HomeKit accessories not responding in home, but do work outside.

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Level 1

55 points

HomeKit accessories not responding in home, but do work outside.

Hello,

I just recently got a new Hunter Signal Ceiling fan which is one of the first HomeKit enabled fans. I have gone through the setup on my iPhone 7 Plus for the fan about 20 times. Each time, the setup works and the fan is controllable for about 1 - 5 minutes each time. Then both the buttons for the Fan and the Light start to show "No Response" on them. Clicking the buttons, surprise, has no effect on the fan or the light.

I have my Apple TV (4th Generation) setup as a hub. I also tried setting up my iPad as a hub. Neither helped with getting my fan to work. However... today we were out shopping and I happened to pull up the control center. I noticed that both the light and the fan buttons no longer said "No Response" and I tapped one. After a few seconds, the fan button said it was now on. Then I tried the light. Same positive response. I played with them a few moments and everything seemed to work... except I couldn't be sure because, you know, I wasn't at home.

So, when I got home, I tried again... back to "No Response" on the buttons. What the heck? So I then turned off the wifi on my phone and guess what? The "No Response" disappeared and both the fan and the light work.

So there's something about when my iphone is on my own wifi network, it can not talk to the HomeKit accessories. That makes no sense. Why would that be? Is there something on my router that I need to unblock (although I looked and could not find anything that is blocked).

I have contacted the support team for the fan as well. But I am starting to think that this is something with the iPhone, not the fan. Oh, and opening up HomeKit on the iPad will not work internally either.

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Bob

iPhone 7 Plus, iOS 10.0.2

Posted on Oct 2, 2016 5:36 PM

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Answer 1

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Oct 4, 2016 7:10 AM in response to U2SockMonkey

Greetings, U2SockMonkey!
From reviewing your post, you've set up your Hunter Signal Ceiling Fan in your HomeKit and are using your AppleTV and iPad as hubs. Your iPhone 7 Plus on iOS 10.0.2 is intermittently getting a message of "no response" when you try to control your ceiling fan with it but it worked fine while you were away from home. This is apparently only happening at home and I'll be glad to help you get that working correctly.
If your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch won’t connect to a Wi-Fi network -- I've found that iOS devices and a home network can stop talking to each other. Follow the steps in this article to make sure your home's Wi-Fi signal is strong and consistent.

Take care and thanks for using Apple Support Communities!

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Answer 2

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 4, 2016 7:15 AM in response to SnickZ.

Um, yeah... that's not the problem. My WiFi signal is very strong and everything is connected just fine. I'm not a novice at this stuff. I also happen to be an iOS developer. This is a bigger issue.

Since my initial post, the connection to the light/fan have also stopped working when not connected to wifi.

Bob

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Answer 3

Oct 4, 2016 12:45 PM in response to U2SockMonkey

I also have a new Hunter fan with HomeKit and have experienced the same thing. However, the fans do not work outside the home either. They seem to come online randomly inside the Home app and then quickly drop off. I'm not sure what's going on. All my other HomeKit devices work fine.

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Answer 4

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 4, 2016 12:46 PM in response to napereirajr

napereirajr,

I am sorry you are experiencing the same issue, but I am glad to know it's not just me. Gives me hope that there's a firmware update for the fan or something that might correct this. Thanks for your reply.

Bob

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Answer 5

Oct 4, 2016 12:57 PM in response to U2SockMonkey

Something I've been testing that seems (at least for now) a workaround is to remove the light/fan from HomeKit. Then re-add them, but do NOT include them in your favorites list. Just keep them in the room you want them to be in. They seem to work better this way at least for now.

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Answer 6

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 5, 2016 6:04 AM in response to napereirajr

I was hopeful that this would fix my issue. Unfortunately, it did not. I did as you say and by the time I was done setting up the light (fan comes first in the setup) both items were showing up as "No Response." So immediately I was unable to use them.

This is so frustrating considering how expensive this fan is from Hunter. It should not be this difficult in the Apple Ecosystem. Remember when stuff just worked?

Bob

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Answer 7

Oct 6, 2016 12:00 PM in response to U2SockMonkey

Yeah my fix didn't last long.. only for about 10 minutes and then the devices went offline!

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Answer 8

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 9, 2016 9:50 AM in response to napereirajr

OK, so over the last few days I kept noticing that my fan and light would become available at times and be unavailable at others. I was trying to figure out what was causing the difference. I finally figured it out, I think.

After some time and retracing of events I found that when my AppleTV 4th Gen (which is logged into my iCloud account - therefore acting as a Home hub) is powered on, my HomeKit devices work. When it goes into sleep mode (Off) the devices display "No Response". The thing is, these devices are supposed to work without a hub, are they not? They should work inside the house on the same network. The hub is supposed to be for accessing them outside the home.

i have tried removing the hub from the equation by loggong out of my iCloud account on the AppleTV. But I still get "No Response" from the devices.

Sounds like a HomeKit issue when not using a hub on and phone is on wifi. Also, when I turn off wifi and try to access the devices (with the hub active and on) the devices are also unavailable. So working ouside the house is not working.

I'm sitting here right now and it's working with this config...

- Hub setup and not asleep.

- WiFi on And connected to home network.

- Bluetooth on.

Bob

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Answer 9

Oct 9, 2016 10:07 AM in response to U2SockMonkey

I've had my Apple TV set to not sleep since the start. The only devices that go offline is the Hunter Fan/Light. I'm not sure what to do 😟

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Answer 10

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 12, 2016 12:35 PM in response to napereirajr

Just got this message from the Hunter Fan Company support folks...

Hello Bob,

Thank you for contacting Hunter Fan Company.

We want to apologize for the problem you are having with the Apple HomeKit not working with your new ceiling fan. We are aware of the issue and working with Apple on the solution to the connection problem. It is an isolated issue with the new IOS 10 update. Our engineering team and the Apple development team hope to have a solution in the very near future.

At this point there are two options.

1. The fan can be used with the handheld remote until we have the solution, which will be a update "push" to the app when there is a fix.

2. You can return the fan for a full refund, according to the store return policy. Because of this issue, we will happily offer you our Friend and Family Option to purchase one of our other fans with up to a 45% discount.

Thank you again for your understanding as we attempt to solve the issue.

So I am going to hang on to the fan in hopes that it is fixed with this pushed out update. I'll post back here if I see any changes.

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Answer 11

Oct 12, 2016 3:01 PM in response to U2SockMonkey

Thanks for the update! I will also hang onto it (seriously I don't have it in me to take that thing down). I will also await the update.

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Answer 12

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 19, 2016 10:16 AM in response to U2SockMonkey

It looks like the latest beta of iOS 10.1 has corrected the issue. The specific version is beta 4 that was released on 10/18/2016. I can now consistently control my Hunter Signal fan and light from outside my home (not on the wifi) and inside my home (on the wifi).

Fingers crossed that this is permanent.

Bob

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Answer 13

Oct 19, 2016 5:41 PM in response to U2SockMonkey

This seems to have improved things. Mine still occasionally show as offline but they come back online if I tap them.

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Answer 14

U2SockMonkey Author

Level 1

55 points

Oct 19, 2016 6:07 PM in response to napereirajr

Beta 5 just came out tonight for developers and everything still works for me. I have not had them go into "No Response" once since yesterday. Super happy that this seems fixed now.

Bob

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