HomeKit remote access not always working

Ok! This was frustrating, but this is what I did and seems to work - not perfectly, but works.

So, I have 1 Apple TV, 1 iPad, 2 iPhones, 1 Ecobee, 3 Koogeek outlets (more to come)

1. Update software for all devices, update firmware for Koogeek using their app (for koogeek, you have to add the device using Home app, update it in Koogeek app, then in Koogeek app update the firmware (should be above version 2))

2. Remove all devices from Home app

3. Reset Apple TV - log in using one of my two apple ID's.

4. Log into iPad using the same apple ID.

5. Set up Home in iPad and use it as a Hub

At this point, I have Apple TV as the hub and iPad as standby

6. Invite my other apple ID and my wife's apple ID to control home (gave edit options)

7. Reset all outlets, and add it to home.

8. Add Ecobee to home.

After this - it looked like everything is working, inside and outside home.

Now, on day 2 when I was outside - all devices had NO RESPONSE in home app. I still could control Ecobee from Ecobee app. I came home, and still was showing NO RESPONSE. My wifi works fine, download/upload, facetime everything.

So, I plugged off and plugged back in my modem+router and worked outside my house for 2 more days.

Since then, I have to restart my moden+router every other day. I dont want to get a new modem and router as I feel its not the issue, I rarely have issues with it. (Maybe I have to bite the bullet and get a new set).

This is not the end of the story, when I am outside I sometimes get NO RESPONSE on certain devices, but I still can control those devices. Makes no sense!

I am not a fan of Alexa and google home, I want to stick to Siri, but boy are making it tough for everyone.

Apple needs to get it's act together!

I’ve been in IT for over 30 years. I learned to program using key punch cards, I use to setup network by binding protocols to NIC cards, manually mapped memory when there were TSR programs. I’m no stranger to trouble shooting issues. All of the I have seem to point to the HomeKit hub as the issue. I too would loose some functionality in HomeKit but other devices worked fine remotely. If I can control some of the devices with HomeKit I would have to assume I have communication to and through my HomeKit hub. At times even on the WiFi I couldn’t control my lights or garage. As soon as I would go into the native app, hue or myq, HomeKit appears to link back up. I haven’t seen this much since some updates, which leads me to believe they have fixed some things, but there are still lingering issues they have yet to resolve.

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

**** 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....

Not biased at all. HomeKit has been around for over 4 years and it’s still just as buggy and inconsistent as day 1. I’ve had the latest gen Apple hardware at every product release for those 4 years and updated to the latest TvOS, iOS, MacOS as soon as it is released. I have yet to go a month without a failure (minor or major) of the HomeKit system. The worst is when I have scenes scheduled to make sure the house warms up for my dogs after I leave for work and then coming home to find out my thermostat didn’t change at all.

HomeKit is a product failure in my book. Something that should make life easier and take some of the thought/worry/effort out of the day, that instead has me worried it’s too cold or thinking about turning on the lights so the house isn’t dark when I get home.

Worst of all, my HomeKit was entirely setup using a centralized account on an iPhone that sits in my living room on WiFi 24/7. That device should always be able to connect even if the thermostat doesn’t want to participate with remote access. And yet I came home today to 1 of 3 lights I expected on, and two shivering dogs because the thermostat never flipped the heat on. So even having a device on WiFi aside from the home hub and accessories doesn’t make the automation work. Complete failure.

I power cycled my Apple TV and it started working remotely again. Will see for how long.

Yes to all...and I have an ATV 4.

I’m not sure then. All I can say is Apple has some serious hugs they need to straighten out. I’ll post if I get anything resolved with them on my issue.