Resolved Trouble with Home app on the Watch.

[oMc]

Apple Watch Ultra.

I have a few Philips lights at home. They work fine via the Hue app, on any device I have. They also used to work fine via the Home app on my Mac, iPhone or Watch a few days ago, using either Siri or manually.

Long story short, recently moved with my girlfriend and wanted to share the Home setting with her so she can control the lights too via her iPhone or Watch. Trying to do that, I noticed that I need to update my Home architecture (her Home app was up to date, apparently, that's why I had to do it as well). Fine, let's go. Then, realized that in order to share your Home with someone, you need either a HomePod or an Apple TV. Fine, we order an HomePod mini that is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I considered buying one since a little while anyway.

But anyway, since upgrading to the new Home architecture, my Watch refuses to control the lights, either manually or via Siri. It just shows that the lights are unavailable, or not responding. Works fine on the iPhone or Mac even after the update. I tried to reboot all device, all lights, sync the Hue app again with Home, ect., without success. I even updated iOS and WatchOS to the latest beta thinking it could be a WatchOS problem, no luck.

The weird thing is that when I rename the Home in the Home app on iOS, the new name shows up in the Home app on WatchOS, so the Watch and the Phone are actually syncing properly.

Any ideas? Do you actually need a hub as well in order to control the lights from the Watch...? That would make no sense since the Watch is basically just an extension of the phone.

 

[tragicwinding]

It's possible that the Watch might require a hub like a HomePod or an Apple TV to effectively communicate with the lights. Although it may seem counterintuitive since the Watch is an extension of the phone, having a hub can ensure seamless connectivity across all devices.

Once your HomePod mini arrives, try setting it up as a hub and see if that resolves the problem. It should enhance the synchronization between your devices, including the Apple Watch. If the issue persists, you can also try unpairing and repairing your Apple Watch with your iPhone to establish a fresh connection.

 

[oMc]

So, update. I installed the HomePod mini, works well with the Mac, the iPhone, etc, was also able to add the girlfriend to the Home and now she can control the lights too.
But, it still refuses to work from my Watch... tried with my old Series 4, same issue. The ironic thing is that it's working fine on my girlfriend's Apple Watch...

My Watch sees that I have added a HomePod, but still, all lights and even the HomePod itself are showing "no response".

I want to try unpairing the Watch next, but I've seen people saying that it did not solve the issue, so I'm worried it might be a waste of my time.

 

[oMc]

Oh, it suddently started working on the Series 4. Very strange. On the Ultra, it still says "configuring" under the HomePod button, so maybe I just need to give it time...

EDIT: it just started working on the Ultra as well in the morning, without me doing anything. It wasn’t working before going to bed.

 

[Tony_YYZ]

This seems to be a WatchOS 9.5.x issue. I started experiencing the No Response issue on my watch since updating to 9.5. It randomly started working one day but then about a week or so later it stopped again. The only thing that happened is both my ATVs rebooted due to a blackout.