Apple Adds iOS 16.2's Home App Upgrade to Internal List of Major Issues

[imola.zhp]

I didn't get to make the switch because I'm part of 3 other houses and ATV's don't auto-update; not to mention each user of each household needed to update each of their devices to 16.2 before upgrading each house. I got two of 4 total houses ready to go before the update was pulled.

My luck, when it comes back it will be 16.2X or higher and will require all devices to be updated, again. Apple TV's need to check themselves for updates at least weekly, they were the majority of the holdup.

 

[GIZBUG]

They sure aren’t in any hurry to fix this are they?

 

[Surf Monkey]

They sure aren’t in any hurry to fix this are they?

1) VR glasses are clearly their focus now.

2) The HomeKit problem is bad enough that it may actually be taking them time to figure out how it’s broken. Because it’s broken in more than one way.

 

[valkraider]

1) VR glasses are clearly their focus now.

2) The HomeKit problem is bad enough that it may actually be taking them time to figure out how it’s broken. Because it’s broken in more than one way.

Apple is a large company. The people working on VR are most assuredly not the people working on HomeKit.

I suspect it’s #2.

I am not an Apple apologist. There is no excuse for them to market, sell, and support an ecosystem of products that are as messed up as HomeKit. Apple has a lot of money and a lot of talent. There is no excuse for the lousy state of HomeKit today.

But…

This has to be a hard one to test and duplicate problems with.

Because with a phone, iPad, or Mac for example - Apple makes the hardware *and* the software. Apple can control almost everything about them.

But that’s not the case with HomeKit.

I have 8 different types of accessories or HomeKit stuff from 5 different manufacturers. That’s just my home - imagine all the possible combinations.

Not to mention then the variables with the number and type of hubs, the number and type of devices (iPhones, iPads, macs) interfacing with them, and the number and types of users invited to the home.

Add in Thread, Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee, ZWave, and hardwired devices with their differing capabilities and response times.

Plus - Matter support just came about and everyone’s accessory firmware is in flux.

Now take all of that and interface with it using 10 different apps plus Siri.

Then - add how different types of accessories work. Some light bulbs are color, Some are not. Some sensors have on/off states, some pass data. Think of a thermostat or a smart switch. Cameras need open high bandwidth streams of data. Music and TV devices and Speakers. They all do different things in different ways with different interface requirements.

I am in IT, and I don’t envy the HomeKit QA department. Just imagining their test cases and matrices as well as their test plans and regression plans makes me want to cry.

 

[valkraider]

Again - if we have to live with it being buggy - can we please get a “Backup home to iCloud” capability!

It’s almost zero data. Like it’s just some device ID info and metadata, and then automations.

It can be manual for all I care (or at least keep a couple versions back - so if it stops working we don’t want the corrupted home being the only version in the cloud)

 

[Surf Monkey]

Apple is a large company. The people working on VR are most assuredly not the people working on HomeKit.

I suspect it’s #2.

I am not an Apple apologist. There is no excuse for them to market, sell, and support an ecosystem of products that are as messed up as HomeKit. Apple has a lot of money and a lot of talent. There is no excuse for the lousy state of HomeKit today.

But…

This has to be a hard one to test and duplicate problems with.

Because with a phone, iPad, or Mac for example - Apple makes the hardware *and* the software. Apple can control almost everything about them.

But that’s not the case with HomeKit.

I have 8 different types of accessories or HomeKit stuff from 5 different manufacturers. That’s just my home - imagine all the possible combinations.

Not to mention then the variables with the number and type of hubs, the number and type of devices (iPhones, iPads, macs) interfacing with them, and the number and types of users invited to the home.

Add in Thread, Bluetooth, WiFi, Zigbee, ZWave, and hardwired devices with their differing capabilities and response times.

Plus - Matter support just came about and everyone’s accessory firmware is in flux.

Now take all of that and interface with it using 10 different apps plus Siri.

Then - add how different types of accessories work. Some light bulbs are color, Some are not. Some sensors have on/off states, some pass data. Think of a thermostat or a smart switch. Cameras need open high bandwidth streams of data. Music and TV devices and Speakers. They all do different things in different ways with different interface requirements.

I am in IT, and I don’t envy the HomeKit QA department. Just imagining their test cases and matrices as well as their test plans and regression plans makes me want to cry.

I mention their VR project not because I think they share development resources but because it’s pretty obvious that VR is a management and marketing priority, which has downstream impacts on development in departments that are de-prioritized.

But yeah, of course. We don’t really know what’s going on inside Apple. It’s all just idle speculation.

 

[JimKas]

Yep, it's been annoying at best... I have 3 Apple TVs, 8 HomePod minis and 1 original HomePod, along with MANY Hue bulbs, Hue motion sensors, and a few Eve devices. I did the 16.2 update, and now things are hit and miss. Sometimes it all works, sometimes it's crap.

My only workaround for now is that every week, I fully power off all of my network (modem and mesh routers) and all related device hubs (Hue, Lutron, Arlo, etc). Then shut down (pull the plug) on all HomePods and Apple TVs. Next, I power up the modem, router, and device hubs. After they have a few minutes to come up, THEN I power on all of the HomePods and Apple TVs.

With this 'reset', everything seems to work well for several days before need

 

[Morac]

I had one HKSV recording yesterday actually work out of what should have been several without having to do my work around of rebooting all my Home hubs. None worked today.

I see iOS 16.3 is in release candidate but the release notes make no mention of Home at all.

 

[valkraider]

I had one HKSV recording yesterday actually work out of what should have been several without having to do my work around of rebooting all my Home hubs. None worked today.

I see iOS 16.3 is in release candidate but the release notes make no mention of Home at all.

Probably because it’s not a specifically a 16.3 thing.

The HomeKit architecture upgrade is not exactly included with the OS - as was proven by their ability to “turn it off” without a new OS version.

But they’re likely testing them simultaneously which explains why they turned the HomeKit architecture upgrade back on for the 16.3 beta testers - but maybe is not going to be for the rest of the world immediately.

There is a reasonable chance that they are not ready for the world yet.

Which is all very confusing and I wish they would release some better info on it.

 

[Morac]

Probably because it’s not a specifically a 16.3 thing.

The HomeKit architecture upgrade is not exactly included with the OS - as was proven by their ability to “turn it off” without a new OS version.

But they’re likely testing them simultaneously which explains why they turned the HomeKit architecture upgrade back on for the 16.3 beta testers - but maybe is not going to be for the rest of the world immediately.

The new “upgraded” HomeKit architecture was included in the 16.2 software even if switching to it was optional. They didn’t “turn it off” as much as blocked people from switching to it. Users who already switched to it weren’t reverted back to the old architecture.

I’m assuming any fixes will be applied in software without requiring existing users to upgrade the architecture again. As such I would expect them to be called out in the release notes if fixed.