HomeKit Why did Apple change the way lights work? So frustrating!

[WilliamG]

So, like many of you, I have HomeKit-capable lights (in my case, Lutron Caseta). Till this past week or so, everything had been great for the most part. NOW, however, if I tell Siri to e.g. "Turn on kitchen light", ALL my kitchen lights turn on - the bar lights, the cabinet lights - everything in the "room," not just the ceiling light like you'd "usually" want. The same goes for my bedroom. "Hey Siri, turn on the master bedroom light" turns on the ceiling light and all my lamps in the room (which have their own names and that I turn on individually myself when I want to using Siri commands - separately).

Is there a way to resolve this issue? It's super annoying!

 

[Itinj24]

Give everything a custom name. For example, in my kitchen, I have three sets of lights controlled by their own switches. Four recessed down lights with Hue bulbs in a group, a fixture with four Hue bulbs above my island counter and a fixture above my kitchen dining table with three Hie bulbs in a group. I named them “main lights” for the recessed, “counter lights” for the counter and “table lights” for the table. I can turn on each set individually by saying, “Hey, Siri, turn on the kitchen main lights” and only the recessed down lights come on. If you just say kitchen lights, of course it’s gonna think you want the whole kitchen to come. Not sure how Apple changed this recently for you. I’ve known this to be the behavior for the past two years I’ve been using HomeKit lighting.

 

[HDFan]

Siri just messes up sometimes. I tell it to run a scene and it turns on (or off) everything in that room - lights, fans, AC, etc. Luckily very intermittent.

 

[waw74]

all my "main" lights are called overhead,
so I always say "kitchen overhead" or "bedroom overhead"
or in the living room, no overhead, so my main is the "couch lamp"

When just saying a room, I've always had the entire room respond.

how is siri supposed to know which you consider the light you want turned on?
In one of her more human-like qualities, she doesn't have any mind reading hardware.
I'm not sure how it was working before.

I will say for the past few weeks, her timing has been off.
for the HomePod, I've been having it not hear me, it seems I now have to make more of a pause between hey siri and the command, it can't just be a continuous phrase. Not long, maybe a half second, just feels like it's more than it used to be
or she'll cut me off mid sentence, and only "hear" the first part. even though the time between words was all the same. I've watched this happen on the phone, she'll get the whole sentence, and then the end of it drops off.

 

[WilliamG]

Give everything a custom name. For example, in my kitchen, I have three sets of lights controlled by their own switches. Four recessed down lights with Hue bulbs in a group, a fixture with four Hue bulbs above my island counter and a fixture above my kitchen dining table with three Hie bulbs in a group. I named them “main lights” for the recessed, “counter lights” for the counter and “table lights” for the table. I can turn on each set individually by saying, “Hey, Siri, turn on the kitchen main lights” and only the recessed down lights come on. If you just say kitchen lights, of course it’s gonna think you want the whole kitchen to come. Not sure how Apple changed this recently for you. I’ve known this to be the behavior for the past two years I’ve been using HomeKit lighting.

It has definitely changed. I labeled the overhead light “Kitchen Light” specifically and it has always worked to turn that one light on.

 

[WilliamG]

all my "main" lights are called overhead,
so I always say "kitchen overhead" or "bedroom overhead"
or in the living room, no overhead, so my main is the "couch lamp"

When just saying a room, I've always had the entire room respond.

how is siri supposed to know which you consider the light you want turned on?
In one of her more human-like qualities, she doesn't have any mind reading hardware.
I'm not sure how it was working before.

I will say for the past few weeks, her timing has been off.
for the HomePod, I've been having it not hear me, it seems I now have to make more of a pause between hey siri and the command, it can't just be a continuous phrase. Not long, maybe a half second, just feels like it's more than it used to be
or she'll cut me off mid sentence, and only "hear" the first part. even though the time between words was all the same. I've watched this happen on the phone, she'll get the whole sentence, and then the end of it drops off.

It’s not mind-reading. If you ask someone to turn on the kitchen light they’d just turn on the overhead light. That’s how it’s always worked till recently. If I wanted the kitchen lights (plural) turned on, that would perhaps be different. But the kitchen light is and has always been a singular light or set of lights.

 

[d.steve]

same thing here, fwiw.

It used to work just fine with “<room> light” doing just that one and “<room> lights” doing all lights when all my others in the same room were named lamp, etc, but now doesn’t.

 

[waw74]

It’s not mind-reading. If you ask someone to turn on the kitchen light they’d just turn on the overhead light. That’s how it’s always worked till recently. If I wanted the kitchen lights (plural) turned on, that would perhaps be different. But the kitchen light is and has always been a singular light or set of lights.

you're giving her too much ability to reason things out.
People can figure stuff out using context, computers aren't good at that yet.
I have motorized shades, I have to tell siri "open the left window and right window." She doesn't know what to do with "open the left and right window." For a person, those 2 phrases are exactly the same.

you ask a person to turn on the light, they'll probably flip the closest switch on the wall. and chances are you subconsciously pointed at the proper switch when you asked.
If there's a bank of 4 switches, they'll probably ask you which switch they should flip.

in homekit, those would be 4 devices, and as far as homekit is concerned they're all exactly the same, A light with dimming. The only thing differentiating them is their names. People can make that name whatever they want.
The only way for siri to possibly figure out the main one, is order on the screen.

And what you think is THE light, might not be the same as someone else.
say my kitchen has 3 lights, and I've named them "round, square, and cabinet" which one is THE light?

Maybe siri kept hearing "light" when people were saying "lights." In those people's eyes, homekit was failing. since only one light was coming on. If enough of those people complained, apple might have fixed the "bug"

The only way to reliably fix this is to train yourself to use the full name.
either "bedroom overhead" or "bedroom ceiling"

 

[WilliamG]

you're giving her too much ability to reason things out.
People can figure stuff out using context, computers aren't good at that yet.
I have motorized shades, I have to tell siri "open the left window and right window." She doesn't know what to do with "open the left and right window." For a person, those 2 phrases are exactly the same.

you ask a person to turn on the light, they'll probably flip the closest switch on the wall. and chances are you subconsciously pointed at the proper switch when you asked.
If there's a bank of 4 switches, they'll probably ask you which switch they should flip.

in homekit, those would be 4 devices, and as far as homekit is concerned they're all exactly the same, A light with dimming. The only thing differentiating them is their names. People can make that name whatever they want.
The only way for siri to possibly figure out the main one, is order on the screen.

And what you think is THE light, might not be the same as someone else.
say my kitchen has 3 lights, and I've named them "round, square, and cabinet" which one is THE light?

Maybe siri kept hearing "light" when people were saying "lights." In those people's eyes, homekit was failing. since only one light was coming on. If enough of those people complained, apple might have fixed the "bug"

The only way to reliably fix this is to train yourself to use the full name.
either "bedroom overhead" or "bedroom ceiling"

I'm really not giving her too much ability to reason things out. That's why I have the names specifically in the room. For example, in my room, "Kitchen" I have a light called "Kitchen light." If that's all of a sudden - and IT IS all of a sudden - going to be an issue, that needs to be communicated. Apple is pretty much infamous in my household for suddenly changing things on the back end. For example, I have a scene called, "Arriving home back door." That would open my garage, unlock the back door, disarm my alarm system. This worked for a few years, and then all of a sudden when I'd use Siri and say, "Hey Siri, Arriving home back door", she would just reply, "Welcome home!" or "Home sweet home!" and not actually do anything. This persisted for a number of months until out of the blue it would work again.

Thanks, Apple!

So while I completely understand what you're saying, Siri needs to work better. Whether it's understanding LIGHT vs LIGHTS, if I name a light "Kitchen Light" that should just come on if I say "Hey Siri, Kitchen Light on". I shouldn't have to get stupidly wordy and rename the lights if I've already named it and it USED TO WORK! It's even more annoying for me since I have a second ceiling light in the kitchen area that I now have to name, too. The whole thing is just unnecessarily complicated.

 

[LeonF63]

So, like many of you, I have HomeKit-capable lights (in my case, Lutron Caseta). Till this past week or so, everything had been great for the most part. NOW, however, if I tell Siri to e.g. "Turn on kitchen light", ALL my kitchen lights turn on - the bar lights, the cabinet lights - everything in the "room," not just the ceiling light like you'd "usually" want. The same goes for my bedroom. "Hey Siri, turn on the master bedroom light" turns on the ceiling light and all my lamps in the room (which have their own names and that I turn on individually myself when I want to using Siri commands - separately).

Is there a way to resolve this issue? It's super annoying!

I have the same issue. For some reason, after I put all my devices in rooms I can now only control a room. This is true for lights and all homepods in a room. I do not want every device permanently lumped as a single unit and they are not even accessible individually any longer. I played music on several homepods at once and now AirPlay only sees them as a single device. This is so frustrating I am going to remove everything from Apple Home and leave them individually controled.

 

[WilliamG]

I have the same issue. For some reason, after I put all my devices in rooms I can now only control a room. This is true for lights and all homepods in a room. I do not want every device permanently lumped as a single unit and they are not even accessible individually any longer. I played music on several homepods at once and now AirPlay only sees them as a single device. This is so frustrating I am going to remove everything from Apple Home and leave them individually controled.

Annoying, right? It's like things can be working quite well for a while until Apple decides - oh hey, we're going to change the way these commands are processed on our end, and SURPRISE! NOW WE TURN ON ALL THE LIGHTS IN THE ROOM! Like, come on, Apple!

 

[Feek]

"Hey Siri, turn on the back bedroom light" turns on both.
"Hey Siri, turn on the back bedroom main light" turns on the light called 'main light'.
"Hey Siri, turn on the back bedroom bed light" turns on the light called 'bed light'.

Actually, in my case there's no need to specify 'back bedroom' if I'm in the back bedroom because I say it to the HomePod that's in the room and Siri is clever enough to know that if I say "Hey Siri, turn on my main light" that I'm in the back bedroom so he turns that light on.

Same for each room, I just say "Hey Siri, turn on my light/main light/spotlight/whatever" and he only controls the light in that room, even though each room has a light that's just called 'light'.

 

[iammike1]

I have the same issue. For some reason, after I put all my devices in rooms I can now only control a room. This is true for lights and all homepods in a room. I do not want every device permanently lumped as a single unit and they are not even accessible individually any longer. I played music on several homepods at once and now AirPlay only sees them as a single device. This is so frustrating I am going to remove everything from Apple Home and leave them individually controled.

If you are only seeing them as a single item in Home, you did not put them in rooms, you grouped them.

For example, I have 2 lights over my bar. Never would I want to only control one of the lights and not the other so I grouped them into one item called “Bar Light”. Now anything I do to that in Home applies to both lights. That grouped item is inside the Living Room room in my case.

If you look in the settings of these items, you should see an option to Ungroup Accessories which should break them out into their individual items again. Then inside the settings for each item, there is a Room option where you can assign it to a room.

 

[WilliamG]

If you are only seeing them as a single item in Home, you did not put them in rooms, you grouped them.

For example, I have 2 lights over my bar. Never would I want to only control one of the lights and not the other so I grouped them into one item called “Bar Light”. Now anything I do to that in Home applies to both lights. That grouped item is inside the Living Room room in my case.

If you look in the settings of these items, you should see an option to Ungroup Accessories which should break them out into their individual items again. Then inside the settings for each item, there is a Room option where you can assign it to a room.

That is not the issue for me. I do not have any lights grouped. Apple changed this remotely. It worked for years and then all of a sudden Apple decided that if I want to turn on the Master Bedroom light it turns on every light in the room, lamps and all. I’ve just adapted to just saying, “Turn on master bedroom ceiling light.” It’s just silly.

 

[iammike1]

That is not the issue for me. I do not have any lights grouped. Apple changed this remotely. It worked for years and then all of a sudden Apple decided that if I want to turn on the Master Bedroom light it turns on every light in the room, lamps and all. I’ve just adapted to just saying, “Turn on master bedroom ceiling light.” It’s just silly.

I literally wasn't replying to you though. Your problem is one of your own creation. The way it works now makes plenty of sense to the majority of people. Apple can't please everyone, never will.

 

[WilliamG]

I literally wasn't replying to you though. Your problem is one of your own creation. The way it works now makes plenty of sense to the majority of people. Apple can't please everyone, never will.

No. It makes zero sense. If I asked you to turn on the bedroom light would you go in, turn on the ceiling light and also your bedside lamp and your spouse’s bedside lamp? If I asked you to turn on the kitchen light (singular), would you turn on the main ceiling lights in the kitchen, the under-cabinet lights and the bar lights? Come on, man.
That’s not how it works. It USED to work fine, and Apple changed it remotely. I wouldn’t mind if I had actually grouped these lights together, but I didn’t.

Do you really not think it makes sense to have, “Hey Siri, turn on kitchen LIGHT” be different from kitchen “LIGHTS?”

It’s just stupid. It worked for literally years one way, and then bam - out of the blue Apple changed it.

 

[iammike1]

No. It makes zero sense. If I asked you to turn on the bedroom light would you go in, turn on the ceiling light and also your bedside lamp and your spouse’s bedside lamp? If I asked you to turn on the kitchen light, would you turn on the main ceiling lights in the kitchen, the under-cabinet lights and the bar lights? Come on, man. That’s not how it works. It USED to work fine, and Apple changed it remotely. I wouldn’t mind if I had actually grouped these lights together, but I didn’t.

I never said you grouped the lights together. As I already said, I replied to someone else. I wasn't getting involved in your drive to have HomeKit act just the specific way you want it to.

 

[WilliamG]

I never said you grouped the lights together. As I already said, I replied to someone else. I wasn't getting involved in your drive to have HomeKit act just the specific way you want it to.

You did, however, say this was a “problem of my own creation.” How exactly, if it worked one way for nearly 5 years, is that the case?

 

[iammike1]

You did, however, say this was a “problem of my own creation.” How exactly, if it worked one way for nearly 5 years, is that the case?

It's your own problem because things change but in your own mind, you've turned that into a problem. You're unable to let go of that long enough to realize why the way it was could be a problem nor are you able to listen to what multiple people have tried to explain to you instead constantly returning to "well it used to work that way".

Ok...so what? It changed just like thousands of other things change across the ecosystem every single year. Nothing is broken, it only requires a small adaptation on your part and life would go on. Instead you're stuck in your old way.

That's really the last I have to say on the matter because I really don't think you're interested in understanding the why, you're just looking for a circle jerk of people to validate your complaint.