Homekit automation not triggering

I am also experiencing issues with the Home app automations not triggering and would like to share my experience.

My set up is as follow:

• 4th gen Apple TV is my Home hub
• Running IOS 10.2 on an Apple iPad and the Home app
• Only have 2 Smarthome devices set up on the Home app, an Ecobee3 thermostat and 1 iHome Outlet with a lamp plugged into it

After installing the 2 devices and setting them up in the Home app, I created Rooms and Automations. I only used the iHome Outlet in my Automations and over the next week found the device turn-ons and turn-offs to be inconsistent with the automation schedule I had set up. In addition, the devices would sometimes show as "no response" on the Home app home page. Then I noticed a message on the Ecobee widget on the Today View of my iPad that said the background app refresh was off and should be turned on. The background app refresh for the Ecobee app was on but was "greened" out. I then looked at Settings, General, Background App Refresh and saw that it was turned off. I turned it on and checked the Ecobee app and saw that it now displayed a green on condition. Since then ( for about a week now), my Automations have been working as scheduled.

Let me know if this helps.

Ok, I've got a solution.

The problem comes from philips hue bridge (or app, I don't know).

But a trigger by geofence works with Smart Plug.

I processed like that :

• My geofence put ON a smart plug (and just that)
• The trigger of the smart plug put ON the philips light

If the the smart plug in ON, lamps are ON

When I leave home, my plug put off, and lamps too

Ok, I've got a solution.

The problem comes from philips hue bridge (or app, I don't know).

But a trigger by geofence works with other elements.

I processed like that :

• My geofence (in) put ON a smart plug (and just that)
• Smart plug put ON detected => Arrived Home scene
• My geofence (out) put OFF a smart plug (and just that)
• Smart plug put OFF detected => Leave Home

Results with multiple users:

• With my girlfriend (Android device) : When she arrives home, smart Plug ON (with geofence Smart Plug App)
• Smart plug put ON => Arrived Home scene
• When she leaveshome, smart Plug OFF (with geofence Smart Plug App)
• Smart plug put OFF => Leave Home scene

The advantages of this method :

• I don't need to be disconnected of Philips Hue app with all devices, so my girlfriend (with Android) or me can control our lamps from outside.
• On my iPhone I can disable location of Philips Hue App and Background Refresh App (good for my battery).

Drawback :

• If one of user leave home, the plug put off so lamps put off too even if somebody is inside...
• But the solution is to create a trigger : Lamps put ON => smart plug put ON
• So it's a reciprocity : Lamps control plus, and plug controls lamps.

This solution is provisionnal, until Apple and Philips fix the problem, and it ask a little bit reflexion with multiple user, but it works !

I need to realize more test, and if you have more solution(s) I'm open to proposals !!

I too have experience inconsistent Philips Hue activity with HomeKit scenes. Everything was working for about a month or so but then again this week the Hue lights weren't switching on even though other HomeKit devices that are part of the same scene were triggering (i.e. Elgato Eve). Using the Home app (or Eve) I can action the lights manually and Siri is working fine; it's just the automation that is broken.

i have done a full system reset (Router, Hue Hub, Apple TV) but to no avail.

Something is definitely amiss here Apple & Philips! 😕

I have an iPhone 7 with a new Apple TV...all up to date...and I too am having (and have had for many months now) erratic automation of my Philips Hue lights via HomeKit.

Sometimes the automations work....sometimes not. All lights are controllable from the HomeKit app...but automation is works sporadically at best.

I'm seriously considering going back to "manual" plug-in automation of individual lights as, at least, that was reliable!

Maybe someone from Apple or Philips Hue can help us out before we give up?

This issue been plaguing me since HomeKit is launched. I have AppleTV 4th Generation and Philips Hue, Ecobee, Kogeek and iHome devices. AFAIK, HomeKit have been very unstable.

These devices will randomly lost connection with HomeKit (no longer controllable via the Apple "Home" app), BUT still work with the device own app.

Automation WILL stop working once in a while and there is nothing I can do to enable it again. Have to wait until something happen on the Apple side and it WILL work again.

The HomeKit infrastructure seems to have tons of issue and I stopped buying HomeKit compatible device and slowly moving towards other ecosystem (Nest Camera, Nest Thermostat, etc.) because they work well together as promised (unlike HomeKit).

Similar issue here. The automation does not work all the time especially on multiple devices. Say that both my wife and me have administrative right on the HomeKit account. Her automation based in the iPhone locations would never work. Never work! Whenever I leave, the lights all turn off even though she is still home. We both on iPhone 7 and we have an Apple TV 4 as a hub. I tried to contact Apple regarding this issue. I did receive a call from the technician who was not able to provide any meaningful help and disconnect the phone for unknow reason and never called me back. I had given up my faith on the HomeKit. I am already accept the fact that the HomeKit is another garbage after my Apple Watch. What a shame!

I have isolated the bug in my setup with Apple Home App automated triggers and Phillips Hue. Hue is my only HomeKit Device.

Short explanation: Apple Home App does reliably trigger it's automated events. Automation is broken by signing directly into "My Hue" account inside the Hue App.

Steps:

What Worked Initially For Several Days:

• Bought Hue Starter Kit.

• Downloaded Hue app.

• Setup Hue Bridge without setting up a Phillips Hue account inside the Hue App.

• Used HomeKit pin instead to establish communication.

• Proceeded to use Apple Home App, Notification Center and Hue App without issues on all my devices.

• Siri worked perfectly.

• The lights triggered on/off for sunset/sunrise via Apple Home app Automation reliably for several days.

Isolated Bug:

• Decided to create a Phillips My Hue account to explore integrations via IFTTT, etc.

• Launched Hue App on BOTH my iPhone and iPads.

• Hit ... "More" Submenu.

• Then "Log in to My Hue" to sign in to my account.

• Automation Triggers stopped working consistently.

Bug Test and Fix:

• Logged out of the Phillips MY Hue account inside the Phillips Hue app on both my iOS devices.

• Created 2 sets/series of timed on/off automations in Apple Home App.

• Let the triggers run twice successfully.

• Allowed the Sun automated triggers to run last night/this morning with success.

Result: Issue Resolved without being logged into My Hue Account inside Hue App. Is this ideal? Not sure. Does it fix the issue, yes.

Devices I own are updated to latest software:

Macbook Pro Retina

Apple Watch

iPhone 7 Plus

iPad Air 2

Apple TV 4th Generation (HomeKit Hub)

This sounded like a plausible answer to the problem so I tried this last night. Sadly, the Hue lights did not trigger on the timer even though the other Homekit devices did. So this did not work for me.

For now, I've moved all the Hue lights into homekit Scenes of their own and added them to separate Homekit timers. it's not ideal but it does seem to work, which leads me to believe that there is a bug somewhere in the Homekit rules database...

Thank you Brilliant1,

it works for me !

My scenes didn't worked with location and your solution fixed my problem.

But if I can make a precision :

I was logged on my iPad (as Home Hubs), iPhone, and the Android phone of my girlfriend, and I I had to log out on all mobile Hue accounts on all our devices !

Because just on iPhone didn't worked.

I'll try to log on the Android and I'll tell you !

I'm talking with an Apple's technical manager (in France) so i'll tell her and may be they'll fix it !

Correct. More specifically, I believe the bug is this:

Authenticating access with both the HomeKit pin in the Home App and with your My Hue account in any mobile Hue App causes a conflict in the rules database with regards to which app has actual control and the triggers fail to launch as a result.

The My Hue login inside the Hue App clearly states that by logging in with your account you can also control your bridge outside of your home. The user has already gained that access with the HomeKit pin, which is using Apple's strict security protocol based off their certified components. Redundant and possibly flagged as not secure.

Can another user confirm and replicate this issue on another HomeKit device? Curious if this is a Phillips Hue issue or if it happens with other vendors as well.

Unfortunately, the solution worked just once... 😟

Do you activative Background App Refresh ?

What is the time between you leave home and your Leave Home scene is activate ? Because it takes almost 30 minutes for me.

After, the scene "Leave Home" is always activated until I return home. So that is logical.

But when I arrived to home, the scene "Arrived Home" doesn't stay activate. Why ???

Once I had an homekit icon on my lock screen but it stayed just 2 minutes... I think location has no stability... I bought Apple because normaly it works fine and easily but I'm really disapointed by them...

And I know my gps works and geofence too, because I use IFTTT and it detects geofence.

I'll try to remove all access of all applications on my Hue bridge on "my.meethue.com"

I hope Apple will be reactive and they will not wait for iOS 11 to share a correction.

(sorry for my poor english)

Gold morning Will. I just activated my wife's backrounf app refresh. Hopefully that works. My scenes activate as soon as I come into and leave my geofence for my wife it is never as it doesn't recognize her location in the HomeKit.

apple doesn't get back to me. I believe it's because they know there is an issue. Has anyone gotten this to work for a second user?

I am not sure if I am having the same problem but I have found that changes that I make to Homekit automation do not seem to update on my AppleTV (4th generation) until I restart the AppleTV. I am not sure if that is by design but I have never seen the need to restart in any documentation.

I will say that when I tried to enable my AppleTV as a home hub, I had to try a lot of different suggestions from other users to get the HomeKit setting to show up under iCloud settings. It seemed like turning location services off and on fixed that issue... That certainly didn't seem normal so it could be that something about my AppleTV is not updating properly to begin with.

I realize everyone in this thread seems to be using the Hue Hub/Hue app and having issues with Automations triggering reliably. Just wanted to add that I have a new Lutron Caseta Hub/Lutron app and am also having trouble with Automations. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. It is very frustrating, to say the least.

I am intrigued by the idea that the 3rd party app may be conflicting-I will try to remove my Lutron app and see if that changes anything.

Also, if there are any Apple Community reps reading-you really need a HomeKit Support area-trying to find help for this app is ridiculous-it is spread between the Apple Developers forum, the iPhone forum, the iPad forum, the AppleTV forum, and the HomeSharing forum. Tim Cook just rhapsodized in the latest financial call about how great HomeKit is-obviously he has never looked here to try to get help.