make people jump through these hoops. It makes no sense that a stale iCloud account on the iPad that hasn't been turned on for a while corrupts the ability of the Apple TV4 to be a hub for LTE connectivity to the HomeKit compatible devices.

I can come up with a reason why this happened to me. Apple upgraded HomeKit with new features in iOS 11. I haven't turned my iPad on since iOS 11 came out. Since my account was signed in as the iCloud account on the iPad, the iPad automatically became a HomeKit hub (along with Apple TV4). When new HomeKit features came out, because iPad was turned off, the iCloud couldn't enable these new features in the HomeKit hub running on the iPad. So, the algorithm decided that my Apple TV4 should not be the HomeKit hub until my iPad powers on gets online and can be updated with the new HomeKit features. So, it makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is:

1. If I have an Apple TV4 at home, I should have an option for the iPad not to be the HomeKit hub, but there's no option to opt out of being a HomeKit hub on the iPad.

2. Apple instructions never mention having to power up the iPad and have it connected to the Internet to re-enable the HomKit hub capability on the AppleTV.

3. How flaky the HomeKit is. It breaks down all the time. It's an expensive toy - not a true home automation platform.

The answer at the bottom of this thread worked for me.

- sign out of iCloud on the AppleTV

- on your iPhone, go into your iCloud settings and remove the AppleTV in your list of devices (this is the key to solve the riddle)

- reset the AppleTV

- repeat the AppleTV setup.

Done.

After much troubleshooting and a couple of calls to Apple Support, I FINALLY found out what was preventing my use case as far as setting up my Apple TV as a home hub for a HomeKit profile.

I followed pretty much all of the troubleshooting steps in this thread short of wiping my iPhone, because I am NOT wiping my iPhone to fix an issue like this. I did wipe my Apple TV, and it did not help.

Here is what I had to do:

I first got an iHome smart plug (model ISP6X) and had originally set it up using the iHome Control app, which ties into and uses the HomeKit plugins via iCloud. I ALSO set up an iHome account as they touted it as a way to control devices away from home WITHOUT having to have an Apple TV or iPad. At the time, I thought "OK, cool, that makes it easier".

Fast forward 2 weeks. After signing out of iCloud numerous times on all my devices, resetting, rebooting in every conceivable order, I was STILL unable to get the HomeKit data to synchronize from one device to the other. As in I would pull up the Home app on my iPhone and, even though meeting all the security and procedural hoops such as keychain, 2FA, etc, I would NEVER see the same HomeKit Data in my iPad. It always prompted me to create a new HomeKit profile, which told me that the HomeKit data was NOT syncing via iCloud the way it was supposed to.

Then a light went off (pun intended) as I was waiting for Apple Support to call back for another round of troubleshooting. What if the iHome Control app , using the iHome account, and its HomeKit tie-in had SOMEHOW hijacked my HomeKit data from syncing via iCloud, and thus preventing me from setting up my iPad or Apple TV as a home hub?

1. I went to re-install the iHome Control app on my iPhone and SIGNED OUT of the iHome account. This is presumably what "freed up" the ability to sync HomeKit data with iCloud.

2. I then removed the iHome Control app for good measure.

3. I deleted the existing HomeKit setup from my iPhone since it's easy to rebuild and rebooted my iPhone, again for good measure.

4. Next I set up a new HomeKit profile and one of the accessories on my iPad, but I don't know if that was necessary.

5. I then checked my iPhone and VOILA! The HomeKit data was FINALLY there, synced from the iPad!

6. I checked my Apple TV after rebooting, but the HomeKit option was still unavailable. It would probably show up after a while, but I forced the issue enabling my iPad as a Home Hub (as indicated elsewhere in this thread).

7. I toggled OFF the iPad as a Home Hub

8. I then checked Apple TV and sure enough, it FINALLY registered as a Home Hub as Connected.

TL;DR - Turning off the iHome account was probably what fixed my issue, though I still fail to see how it was hijacking my HomeKit data sync ability via iCloud.

I don't really care now, but I hope this helps someone else who has tried everything else listed in this thread with no resolve.

Andy

For those having this same problem... I wanted to share what worked for me.

I went to Settings, then System, then "Restart" (not reset)... when it came back on, it recognized the home kit items and it automatically connected. Just needed to restart the Apple TV (I guess unplugging it would've done it too).

Same issue here, but with iPhone 6S Plus and iPad Pro 9.7.

No "HomeKit" options under iCloud like the instructions suggest there should be.

Only HomeKit reference I could find anywhere was under "Privacy", with the only option in that being "Reset configuration" or something like that. That just made HomeKit forget about all my devices.

Have enabled two factor authentication, then signed out of iCloud on the Apple TV and back in. No luck. Tried restarting it a few times, still nothing.

Clearly the Apple TV knows about my HomeKit setup, because using the "Reset configuration" thing had an impact on what I see on my iPhone. So I'm thinking this could be a bug in TVOS 10. Very annoying that this breaks the new automation features in iOS 10.

Ok, just managed to get this working, but not entirely sure how. Was doing an online chat session with Apple support, and they basically got me to try restarting both Apple TV and iPhone a few times, and also got me to use my iPad as a Home hub, just to test that the phone bit was working, which it was. Then I tried signing out of iCloud on the Apple TV and back in. Nothing seemed to have changed, but then a few minutes later I noticed that the Apple TV was showing as a Hub on the phone app, and then checked to find the HomeKit option showing on the Apple TV under accounts / iCloud too! All working now.

Same issue with tvOs 10 and an iPhone 6 with iOS 10.0.1 (last public beta iOs)

yes for me, iPad working like a hub is working too. But no luck with apple Tv 4 and tvOs 10

I'M having the same problems. Has anyone else had better luck or spoke with Apple?

Same here, Everything running ios 10 and tvos 10 and apple tv refuses to show up as a hub.

On a side note regarding

Automate and remotely access your HomeKit accessories - Apple Support

There is no "Settings > iCloud" in apple tv.

So far the only thing tvos 10 has brought me is dark mode.