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OCDMacGeek

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 19, 2007
581
80
This is a longshot, but it's worth a try I guess:

I share my HomeKit config over iCloud to two devices: an iPhone and an iPad. At some point, through adding and changing some devices, I wound up with a corruption on the iPad alone. A Lutron SmartBridge and all of its devices are fully reachable on my iPhone. On my iPad, the bridge and all devices are "not reachable." I cannot delete the bridge from the iPad as it comes right back. If I delete it on my iPhone, it remains on the iPad. I know I could resolve this if I reset the entireHomeKit configuration in the privacy settings. However, this would reset the config on my iPhone as well. I don't want to do that because I have over 100 devices, and it would be a nightmare to setup again. (Here's a video showing some of them.)


Having to reset the entire HomeKit configuration due to these minor problems is going to become unfeasible for users the more devices they have. (One should not have to blow up the entire thing every time there's a problem, but I disgress).

This problem survived restoring from a backup when I got my new iPad Pro instead of the iPad air 2 I had before, when the problem started. I suppose I could do a clean restore on my iPad. But that, too, is more than I want to do.

Does anyone know precisely where in the filesystem this HomeKit data is stored? One can sometimes manipulate data in their iTunes backups using a tool like iBackupBot: http://9to5mac.com/2016/04/09/how-to-backup-restore-sms-texts-imessages-clean-ios-install/

I'm wondering if I could back up my iPad, delete the folder containing the HomeKit configuration from just the iPad, then restore that back up. At that point maybe it would repopulate the correct data.
 
@OCDMacGeek HomeKit configuration will only get backed up with iTunes if you choose to encrypt the backup (and I'm not sure you can modify encrypted backup). Maybe you can try to turn off the iCloud Keychain on iPad and turn it back on to force iOS re-sync all keys and see if that allows HomeKit to get the key that used to connect to that bridge?
 
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@OCDMacGeek HomeKit configuration will only get backed up with iTunes if you choose to encrypt the backup (and I'm not sure you can modify encrypted backup). Maybe you can try to turn off the iCloud Keychain on iPad and turn it back on to force iOS re-sync all keys and see if that allows HomeKit to get the key that used to connect to that bridge?

So, I had tried all sorts of possibilities a hundred times but the last time I tried was about month ago. I never assumed the latest 9.3.1 update would have done anything to help, but it actually must have. I deleted the bridge off my iPad and it actually "took." It was gone off my iPhone. Hallelujah. Then I added it back and all is good!
 
I get a little edgy about homekit which is why I was thinking of backing: Protonet Zoe
Based on what is advertised, all the data including voice is stored locally without ever going out to the cloud even IFTTT is on it locally.
Siri inevitably sends your data up to Apple somewhere, does HomeKit require iCloud to be enabled or any other communication to the cloud?
 
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