HomeKit remote access not always working

Had the exact same problem, no response from devicwhile on cellular but works fine on home WiFi. I turned off WiFi on iphone then reset Apple TV then force quit home app then reopened home app. Seems to work for me.

Another update. Later in the day/week, my ecobee device stopped working thru Homekit once again. My other devices still worked however. I have since gone back to the wifi setup on the ecobee, and just reconnected to the wifi again. I've had to do this a few times. I ran the wifi setup again last night, and I'm still connected as of right now at work. I reciently did the new iOS update 11.2. Not sure if this helped solve the issue or not. I'll have to see how long my ecobee still works thru homekit this time.

Hi! I'm having the same issue, only I'm a guest user on my partner's account. It won't let me access HomeKit to control anything unless I'm in the same Wifi as the HomeKit hub. I was hoping the recent iOS 11.2 update would fix it, but alas, no such luck. The Apple TV is set up as the hub and I've tried toggling, turning off and on and it won't work. I've had this issue since he connected me to it when he first set it all up.

My HomeKit has been working with no issues, either remotely or when connected to wifi. I'm at work now, and can see my ecobee temp, and control my lights. I made sure I have every device updated and patched. As a note, I have not tried to re-setup the leviton control back up. Last time I did, it seemed be the same time I started having these issues. It's probably unrelated, but I'm still not quite sure I want to tackle that again. Maybe when I'm home on Christmas break. I thought I saw a few articles about how they disabled shared access remotely because of some security issues related to some of the door locks.

Had a very similar issue after updating to 11.2 . I ran a Wi-fi scanner and protocol checker and noticed that when my Apple TV connected to 5ghz band the issue occurred.

I’ve worked around this by restricting my Wi-fi router to mode 2 and turning off the 5ghz band.

Also had a further issue where my Apple TV remote on iPhones would no longer see the Apple TVs. This also appears to have resolved the issue.

My lights and thermostat are all working consistently with remote access.

I have the same issue, disconnect from wif and my eco bee does not connect through HomeKit app.. works perfectly on ecobee’s app..

I tried restarting, resetting, logging out of the account and logging back in.. None of it work.. Even the smart plugs from KoolGeek has the same problem.. I am pretty sure it’s an issue with Apple TV not working as hub outside the network..

Hope they fix it soon, it’s very annoying as KoolGeek does not work Without Apple TV as hub.. I don’t want to spend money on getting a stand alone hub..

This has frustrated me as well for some time. The following two things may help some of you:

1. I have the ApplTV set to never sleep and just assumed that it was not going to sleep. Apparently, however, my television overrides the Apple TV and automatically caused the Apple TV to sleep after a period of inactivity. I shut this setting off on the TV so that the Apple TV will listen to its own setting and actually not sleep. This seemed to work until 11.2 or 11.2.1 which then caused my Hue Bulbs to not respond when not controlled by wifi.

2. I am no techy, but I assumed that if the system works on wifi, the problem must stem from the ATV4's connection to my router since the remote connection goes through that connection whereas, I think, the wifi connection is straight from the iphone to the Hue hub. In order to make sure that something was going awry in that connection, I set up a static ip address for the Apple TV so that it would always use a connection I know would work. While it is still "early," these two fixes are currently working for me.

Good luck to those experiencing this frustrating problem and please post any other fixes since I am uncertain if mine will hold long term.

I'm having a similar issue with issuing guest access; I'm the primary and I can't seem to allow 2 others in the house to control the installed devices. I've read elsewhere that the invitation should be sent to an iCloud email address. If you're not using an iCloud email address, try creating one and have the invitation sent to you at that address.

Back when I worked at Apple, we tested products thoroughly... we took great pride in our work. It seems now they think they're too big to fail and don't test thoroughly enough. So many bugs in the iPhone and newer Apple products... 😟

This is where I am now.. Inhave 4 Koogeek smart plugs, they can only be operated by HomeKit app iHome.. There is only one Wi-Fi router and it’s on single band.. I have restarted Apple TV, restarted my Wi-Fi and restarted the plugs.. When I am connected to the same Wi-Fi, I can control my thermostat but not my plugs.. So, I now have to use those plug as manual plugs.. it’s really frustrating.. I was hoping my AppleTV will be one solution to all the problems! I guess not!

I had this same issue as a guest on Homekit. While on the same network I had access, but remotely I did not. My husband uninvited and re-invited me several times, but the invite didn’t come through. In Home settings (at the bottom of where you select which Home you want), select “Leave Home”. It warns your ICloud HomeKit settings will be deleted, but as soon as you accept the invite, they will come back. Immediately after selecting “Leave Home”, the invite came through and my Homekit worked again after I accepted it.

Thanks, I did read that solution but I couldn't get that to work either. All that ended up happening is she was completely disconnected from the home and I was still unable to invite her back.

What I ended up doing is, on her phone I selected "Add Home" and sent an invite to me. I received it and immediately attempted to send an invite to her -- SUCCESS!! She received the invite and was once again added to our home. I then deleted the bogus home from HomeKit on both my phone and hers.

At this point, I can control HomeKit from anywhere, but she is still only able to control things from within the confines of our WiFi network.

Tony

I had the same problem.

Issue seemed to be that I had two apple TVs at different locations but set up as belonging to the same home.

Once I set it up again and the apple TVs belong to different homes, streaming of video works fine.

UPDATE: Well, the static IP seemed to work for a bit but as usual, a day or two later, ultimately failed. It seems odd that a "restart" of the Apple TV4 will always cure the problem for me with remote access, but only temporarily. After a day or so, it always fails requiring another restart.

What is it about the Apple TV that fails? My iPhone continues to show that the Apple TV is connected but there is something awry because it will not work remotely. Any help appreciated.

I've struggled with this off and on for some time. Finally, as a last resort, I updated to the absolute best modem router combination I could afford that was recommended by my ISP, and now I have zero problems. I couldn't believe it when I was at work the first day and everything worked and it continues to work without flaw.

Folks, I had the same issue and put the DNS settings of the Apple TV to the routers address so not a public (Open)DNS server. This resolved the (slowness) issue for me (having an Apple TV 4 with the latest OS).