Ecobee "no response" on HomeKit.

I had this problem forever! After opening up a number of cases with Ecobee and Apple I finally discovered the issue.

My home is on the larger side and we have two central air units. I have an Ecobee3 attached to both of them. I also have a distributed Wifi system, meaning I have a single (non-wifi router) connected via ethernet to three wireless access points that cover my house. (Kind of like those mesh system you see now but my system is hardwired.)

Turns out that the ecobee3 thermostats don't like it when there are more than one access point / wifi signal that they could talk to. Once I limited broadcasting of the wifi signal for the ecobee3s to a single access point everything worked again for HomeKit.

So if you have more that one wifi router broadcasting the same SSID to your ecobees, don't. Limit your signal to come from only one source or make sure that a single ecobee only "hears" one signal.

Pull your Ecobee face off the wall, wait a moment, then put it back on. Fixed the issue for me. 🙂

This page is the top result on my google search, but I found the above answer much farther down. Try this first before diving into more complex solutions. Redoing Homekit setup is a huge hassle, it should be the nuclear solution when nothing else works.

I think I discovered a fix for this. After doing all the recommended steps such as making sure my Apple TV was on the same 2.4 GHz wifi network that the ecobee is, it dawned on me that the disconnects might be because either the Apple TV or the ecobee (or both) are getting a new IP from my router every day or two.

The fix: Assign a reserved IP address on your routers DHCP assignment page. Ever since my Apple TV and ecobee always get the same IP address from my router whenever the lease expires, they have been working fine and no disconnects anymore. It's been 1 day so far but I'll give it a few more and let you know if anything changes.

Yes its been working since my original post saying I think I found a fix. Right from the beginning of discovering this I set both my apple TV and ecobee to a reserved IP address, so I'm not sure which one of them was the problem. It has not disconnected from homekit a single time since I've done this.

So far, a reserved IP addresses for my Ecobee and AppleTV seem to have fixed the issue for me (it's also possible that its all just a coincidence and the problem would have gone away on it's own anyway). I dont' know which one (if either) was the problem, or if both of them were the problem, but the problem hasnt' come back so far. I am still running a mixed 2.4ghz and 5ghz network with the same SSID, though I will note that my AppleTV is on a wired connection (and was previously. I had noted above that I had been considering switching it to a wireless connection but couldn't remember if I had or not. It turns out I had not done so). If I do switch it to a wireless connection at some point I'll be sure to make sure it has a fixed IP address there too.

I should also note that, not too long after I first switched to fixed IP addresses for the Ecobee and AppleTV I also upgraded all of my networking equipment (and set up reserved IP's there as well), so it's also possible that my newer Ubiquiti Unifi networking equipment has brought more stability with it. The problem didn't recur during the time I was still using my Airport Extreme, but that ended up only being a few weeks, so that could have just been the few weeks that these things sometimes seem to work between resets. I'll keep watching it and see if the problem recurs.

I removed the ecobee from the wall for a few moments and it fixed the problem.

Did you give your Apple TV and the ecobee a reserved IP? And then reboot both?

i tried connecting all ecobees and my hub (apple tv, 4th generation) to a dedicated 2.4ghz ssid. again, they stayed connected for 24 hours, now disconnected.

ive escalated this matter to a "lead field tech" at apple who is escalating it to some engineers he works with

they claim they are aware of issues similar to mine (disconnections and geofence based automations not working) and that they are working on it.

man what a waste of time thus far on this

Taking the thermostat off the wall was key. Without doing that the option to remove from HomeKit was missing (on the device under “Reset”). Doing a full reset didn’t work, but unplugging worked.

I have two ecobee 3’s and was able to confirm the process (both had stopped responding to HomeKit).

Thank you!

I am now having the same problem with the ecobee3 and have set port reservations within my Eero 2nd Gen mesh network for all three of my Apple TVs (4th generation) and for my iPad, which acts as a HomeKit hub, and for the ecobee3. After doing so, I pulled the ecobee3 off the wall for about 5 minutes and then hooked it back in. No luck - the Home app will still report all ecobee stuff as "No Response." I can get it to work if I manually force press on the icon for the thermostat - that seems to reset it - but it only lasts while I'm in the app. As soon as I press the standby button on my iPhone X, and then go back in, the problem comes back.

I'm convinced this problem is somehow caused by a faulty interaction between the ecobee3 and the Hue bridges that are also on my network. Since adding a 2nd Hue bridge and some additional bulbs last week, neither the ecobee nor the Hue system has been as reliable as it once was. Highly frustrating, to say the least, especially because I'm out of ideas to troubleshoot it.

I've set reserved IP for both Apple TV and ecobee 4. I honestly bought a smartthings hub and am about to abandon homekit - shame though, homekit is so pretty.

I'll report back in a week or so if it doesn't fall off, or sooner if it does.

+1

Would like to follow this thread. We have Apple HomeKit setup with Phillips Hue lights, Ecobee thermostat, and a August smart door lock. All work great except the Ecobee, which looses connection A LOT.

We have the Apple TV 4 as a hub and for some reason we get the "no response" message on the ecobee icon most of the time.

Have tried deleting EVERYTHING from HomeKit and rebuilding it up from scratch but once again, ecobee works for a little then back to "no responce".

They need to update the firmware and boost the HomeKit Bluetooth? signal or something. :/

I did this but a few days later it happened again. This "solution" is not sufficient if you are away from home trying to remotely connect to your thermostat! Ridiculous this HomeKit stuff just does not work.

I've gone to ecobee support many time regarding this and they are of no help. My ecobee randomly connects and disconnects from HomeKit .. the only device in the entire house that has difficulty staying connected and functioning under HomeKit.