Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

nomad01

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Aug 1, 2005
1,734
73
Birmingham, England
Just ditched IKEA home smart as it was flaky and tried doing a brand new set up with Philips Hue.

I can add the Hue Bridge 2.0 to Home but it doesn’t appear in the Home app and subsequently none of the Hue lights appear either.

I’ve tried doing a factory reset of the Hue bridge and starting from scratch. I’ve tried deleting my home in the Home app and creating a new home but it still won’t show up.

I’ve reached out to Philips but they keep telling me to reboot my HomeKit ? so we’re not getting anywhere.

Anyone else had this? Any solutions?

Thanks.
 
I just added mine to HomeKit after giving Alexa the boot from our house. I couldn’t get it to show up until I pushed the button on top of the bridge after entering the code on the bottom into HomeKit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nomad01
I just added mine to HomeKit after giving Alexa the boot from our house. I couldn’t get it to show up until I pushed the button on top of the bridge after entering the code on the bottom into HomeKit.

You just pressed the button after it was already set up?

I’ve been able to add the bridge to HomeKit (and it appears in the Home settings under Home hubs and Bridges) but there’s no icon for it in the Home app and none of the lights appear in the Home app either.
 
You just pressed the button after it was already set up?

I’ve been able to add the bridge to HomeKit (and it appears in the Home settings under Home hubs and Bridges) but there’s no icon for it in the Home app and none of the lights appear in the Home app either.
The Hue bridge will only show up under Hubs and Bridges. They removed it as an accessory tile, I believe, with iOS 13. Strange that your Hue is in there but not the lights. Did you check the separate rooms and not just the main favorites page? Are the lights showing up in the Hue app?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nomad01
The Hue bridge will only show up under Hubs and Bridges. They removed it as an accessory tile, I believe, with iOS 13. Strange that your Hue is in there but not the lights. Did you check the separate rooms and not just the main favorites page? Are the lights showing up in the Hue app?

Ah okay so that’s one thing solved. Some of the Hue documentation is way out of date and shows the bridge as an accessory.

The lights don’t appear anywhere in the Home app but they’re all there in the Hue app and work fine.

If I create a new room in the Hue app and then use the “Sync set-up to HomeKit” option in the Hue app settings, it pushes the new room across to Home but still none of the lights. So they’re communicating on some level. Just not sharing the lights. ??‍♂️
 
Ah okay so that’s one thing solved. Some of the Hue documentation is way out of date and shows the bridge as an accessory.

The lights don’t appear anywhere in the Home app but they’re all there in the Hue app and work fine.

If I create a new room in the Hue app and then use the “Sync set-up to HomeKit” option in the Hue app settings, it pushes the new room across to Home but still none of the lights. So they’re communicating on some level. Just not sharing the lights. ??‍♂️
Strange. With any Zigbee hub or the like, when you add it to HomeKit, any accessories previously added to that hub should automatically populate in HomeKit. It’s the Hub that retains HomeKit support, not the accessories. When I get a new Hue accessory, I just add it to the Hub with the Hue app and it shows up in HomeKit. I don’t even use that sync option because it screws up the HomeKit setup I already created.
 
  • Like
Reactions: nomad01
Strange. With any Zigbee hub or the like, when you add it to HomeKit, any accessories previously added to that hub should automatically populate in HomeKit.

That’s how the IKEA system always worked. It was a flaky and a bit counterintuitive but the bulbs Just popped right up in Home.

The sync option only seems to work one way too. If I make changes in Home, using the Hue sync overwrites it.

I just don’t get what the issue is.
 
Seems like an odd issue….what items have you got set up in the hue app and how many?
What device is your HomeKit hub?

Also, in the home app, has it got all the rooms showing from the hue app or has nothing come through?
 
Last edited:
Seems like an odd issue….what items have you got set up in the hue app and how many?
What device is your HomeKit hub?

Also, in the home app, has it got all the rooms showing from the hue app or has nothing come through?

I’ve got about 20 bulbs set up in Hue. My current hub is a HomePod. I also have an Apple TV but that’s not the active hub right now.

The rooms are coming through from the Hue app. Just none of the bulbs.

I’ve added a brand new Hue bulb yesterday and that’s now showing up in Home so I think I’m going to give it one more reset and try again. ??
 
So all the rooms came through the home app correctly, but when you tapped on any of those rooms, none of the original 20 bulbs appeared in any of those rooms? That is odd……what method did you use to set up the hue bridge and adding each of the bulbs?
Sounds like you might need to delete all the bulbs from the hue bridge and then start all over again…seeing as your latest bulb seems to have worked as expected. Obviously just delete and add one of the old bulbs at a time to see if it works.
 
Check the Home App and see if there is a room called "Default" where all the missing bulbs are showing up. I recall when adding new Hue bulbs it liked to place them into a room I did not have or create called "Default". I remember Hue and Home App not playing nice when syncing rooms.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itinj24
So all the rooms came through the home app correctly, but when you tapped on any of those rooms, none of the original 20 bulbs appeared in any of those rooms? That is odd……what method did you use to set up the hue bridge and adding each of the bulbs?
Sounds like you might need to delete all the bulbs from the hue bridge and then start all over again…seeing as your latest bulb seems to have worked as expected. Obviously just delete and add one of the old bulbs at a time to see if it works.

I’ve reset everything multiple times and started from scratch. Tried adding the bridge in the Hue and Home apps. Hoping this time will be the charm. ??
 
Check the Home App and see if there is a room called "Default" where all the missing bulbs are showing up. I recall when adding new Hue bulbs it liked to place them into a room I did not have or create called "Default". I remember Hue and Home App not playing nice when syncing rooms.

Thanks. The first thing I didn’t was check every room to make sure they hadn’t been created in an obscure place. Sadly they’re not showing up anywhere.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.