r/HomeKit

I have an older ATV4K that is near a eero mesh point and could be wired over Ethernet, but the 3rd gen has a newer chip so I figured it would handle the processing better. Which one should I go with as the default HomeKit hub?

Just venting, sorry, but I feel like every day there are just basic deficiencies with Siri and HomeKit that cause frustration.

Here’s my latest one. I only have one air conditioning system in my home, and the accessory is in HomeKit literally named “Air Conditioning” in the Bedroom. And I have smart radiator valves on radiators around the home all called “Radiator” in the respective rooms.

But Siri for HomeKit can’t tell the difference. If I say to a HomePod in the Bedroom to turn on the Air Conditioning, it asks me which room I want to turn it on. If I say to turn on the air conditioning in the bedroom, then it turns on BOTH the actual air conditioner AND the radiator valves. Even though there is only one accessory. It just blindly assumes that a request to turn on air conditioning is a generic request that applies to any thermostat in the home.

Apple make such a big deal over not shipping junk products, and for the most part that’s right, but in this area it’s exactly what they’re doing. So frustrating.

I’m testing the Controller Hub (NOT HomeKit’s built in home hub) feature. The workflow feature looks pretty cool and I wanted to test it. I have a dedicated iPad setup as a hub signed in with Apple Account ‘A’ and on another device also signed into account ‘A’ I can see the hub as online. Meanwhile for the same home on another device signed in with Apple account ‘B’ the controller hub is not recognized.

Is the controller hub feature visibility on the network limited to devices signed in on the same Apple account? If so this is pretty limiting as I have 5 individuals who access my Apple Home, excluding 4 of them from being able to manage workflows is a pretty big restriction.

Am I missing something or is this a current limitation of the feature? If so, are any plans to “fix it” so all the Home users that share access to a Home can use it?

I’m looking to add a couple of outdoor cameras around the backyard and side entrance. I looked into PoE, but running cable to those spots is not really practical for my home.

I’d prefer something easier to install, ideally WiFi or solar, but I still want local storage if possible and no required subscription just to view recordings. Any decent HomeKit-friendly outdoor options for this kind of setup?

Hi, i’m the developer behind the HomeView app. A HomeKit dashboard app.

As HomeKit is pretty big in my neighbour country Germany. I want to make the app available in German aswell.

Is there a German speaker, that wants to help out and check the translations in the beta version? Will have a free code in exchange and the help would be highly appreciated.

I recently installed an Aqara W200 in my home and have an Aqara temperature sensor in one of the rooms since it runs hotter than the other rooms. I can see the sensor in the Aqara app but I don’t see it in the Home app even though I have the sensor connected the the W200 hub. I’ve seen conflicting information as to whether or not if the sensors can be shown in the Home app. My biggest concern is making sure that the room temp is being taken into account for the Apple Adaptive Temperature setting.

I stopped using homekit and started manually turning on my little lights because it was slow and annoying to use my phone/siri to turn things on and off. They were also a bit unreliable, and siri or lights would randomly turn on.

I have a homepod mini and some smart wifi bulbs, smart power strip.

I do think the colored lights and led strips are looking a little dated too so if it’s better I would upgrade.

Has it improved since then? what’s cool now? should I update the devices or is the software much better? it looks basically the same

I used to have a HomeKit setup with a camera. It was able to recognize my dog and I didn’t get alerts.
After I moved I had to buy a new camera, now when I’m getting home I keep finding dozens of alerts of “unidentified animal”.
There is no way to add a filter on those, like when identify an human you can tell it who they are.

Also for some reason only on the iPads I get the notifications, not on my iPhone.

Before I used a cheap Mi camera (don’t remember the model, it has ears like bunny). Now I have a Aquara E1.

Was out of town for the last few days and on the way back noticed that my Home in the Home app is completely empty. All of the rooms are still there but they are empty. My Apple TVs and HomePods still show up, just not third party accessories and no automations. I had a ton of accessories setup into scenes and automations and it would be a huge ordeal to have to redo all of this, especially when I have no idea how this happened in the first place??

Currently running unfi protect cameras to Home using Home Assistant and the HomeKit Bridge. Will that set up work with HKSV in iOS 27?

A day ago I set up the meross garage door opener using the Meross LAN integration. I created the account on mobile to connect the device to the network. Then the LAN integration detected it. I temporarily gave the vlan internet access and connected to the meross account which the integration then gave me the device key.

I then deleted the meross LAN integration and set it up again locally using the device key without the account. It worked flawlessly. I deleted the entire meross account and removed the app from the phone and removed internet access to the vlan.

The setup worked for a day and then stopped. I noticed that it was not connected to the router anymore. I looked at the device and it had went back into pairing mode by itself and changed it's device key so that the old one doesn't work anymore. This is some trashy behavior but expected from a Chinese company.

Trying to decide on a new front door lock that will work with home key. We’re totally new to this. Currently we have a Eufy c210. We do have an Apple TV, I know some locks need that. The main goal is to be able to open the front door quickly and easily with my Apple Watch or phone, or also be able to have the door open automatically when we arrive at home. I’d love to just be able to have my phone in my pocket or something nearby and it be able to open without me having to do anything like when my arms are full of groceries, or lugging in the kids things, etc. and then auto lock back.

Since I’m not looking for that many features (or is what I’m looking for a big ask?) would the Aqara 50 fit our needs or maybe the 100? There’s also a few others I’ve seen like Thorbolt or Smonet that claim to work with home key as well.

Up until last night HomeKit has been working very well on my iPhone 17 Pro, running the Developer Beta 27.

All my HomeKit accessories are generated by Home Assistant.

Last night I updated Home Assistant to core 2026.7.1 and went to sleep.

This morning I woke up and noticed all my HomeKit accessories are missing.

My first assumption is that the update caused the issue so I restored my Home Assistant backup that was made just before the update, but that didn’t solve the problem.

All Home Assistant devices and entities are working fine.

So here I am scratching my head, wondering what to do next.

Any suggestions? It did cross my mind that the iOS beta could be the culprit, but I’ve had that installed since it was released and all was well.

I'm waiting on my Aqara G410 video doorbell to come. Will it record video to my free icloud account or do I need a paid icloud plan to store video?

Regarding matter over thread smart plugs, is the Eve plug still worth the higher price now that the much cheaper Grillplats is available? I’m interested in hearing about people’s experiences with both and what, if anything, justifies the price difference. Thanks!