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HomeKit Philips Hue and Apple Home App No Longer Sync with Each Other?

purdnost

purdnost

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 2, 2018
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I used to be able to make changes in the Apple Home app (changing the name of a room for example) and the Philips Hue app would give the option to sync changes. Since the latest Hue app overhaul it seems this is no longer the case. Can anyone else confirm?
 
It appears to only sync from the Hue app to the Home app now - not from the Home app to Hue (with iOS 15.1).
 
I have this same issue. I made all the changes to names, rooms, and new lights in HUE. Apple Home still shows dead lights, wrong names, and wrong rooms. It is on all the OLD settings which means half the lights (the ones different) do not work.

Is this automatic? Does it take some time to LEARN? Is there any setting besided WIPING HOME and rescanning the QR for a whole fresh restart?

This 21st century home stuff is like Windows 3.0 before 3.11 even. BAD.
 
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Rachel Faith said:
I have this same issue. I made all the changes to names, rooms, and new lights in HUE. Apple Home still shows dead lights, wrong names, and wrong rooms. It is on all the OLD settings which means half the lights (the ones different) do not work.

Is this automatic? Does it take some time to LEARN? Is there any setting besided WIPING HOME and rescanning the QR for a whole fresh restart?

This 21st century home stuff is like Windows 3.0 before 3.11 even. BAD.
Click to expand...
indeed. It's the reason I went away from Hue to Nanoleaf about a year ago. But the Nanoleaf Essentials bulbs just aren't bright enough and they keep going unreachable at the most annoying times because they are “updating”—which happens multiple times a day. So I'm back to using Hue bulbs again, despite these major annoyances with synching.

Apple really needs to figure out a way to do everything from step one exclusively in the Home app, without ANY involvement with the manufacturer's proprietary app.
 
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Rachel Faith said:
Make some APPLE lights and we will BUY them, because they will just work. LOL

I am going to WIPE my Home App and start over with the QR code. No other way to get it to work. Thanks for wasting my Saturday.
Click to expand...
I did that once and found it easiest to record all the serial numbers, along with the room and name of the light. Now whenever I need to replace lights, I just remove them and re-install them using the serial numbers instead of having to either find the box or unscrew the bulb to scan the code. Since I've got 25+ bulbs, many of which were purchased a decade ago before HomeKit even existed, this proved the most efficient way to do things. HTH
 
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sniffies said:
So, a year later:

Is it possible to sync lights and rooms from Hue app to Home app?

I just spent an hour renaming lights and moving them to various rooms in Hue app, and Home app is still not showing any changes.
Click to expand...

Nope it’s still not possible, I have the same problem. The issue I have is the hue app just isn’t as good for customising as I have hue dimmer switches. With home app I can program them to turn on lights to a specific scene

My issue is since 16.2 the switches don’t work anymore. They have never had an issue
 
sniffies said:
So, a year later:

Is it possible to sync lights and rooms from Hue app to Home app?

I just spent an hour renaming lights and moving them to various rooms in Hue app, and Home app is still not showing any changes.
Click to expand...

I successfully synced all my Philips Hue settings to the Home app (HomeKit) today (Dec 31 2022). Here is the steps I got to work:
  1. Remove the Philips Hue Bridge from HomeKit by: Open Home App, click Home Settings, click Home Hubs & Bridges, choose remove Hue Bridge.
  2. Open the Philips Hue app, and configure the Philips Hue lights as you want them.
  3. In Home App, add Hue Bridge to HomeKit. Exit or abort all the configurations of individual lights, when Home app offers to configure your lights.
  4. Open Philips Hue app, click "SETTINGS" in the menubar at the bottom, click "Voice assistants", click "Siri & Apple Home", click the round "Settings" inside the Siri & Apple Home menu, and click "Sync setup to Apple Home".
  5. Open Home App again, and voila, the light and room settings are synched over.
Switches and other accessories
  1. Having completed setting up my lights, I added my switches (accessories) in the Philips Hue app.
  2. In the Home App, the switches were listed as "Accessories Added to Home" and on the main/front page in Home App, it asks "Set Up Accessories". I clicked on "Set up Accessories" and added the switches to their respective rooms.
  3. In Home App, I then went to each room, clicked on the icon for the switch and set "Add to Home View" and "Include in Favorites" as UN-selected, so that the switches are hidden in the Home App.
The above worked for me to get the main sync step to work: Open Philips Hue app, click "SETTINGS" in the menubar at the bottom, click "Voice assistants", click "Siri & Apple Home", click the round "Settings" inside the Siri & Apple Home menu, and click "Sync setup to Apple Home".
 
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MovingWater said:
I successfully synced all my Philips Hue settings to the Home app (HomeKit) today (Dec 31 2022). Here is the steps I got to work:
  1. Remove the Philips Hue Bridge from HomeKit by: Open Home App, click Home Settings, click Home Hubs & Bridges, choose remove Hue Bridge.
  2. Open the Philips Hue app, and configure the Philips Hue lights as you want them.
  3. In Home App, add Hue Bridge to HomeKit. Exit or abort all the configurations of individual lights, when Home app offers to configure your lights.
  4. Open Philips Hue app, click "SETTINGS" in the menubar at the bottom, click "Voice assistants", click "Siri & Apple Home", click the round "Settings" inside the Siri & Apple Home menu, and click "Sync setup to Apple Home".
  5. Open Home App again, and voila, the light and room settings are synched over.
Switches and other accessories
  1. Having completed setting up my lights, I added my switches (accessories) in the Philips Hue app.
  2. In the Home App, the switches were listed as "Accessories Added to Home" and on the main/front page in Home App, it asks "Set Up Accessories". I clicked on "Set up Accessories" and added the switches to their respective rooms.
  3. In Home App, I then went to each room, clicked on the icon for the switch and set "Add to Home View" and "Include in Favorites" as UN-selected, so that the switches are hidden in the Home App.
The above worked for me to get the main sync step to work: Open Philips Hue app, click "SETTINGS" in the menubar at the bottom, click "Voice assistants", click "Siri & Apple Home", click the round "Settings" inside the Siri & Apple Home menu, and click "Sync setup to Apple Home".
Click to expand...
I can confirm this is true
 
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Wish I could say the same. After doing the latest updates to 16.4.1, none of my Hue lights respond in the Home app. I’ve unlinked it, removed the bridge from Home, added the lights back, rebooted everything, and the lights all still show No Respnose in the Home app, so none of my automations works. So damned frustrating!!! Any other suggestions?
 
bjf123 said:
Wish I could say the same. After doing the latest updates to 16.4.1, none of my Hue lights respond in the Home app. I’ve unlinked it, removed the bridge from Home, added the lights back, rebooted everything, and the lights all still show No Respnose in the Home app, so none of my automations works. So damned frustrating!!! Any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
A "No Response" on all Hue accessories in the Home app is often a result of a network communication problem. Specifically, either client/AP isolation, or not passing Bonjour/mDNS. It's strange that it would happen after the 16.4.1 update for sure... unless you also elected to "Upgrade the Home Architecture" as part of the update.
 
dotme said:
A "No Response" on all Hue accessories in the Home app is often a result of a network communication problem. Specifically, either client/AP isolation, or not passing Bonjour/mDNS. It's strange that it would happen after the 16.4.1 update for sure... unless you also elected to "Upgrade the Home Architecture" as part of the update.
Click to expand...
I did elect the “Upgrade the Home Architecture“ as part of the update. That was needed to allow the HomePod mini to listen for smoke alarm and related sounds and then notify me.
 
So with the new architecture, the HomePod (WiFi) must be able to see the Hue bridge (Ethernet) and it sounds like that's not working too well. It's possible your WiFi gear isn't allowing the HomePod to see Ethernet devices (Client Isolation enabled, for example) or maybe things just need a power cycle. Least drastic measures first :)

So maybe power cycle the routers/access points, then the mini. If that doesn't fix, I would check router/access point config to make sure there's no setting that is blocking comms between the two devices. Last resort, remove the mini and set back up. Hope one of these steps helps fix the issue!
 
The HomePod saw the Hue bridge prior to the Upgrade the Home Architecture, so I’m guessing that’s part of the problem. I’ve rebooted both the HomePod and the hue bridge. I have not rebooted the router (Linksys MX4000). There are no settings in it that would block anything. The Linksys also sees both the HomePod and the Hue bridge, though the bridge is connected via Ethernet. Both are on the same subnet.

I’ll try rebooting the router when I get a chance, since that will kill access to everything.
 
bjf123 said:
The HomePod saw the Hue bridge prior to the Upgrade the Home Architecture, so I’m guessing that’s part of the problem. I’ve rebooted both the HomePod and the hue bridge. I have not rebooted the router (Linksys MX4000). There are no settings in it that would block anything. The Linksys also sees both the HomePod and the Hue bridge, though the bridge is connected via Ethernet. Both are on the same subnet.

I’ll try rebooting the router when I get a chance, since that will kill access to everything.
Click to expand...
FWIW, I am using a Hue Bridge with my Home and had no problems with the upgrade to the new Home architecture--save for the fact that the iPad mini 4 I had been using as a control panel for my Home can't be upgraded to iOS 16 and thus can't be upgraded to the new Home architecture. So, it would appear that there's something unique about your setup.

OTOH, I have had recurrent problems with my OG HomePods (stereo pair, set as default audio) losing contact with my Apple TV 4K v.2. They'll work just fine and then simply stop playing--sometimes in the middle of a show on my streaming live TV app. Generally, I can get the connection back by rebooting the Apple TV and the HomePods but it is a royal pain. The Apple TV is connected to my ONT (optical network terminal) via ethernet, so the only thing connecting over WiFi is the HomePods.

HomePods are finicky beasts. If I had known that when I bought them, I might have gone with a Sonos system instead.
 
Maybe I’ll just nuke the Home Pod and try setting it up from scratch. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
I reset the HomePod mini back to factory settings. Made no difference, except now I can’t get the Hue Bridge to add back to the Home app. This shouldn’t be this $%#@ difficult!
 
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Do you have an AppleTV to use as a hub? If so then I’d try temporarily removing the HomePod all together, setting up HomeKit using only the Apple TV connected via Ethernet and then see if everything settles in. If it does, then try adding back the HomePod, and hope that it doesn’t ruin all your hard work.

Unfortunately, it does seem like the most (only?) stable configuration for HomeKit is with AppleTVs only, with at least one of them connected with Ethernet. Personally, with the constant stream of issues posted here, I’ve moved on from believing that HomePods are buggy, and now I’m pretty sure that they’re malicious.
 
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I have two Apple TVs but both are WiFi only. An older one is close to the router and might be able to be connected via Ethernet, though I’m not sure if there’s an open port on the router. The newest ATV is nowhere near the router, so it can only be WiFi.
 
bjf123 said:
I reset the HomePod mini back to factory settings. Made no difference, except now I can’t get the Hue Bridge to add back to the Home app. This shouldn’t be this $%#@ difficult!
Click to expand...
Indeed. It’s a SPEAKER dang it. It should be a “set it and forget it” device. Grrrrr…
 
My home internet is through T-Mobile and their home internet wireless service. They had a systemwide outage in my areas this morning to the point that both home internet and cell service were down. When I switched my internet from Cincinnati Bell’s FiOptics, to T-Mobile, I kept the FiOptics service as a backup since it wasn’t true fiber and only $30 for 50 down and 3 up and I do sometimes work from home.

To move over to that, I connected my Linksys router back to the Bell router. When I saw the cell service was back on my phone, I put the Linksys back to the T-Mobile device and now the home automations and Hue lights that stopped working in the Home app after the last update are now back to working. No clue why they decided to start working now, but they are!
 
Unless you're into advanced networking, having two "routers" on your network is always going to cause problems.

If the ISP device is a router, then the Access Points should all be in bridge mode. Otherwise you enter the exciting world of double-NAT, multiple DHCP servers handing out isolated/disparate IP network ranges, etc.
 
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