HomeKit remote access not always working

I've recently been having similar issues. I was using an Apple TV 4th Gen and it started to disconnect as my home hub. I bought a Apple TV 4K because I wanted one and it is having the same problem connecting. I've haven't tried adjusting my router settings, but maybe I will. The only thing that has worked for me is resetting the Apple TV when is disconnects. This solution only works for a day or so. It's so aggravating because this is the reason I bought home kit accessories. I hope a fix comes soon or somebody figures out what the problem is.

After setting the ATV4K to never sleep (with HomeKit enabled) I began finding the ATV in various hosed states - black screen, Logo Screen, Menu screen but unresponsive or opening any app causes the screen to flicker and then the menu screen resets (apps won't run). I spoke with support and of course they put me through a hard reset to determine if this a hardware issue. After several weeks of testing (and updating to the latest TVOS version) and finding the ATV in a hosed state 80% of the time, I've concluded the device must be defective. It's not in a cabinet and has lots of air, perhaps it is defective or perhaps the ATV4K wasn't designed to run 24X7 with an app like HomeKit that may keep it busy enough to "overheat" - Just thinking pondering all the possibilities.

Since my upgrade to iOS 11, my shared devices lost the ability for remote access (even though I have Allow Editing/Remote Access enabled). The primary home device "sometimes" works remotely. This is with an Apple TV 4.

Hence, I used my iPad Air as a HomeHub but that too also stopped working with iOS 11.3. So now I don't have any remote access. I just have the message my hub is not responding and my devices are unavailable when I am away from home.

That’s incorrect. I’m not sure what your whole situation is, but I can tell you you for sure need the following:

-iCloud Keychain turned on

-2 Factor Authentication on

-either Apple TV 4, Apple TV 4K or HomePod as the hub for remote access

I never got away from home working. My home hub says it is connected when I’m not home too. It only says not responding for all my devices. I have 2 schlage sense locks, chamberlain garage hub, several leviton light switches (these are junk, I had 1 dead on arrival. And 2 failed working a week) and they only work when my iPhone is connected at home via wifi. I tried all the instructions and resets, updates. Followed so many threads and My Apple TV 4 gen is wired to my network. Im an IT professional and I find this ridiculous. I’m going to switch to google home or Alexa. I give up on Apple.

Yeah apple got back to me earlier this week and basically told me to wait for a future software update, but would not say for sure if it would be the next one or even the next ones after that. They wouldn’t even put that in writing, which is what makes it even more infuriating. I’m going to pester them every single day and begin to share with social media, tech sites and even news agencies. This is ridiculous for them to treat their customers like this. I’ve lost faith in Apple completely and will no longer recommend them to family and friends.

I am having similar issues.

On my iPhone on the home app the Apple TV hub shows connected however on the wife’s iPhone the same Apple TV hub shows standby.

Both phones are updated and the Apple TV is also updated.

I can interact with any device when at home and away from home but the wife’s phone can only interact when on the home Wi-fi. The home app on her phone shows not responding when away from home yet the devices are still accessible through their own apps.

Have Apple came up with a solution yet.

I have had similar issues with outside the home connectivity as well as intermittent inside home problems.

My system includes Ecobee, Hue, Lutron, Liftmaster, Eve, Hunter and Schlage locks. Th biggest issues were with the Lutron, Liftmaster and Hunter accessories. The Ecobee was intermittently connected and usually had the wrong setpoint.

I have had a surprising, substantial improvement by simply restarting my WiFi router. Inside house on WiFi works again completely. Away from home connection works with occasional hang up with the hunter fan.

Good luck.

Well, It's been months, and my remote access is still hit or miss. Some devices are fine, others are not communication. When I'm on my home network, everything seems ok.

The same issues, with the same procedures to try to fix it, sometimes it works, other times not. Log out of everything, update all devices, iphone, appleTV, etc. sign back in, multiple times until you get lucky. I've been relying on the stand alone apps from the manufacture to check on devices remotely. I really wanted one place to do everything, the HOME app, but that doesn't seem to be working reliable at this time.

I’m beyond frustrated. I want Apple to reimburse me on all the time and money I’ve spent on HomeKit enabled devices, and the time I’ve now spent trying to make it work after it broke. I have all these expensive smart devices that have zero functionality. So disgusted.

3. Click on your name listed in People and my issue was that "Allow Remote Access" was OFF and grey out so I can't enable it.

a. To resolve this, you'll need to reset your iCloud drive. I don't recall entering a 4 digit security code, so I ended up deleting everything including the save iCloud Keychains which probably contains some HomeKit security settings.

b. Delete the Home with all the devices.

c. Remove the iCloud account from your iPhone

d. recreate the home check to make sure your account now has "Allow Remote Access" enabled. I don't know why it can't be changed at this point.

e. Invite other users. Their account allow for both Remote and Edit settings to be enabled.. strange.

4. Go to your AppleTV and logout and log back into your iCloud account. Make sure your new Home is listed there.

5. Check on your iPhone to make sure Home Hubs is listed and "Connected"

6. Disable wifi and bluetooth and test it out.

Anyways, good luck. I'm on day 3 and it's still working. I'm now going to finish purchasing the rest of my home automation devices, but not the HomePod until the 2nd or 3rd generation.

THANK YOU SO MUCH. So I followed your directions and turned off the 5ghz bands on my Unifi home network setup. It seemed to work, but only for my Lutron lights on the Home app. Very interesting because before my Apple TV 4 said “connected” when you click the location icon but the devices all said no response. My August smart locks and 1/3 of my ecobee thermostats still say no response, which I’m trying to figure out. I tried forcing my August smart doorbells to a 2.4 band network as well because the doorbells serve as a bridge for the locks, but didn’t have any luck. Thank you for the tip on the WiFi bands!

I had similar issues. some days ago I got a new router, internet connection works fine, but after some time when I haven’t use my iPad (hub) the internet dropped out. So I reinstalled the old router and everything works as before.

**** everyone. i Had the same problems with homekit. I fixed it this way:

If you are using Hue bulbs and accessories or Lifx bulbs, you can use them with homekit.

if you are able to use the Hue or Lifx app to control your smart things but are not able to use HomeKit — go to the original app for Hue or Lifx and delete one light at a time and one room at at time. Then go back and add the light back into your hue or Lifx app and then add the room back in there and assign it the newly re-added lights.

If you are using a accessory hue dimmer switch to be able to give your smart home challenged family members a physical switch for some or all of your hue lights - you have to do Add an accessory and then assign a light To the accessory Because when you deleted the light and the room - you did not delete the switch accessory but y deleted its connection to your light when you deleted the room and the light.

As you do each light this way, you will see it reappear in your HomeKit. Don’t for get to go into details in HomeKit app and name the lights and the rooms in HomeKit to make it easier to find the correct one. If yiu don’t, they will all say default.

When you delete lifx bulbs, to reset it, turn it off and on 5 times in a row and then wait for it to blink different colors. When it is done, add in the Lifx bulb into your Lifx app. You will need to get your HomeKit number from the liftx box or you can use the Lifx app to get the homekit number after you add the Lifx bulb back into the Lifx app. Then you can configure HomeKit from the lifx app and manually enter in the number.

On a side note, I Had 3 home profiles over 2 devices (iPad and iPhone). Only 1 out of 3 of them were on both devices. However, I soemtimes tried those other home profiles when I had HomeKit troubles, hoping that it would work. I deleted the 2 extra profiles and just kept the same one that was on bother my devices. I think that was causing some of my problems as well.

Hope this helps....