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

HomeKit That's it. I'm done. I'm out.

Yeah im at my wits end with HomeKit. Glad I started this journey with getting products that work more than just HomeKit so I can jump ship whenever. The fact that the right now my automation simple ones like turn on the lights at 6am are not working is ridiculous. Starting to migrate my automations to Google Home
 
Samuel Sosa said:
Yeah im at my wits end with HomeKit. Glad I started this journey with getting products that work more than just HomeKit so I can jump ship whenever. The fact that the right now my automation simple ones like turn on the lights at 6am are not working is ridiculous. Starting to migrate my automations to Google Home
Click to expand...
If it helps at all: I had this symptom recently where every HomeKit automation died. Once I updated my Apple TVs to tvOS 16.1 though, they all magically started working again.

All that said: if I ever end up in the boat of "delete all automations and start over," I'll throw Home Assistant on a spare box and let it handle things. At least that'll have logs telling me WHY when it doesn't work. Pretty sure all my stuff will work there.
 
DJLC said:
If it helps at all: I had this symptom recently where every HomeKit automation died. Once I updated my Apple TVs to tvOS 16.1 though, they all magically started working again.

All that said: if I ever end up in the boat of "delete all automations and start over," I'll throw Home Assistant on a spare box and let it handle things. At least that'll have logs telling me WHY when it doesn't work. Pretty sure all my stuff will work there.
Click to expand...
I actually updated everything. to the latest. Still nothing. I decided to turn everything off give it 5min then turn everything back on. Literally everything ATV, hompod, iPhone. All the Hubs for Hue, and Caseta. and so far the automations are working. Only time will tell of my timed automations will work. I think that after this update things got a little funky authenticating and just crapped out. I'll let you know tomorrow if all my automations are working.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DJLC
Juicy Box said:
I have been frustrated with HomeKit on a few things. I could never get my LiftMaster MyQ Home Bridge for my wall mounted garage door opener to work. I spend so many hours trying. Looking up tips on the internet, how-tos on YouTube. Nothing.

Lately, it has been about cameras. I bought my single family home over a year ago, and wanted to get a HomeKit camera set up for outside, but the options are very limited.

I am close to jumping ship myself.

To be fair, my Weiser Premis Touchscreen Smart Lock by Kwikset has been flawless with HomeKit. I just wished there were more outdoor camera options.


I notice a lot of inconsistencies with Siri over the years, and it really gets frustrated. Using Siri with CarPlay for directions is risky in my experience. You never know where you will end up.
Click to expand...

HomeBridge has the My Q plugin that is working well for me. Just need to setup the API access :D

Homebridge myQ​

homebridge-myq v2.7.4

[10/30/2022, 3:40:42 PM] [myQ] myQ API: Successfully connected to the myQ API.
[10/30/2022, 3:40:43 PM] [myQ] myQ API: Discovered device family garagedoor: Garage Door (serial number: xxx, gateway: xxx).
[10/30/2022, 3:40:43 PM] [myQ] myQ API: Discovered device family gateway: Hub (serial number: xxx).
[10/30/2022, 3:40:43 PM] [myQ] Garage Door: Door position sensor detected. Enabling battery status support.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Juicy Box
I thought having a simple basic HK setup would spare me these issues but here I am. Since the last updates automations are working randomly. One day it works, the next day zip. My system is fairly basic. A Hue bridge with 5 bulbs, 1 Hue Play, a Hue smart plug, and 2 Hue outdoor sensors. Other accessories include a Meross light strip, Eve Home and Eve outdoor temperature sensors. All the Hue bulbs are outside in sealed light fixtures.

Even my automations are basic, lights come on at sunset or defined time. All turn off at a defined time. Motions sensors trigger lights between sunset and sunrise. I deleted all automations and added them back. Some worked for a few days then they don’t. I even tried adding the scenes and automations in the Eve app instead of the Home app. Same results. Frustrating to the say the least. I’m trying to convince my wife to let add more indoor lights and automations but this ain’t helping the cause.

For what it’s worth, my iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and HomePod mini are all up to date. Currently I’m running no scenes, all automations just run the light or accessory directly.
 
Was hoping for this new architecture change in 16.1. Looks like was have to wait till December now. With all the hooplah surrounding this change, if that doesn’t fix it, I’m confident nothing ever will. I’ll try to be patient until then.

Those “turn off after xx minutes” after an automation is executed never worked properly for me. For example, had an automation to turn on the porch lights to 100% when motion detected and to turn off after 10 minutes. Yeah, they would just stay on burning at 100% indefinitely and probably disturbing my neighbors. Had to remove that automation and just have the lights run at 25% all night till sunrise to find a happy medium. Why even leave the option in there if it doesn’t work? I’m sure they tested it, right? It’s not very time consuming to see it just doesn’t work.
 
Siri, especially HomePod Siri, is useless.

Ask her to turn on the light. “I found some web results.” No!

Can’t do two or more related actions in one query. Ask to play a song and she gets it wildly wrong. HomePod stereo pair randomly goes off sync or stop working. “Hmm.” and nothing else in response to basic questions. So, so useless.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itinj24
Brien said:
Siri, especially HomePod Siri, is useless.

Ask her to turn on the light. “I found some web results.” No!

Can’t do two or more related actions in one query. Ask to play a song and she gets it wildly wrong. HomePod stereo pair randomly goes off sync or stop working. “Hmm.” and nothing else in response to basic questions. So, so useless.
Click to expand...
I found that Siri on my iPhone is not only just about 100% reliable with HomeKit commands but it’s also fast too. Very different results when asking the HomePod I’m standing right in front of or the iPhone that I’m holding. I sprinkled my home with a variety of HomePod Minis and OG’s to not have to use my phone though. It’s pure garbage and a travesty that they released these devices to the public at a substantially higher price than the competition.

I strongly believe (just my opinion) that with Matter rolling out and the prospect of having Echo and Google devices in the Matter mix, this HomeKit architectural restructure is designed to make the HomePods and HomeKit a worthy choice. I could be wrong of course, but I’m gonna stand fast before making any big changes in my Home. I’m deeply invested in Apple, HomeKit and the ecosystem in general so it would be an expensive and time consuming change.
 
Manqué said:
Apple need to stop ****ing developing everything and the sink and concentrate a year or so on just fixing everything they currently have.
Click to expand...
I’d welcome a featureless year of bug fixing to get this crap in proper working order.

I’m not savvy in coding but how do they constantly manage to create a new feature but break three other things that were working just fine in the past?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Deedeekay
BF1M said:
HomeKit can kiss off. I have been on this journey with Apple for too long to be this frustrated. Yet again, HomeKit has forgotten how to tell the difference between the words "lamp" and "light.

Every single ****ing time they update their software it's like Russian roulette what will happen with your HomeKit set up.

1000s of dollars and I never know what will happen when I tell Siri to do something.

I'm out.
Click to expand...
This is so bad I hope future update will be alright!
 
Manqué said:
Apple need to stop ****ing developing everything and the sink and concentrate a year or so on just fixing everything they currently have.
Click to expand...
This would be nice but they have locked themselves into an annual release cycle.
 
Samuel Sosa said:
I actually updated everything. to the latest. Still nothing. I decided to turn everything off give it 5min then turn everything back on. Literally everything ATV, hompod, iPhone. All the Hubs for Hue, and Caseta. and so far the automations are working. Only time will tell of my timed automations will work. I think that after this update things got a little funky authenticating and just crapped out. I'll let you know tomorrow if all my automations are working.
Click to expand...
So I delete and recreated all my automations so far so good today. Lets see if they stick
 
  • Like
Reactions: Itinj24
Try asking any of your HomePods to play a really common song from Apple Music...
 
Samuel Sosa said:
So I delete and recreated all my automations so far so good today. Lets see if they stick
Click to expand...

So what was the outcome? I deleted most of mine. I’m trying a few in the native Hue and Meross apps. So far so good but there are some limitations as what scenes and routines you can create.
 
Manqué said:
Apple need to stop ****ing developing everything and the sink and concentrate a year or so on just fixing everything they currently have.
Click to expand...
I am truly hoping that's what this next year is going to be. If you look at the new Homekit features in iOS 16 this year, there really aren't any. It's all about revamping what's already there (new Home app), or improving connectivity (Matter Support). 16.2 will bring the 'new and improved architecture' that won't show up in the user interface, but hopefully will be the beginning of 'fixing everything' that you and all of us are hoping for.
 
  • Love
  • Like
Reactions: B/D and Deedeekay
Validating you as well. I have 3 Macs, 4 HomePods, 3 iPads, 3 iPhones, Apple Watch and 3 Apple TVs and I’ve seriously started to lay out in a list what the impact and cost is of switching. I’ve been eyeing the new Pixel as a primary device and moving my HomeKit stuff to google (shudder).

All mostly because of HomeKit. Interestingly they might see HomeKit as a sticky product, but in fact it is one of their most stress inducing ones.
 
zinacef said:
Really happy to have found this thread!

For me HomeKit has been a disaster as I’ve found that my automations only work 1% of the time, and lately with iOS 16, my Schlage Encode Plus has been finicky within HomeKit including notifications which are sometimes coming through.

I’ve removed the lock from HomeKit and re-added it numerous times only to have the same results. When it connects to HomeKit, I’ve found that I’ve been having to check the Home app numerous times throughout the day to see if I lost the lock or not. This obviously is causing me lots of anxiety!

The Schlage Encode Plus was working well with iOS 15, but automations still wasn’t.

HomeKit has been so unreliable that I‘ve resorted to using the native apps for my devices which are only 2 - LiftMaster and Schlage Encode. I was hoping to take full advantage of HomeKit with the lock but that hasn’t been the case so I’m thinking of going back to my regular deadbolt. Plus the batteries have been draining fast on the Schlage so not sure why that’s happening.

Like the OP, I too have been thinking to dump it!
Click to expand...
I have the Encode Plus as well. Was working great. Got notifications instantly when locked / unlocked. Recently the lock just stopped sending notifications. I have tried it all: reset lock by taking out batteries, reset homehub, phones etc. The lock is still connected via thread and responds instantly to lock / unlock via Home app or devices. Just no notifications.

Anyone else seeing this problem? Any solutions? Is this just another of the many bugs we will have to wait for a future update to fix?
 
Markakett said:
So what was the outcome? I deleted most of mine. I’m trying a few in the native Hue and Meross apps. So far so good but there are some limitations as what scenes and routines you can create.
Click to expand...
Been about 2 weeks and it's been solid with the automations. However experimenting with Google Home
 
  • Like
Reactions: QuietGamer
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back