Disabling one as a home hub is different than setting a preferred hub when you have multiple. And generally, it’s better to enable all devices as hubs in the event one goes down for a reason.
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You Can Select a Preferred Home Hub in iOS 18
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Yeah it’s clearly a hodgepodge of settings that were poorly implemented from the start. I wish Apple would start taking HomeKit seriously. Most of the features work poorly or not at all.
That's not the point I don't think. You can disable them, but this new way you just select the one you want to be. When you have nine devices around the house that can be your hub, you don't want it flying all around the house based on the last one that got updated being off the network for a few minutes shifting the hub elsewhere.
Finally!
I have wrote to Apple about this more than once. Such an obvious, and simple change.
I have wrote to Apple about this more than once. Such an obvious, and simple change.
I’m not seeing the new option shown in my home app and I’m on iOS / TVos dev beta 1. I enrolled my HomePods in beta but they haven’t updated still say they are on the latest already. Hmmm
Not at all the same thing. A standby Apple TV still acts as a Bluetooth or Thread gateway to devices that are nearest to it. By disabling an Apple TV, some devices might be too far from the other ATV and go offline.
Also, if your active hub is being updated or otherwise disconnects, a standby hub will automatically kick in as the active hub. With only one enabled hub you have no backup hub.
The new feature allows you to enable all hubs while choosing the one you would prefer to be the active hub. The others will still work as bluetooth extenders and can become active if the chosen one disconnects.
The word, "preferred", has me a little skeptical. The option we had before that worked perfectly was to actually disable a device as a home hub. Home hubs had three possible statuses. Connected (the one currently in use), Standy (available if the connected one loses connection), and Disabled. Hopefully, preferred will function so that it will always be used when available and if the connection is lost, HomeKit will continuously check for when it's back online and switch back to it once it is. With that said, this sounds like a step back in the right direction and should be a welcome change.
I hope this will help fix Homekit never registering when everybody has left the house. Makes it rather useless.
About damn time, the HomePod minis at least the current ones are horrific at being home hubs and I have five, one for each main room. If a HomePod happens to play up which has happened a few times it brings down my entire smart home when being controlled through the Home app and I find its a little more sluggish as well, once I restart the bad HomePod mini everything is fine again.
Why let those devices with a really slow S5 CPU be my home hub. I have 4 Apple TV's with far better CPUs, use one of those for christ sake.
Why let those devices with a really slow S5 CPU be my home hub. I have 4 Apple TV's with far better CPUs, use one of those for christ sake.
I still can’t get Homekit to detect when everybody has left the house. We are 3 users, and all of us has defined our Home in Apple Maps (a very unintiutive part of Homekit, only known through fora posts). Please let me know if your setup detects when everbody has left the house and how you made it work.
It sounds like a great feature, but I’m not sure I know enough to pick the best device. Right now mine picked in Apple TV that is probably the least used in the house, but also pretty far from the router. Is it the best because it’s not often used? Should I choose the Apple TV closest to the router even though it’s the most used? All of mine use WiFi. 🤔
my Apple TV is plugged into the router.... but it doesn't matter for thread devices.
I gave up on the Home App when they changed to the "new architecture". Never worked correctly since..
iOS and tvOS all updated to but I’m not seeing any option to choose a default hub.
Still just shows not AppleTV connected and the other two as standby.
Still just shows not AppleTV connected and the other two as standby.
I don’t have the option but I haven’t updated the Apple TV yet..mainly cos I have HomePods connect on eARC.. will wait for a month but hope it works. My hub was HomePod mini and everything was stuck in updating
All my devices are now updated with the new releases today and I don’t have this option.
I have the latest ATV, 5 OG HomePods, 1 2nd gen and 2 minis.
Anyone else not seeing the option to select a primary hub?!
I have the latest ATV, 5 OG HomePods, 1 2nd gen and 2 minis.
Anyone else not seeing the option to select a primary hub?!
I do not have the option, either - was really looking forward to it.
For reference, I have 3 of the newest Apple TVs (ethernet option)
1 new HomePod
6 OG HomePods
6 HomePod minis
I do not want to remove all the hubs, so I guess I'll just wait and see if it's something that shows up after indexing or something is complete...
Did others just see the option immediately upon updating their gear?
For reference, I have 3 of the newest Apple TVs (ethernet option)
1 new HomePod
6 OG HomePods
6 HomePod minis
I do not want to remove all the hubs, so I guess I'll just wait and see if it's something that shows up after indexing or something is complete...
Did others just see the option immediately upon updating their gear?
Same here, everything updated but no option to select the preferred hub :/
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lol I came here to ask the same question so I guess Apple didn’t actually bother to implement this feature in the end?
Probably gonna be 18.1 or later …..
Probably gonna be 18.1 or later …..
All updated. Same: nothing. Seems like some people see it, some don't. Have read suggestions to unpair and add back any HomePods. Not sure I'm willing to spend the time for that.
Because preferred hub was never supported, I have a smart switch on every home hub. I was going to remove those smart switches this weekend now that iOS 18 supports preferred hub. But I thought to myself what if Apple screws me on this one and I decided to wait. And here we are. 
Edit: I removed one of my AppleTVs from the home and now it works! Nicely done Apple! If you're having trouble try to fiddle with your settings.
Edit: I removed one of my AppleTVs from the home and now it works! Nicely done Apple! If you're having trouble try to fiddle with your settings.
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