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HomeKit Controlling HomeKit via Siri unreliable compared to iPhone

narenh

narenh

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 17, 2014
52
102
San Francisco, CA
I have a medium-sized HomeKit home with about 20 Hue bulbs, a few Thread devices, some Wifi switches, and shades (via Homebridge). All my scenes are rock-solid when controlling via the Home app or control center on my phone—devices react instantaneously and and always work as expected. When asking Siri on a HomePod to set a scene though, there's always a significant delay. Siri replies "working on it... setting the scene..." and then 70-90% of the lights in the scene turn on or off, and then Siri will say "I tried, but the [...] didn't respond".

This isn't just an occasional issue, it happens with almost every Siri/HomeKit command spoken to my HomePods. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing? Could it have something to do with which device is a Home Hub? It changes all the time but I have an ATV 4K (2019-Ethernet), ATV 4K (2017-WiFi), 3 HomePods, and a HomePod mini.
 
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narenh said:
I have a medium-sized HomeKit home with about 20 Hue bulbs, a few Thread devices, some Wifi switches, and shades (via Homebridge). All my scenes are rock-solid when controlling via the Home app or control center on my phone—devices react instantaneously and and always work as expected. When asking Siri on a HomePod to set a scene though, there's always a significant delay. Siri replies "working on it... setting the scene..." and then 70-90% of the lights in the scene turn on or off, and then Siri will say "I tried, but the [...] didn't respond".

This isn't just an occasional issue, it happens with almost every Siri/HomeKit command spoken to my HomePods. Has anyone else experienced this kind of thing? Could it have something to do with which device is a Home Hub? It changes all the time but I have an ATV 4K (2019-Ethernet), ATV 4K (2017-WiFi), 3 HomePods, and a HomePod mini.
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Has anyone experienced this? Lol. Just peruse this sub forum and you will discover you’re definitely not alone. HomePodOS 15 is pure garbage.
 
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As said above, it’s absolute garbage.

You need to report it to Apple because even with the latest developer beta the issues are still there if not worse. Unless it is reported and reported and reported Apple will not fix this. I have to be honest, as I have said in previous threads, that I don’t think they ever will nor do I think they are able to. They are crap. Whoever is responsible for this abortion of a release needs sacking. My dog could crap better code!!
 
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Lol, I've seen a lot of threads with similar HomeKit issues but none where posters explicitly call out a rock-solid HomeKit experience outside of the HomePod/Siri mess. Makes me so sad because of how seamless this should be.
 
Have to agree with others that 15 has been a hot mess. Every October, we update and then suffer through BS for a few weeks until .2 comes out. This time, though, it's been months. I'm lucky in that I've automated so much that it's rare I need to ask Siri to do anything besides set a timer to boil some eggs. But yes, I see the same issues - Automations are fine, scenes called from a Hue button press or the iOS app work fine, but Siri on a HomePod?

"Hmmm... One Moment Please.... Working on that...."

Someone on Reddit a few days ago said that if you ask Siri on the HomePod that is the active HomeKit hub, it works great. They might be onto something.

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomePod/comments/slj3sf

A lot of info, not a lot of answers... a fun read though.
 
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But seemingly Apple are doing absolutely sweet FA about this global issue. Does make you wonder what those Muppets are playing at.
 
I feel like right now my HomePod Siri is down. "Something's taking a bit too long here" for every command. Tried restarting and all.
 
StumpyBloke said:
But seemingly Apple are doing absolutely sweet FA about this global issue. Does make you wonder what those Muppets are playing at.
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64haxm.jpg
 
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dotme said:
Someone on Reddit a few days ago said that if you ask Siri on the HomePod that is the active HomeKit hub, it works great. They might be onto something.
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Cannot confirm this. I only have one HomePod mini and 2 ATV 4k (both wired), the hub priority is one of the wired ATVs. HomePod only kicks in if I shutdown the hub ATV, and after a while the other ATV takes over then. During my troubleshooting I often removed the ATVs from power and forced the HomePod to be the hub. But it didn't improve anything, at least not consistently. We have to accept that it is just coincidence if it works or not.

What I have in common with the reddit poster is the network equipment and VLAN / WiFi configuration... Maybe a point I could check.
 
This happened to me few months ago. Siri got to the point that she would just say "I can't do that" or something along those lines immediately. I restored the HomePod and set it back up (took no time) and its worked fine ever since.
 
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