tvOS does not handle HomeKit scenes correctly.

[JSDK]

I'm experiencing a strange error on one of my Apple TV's. An Apple TV 4K from 2017, updated to tvOS 17.6 (also experienced it on previous versions)

I have different scenes on my Apple TV in the Home section of the Control Center. They control my Hue light, for example I have a scene called "Red" it changes ALL the lighting in the house to a red color. But when I run the scenes from my Apple TV, only some of the bulbs/lamps change to red, some of the others change to a random color, e.g. green. If I run the same scene from my second Apple TV 4K from 2021, the scene executes correctly, the same when I do it from my iPhone or MacBook.

I think I've tried everything. Logged out of HomeKit and my Apple ID on my Apple TV, restored my Apple TV to factory settings, deleted the scenes and created them again. My ATV 4K from 2017 otherwise behaves normally.

Any ideas?

 

[JeffPerrin]

It is these kind of inconsistencies which made me largely give up on using HomeKit. I only use it (Siri) for turning devices on or off. Not clear about "Matter" and "Thread"... Call me when "there's no step 3." 😉

 

[chadamorrill]

Maybe this AppleTV is red/green colorblind?

Joking aside, is it always the same bulbs that aren't behaving? Or is that random as well? If it's constant, I would verify firmware levels on the bulbs and make certain that you can control them on their own to the desired colors. Then I'd rebuild the scene one bulb at a time: try a bulb you know works, then add a bulb you know doesn't work and test. If the "red" color is a custom color, perhaps, change that hue ever so slightly to see if that makes a difference.

The only lights I have that change colors are my undercabinets in the kitchen (they're Homekit-based Sylvania lights). I will occasionally have issues changing their colors, but I have scenes that set it back to "default" that almost always work. That said, we change colors only for novelty (think "hey siri, go gators!" or "merry Christmas" or whathaveyou), and never operate them from the TV, only from the Homepods (or phone).

 

[JSDK]

Thank you for your reply, and sorry for the late reply. I have been on holiday. It's different bulbs misbehaving when I activate the scenes from my 2017 Apple TV, so it's quite inconsistent, and yes it is every time, but ONLY when I activate scenes with colors I found (weird)

After I got home, I tried to start all over with my Hue system - restored my Hub to the factory settings, and set up all the bulbs and scenes again. Unfortunately, it hasn't made any difference, and the funny thing is that it still works perfectly on my 2021 Apple TV, as well as on my iPhone and Mac. But my 2017 Apple TV refuses to handle scenes with colors correctly, only the scenes where it's normal "yellow" light. My wife can also activate the scenes from her iPhone without any problems. I suspect my 2017 Apple TV is too old, but everything else works fine, so don't bother replacing it.

 

[HDFan]

But when I run the scenes from my Apple TV, only some of the bulbs/lamps change to red,

Homekit is pretty much a disaster. I ask for a specific scene and it gives me the time or some other totally irrelevant answer.

I ask it to raise a window blind and the homepod doesn't do it. I have to say "window left" rather than "left window" or it will go through all my rooms asking me to select one. Only one room has a Window left.

I then try the home app on my phone or the manufacturers app and it usually works. Sometimes it starts the raise and then stops at 25%. Tell it to raise again and it just goes up another 25%.

Most of my devices are attached to Satechi smart switches. Some devices just stop responding and I have to remove/repair them.

 

[waw74]

Homekit is pretty much a disaster. I ask for a specific scene and it gives me the time or some other totally irrelevant answer.
....
I then try the home app on my phone or the manufacturers app and it usually works

sound like it's a siri problem, not a homekit problem, siri on the HomePod seems to have the most problems, sometimes rebooting it can help, I've had some siri things work fine on HP, but others don't. it's like the siri stack partially crashes or hangs on certain interactions, but not others.


one thing about hue, the bulbs won't take any commands except for "on" when they're off. That on command can be combined with other stuff (like color or level), but I think homekit sends all the parts separately. so if they're off, and it sends "red" then "on" they won't take the red. if you resend the scene once the bulbs are on they should take it. I've reported this to apple before, the adaptive lighting seemed to send color then on, so they would come up in the wrong color, than then change to the proper adaptive color after a few minutes when it sent the next update.

Get the eve app, it lets you see exactly what's included in each scene, and enable/disable individual parameters. might want to look at the problem scene, it's possible that it's got color temp or something that's causing confusion.

 

[HDFan]

Get the eve app,

Sound like it's a siri problem, not a homekit problem, siri on the HomePod seems to have the most problems,

Dunno. I have the new HomePod with the temperature sensor as well as an eve room in the same room. Ask for the temperature and get some message that there is no temperature sensor.

Ask for the lutron shades to go fully down and sometimes only go down in 25% increments. Ask for it to go down 68% and get random % of closure.

Will try on other devices to see if get better results.

 

[MBAir2010]

I have a problem with setting up an TV downstairs from a Mac-mini upstairs.

since I am not Ulsan Bolt, I can't run fast enough to enter the code.
I also tried using my MacBook Air m1 as a screen sharing on Monterey but that shows 2 screens from the mini,
as I can't trackpad the proper button.
for now if I can stream from my mini but sometimes the tv rejects most MP4 I own from the mini
I play those from the MacBook Air instead.

I guess I have 2 snafus and will investigate this weekend on solving both.

what a PITA  bestowed up on us DIYS'ers!

 

[priitv8]

I take the picture of the code with my phone and walk to my appleTV to enter the code.
Never failed so far. Does it really have a timeout?
If so, I must have always made it to the TV room before that.

 

[MBAir2010]

I take the picture of the code with my phone and walk to my appleTV to enter the code.
Never failed so far. Does it really have a timeout?
If so, I must have always made it to the TV room before that.

Thanks for the reply,
I finally got this to work,
my problem was having a USBC and HDMI from th min I to the monitor
screwed up screen sharing on the MacBook Air which showed 2 screens
not it was one and the pass code typed well!

just the connection sucks.....the home pod, tv stream volume goes off....on....off