HomeKit Apple is asking me to buy a plane ticket to fix their HomeKit architecture issue **Update: Emailed Cook, received phone call

[BenGoren]

So, congratulations.

You’re absolutely right.

Apple shouldn’t have updated both homes, you shouldn’t have to fly to the other side of the planet, you shouldn’t even have to think about giving your girlfriend your password. It’s all totally unacceptable.

Alas, being right … does you no good whatsoever.

The perfect solution doesn’t exist. You’ve established that beyond any shadow of a doubt.

So you have no choice but to pick the least-worst solution.

And you’ve also made it clear that, for you, the least-worst solution is for your Dallas home, where your girlfriend is staying, must remain with a non-functioning smart home.

That’s the part I don’t get.

Your obvious choices are to fly back to fix things (and, oh-by-the-way, spend some time over the holidays with your girlfriend); fly her to London until you can both return together to fix everything; give her the password; hire a Dallas-based consultant to set up the home with a new AppleID with its own password that the two of you can safely share; or leave your girlfriend alone in the dark for Christmas.

Again, none of those are the “right” solution. But they’re the only realistic ones you have … so why on Earth would you pick the last one on that list?

Therefore, my advice: make a stop at Hatton Garden on your way to Heathrow — but only if you actually care more about your girlfriend than you do about being right.

b&

 

[Boidem]

All this just smacks of privilege and entitlement. There are many lessons to be learned here...

 

[Ethosik]

Both homes are tied to the same setup same account. If they were truly different you could not upgrade both. THAT is what I was talking about in my post. Back when I managed servers on different sites I never upgraded them at the same time. I didn’t connect them to the same update network. If I wasn’t there to babysit and address if issues arise, I didn’t update.

That’s the solution going forward. Home A should be on Apple ID A and Home B should be on Apple ID B.

If it’s an architectural update, it makes sense it’s all or nothing.

 

[PhoenixDown]

That’s the solution going forward. Home A should be on Apple ID A and Home B should be on Apple ID B.

Do both homes have to be on the same family sharing?

 

[Wando64]

Good luck to the OP, but the expectation of being able to reset devices from another continent is a bit far fetched.
I've never seen it advertised anywhere.

 

[orionquest]

You’re being ridiculous. You should be able to share your password with your significant other - what happens if you die? Do you expect nobody to have access to anything pictures, documents, etc?

Obviously the update should work and you shouldn’t have to yada yada but there is a solution here you’re just being too weirdly secretive to do it.

Yup, and this whole thing smells of YouTuber clickbait all over it.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I sympathise with the OP. It's is hard to believe that Apple rolled out this sh!tshow of an update process. In the year 2022, a software update of our beloved trillions of dollars company should... wait a minute... just work. No matter where you are, when you press the button, how many homes or girl friends you have, if it's low tide or high tide... It should just work.

The funny thing is most of us agree that apples HomeKit is far far far from perfect and has tons of issues.
Absolutely no one is denying that.
but there is a point where you can only blame Apple for so many of your problems.
I sympathized with the original poster… Until the point at which he refused to take any responsibility, and just decided to blame all of his issues on Apple.
It’s like if my * Insert random Internet company here* account was hacked because I had a weak password, at the end of the day I can yell and scream and hoot and Holler all day, long about how company needs to improve security or whatever but I’m also not blameless.
The OP *shouldn’t* have tried to update his HomePods from a different continent.
Is part of the failure on Apple? Yes of course, but anyone could’ve told you that trying to update a product when you’re nowhere near that product and that product controls An entire house that someone is currently living in was a dumb idea.
And it wouldn’t matter who’s product he was using apples, googles, Amazon, it would still not be a good idea.
and any sympathy I had goes completely out the window when he says stuff like:

Seems the diehards on here would rather victim blame and defend their Daddy, then actually care about the issue at hand.

the “ diehards” have also admitted that HomeKit is very very flawed in this very thread, but none of us are trying anything like this, because we *know* that it’s very risky no matter if it was Apple or anyone else.
A friend of mine actually once locked himself out of a brand new iPad for 10 days, and Apple refused to help him.
Did he sit and whine and complain and bash Apple all over the Internet for his error?
No! He created a new Apple ID and had his iPad up and running within hours, and then retrieved all of his purchases and such from the old account once he was able to log back in.
Could Apple have been more helpful? Absolutely, and it was extremely annoying that they weren’t going to be.
But at the end of the day you can’t blame everything on them.

 

[Ethosik]

The funny thing is most of us agree that apples HomeKit is far far far from perfect and has tons of issues.
Absolutely no one is denying that.
but there is a point where you can only blame Apple for so many of your problems.
I sympathized with the original poster… Until the point at which he refused to take any responsibility, and just decided to blame all of his issues on Apple.
It’s like if my * Insert random Internet company here* account was hacked because I had a weak password, at the end of the day I can yell and scream and hoot and Holler all day, long about how company needs to improve security or whatever but I’m also not blameless.
The OP *shouldn’t* have tried to update his HomePods from a different continent.
Is part of the failure on Apple? Yes of course, but anyone could’ve told you that trying to update a product when you’re nowhere near that product and that product controls An entire house that someone is currently living in was a dumb idea.
And it wouldn’t matter who’s product he was using apples, googles, Amazon, it would still not be a good idea.
and any sympathy I had goes completely out the window when he says stuff like:

the “ diehards” have also admitted that HomeKit is very very flawed in this very thread, but none of us are trying anything like this, because we *know* that it’s very risky no matter if it was Apple or anyone else.
A friend of mine actually once locked himself out of a brand new iPad for 10 days, and Apple refused to help him.
Did he sit and whine and complain and bash Apple all over the Internet for his error?
No! He created a new Apple ID and had his iPad up and running within hours, and then retrieved all of his purchases and such from the old account once he was able to log back in.
Could Apple have been more helpful? Absolutely, and it was extremely annoying that they weren’t going to be.
But at the end of the day you can’t blame everything on them.

Agreed. And it’s not just Apple. I have had Windows Updates take down servers and I had to physically connect them to recover. And this wasn’t a major OS update. Just a monthly patch.

Humans write software. It will never be 100% perfect.

 

[Spotlighter9]

You could just buy a cheap Apple Device in London. Set it up with your Apple ID with only items necessary to reset the HomePods and with a separate pin to unlock that you tell her and ship it to her overnight. It'll be cheaper than a flight, no?

 

[WiiDSmoker]

Apple pulled the ability to update. The ones attacking me going to apologize? You’re welcome for me alerting Tim Cook and working with a senior advisor on this.

 

[Itinj24]

Apple pulled the ability to update. The ones attacking me going to apologize? You’re welcome for me altering Tim Cook and working with a senior advisor on this.

There’s plenty of bugs in iOS currently. You think you can get them all squashed? Daddy Apple is listening to you….

 

[Htsi]

Apple pulled the ability to update. The ones attacking me going to apologize? You’re welcome for me alerting Tim Cook and working with a senior advisor on this.

Sadly, I don’t think it’ll help you since they state no downgrades.

 

[Choco Taco]

Apple pulled the ability to update. The ones attacking me going to apologize? You’re welcome for me alerting Tim Cook and working with a senior advisor on this.

Apple pulling the update has nothing to do with you trying to update software on devices that are literally on the other side of the planet from you.

 

[dwaite]

So, HomeKit is only for people who never go on longer travels and leave their families at home? I don't think that is what Apple wants us to believe. Why is remote control not possible in the age of Internet? You'll always need psysical access to devices?

When I'm traveling, I don't upgrade my phone or laptop - there might be an issue that makes it more difficult for me to get back home.

I also don't attempt to upgrade the infrastructure back home, unless I'm willing for it to be potentially broken until I return.

 

[DaPhox]

Imagine defending Apple for releasing a buggy update that broke someone’s HomeKit house and then telling said customer tough luck, you have to fly across seas to fix said bug.

So if an item breaks at home (while Im overseas) I need fly all over the world to fix it immediately? Relax.

 

[Burger Thing]

Apple pulling the update has nothing to do with you trying to update software on devices that are literally on the other side of the planet from you.

It has been pulled because the update process was a complete disaster - as the OP and many others including myself experienced. So yes, it has absolutely and everything to do with it.

 

[Htsi]

If they’re getting a flight for you, I call it a major win.

 

[Weaselboy]

Moderator Note:

Looks like OP's issue was resolved. Thread closed.