HomeKit When Nobody is home isn’t working

[LonderJan]

I have a scene to turn on lights ”when nobody is home” but it is not working.
Today, I had none of my iPads or iPhones at home (except the Apple TV which is setup as home hub) but it still did not work.
Any ideas on how to troubleshoot?

 

[Itinj24]

I found this feature to be unreliable with one of my Home Hubs. Especially so with notifications when nobody is home. I have 4 Home Hubs which includes 3 Apple TV’s and a HomePod and noticed that when one of the Apple TV’s takes over as the Hub, these issues pop up for a few hours then sort of settles in.

Has this always been an issue? Try resetting the ATV in the settings.

 

[Bgosh]

I have rarely had any problems with automations, but I only have a couple so perhaps milage just varies. I have 2 Apple TVs and 2 homepods acting as homekit hubs. Heres a basic list I go through when I've had to troubleshoot issues:

1. Make sure your home address is accurate on your contact card in contacts.
2. Go to Settings>Privacy>Homekit and make sure the devices requesting access are on.
3. Go to Settings>Privacy>Location Services and verify your primary device is being used for sharing.
4. Settings>Privacy>Location Services and scroll down and check that home app location access is set to "while using".
5. Settings>Privacy>Location Services>System Services and make sure homekit is on.

Also check the settings of any family member's devices in your home using homekit. My wife was sharing her location with a non-cellular ipad and it caused quite a headache. It's location couldn't be narrowed down when disconnected, and it defaulted to "last known" which was home, even though it was at her office. Good luck!

 

[sclawis300]

I am having the same problem. When I arrive works but when I leave doesn’t.

 

[Dave.Inwood1988]

I have the same problem. When I arrive turns lights on but when I leave doesn’t turn them off (although it does when I’m at home randomly!)

I have two Apple TV 4ks, 2 homepods, three iPads and iPhones all of which show as connected in the home app but it still decides to switch lights off thinking no one is at home!

 

[sclawis300]

For som reason when I leave magically started working. Unfortunately it turns off when I leave but my wife is still home. Go figure.

 

[BlankStar]

Have you done what Bgosh said? What made all my homekit troubles go away, was turning of the Apple TV's as hub, the Homepods do a much better job.

 

[JustMartin]

I've gone through the steps outlined above and removed several old devices that were still connected to home sharing. My phone is set to be the one that counts as leaving the house and when I get home, it switches on the expected lights. But, the leave home feature doesn't seem to work automatically. I can say "Hey Siri leaving" and all the lights are turned off. But, I have left the apartment and walked across the road and can see the lights are staying on. What does it use to detect you're in? Presumably Wi-Fi connection and not gps.

 

[sandman42]

Same problem here. There’s two of us, each with an iPhone that’s supposed to be how our presence is detected. Arriving home automations still work ok, but I have a rule to turn off the lights at a certain time “if no one is at home”, but it broke recently — right around the switch to iOS 13 and TVOS 13, I think. I deleted the existing rule and created a new one, still not working.

 

[BlankStar]

Update everything to iOS 13.2 and try again, it's much more stable (or the latest beta was at least, so I assume the released version is at least as stable)