HomeKit Issue with HomeKit over LTE / Family Sharing

[DNichter]

I have searched all over, but can’t figure this out. My HomeKit is set up and working perfectly on my iPhone X. I go on LTE, works great. Awesome. I want it working the same for my girlfriend, but whenever she is on LTE, it disconnects from my Apple TV hub and can’t work remotely. All settings for remote are set up, I have tried logging in and out of iCloud, shutting off and on the Apple TV, making my iPad a hub, making my other Apple TV a hub, and probably some other things too. I have a Hue hub/lights set up, along with an August smart lock. Has anyone had this issue or have any suggestions for a fix? Everything is running on the current 11.3 beta. Could the final release fix the problem? Any insight is appreciated.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Have you got her added as a user in HomeKit? Am assuming you have bought thought it best to add. I can confirm it all works here for me and mine.

 

[DNichter]

Have you got her added as a user in HomeKit? Am assuming you have bought thought it best to add. I can confirm it all works here for me and mine.

Yes, she is added with remote access and everything.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Yes, she is added with remote access and everything.

So to clarify, when she’s on LTE or another WLAN outside your home, she can no longer see/control Apple HomeKit and accessories?

Have you tried restarting everything? Maybe sign out and in again on your HomeKit hubs?

 

[DNichter]

So to clarify, when she’s on LTE or another WLAN outside your home, she can no longer see/control Apple HomeKit and accessories?

Have you tried restarting everything? Maybe sign out and in again on your HomeKit hubs?

Yes, correct. Yea yesterday we signed out of both iCloud accounts on our phones and the Apple TV and restarted everything and signed back in. Same issue. It’s been driving me nuts as I feel like I’ve tried everything. I honestly think it has something to do with the Hue Lights but I can’t figure out what. When she goes on LTE though, it disconnects from the Apple TV. That’s consistent.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Yes, correct. Yea yesterday we signed out of both iCloud accounts on our phones and the Apple TV and restarted everything and signed back in. Same issue. It’s been driving me nuts as I feel like I’ve tried everything. I honestly think it has something to do with the Hue Lights but I can’t figure out what. When she goes on LTE though, it disconnects from the Apple TV. That’s consistent.

Just tested mine again and it works, albeit it took a while to get the initial connection once on 4G. It shows my ATV is standby and HomePod as connected. Sorry I don’t know what else to suggest

 

[DNichter]

Just tested mine again and it works, albeit it took a while to get the initial connection once on 4G. It shows my ATV is standby and HomePod as connected. Sorry I don’t know what else to suggest

Yea it’s strange. It connects no problem over WiFi but drops as soon as she goes on LTE. I’ve tried everything, appreciate the help.

 

[chabig]

Yea it’s strange. It connects no problem over WiFi but drops as soon as she goes on LTE. I’ve tried everything, appreciate the help.

You never told us what “it” is. What disconnects?

I think you’re trying to say that she can control home accessories from the local network but when she’s not on the local network she cannot. I don’t think LTE has anything to do with it. The key is whether her iPhone can talk directly to the HomeKit hub over a local network.

If that is the case, then try removing her as a user from the home app and then re-add her. Also, check her iCloud settings and make sure the Home app is turned on.

 

[DNichter]

You never told us what “it” is. What disconnects?

I think you’re trying to say that she can control home accessories from the local network but when she’s not on the local network she cannot. I don’t think LTE has anything to do with it. The key is whether her iPhone can talk directly to the HomeKit hub over a local network.

If that is the case, then try removing her as a user from the home app and then re-add her.

Oh sorry, the Apple TV that acts as a hub disconnects and she can no longer control HomeKit remotely. Yes, I have tried removing her and adding her a bunch of times. It didn’t help. I feel like it has to be the beta

 

[chabig]

Oh sorry, the Apple TV that acts as a hub disconnects and she can no longer control HomeKit remotely. Yes, I have tried removing her and adding her a bunch of times. It didn’t help. I feel like it has to be the beta

The AppleTV disconnects? From what? From the Hue Hub? How do you know? If so, then you wouldn’t be able to control the lights either.

What about her iCloud settings? She should have the Home app turned on there. It’s a slide switch.

 

[DNichter]

The AppleTV disconnects? From what? From the Hue Hub? How do you know? If so, then you wouldn’t be able to control the lights either.

Her iPhone disconnects from the Apple TV hub. It will say “No hubs responding” in the Home app. I apologize if I wasn’t being clear.

 

[chabig]

Her iPhone disconnects from the Apple TV hub. It will say “No hubs responding” in the Home app. I apologize if I wasn’t being clear.

No problem. So it’s a connectivity issue when she’s not on the local network. I wouldn’t use the term “disconnects” to describe this. You need to dig into her iCloud settings.

 

[DNichter]

No problem. So it’s a connectivity issue when she’s not on the local network. I wouldn’t use the term “disconnects” to describe this. You need to dig into her iCloud settings.

Yea I looked there also. She is sharing her location via family sharing. Any suggestions what to look for?
[doublepost=1522002344][/doublepost]

Yea I looked there also. She is sharing her location via family sharing. Any suggestions what to look for?

Okay! So I looked in iCloud and she had location sharing turned on for Family Sharing, but she wasn’t sharing with anyone specific. I set it to share her location with me and it worked! I don’t know for how long it’ll work as I have had minor success before, but sharing her location with me specifically has worked for the moment.

 

[chabig]

Was the Home app turned on in iCloud settings?

 

[DNichter]

Was the Home app turned on in iCloud settings?

Yes, that was already on. Sharing her location with me worked. I am assuming since my Apple ID/iCloud is connected to the Apple TV (which is the hub), it needed to go through my ID in a sense. Haha who knows. This stuff is more complicated than I expected.

 

[DNichter]

Well, back to not working again now that everything is on the final 11.3. You know, pretty disappointed with the inconsistencies of HomeKit. It works one second, doesn't the next. Maybe one day it'll work.

 

[Arran]

Well, back to not working again now that everything is on the final 11.3. You know, pretty disappointed with the inconsistencies of HomeKit. It works one second, doesn't the next. Maybe one day it'll work.

Sorry to hear. Matches my experience.

HomeKit hub functionality briefly worked, back when it was new. And then it absolutely didn’t. I wasted several weekends on it recently before giving up. I even returned my HomePod because it refused to act as a HomeKit hub for remote access. Along the way, an iPad sort-of looked like it might work as a hub (the slider switch in settings appeared briefly, but most of the time it wasn’t even visible at all). An Apple tv 4K never worked as a hub either. A different iPad said it was acting as a hub, but when away on a trip, the home app on my phone said it couldn’t connect to any devices back home.

I reset and recreated my HomeKit home numerous times. Even tried the last-resort “nuclear” option of a factory reset on my Phillips hue bridge - which meant 60 bulbs and accessories and dozens of room scenes had to be set up from scratch. Half a day wasted on that. No joy. I tried factory resets on all the other devices (aTV 4K, iPads, aTV 4th gen, iphone) and absolutely nothing worked. I changed iCloud accounts and even set up an separate experimental ‘Lab’ home with a fresh iCloud account and just a single iDevices switch (to rule out the possibility it was Philips hue related). All a complete waste of time. Raised my blood pressure. That was all.

Pretty disgusted.

 

[DNichter]

Sorry to hear. Matches my experience.

HomeKit hub functionality briefly worked, back when it was new. And then it absolutely didn’t. I wasted several weekends on it recently before giving up. I even returned my HomePod because it refused to act as a HomeKit hub for remote access. Along the way, an iPad sort-of looked like it might work as a hub (the slider switch in settings appeared briefly, but most of the time it wasn’t even visible at all). An Apple tv 4K never worked as a hub either. A different iPad said it was acting as a hub, but when away on a trip, the home app on my phone said it couldn’t connect to any devices back home.

I reset and recreated my HomeKit home numerous times. Even tried the last-resort “nuclear” option of a factory reset on my Phillips hue bridge - which meant 60 bulbs and accessories and dozens of room scenes had to be set up from scratch. Half a day wasted on that. No joy. I tried factory resets on all the other devices (aTV 4K, iPads, aTV 4th gen, iphone) and absolutely nothing worked. I changed iCloud accounts and even set up an separate experimental ‘Lab’ home with a fresh iCloud account and just a single iDevices switch (to rule out the possibility it was Philips hue related). All a complete waste of time. Raised my blood pressure. That was all.

Pretty disgusted.

Exactly, it shouldn't be this complicated. I don't know the cause on your end, but it works for my iPhone X with zero issues. I have 3 hubs at my house and it connects to one and works very well. When it comes to family sharing though, totally different story, always has issues. I know this stuff is complicated and Apple usually does a nice job of simplifying, but they need to go back to the drawing board here.

 

[krazygreekguy]

Exactly, it shouldn't be this complicated. I don't know the cause on your end, but it works for my iPhone X with zero issues. I have 3 hubs at my house and it connects to one and works very well. When it comes to family sharing though, totally different story, always has issues. I know this stuff is complicated and Apple usually does a nice job of simplifying, but they need to go back to the drawing board here.

Hey I don't know if you still have this issue, but I've also had this issue since the first day the HomePod came out. Somehow my Apple TV 4K started showing up as Not Responding and then when I set up the HomePod, it also showed up as No Response and both hubs were "disconnected". I am happy to report that I tried calling apple support today and somehow, some way a senior advisor suggested I try something. I don't know how or why, but it worked and I am thankful. I suggest you and everyone else with similar hub issues try as well.

He told me to go to Settings, Messages, Blocked, and see if any of my e-mail addresses were there. Wouldn't you know, somehow they were there and were being blocked, which apparently was causing my no remote access and causing my hubs to appear as disconnected. I removed them and everything went back to normal. I have remote access back and everything is working fine now. I hope this helps you and everyone else. Good luck.

 

[DNichter]

Hey I don't know if you still have this issue, but I've also had this issue since the first day the HomePod came out. Somehow my Apple TV 4K started showing up as Not Responding and then when I set up the HomePod, it also showed up as No Response and both hubs were "disconnected". I am happy to report that I tried calling apple support today and somehow, some way a senior advisor suggested I try something. I don't know how or why, but it worked and I am thankful. I suggest you and everyone else with similar hub issues try as well.

He told me to go to Settings, Messages, Blocked, and see if any of my e-mail addresses were there. Wouldn't you know, somehow they were there and were being blocked, which apparently was causing my no remote access and causing my hubs to appear as disconnected. I removed them and everything went back to normal. I have remote access back and everything is working fine now. I hope this helps you and everyone else. Good luck.

Hey, really appreciate the suggestion, but unfortunately we had no emails of ours blocked on either phone. The issue has since somewhat resolved itself with the recent 11.4 beta, but still some problems. Apparently there is a manual firmware update for the Orbi that may help, trying that tonight.

 

[DNichter]

Still an ongoing issue for me. Any suggestions are appreciated.

 

[Aknot]

So I have been struggling with the same issue for a long time. I am using the Apple TV 4K as the hub and when I set up my standard Apple TV 4 as the hub finally it all worked!

Now my shared users with remote access enabled can control the home from outside the home WiFi.

 

[DNichter]

So I have been struggling with the same issue for a long time. I am using the Apple TV 4K as the hub and when I set up my standard Apple TV 4 as the hub finally it all worked!

Now my shared users with remote access enabled can control the home from outside the home WiFi.

Interesting, glad it's working. I actually found out (and feel kind of stupid about it haha) that the issue was caused by an old iPad of my girlfriend's had been sitting on a beta build. Once we updated her iPad an iPhone to the same iOS version, all started working fine again.