Bluetooth range reduced after installing tvos 12

I have the same problem. I have 8 Elgato Eve power points and an Apple TV4 as a hub. Before ios12, everything worked, although the two farthest Eve’s from the hub did occasionally (maybe 2% of the time) give “not responding” messages, but simply trying again did the trick. Since I installed TVos12, those same two Eves are now not responding about 33% of the tIme. Automations are failing, I’m waking up at 4am with the lamps attached to those Eves still switched on.

TVos12 has indeed reduced the Bluetooth LE range/power somehow.

Jon

I’m not sure another AppleTV actually will act as a repeater. See this page

Set up your HomePod, Apple TV, or iPad as a home hub - Apple Support

which states that “If you have multiple home hubs set up, the primary home hub will show as connected. The other home hubs will show Standby as their status and will take over remote access if the main home hub is disconnected”.

Its not clear to me what “disconnected” means in this context. Does it mean if the homekit device becomes disconnected from one particular AppleTV, or does it mean one particular AppleTV becomes disconnected from the internet? Anyone know for sure?

One thing that I would wish very much, would be an app (or OS feature) in ATV to monitor the HomeKit operations and status. That would be very useful.

It seems to me that the feedback form would be useful for such things.

Bluetooth accessories still working exactly the same on my system and have not seen any other reports. You would need to consult the manual for the lock and/or contact the manufacture. Downgrading is not supported.

If multiple brand locks have the same issue all starting at the same time how can you honestly say it’s the locks? Technically speaking my one ATV is running 11.4.1 now and it is now talking to the locks again.

Koogeek and Eve Bluetooth HomeKit accessories are also having problems after tvOS 12 iOS 12. Just take a look outside of this closed forum. The mods here will tell you it is all those brands and various devices that have the issues and not the recent major release of software that EVERY user having these issues is using. Statistically that’s impossible.

Same issue, however I've upgraded to tvos 12.0.1 and even purchased a new accessory and still seeing the issue. My issue is with sylvania a19 light bulbs. If i'm in the same room as the bulb they work fine, even the automation works if they are near the hub, however one is around the corner of a wall and doesnt work...these all worked fine before ios12.

my fibaro leak sensor is no longer communicating to my apple tv4 with os 12, if I move it closer its fine, but that's not where I need the leak sensor (and where it has worked fine for over 7 months on OS 11).

I have observed this too. I have two Elgato Eve devices (door sensor and wall switch) located about 50 feet from the ATV4.

Yes, I understand that Bluetooth range is typically advertised as 30 feet, but even with my extreme placement, these two devices were working with 99% reliability. Even my WiFi accessories have never been 100% so I was perfectly satisfied.

Immediately after the upgrade to tvOS 12, these two devices (and ONLY these two devices) have permanently lost the ability to communicate to the ATV 4. They still work with the Elgato app when my phone is in proximity, but remote access has been lost.

I know I cannot complain to either Elgato or Apple because I am definitely outside the officially supported range, but the fact remains that tvOS 11 was able to make it work, and tvOS 12 reduced the range.

I am just hoping for a point release that may restore things to how they were, otherwise the only option would be to get another ATV just to act as a repeater.

Since upgrade to tvOS 12.0.x I later noticed I couldn’t control Elgato Eve Energy with Apple TVs Siri (but fully working with Siri on iPhone/iPad iOS 12.0.x

To cut it short: the solution was simple.. Apple TV: turn Siri Off and then back On. I then hold down the two bottons Menu and Home onbthe Siri Controller until the Apple TVs blue lights started to flicker after a couple of seconds.. that will reboot the Apple TV when releasing the buttons.

Whenntje Apple TV had restarted, I pressed the Siri button on the controller and a menu came up asking me if I wanted to activate Siri.. Yes! (Activate). Press Siri button again and say your Siri command. My Elgato Eve Energy command is ”turn on the heat” and now it worked again on Apple TV 4, tvOS 12.0.1.

Note: I strongly disbelieve the bluetooth strength has bern lowered.. my Elgato is only 50 cm (less than 2 foot) from the aTV.

Seems you were having an entirely different problem than I was. I never use Siri on the ATV so that as zero to do with my issue and my closest Premis always works, it’s the one about 20 feet away that doesn’t work with tvOS 12. When 11.4.1 is used it magically works again. So the difference is with tvOS 12 and the main issue is that further away BLE devices that work on the same hardware with 11.4.1 no longer work on 12, nothing to do with Siri for this issue.

I face exactly the same problem after upgrading my appleTV to tvos12. Elgato and fibaro devices cannot connect anymore if they are too far away from my ATV. it was working perfectly before...

I hope this issue will be solved soon.

I have two Schlage Smart Sense Deadbolt locks. I have an Apple TV (4th Generation) running tvOS 12 acting as a HomeKit bridge. All this worked great for a couple of months, but recently, when using Siri on my iPhone 6s running iOS 12.0.1 to "Unlock the front door" I get

Sorry, I can't unlock your doors. For more details, check the Home app.

but when I got to the Home app, I can lock and unlock my doors without problem.

other times I get

Hmm. I didn't hear back from your lock. You might want to check on it.

but the door unlocks as requested.

I've tried rebooting my router, Apple TV and phone, but still have the problem. I reset one of the locks and re-added it to Home Kit, but that didn't help.

Finally, I downgraded my AppleTV to tvOS 10.2.2 because this is the only non-12 version that Apple is signing. My Schlage locks are working without problem now.

Seems after upgrading to the final release of tvOS 12.1 my locks now respond as they did prior to tvOS 12.0. So it looks as though they fixed it. I tested with disabling Bluetooth on my iPhone and unplugging my ATV running 11.x so only thing ATV running 12.1 was the home hub and all of the locks worked again. So I guess it was an Apple issue in contrast to what the mod had said.

Upgrade to tvOS 12.1 made no difference for me. Range is still poor and lock will not communicate. Even with my iPhone running 12.1, the range is reduced and I now have to stand very close to the lock for it to work; no such problems with 11.x on ATV or iPhone.