Schlage Sense lock not responding on Homekit

So after spending most of Saturday on these problem Sense locks and HK, I went to the store and bought two more to see if there would be a difference in them. What a shocker the new locks paired up and work with HK flawlessly.

So it appears if you bought your locks a couple of years ago and more, it is possible that they will not work with HK like before ios12 and all this came about.

Interesting, and frustrating! I hope this isn't the case. I wonder what would make the difference between older locks and a new one if they have the same firmware version (4.31.0). The new locks you got are on 4.31.0 right?

Distance certainly isn't a problem for me. My Schlage worked for many months with my ATV gen 4, with both in exactly the same spots there have always been in. Only when updating tvOS did this become a problem. Nothing works.

Apple needs to get their act together on this. Being unreliable with home security isn't a great image to project when trying to get people to use their platform. This is unlikely to be Schlage's fault. It was working for everyone for a very long time and an Apple OS update borked it. That puts the onus on Apple to fix it.

Similar issue for me, I have 2 Schlage Sense locks, one needed to be factory reset and Apple Home wouldn't see it properly so I deleted it and tried adding it again but it just won't find the lock anymore. The other lock works fine using Home or the Schlage app (both locally and remotely). All devices (iPhone, iPad & Apple TV) are all running the latest software updates.

Just to clarify this is NOT an Apple issue as there is no way they are going to test for every 3rd party device. It is a Schlage issue, they have had and do have access to betas , SDK's and development tools to make sure their devices work seamlessly. It is on them! Apple takes a year or longer to come out with a final release so Schlage has had plenty of time. iOS12 has been out for many months now and their locks still do not work with it. Incredibly frustrating!!!!

I don’t see how it isn’t an Apple issue. Schlage locks worked for a very long time with HomeKit. Apple put out an OS update and Schlage stop working. Schlage didn’t put out a breaking update, Apple did. Maybe Schlage could have been more proactive to ensure Apple changes to the underlying protocol didn’t break their integration but it’s certainly impossible to say “this isn’t an Apple issue” when it’s clearly an Apple issue (even it’s also a Schlage issue).

I’ve been a developer long enough to not swallow every time someone tries to excuse Apple of any fault.

Quickest way to ensure more developers don’t move to support HomeKit? Continue to put out breaking OS updates and put the onus on accessory makers to keep up with breaking changes. These are not software companies, for the most part. Forcing them to play whack-a-mole on bugs and breaking changes is a great way to keep them away and on other HA platforms.

Apple provided ample time to its developers and hardware partners to test out iOS 12

This company is most likely using private API to access HomeKit. The public API has not changed significantly to break HomeKit

Schlage has two good options

1. Make their iOS app open source and allow the community to edit, modify new code

2.

When I build an app, I need to test it against the OS I am building it on. When the OS updates, I need to test my App to make sure it STILL works with the update. It is on Schlage to make sure their apps and devices work with the latest releases. It is not a static world and is dependent on the owner of the device to either fix it or work with apple to get it fixed. This rule is the same for websites and all software and has always been this way! AGAIN, does not fall on Apple but Schlage! Period.

I have 12 different devices from 7 different homekit enabled services between my home and work. Hue, Lutron, Ecobee, Schlage, iHome, iDevices and LIFX Z. Everything worked perfectly accept Schlage. This in itself is telling me that Apple is not breaking stuff but Schlage needs to do a better job supporting updates. They usually have a year or longer, which from my development world of 20 years this is plenty of time. 🙂

I am not a programmer and truthfully I don't care who's fault it is, Apple or Schlage need to fix this. That being said, my experience shows that existing locks continue to work fine with both the Schlage app and Apple Home. Everything was fine for me using iOS12 until a contractor slammed the door and sent the lock into alarm mode and I had to factory reset it. After that only my other lock works. I get notifications from Apple HomeKit when it's locked or unlocked, it locks based on my defined schedule, I can operate it during the day from my wifi at work, it's fine. It's just a "new" lock that it won't see.

I also have problem to command Siri on Apple Watch series 4 and iPhone to unlock or lock Schlage Sense. And here what I did try to work around it with Homekit Automation . My Philips Hue Light is installed at Entry Hall. I set 2 Automations as follows:

1- When the Entry Light turn on, Unlock Front Door

2- When the Front Door Unlocked, turn off Entry Light

So if I want to unlock the door, just say to Siri " Turn on Entry " and then right away, the Schalge Sense will unlock and the Entry light will turn on then off. Schalge Sense will automatic unlock after 30 seconds or more, depend on how you set.

If we try to tell Siri directly to unlock or lock the door, almost 80% it will fail .

I’m in the same boat as most folks here, but I just noticed something: When I’m home, but disable my iPhone WiFi and just use my cellular connection, I TEND to have a better response rate vs in the house and on “local” WiFi. Not sure if this lends further credence to the idea that something “changed” (broke) on iOS 12 on the Apple TV?

To be sure, I’ve not had a single issue with any of my other devices throughout HomeKit- Hue, Wemo, Lutron, EcoBee, etc - Just my Schlage Sense.

****, can’t believe I was bit by the same bug. I just replaced my iPad that was acting as the HomeKit with an Apple TV fourth generation as I wanted a more stable working device. Little did I know that I took a step backwards. I can’t believe this is still an open issue and hasn’t been resolved. I want to revert my tvOS to 11.4, but I don’t have the right cable. Someone please fix this, and fix it quickly. Really gives me a bad taste around the schlage system.

Now that you mention it, my August lock is ALSO exhibiting similar behavior. We rarely use the August lock (it's on an inconvenient door that's old) but now that I read about this report, I am seeing "No Response" or "Locked" and then tapping it causes it to change to "Updating" etc.

Perhaps Apple changes something in tvOS 12 in relation to door locks in an attempt to increase security?

I think I'm going to roll my ATVs back to iOS 11 as a test.