HomeKit Setup 2nd Home Best Practices?

[Mrfatboy]

I have setup my primary home with
HomeKit with a wired AppleTV. Everything
works great. I have elected not to upgrade to the new home architecture at this time.

Now I want to setup my vacation home 3
hours away. This home also has its own
wired AppleTV.

I see two possibilities of setting up the 2nd home. Is there more?

1. Create an entirely new home using a
different Apple ID and invite my primary
home/account to that account as an
admin.

2. Use my primary Apple ID in the 2nd
home AppleTV and just create a second
Home. If I do this method will each home only see its own AppleTV as its hub? I don’t want one home’s Apple TV go Standby while the other becomes primary for both homes. I have read people have had problems with this situation.


Any pros or cons of using either method?
Recommendations?

 

[sparky672]

will each home only see its own AppleTV as its hub? I don’t want one home’s Apple TV go Standby while the other becomes primary for both homes.

I think the common sense and intended way would be to use one Apple ID with multiple Homes, each for a house with its own wifi. I don't know how devices confined to their own wifi network in one Home would be able to cross over to a different Home miles away on another wifi network. (When I generically say "wifi", I mean LAN, which includes everything wired.)

However, if this approach is prone to issues or buggy, others can chime in on that.

 

[Mrfatboy]

I think the common sense and intended way would be to use one Apple ID with multiple Homes, each for a house with its own wifi. I don't know how devices confined to their own wifi network in one Home would be able to cross over to a different Home miles away on another wifi network. (When I generically say "wifi", I mean LAN, which includes everything wired.)

However, if this approach is prone to issues or buggy, others can chime in on that.

The only concern I have is how iCloud works with HomeKit and two houses. Somehow it must distinguish between the two location and use the correct hub. Hopefully apple fixed any bugs regarding this.

 

[sparky672]

Somehow it must distinguish between the two location(s)

Somehow? For one thing, two different houses are using two completely different LANs, wifi, etc.

• The Apple TV as a Home hub is "added" or assigned to a Home.

• That Home belongs to an Apple ID.

• The Apple TV is connected via one specific LAN, which establishes its location on that LAN.

If that doesn't distinguish it from another, I don't know what would.

Hopefully apple fixed any bugs regarding this.

I have been following a lot of HomeKit bug threads, and dealing with a few myself, but not sure I ever heard anything about a hub jumping between two different HomeKit Homes miles apart. I don't even know how that's possible given the constraint that these must be on the same LAN as the accessories they control. And yes, there have been some strange things going on with HomeKit lately.