PSA: Apple Ending Support for Old HomeKit Architecture in Fall 2025, Upgrade Before Then

[crisneat]

That’s the contradiction that stands out to me:

Apple promotes itself as environmentally conscious, remember the whole Mother Nature skit during the iPhone event? but then makes decisions like this that push perfectly functional devices into obsolescence.

By ending support for the older Home architecture in 2025, they’re essentially forcing users to upgrade not just the Home app, but potentially entire devices if they’re running older iOS/macOS versions. That includes older iPads or Macs people might still use as HomeKit hubs. So what happens to those? They get tossed or shelved, not exactly eco-friendly.

It feels like the drive for performance and ecosystem control is overriding their sustainability message. It’s not just about updating software anymore, it’s about making sure all your devices are new enough to stay in the loop.

That’s a lot of e-waste.

 

[armhol]

Updated my HomePod mini to 18.5 tonight, everything in Home is working fine.



Open the Home app, click on the "More" icon (3 dots in upper right corner), choose "Home Settings", scroll down to "Software Update". You'll either get a prompt to upgrade or it will say "This home and all accessories are up to date".

Nope, not seeing that for any of my homes!

 

[MikeX]

And nothing else Matters...

 

[Onelifenofear]

I have no HomeKit accessories, automations, nothing, and have iCloud turned off. Yet since 18.4 I get a nagging "
1" to upgrade oil the settings app - anyone know how to turn the nagging off?

Upgrade it then. Won't do any harm.

 

[Diopter]

Maybe this is a sign that they're planning a significant overhaul of the Home app, or a complete rewrite of it, and they don't want to be held back by having to continue to support the old architecture.

If they're really going to release a new 'home hub' product that supposedly integrates closely with the Home app or HomeKit, they'd need to undertake major work on the Home app to bring it up to an acceptable standard given how buggy it currently is (if you have a camera that uses HomeKit Secure Video you'll know what I mean: the interface is embarrassingly buggy and hasn't been touched or improved since it was released).

Maybe this is the point that Apple finally gets serious about the Home app? But the history of the app is one of continual disappointment, so I won't get my hopes up!

 

[SalisburySam]

I upgraded to the new HomeKit architecture from day 1, I have quite a few devices added from different companies and so far everything has been working flawlessly together, automations as well.

Bridges I have paired, along with 2x Qingping air monitor lite. Some devices running matter, some not.

Philips Hue - 59 devices
Switchbot 2 - 3 devices
Tado for my central heating - 13 devices
Netatmo weather station - 3 devices

Siri has been behaving pretty well lately which is a nice change, whether I ask to turn the lights on/off, heating on/off or adjust the temperature, check the weather station, or even ask Siri to open and close my blinds and run automations.
So far this year, Siri has been 99% reliable at running my voice command on the first try from home or remotely.

Respect.

Apparently I could learn a lot from your implementation. I, too, upgraded in December 2022, then maybe again when the “fix” came out a few months later. Regardless, I have only about 20 smart devices controlled by the Home app (3 HomePods, 2 AppleTV4Ks one of which is the home hub, and the rest a bunch of lights and wall-switched items). The service is iffy at best. Each monthly network (eeroPro Mesh with 8 identical routers) update loses at least 2, sometimes more, devices that go “No Response” and have to be rebooted individually…a huge PITA. Even the Thread and Matter devices go rogue on me from time to time.

And some of my smart devices require their own apps and are not HomeKit compatible. This includes my two Trane HVAC thermostats and Rachio irrigation controller.

Given the experience I’ve had, HomeKit is a nice-to-have but nowhere near anything that could be called reliable.

 

[Onelifenofear]

We have a single smart thermostat from Hive in our house which I've set up in Apple Home and for which I've shared control with my wife.

With the new architecture, I would need to buy another Apple device to act as a hub to achieve the same result because the new architecture would require it. I guess we'll have to stop using Apple home then because I'll not invest more money into a device I don't need because of this.

If you only have a single device why not just use the Hive app? Or am I not getting what you are saying?

 

[Steven*]

do I need to upgrade (every Mac) to Ventura then ?

 

[Onelifenofear]

Respect.

Apparently I could learn a lot from your implementation. I, too, upgraded in December 2022, then maybe again when the “fix” came out a few months later. Regardless, I have only about 20 smart devices controlled by the Home app (3 HomePods, 2 AppleTV4Ks one of which is the home hub, and the rest a bunch of lights and wall-switched items). The service is iffy at best. Each monthly network (eeroPro Mesh with 8 identical routers) update loses at least 2, sometimes more, devices that go “No Response” and have to be rebooted individually…a huge PITA. Even the Thread and Matter devices go rogue on me from time to time.

And some of my smart devices require their own apps and are not HomeKit compatible. This includes my two Trane HVAC thermostats and Rachio irrigation controller.

Given the experience I’ve had, HomeKit is a nice-to-have but nowhere near anything that could be called reliable.

Have you added your Eero pro's to homekit and using the secure router?

If you are losing devices on Eero updates then it's likely that is the issue.

Are the lights Hue / zigbee? When they Eero updates it might be chainging the 2.4ghz wifi channel to one that overlaps the zigbee channel ( I keep mine well apart on the spectrum )

wifi - Channel 1 and Zigbee channel 25 for example.

I moved from Eero to Unifi and have had zero issues with anything network related.

TL;DR - 99% of all homekit issues are WiFi related!

 

[clg82]

It doesn’t Matter.

I agree, I use mostly other third party apps to control my whole home without needing to use homekit. Another fail by Apple that could have been implemented so much better.

 

[d686546s]

If you only have a single device why not just use the Hive app? Or am I not getting what you are saying?

That's what we'll do, but regardless it was nice to be able to control with Siri from my phone and my watch, which is functionality I'll lose.

 

[SalisburySam]

Have you added your Eero pro's to homekit and using the secure router?

If you are losing devices on Eero updates then it's likely that is the issue.

Thank you so much for the detailed information and debugging tips.

All 8 eeroPros are in HomeKit. Not sure what you mean by “…using the secure router…” I don’t see any such option in the Home app.

Are the lights Hue / zigbee? When they Eero updates it might be chainging the 2.4ghz wifi channel to one that overlaps the zigbee channel ( I keep mine well apart on the spectrum )

wifi - Channel 1 and Zigbee channel 25 for example.

No Hue, no Zigbee. 12 outlet smartplugs are all WeMo with Thread, 2 lights are nanoleaf with Matter, and the one wired light switch is WeMo.

I moved from Eero to Unifi and have had zero issues with anything network related.

TL;DR - 99% of all homekit issues are WiFi related!

I agree. In our WiFi-killer home (thick plaster/lath walls) we had no success with typical routers so went with mesh. Still needed almost one router per room plus the gateway. As it is I get excellent home/yard/garage coverage according to tools like Ookla and SpeedTest. Our eeroPro’s are all WiFi 5, stable, working, updated automatically. Don’t know why they would be not working well with Home but they don’t.

We’ve toyed with upgrading the eero’s to 6e or even 7 but if there’s something else running amuck with the relationship between eero networking and HomeKit devices, that may not solve the issues. I’ve looked at Unifi but their website requires much more networking experience than I have…seems more enterprise oriented than home networking…beyond my meager ability. I don’t even see what I’d need to buy to replace my eero network so I didn’t pursue this line.

 

[kkclstuff]

Editorial note...

While the article nicely includes a historical timeline, it falls short in the current. The article should report: 'the update to version' number (18.5)
(yes its assumed the latest, but please include relevant info)

 

[sandman42]

Updated my HomePod mini to 18.5 tonight, everything in Home is working fine.



Open the Home app, click on the "More" icon (3 dots in upper right corner), choose "Home Settings", scroll down to "Software Update". You'll either get a prompt to upgrade or it will say "This home and all accessories are up to date".

I tried this on both my iPhone and iPad Pro (both on current OS), and neither one shows “Software Update” in the “Home Settings” menu.

 

[spazzcat]

The new architecture had tons of issues with my August locks, causing them to stop responding on a frequent basis until they were power cycled by hand by popping a battery.

I ended up replacing the locks because it was so bad.

I have no issues with my August locks and I updated on day one to the new achitecture.

 

[spazzcat]

I agree, I use mostly other third party apps to control my whole home without needing to use homekit. Another fail by Apple that could have been implemented so much better.

I use thrid party apps some times, but all vocie control is through siri.

 

[azhava]

Nope, not seeing that for any of my homes!

I tried this on both my iPhone and iPad Pro (both on current OS), and neither one shows “Software Update” in the “Home Settings” menu.

Not sure what's going on there. It shows on both my iPhone and iPad, right below "Listen for 'Siri' or 'Hey Siri'" in the menu.

 

[CapitalIdea]

My original first gen HomePods have never worked properly since this home upgrade. They sit in configuring state.

Mine works just fine. Have you done a reset?

 

[DemonMF777]

Now I need a new Home Hub.. it would be nice if they updated the hardware, so I don't have to buy a 2-3 year old device just to upgrade my Homekit architecture!

 

[iVoid]

Not good.
I don't have an Apple TV or HomePod, so this will mean my iPad will not be able to run as my Home Hub.

Unless iPadOS 19 and macOS 16 will allow those devices to be home hubs.

Really don't want to buy a separate device to be a home hub.

 

[BigBlur]

I initially thought this would be problematic for my parents since their iPad is currently used as a hub to control some light strips. They do not want or care to have an Apple TV or HomePod. However, after doing some testing on a spare device using the new Home architecture and no hub, I think they actually don't need a hub for their use case and wouldn't be affected much by the upgrade.

Their automations are currently set up in the Home app (all time-based automations), and require a hub as a result. During my testing, it looks like their automations could be set up as personal automations in the Shortcuts app instead. They would still be able to use Siri on their iPhone or iPad to control the lights as well.

They would lose the ability to control the lights remotely (when not at home) or use some of the more complex automations (i.e. last person to leave home, a sensor detects something, or an accessory is controlled, etc.), but they never used those anyway. They would also lose the "only run when I am home" capability, but they take their iPad with them when they travel, so that's not really a problem either since the iPad wouldn't be home to control things anyway.

You probably don't need a hub if:

• You only have time-based automations controlling a few devices. Look into setting those automations up in the Shortcuts app instead.
• You have no automations and don't control your devices when away from home. You can still control them from your device or Siri when you are home.

You will need a hub if:

• You have more complex automations (i.e. run when first person arrives, run when last person leaves, run only when home, etc.).
• You have devices that control other devices (i.e. a switch or motion sensor that controls a light).
• You want to control your devices when away from home.

 

[d686546s]

I initially thought this would be problematic for my parents since their iPad is currently used as a hub to control some light strips. They do not want or care to have an Apple TV or HomePod. However, after doing some testing on a spare device using the new Home architecture and no hub, I think they actually don't need a hub for their use case and wouldn't be affected much by the upgrade.

Their automations are currently set up in the Home app (all time-based automations), and require a hub as a result. During my testing, it looks like their automations could be set up as personal automations in the Shortcuts app instead. They would still be able to use Siri on their iPhone or iPad to control the lights as well.

They would lose the ability to control the lights remotely (when not at home) or use some of the more complex automations (i.e. last person to leave home, a sensor detects something, or an accessory is controlled, etc.), but they never used those anyway. They also would lose the "only run when I am home" capability, but they take their iPad with them when they travel, so that's not really a problem either since the iPad wouldn't be home to control things anyway.

You probably don't need a hub if:

• You only have time-based automations controlling a few devices. Look into setting those automations up in the Shortcuts app instead.
• You have no automations and don't control your devices when away from home. You can still control them from your device or Siri when you are home.

You will need a hub if:

• You have more complex automations (i.e. run when first person arrives, run when last person leaves, run only when home, etc).
• You have devices that control other devices (i.e. a switch or motion sensor that controls a light).
• You want to control your devices when away from home.

Unless I'm mistaken you also need a hub if you want to control things from more than one device.

It sounds like that wouldn't be an issue if they only use the iPad to change lights, temperature etc, but if they also wanted to user their iPhones in addition to the iPad you'll have a problem.

 

[BigBlur]

Unless I'm mistaken you also need a hub if you want to control things from more than one device.

It sounds like that wouldn't be an issue if they only use the iPad to change lights, temperature etc, but if they also wanted to user their iPhones in addition to the iPad you'll have a problem.

Nope! You actually don't need a hub for this either. I think that is another common misconception many people have. Things may be slower to respond since the iPhone or iPad would have to find and connect to the HomeKit device, but that's about how the old Home architecture worked anyway. With the new architecture, the hub should maintain the connections, and all requests would go through there and be faster. Either way, if the hub is offline for whatever reason, then the iPhone or iPad will try to control the device.

 

[CarlJ]

Now I need a new Home Hub.. it would be nice if they updated the hardware, so I don't have to buy a 2-3 year old device just to upgrade my Homekit architecture!

Well, the support is said to not be going away until the fall, and there are widely spread rumors of a new home hub coming out "sometime this year", so...

 

[sandman42]

Not sure what's going on there. It shows on both my iPhone and iPad, right below "Listen for 'Siri' or 'Hey Siri'" in the menu.

I don’t have the “Listen for…” menu option either. I’m going to guess this menu is dynamic, and configures itself to your HomeKit configuration, because I don’t have any HomePods, or any other dedicated “home” accessories that are Siri enabled. Also, other than the AppleTV that acts as my hub, none of my HomeKit accessories are updateable (by Apple), so maybe that’s why the “Software Update” menu option is suppressed, for accessories anyway.