Apple really needs to put more effort into homekit in regards to letting us make backups of automations to prevent things like this from becoming a mess down the road. Also their HomePods that constantly have thread issues and feel the need to take over as the main home hub. Ive had to rebuild twice in the past
We've removed our HomePods at this time until I feel Apple has addressed some of the issues with Thread and which device is handling Apple Home Kit. Luckily we use Spotify, so it works with all my Alexa screens and my Google speakers.
Agreed. I’ve put over $11k into my smart home all running fully on HomeKit. I have a very fast mesh network and multiple hubs for integration. The only part of the system that seems to consistently function dependably without lag are the Lutron devices. It’ll work fine for days straight without issue then it’ll be unresponsive. Extremely frustrating for the amount of money I’ve spent. Super annoying when I come home in the rain with groceries and my garage doors won’t automatically open. I can’t help but to think it’s a problem on Apple’s software end.
I am so sorry you had to go through all of this pain. I am so glad that your wife was supportive and understanding as you had to go through this. I have only had to do this once and I dread ever having to do it again. I feel your pain, brother.
Thanks for the support! Yes I'm very glad the family has been patient with me during this rebuild. I know it's been frustrating for them at time as well.
Wow I have been through this more than once but I only have 50 or so devices not 165! I could feel your pain watching this as it’s not easy, and I agree hubs are great! Still love HomeKit 🥰
After doing smarthome tech for the past 3 years, I've concluded for our home it's always a good idea to establish a maintenance plan, perhaps every season or 1-2 times a year. Get outdoors, clean the devices up, reconfigure the system, change passwords and the like. I get a sense that most smart home users may set up everything once, but fail to perform necessary maintenance to keep the systems in good working order, imo
I know how this feels Shane. After fighting Homekit for over 1 year I gave up and jumped to home assistant. Never looking back. One day you’ll be fed up with apple ignoring homekit issues and maybe you’ll be brave enough to do it too.
Same here. I'm all in on Home Assistant, and only use Apple Home as a simple front end for some devices. All my automations, scenes, etc. are in Home Assistant. MUCH happier.
I had tons of troubles at one point, and talked with Apple support and vendors without any good results and solution. Just about to the point to rebuild the entire Home, then I noticed as soon as I removed my original HomePods from the Home, everything came to life as I was expected. I reported this to Apple. ever since I removed original HomePods, my Home has been working for the past two years without any problem. The HomePod mini is fine. My problem started with Threads devices as well, then getting worth with other devices and WiFi performance, especially with the 2.4GHz network, which was also Homwpods as the primary clients too. Just some experiences to share. Thanks again for your video.
I went through the same situation after updating to 16.4 and all my HK accessories was not responding so I started from scratch as well, luckily I had a backup with controller and most of my accessories are from Aqara plus couple of other hubs and few wifi devices, some automation I couldn’t restore from controller but I had I photos of my all automations. What I learned is I should always have a QR code backup, I keep most of the automation as scene based automation and always using a hub. Thanks Shane for your video 🙏🏻
Was going to ask why not consider home assistant. HomeKit is developing so limiting yourself to HomeKit devices will work, but it's ultimately a lot more limiting than what you can achieve with a bit of work in hass.
I've heard this is the way to go, but have zero experience with Home Assistant. Is there any video you'd suggest watching to get started combining the two?
Give it some time, I bet he’ll switch over. I love Apple. But not for my smart home. Home assistant all the way. The only single thing I like about Apple home is being able to access lights super quick by swiping down the control center. But I only use that for my nightstand light late at night. Also for some (not smart) reason you can’t choose which lights are in the control center they are just randomly there 😂 rant over. Gl Shane.
Man, I can only imagine how frustrating this must be. Such a weird & crazy thing. You had me scared to death I was going to have the same issue, but knock on wood, so far so good. So strange it hit you like this. I’d be going nuts. You’ve handled this very well. This should be a great help to anyone experiencing the same issues.
I appreciate the kind words! Those that live with me may not agree that I handled it so well 😅🤣. It's been a bit stressful. Honestly I appreciate the patience of everyone else in the house. Just when they get used to the convenience of smart home stuff, I rip it all up and nothing works. I'm sure it's been frustrating for them too.
I have a Notes document where I scan/photograph every homekit code for every accessory. That won’t help with my automations and scenes, but it’s a start. Also, if I’m starting over, I’d wipe the scenes and automations since those could be corrupted (?). Anyways, thanks for sharing this,we all face something like this eventually (it shouldn’t be like that, but it always seems to be). A good video to show how to rescue yourself in a situation like this, and also why hubs are not a bad thing. Also, my 50+ device HomeKit home is working with no issues right now. It’s been pretty stable for the last 3-4 months 🤞
Dang this is a NIGHTMARE. I’ve had to start from scratch once from similar problems last year and LORD did it take ages to redo all my automations and scenes. Thankfully my lights are hue so yeah the hub saved me lots of time
I recently switched to TP-Link Deco BE95 mesh WiFi 7 (four Decos) and it literally solved the problems I was having with my smart home. Just reinforces what you always say about starting with a solid WiFi system. Expensive? Yes, but I wouldn’t go back. Hubs are gold!
I only have a small setup, as I have a small home, and even with a complete Apple Airport setup, I still had issues. For a separate reason I switched to Unifi and everything has been infinitely more reliable. Most people are completely unaware of the crappiness of their ISP supplied network devices
The crazy thing is that Shane had been using the very high quality (& VERY expensive) Orbi Mesh WiFi - about $1500!! Still wasn’t enough. I feel lucky that my home has Ethernet throughout, and I can just run a few Wired APs. Sometimes I think we should be able to expect more, and other times it still seems like magic that it works at all. 😄
I hard wire my APs also. Definitely recommended if you can. I did this with the Orbis as well. All my smart home wifi devices were working fine. Just the thread ones that had problems. And I think it's related to Apple or Nanoleaf border routers. Not wifi. Just some weird bug or issue with the thread network it seems.
Hubs for the Win! Nothing like a Hubitat, or Home assistant with Apple Homekit bridging. One Single Zigbee/zwave mesh in the house. Even thread uses hubs contrary to what they want to call them, Homepods, Nest Hubs and Echos are all Thread Hubs.
First of all, thank you very much for sharing this Shane. I would imagine it was very difficult and maybe a little embarrassing for a HomeKit content creator like yourself to have to show just how difficult and a mess HomeKit can be. I am *slowly* setting up a HomeKit home and am fortunate enough to be doing this in a new build where Ethernet was run everywhere. And if there is one thing I consistently see on the various forums is that a ROCK SOLID WiFi network is needed. I was wary of mesh Wifi so I hardwired my APs for WiFi on each floor. Perhaps it is easier for someone with a one story or wood-framed home, but I'm glad I don't have to rely on mesh. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for watching and for the kind words. I also hard wire my access points. It was a pain to setup, as I don't have ethernet runs everywhere. It's great if you're able to do it. For those who can't, a good mesh network is the next best thing. All my wifi devices (and zigbee and everything else) worked fine... it was just thread giving me problems. That's also why it was a tough decision to wipe it all and restart... since everything else was still working well.
So eager to watch this video. I have had trouble with my home for months. Tried starting from scratch and even failed at that. Hoping I get an idea from you here.
What a coincidence! You're not alone. Ghosts in the machine here and there. Erratic functionality, mostly related to my HOOBS box. I went thru a process starting with simple fixes (that did not work), and ended up starting over completely from scratch. Then reviewing ALL of my automations and shortcuts. It was a slog, but I got thru it.
This really has me thinking. I’ve been debating about moving all the smart devices to a separate SSID. I don’t have nearly the amount of automations you have. It might be easier to move the non smart off the current SSID LOL. Thanks for doing this video.
Thank you! They have been very understanding in this process. I know it's been quite frustrating for them when everything stopped working as I was rebuilding.
Still watching the vid as I'm typing but I feel your pain. I just redid my homekit from scratch and I'm glad I did. . Obviously it's not as big as yours but I do have 44 devices. I did not change the name of the network but I did reset each device. I noticed response times are faster and definitely less problems. Feel your pain. That was smart to setup a new home. I will do that next time. Great vids man.
My Apple Home setup stopped working after the iOS December 2022 update. After working with apple senior support and engineers for 6 months, they admitted it was a software database error on their side and was unfixable. I had to rebuild with 50+ devices. I got the sense they didn’t even understand how much work that is. Extremely disappointing. After the rebuild everything worked flawlessly but now I have ghost home hubs that constantly report as offline but I can’t remove them. It’s really been a nightmare. Terrible support tbh.
Interesting video! Have had issue with Philips Hue in the past, so I got rid of the Hue bulbs and hub and switched to Nanoleaf smart bulbs. Occasionally they need to be reset to factory default settings and added back. I keep all of my codes in the Notes app with #Home and #HomeKit so I don’t have to go climbing ladders and re-looking them up! But resetting to factor and adding them back seemed to help. Not sure what you were experiencing but will check your videos Shane! 👍
Thanks Shane for making this. I thought I was alone in my smart home turning into a dumb home. I will be starting from scratch as well. The only difference is, I am going to do a do-over completely, not restoring anything from backup. Wish me luck! LOL. ~Dan
How many devices do you have Dan? It would be great if you could follow up and let us know how it went. How long it took to rebuild and if you think it was worth the effort? Thank you!
@@bravomike09 I have 37 devices plus Homebridge. I am going to wipe the entire setup out and start from scratch. I will certainly come back here with an update.
I have had to rebuild in the past. It is the biggest pain in the a$$. The positive side is it will clean up any of the old codes or automations which are not being used. Starting from scratch makes me to fix the smart home the way I wanted and not just putting up with old automations. You know the ones you want to clean up and fix right, but still kind of works.
Oh my gosh…if even you have this problem, what hope is there for the rest of us? This stuff needs to just work. People like your Grandpa and my mom can’t deal with this, and hell even I cannot deal with these types of issue. And more importantly, no one should have to.
Shane, great video as always. I wondered what were the specific kinds of issues you'd been seeing that led you to a complete redo of your smart home. All I could really pick up from your comments in this video were that you were having issues with some of your Thread devices. Any details you could share would be helpful.
Home automation is supposed to make things easier but sometimes the opposite occurs. My smart home is not anywhere close to yours but own several Apple TVs and HomePods etc. When I upgraded from architecture 1 to 2, the Schlage deadbolt with apple home key generated multiple users with multiple keys and I spent weeks trying to delete and/or remove users. Second, I absolutely love the way HomePods stereo pair works. It automates pretty much everything in a living room and turns on/off the TV etc. However, I cannot count the amount of times recently I have issues with no sound, one speaker disconnects, audio lags etc. specifically while watching the TH-cam Apple TV app between commercial breaks. I have tried everything to make this rock solid and although there are no real solutions posted out there, I think reserving a static IP to both HomePods seems to be a possible solution. Some say that part of the problem lies with using an ethernet connection to the Apple TV, it then makes the HomePods behave like a wired device. In my Eero setup this is exactly how they show up. if you ever want to revisit HomePod Stereo pair with new ideas and problem solving, this could be an interesting video!
I recently rebuilt my smart home when I got Starlink and eero Pro 6E a month ago. I ended up unplugging ethernet from my 3rd Gen tv 4K. My OG HomePods just kept dropping off and I wouldn’t be able to mute, Siri wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t use timers. They kept showing up as wired unknown devices in eero’s app just like you’ve stated. It’s been two weeks with no more issues. But I really wish I could hardwire the tv again. Overall even with these minor setbacks I’m loving my smart home again! I had a lot of issues with my home not working due to my previous ISP’s crappy Nokia mesh router.
And ima about to build it right with you. What a convenience, especially we are taking the big step in migrating away from traditional systems offered by companies 😂
I get that several times a day, but mostly with HomePod mini that are connected as a stereo pair. My router is less than 8 feet away from one of the HomePod minis, and less than 10 feet from the other. I am convinced that a lot of the issues people are talking about here or directly related to Wi-Fi issues and home pod hubs.
I was having trouble with my Thread network becoming slow and unresponsive. Resetting individual devices became very cumbersome. I eventually tried turning off the 110v breakers to my entire house, then restoring power. I also unplugged from battery backup systems. It restored the entire Thread network in less than a minute. Resetting some appliance clocks is a minor inconvenience compared to the alternative.
Thank you for the post Shane. I have been watching your channel for some time. But this was a great post, in that I'm facing the same decision. I started such a long time I have some devices that started at the beginning of Home Kit. I look forward to hearing how everything goes for you.. Best of luck my friend.. I'm hoping it's all successful!!!
I understand your pain I've also been having home issues as well I would suggest not doing too much until the OS 17 releases on Apple and probably a few months after that then try to fix everything just suggestion and I think that's part of the issue that there's some issues with that with all the extra pushing of updates and well another stuff
The wifi wasn't the issue. I could have kept using the same wifi routers. It was definitely an Apple Home issue and not a wifi issue. All my wifi accessories were working fine (even in Apple Home)
That seems like SO MUCH of a pain...I, honestly, think I might just go back to a 'dumb home' instead of trying to rebuild from scratch. I'm really curious if the Controller for HomeKit back-up/restore would have worked successfully if every associated Accessory had been added to the Home prior to attempt. Glad to see that you got things 'mostly' back to proper. Thanks, as always, for the content!
Yup! I’ve been having problems also, especially with my Onvis switch being forgotten, and my Eve Weather app needing to be manually REFRESHED to show “current” temperature. My wife saw me sweating over getting all the automations working, and said, “Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to just get up and switch a lamp on when you need it?”
HomePod minis and the new HomePods disconnecting has increased immensely since upgrading to iOS 17. Biggest issue I've been having. Is that one the HomePods stop functioning properly if I reboot my router (Amplifi Alien) everything works flawlessly for about 24 hours. I have FIOS gig speed any great Wi-Fi speed internally.
@@HCraigF… I recently purchased a second Alien and was devo when I received a notification that the Amplify mesh is not compatible with HomeKit. 😫 Have you found a work-around?
@@mikewolf5367 hmm. Negativity? You do know this comment was posted 4 months ago? iOS 17 was a cluster mess and nearly broke all home automations. We are now 2 major updates into iOS 17. Things have changed.
We are about to do the same. We set up our lake house with Apple Homekit. Now we are moving there full time because of kids left home, lifestyle change, etc. Automations will need to be different and it makes sense to just start from beginning and this time will be documenting it so it can be easily followed in a years time.
Our smart home had the same issue since the new architecture. We tried everything with apple and their seniors as well. We eventually moved and set everything up new from scratch, and factory reset all the accessories. We also replaced a lot of the accessories. It’s glitching again… beyond frustrating.
Thread is the problem. I tried to go with Thread and Apple last year. Gave up on it especially with Eve stuff. Matter does better. I went to Hue and Aqara for lights and motion. Never looked back. So much better
Before doing this, I would have started first by removing everything from Nanoleaf. Their software and hardware have been highly unreliable lately. Second, I would have tried adding another Home to Homekit, rebooting everything and deleting that additional home. This trick has fixed some oddball things for me that defy standard troubleshooting methods. I would have also started by adding back an AppleTV vs a HomePod Mini. The minis has been the source of issues for many users. The idea of wiping everything out and starting over gives me the chills. Brave man!
Thanks for the comment. I tried just about everything I could think of. I removed all border routers and tried variations of just one or another, including the Nanoleaf ones, etc. Trust me, starting over was the very last resort. There's a reason it took a month or so of troubleshooting before I finally did it. I was able to isolate the problem, and even recreate it, which took many hours.. But there was no way to fix it.
@@ShaneCreatesI figured you knew all this, but thought it be good for your other viewers. I too faced this choice right after upgrading the Homekit database and facing the dreaded "Updating" message on several devices. Then my notifications stopped being delivered in a timely fashion. In the end, I fixed my issues by adding a new Home and then deleting it. But I was dang close to pulling the trigger on wiping the slate clean.
I had a similar issue with my thread network. Not sure if you tried this first but I just did full erase/resets on my home hubs (3 ATV 4K 3rd gens) and everything worked normally after.,
I was in your shoes a month ago due to stability issues with Apple Home, failing automations, and Siri. During that time I migrated all of my accessories (150+ devices) to Home Assistant and forward them back to Apple Home so I can control them from both Apple Home and Home Assistant. Home Assistant automations are much more customizable and more reliable. Apple Home just isn't mature yet unfortunately imo.
best advice I can give anybody here is to setup home assistant on a raspberry pi or old computer and use that to integrate into homekit. I made the change after everything in my place was unavailable on homekit, and I haven’t had any issues ever since
I just started my smart apple home cause I was curious if it was better than smartthings and I have to say it's been nothing but a nightmare to get smart device's that need the apple home hub to function or work. My first problem that I ran into was the apple home hub couldn't find any nearby device's to connect to. So I fixed that by signing out of apple id and resigned in.then the hub could find device's and pair with them. But a new problem started and that was the device's wouldn't respond no matter what I did. so the only way I got aroundd this problem was to start a new apple home from scratch and doing that fixed all my problems and now everything works. But man all I have to say is, I appreciate smartthings alot more now because I thought smartthings gave me more problems.boy was I wrong.
I’m looking forward to the video where you share the source of your Thread problems. Before I read the comments I would have put money on the source being one of the Nanoleaf Thread border routers but after reading the comments it sounds like it might be an older HomePod. Let us know how you solve it!
I was not using an old HomePods. Only 2nd gen and HomePod minis (all with thread). After hours of testing and troubleshooting, I was able to find the source of the issue and even recreate it. There just was no fix. The issue seemed to be related to the thread border routers and the Apple Thread network. When no Apple thread border routers were present, the thread devices worked. This was using an old Apple TV (no thread) as the HK hub and Nanoleaf shapes as thread border router. As soon as an Apple thread border router was introduced and took over as the HK hub, all thread accessories went unresponsive. Meanwhile thread (Matter) accessories paired to Google Home and SmartThings worked. These create separate thread networks. Nanoleaf border routers and apple border routers now join the same thread network. And when I created a new HK home for testing, newly paired thread devices worked there too... assuming that new home creates a new thread network. It's almost as if something went corrupt in my main HK home's thread network.
@@marcalvarado1915 This is one of the issues that Matter over Thread should address as some rules as to how Thread networks are setup would be in the specification.
lol she was very understanding during the process. I think she knew how frustrated I was. Great example here of why manual control is still super important in a smart home. Llight switches, blinds, etc. could still all be controlled manually if necessary.
Very good reminder - thanks Shane. I am about to setup a first lighting automation using motion sensors to a stair light. I will pair them up so that they work independently of any controller, but then also pair them all into the controller in order to get the feedback, as well as being able to control more broadly. This way, if the controller is down, the lights will still function normally.
All my thread issues are from nanolead acting as thread router … and belkin wemo thread remote if you have one I have more than 240 devices (eve, aqara, ikea, meross, netatmo, hue, eufy, somfy) with two old homepods, and all my issues are in nanoleaf and belkin remote only And you cannot add them one by one because nanoleaf will fail after a week or so which is pretty long period Believe me ditch nanoleaf And if you added nanoleaf by mistake you will have to hard reset all your homepods mini again
As a tiny home (apartment) dweller it is such a short few steps to anything and my cardiologist recommends I walk more, smart home stuff is kind of the wrong direction.
I’ve had to rebuild Aqara twice (two separate hubs). Part of it could be user error but I have a ton in HK so I wouldn’t say I’m a novice. What I’ve heard and started doing is setting an IP reservation for my important wifi items. Too early to tell if that solves any issues but I’ve heard it does. Good luck, it’s no fun.
I will say overall I’ve had much better luck with my hub connected items than wifi connected items. Just tried a few thread light bulbs and they went unresponsive (with the newest firmware) within a few days. 🙄
Makes you wish you could have a hub/router for each room and have all chid dependencies connected to those hubs/router and just add each hub for each room
I’m sort of getting there myself. I’ve been thinking about getting the Samsung Smartthings Station with Thread and Matter support and use Amazon Alexa. I can’t stand duplicate devices so I’d have to delete everything from Amazon and connect it all to Samsung which then adds the device to Amazon.
I've had a lot of Thread issues as well, I'm pretty sure it comes down to the fact that I have a 1st gen Homepod that does't support thread that keeps making itself the primary Homekit hub and when it is the primary, my Thread network goes offline. I ordered a couple more homepod mini's and will retire the 1st gen Homepod and hope that fixes my overall issue. That said, I do have one nanoleaf bulb that just won't add itself to the thread network for some reason, gotta try and reset that one again.
Only a few smart items in my home. Its Apple based. Of late i am having consistent problems with both my homepod minis and Gen 2 homepods. While they are paired in 2 separate areas, both sets seem to drop their link so i cant control their volume as a stereo pair. Tried a bunch of fixes but its nearing to to sell them and move on
Hey! Just getting into setting up my Apple Home, I’ve been learning a lot through your videos. What do you recommend for a smart sliding door lock? TIA
My wife laughed a little when she saw the thumbnail. Said it was perfect and is exactly how I've been looking the past few weeks walking around the house trying to fix everything 😅😭
Sorry to hear you have to do a full restart. In the video you briefly mentioned what you think the root cause is but I didn’t hear you talk much about things you would do to prevent? Does this change the way you’ll start adding devices to your ecosystem or is there some other lesson learned that would change how you move forward?
Are you still using Hubitat to integrate some things into HomeKit? Also, how’d you get your Reolink cameras into HomeKit? I want to switch to HomeKit, but I also want to make sure the major things I have can be switched over.
I was but I did not re-add Hubitat to the new Home setup. I am also using testing out Homey Pro right now so I'm moving most of those devices from Hubitat to Homey while I test that out. Reolink cameras are integrated into HomeKit via Scrypted. It works great. HomeBridge also works. I made a video about this a little while ago.
If you did it all again, clean slate, where you had to acquire all of your smart home devices again, would you get nanoleaf devices again or would you try to stick to the Philips hue (or other) ecosystem?
Well I mostly use the Nanoleaf Lines and Shapes, which I love. I don't think Phillips Hue offers any products like that, so yes, I'd probably still use Nanoleaf if starting over for that. For Bulbs and lightstrips (which I don't have many of either brand), I might would use Philips if I had a whole lot of them.
Yup, I gave up on 1.0 To much fragmentation between apps. Home assistant, Scrypted. Docker. Constant reboots of home assistant. It seems like it would be easier to switch platforms. Much more compatibility with Alexa with off brand devices. I had high hopes with Matter but the implementation has been way to slow 🤷🏻♂️
Regarding the lighting automations you use in your home, how do you make lights turn off automatically when there is no activity in a room or area? I've tried various approaches, but have yet to find one that works well.
If you experience big problems and get through to senior level Apple Support, they can actually have you install profiles on your devices, even homepods and Apple TVs, to get logs and help debug/troubleshoot.
This was a fascinating…and frightful video of what you had to go through. It’s also an excellent demonstration of why NOT to automate everything in one’s home (in my humble opinion). In my younger years, 30-40 years ago, I was a computer nerd and had an X10 based system controlling nearly everything possible in my home. However, after getting older I eventually realized having technology permeating everything in my home was not always a good idea. You inadvertently demonstrated that very thing here. Look at the enormous amount of time you invested in setting this all up to begin with…only having to spend DAYS rebuilding it again. And in some instances, just to avoid flipping a switch only a few feet away… Is that really necessary? I’m really amused at the beginning of your videos when you say you try to keep things as simple as possible. But the very fact you have a “network room” suggests your setup is anything but simple…and with so many devices and hubs, it certainly is not. Don’t misunderstand me, I think it’s awesome you are sharing these experiences as it can help those who have much simpler setups and avoid potential pitfalls. That’s the reason I’ve been looking at your videos. I just moved into a new apartment and after many years of virtually no home automation, I will be venturing back into it via HomeKit. However, I will be using it sparingly-for controlling those items that truly benefit from remote control-for example, dimming table lamps that otherwise could not be dimmed. Now that’s genuinely useful! I refuse to spend hours setting up devices that I could easily just walk over and flip a switch to activate. My initial dabbling in such things confirms what you said about hubs-they are fantastic. That’s why I’ve decided to get a Lutron Caseta hub. Direct WiFi control of multiple devices would be a huge nightmare in the making. My few experiences with such devices has taught me to never go that route! Your later review of the Homey Pro suggests it’s “one hub to rule them all.” However, one has to ask, shouldn’t HomeKit really be the unifying factor in a smart home setup? I suspect if HomeKit was as robust as it should be, a Homey Pro wouldn’t even be necessary. It’s a pity with the billions of dollars Apple is sitting on, they can’t make a full hearted effort to make HomeKit a robust, one-stop, smart home solution. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I agree with you insofar as no system should be inoperable without an app or an interface. You should be able to use your house even if the system crashes. It should have high WAF (wife acceptance factor). But I do think it’s fun and worth the effort to automate where you can… having automations and integrations run is definitely experience enhancing. It’s not an endeavor for everyone tho. Just us nerds
lack of native backup/restore and overall incompetence of Apple support to address any issues is what stops me from going all in for HomeKit. I currently have about 20-25 devices, and might grow it by perhaps 5-10 more devices: need few more HomePods, 2-3 cameras and another smart door lock but that is it.
hey shane, great video as always. are you still using the tp link or you went back to the orbi? trying to decide between them and wondering what your experience has been
I've switched it up a few times. I went from TP Link and tried the new Orbi 960 series for a while. It was good, as was the TP Link. They are very similar and I'm not sure if I can choose one or the other as being better. I did like the TP Link app and some of the available features a little better than Orbi's app. I recently went all in on Unifi networking gear. I like it a lot also, but it's not as "plug and play" as the other systems and requires more setup to get it just right, in my opinion.
My home has been broken for a while. Everything shows not responding. I have feared i would have to reset it all and it seems like that time has come for you as well.
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Apple really needs to put more effort into homekit in regards to letting us make backups of automations to prevent things like this from becoming a mess down the road. Also their HomePods that constantly have thread issues and feel the need to take over as the main home hub. Ive had to rebuild twice in the past
We've removed our HomePods at this time until I feel Apple has addressed some of the issues with Thread and which device is handling Apple Home Kit. Luckily we use Spotify, so it works with all my Alexa screens and my Google speakers.
@@JeffFromMichigan hopefully with iOS 17 these issues are resolved 🤞🏻
Agreed. I’ve put over $11k into my smart home all running fully on HomeKit. I have a very fast mesh network and multiple hubs for integration. The only part of the system that seems to consistently function dependably without lag are the Lutron devices. It’ll work fine for days straight without issue then it’ll be unresponsive. Extremely frustrating for the amount of money I’ve spent. Super annoying when I come home in the rain with groceries and my garage doors won’t automatically open. I can’t help but to think it’s a problem on Apple’s software end.
I am so sorry you had to go through all of this pain. I am so glad that your wife was supportive and understanding as you had to go through this. I have only had to do this once and I dread ever having to do it again. I feel your pain, brother.
Thanks for the support! Yes I'm very glad the family has been patient with me during this rebuild. I know it's been frustrating for them at time as well.
Wow I have been through this more than once but I only have 50 or so devices not 165! I could feel your pain watching this as it’s not easy, and I agree hubs are great! Still love HomeKit 🥰
After doing smarthome tech for the past 3 years, I've concluded for our home it's always a good idea to establish a maintenance plan, perhaps every season or 1-2 times a year. Get outdoors, clean the devices up, reconfigure the system, change passwords and the like. I get a sense that most smart home users may set up everything once, but fail to perform necessary maintenance to keep the systems in good working order, imo
I know how this feels Shane. After fighting Homekit for over 1 year I gave up and jumped to home assistant. Never looking back. One day you’ll be fed up with apple ignoring homekit issues and maybe you’ll be brave enough to do it too.
Same here. I'm all in on Home Assistant, and only use Apple Home as a simple front end for some devices. All my automations, scenes, etc. are in Home Assistant. MUCH happier.
As an Apple guy. This makes me sad
Home assistant sucks I have trouble all the time
I had tons of troubles at one point, and talked with Apple support and vendors without any good results and solution. Just about to the point to rebuild the entire Home, then I noticed as soon as I removed my original HomePods from the Home, everything came to life as I was expected. I reported this to Apple. ever since I removed original HomePods, my Home has been working for the past two years without any problem. The HomePod mini is fine. My problem started with Threads devices as well, then getting worth with other devices and WiFi performance, especially with the 2.4GHz network, which was also Homwpods as the primary clients too. Just some experiences to share. Thanks again for your video.
Thanks for sharing!
I went through the same situation after updating to 16.4 and all my HK accessories was not responding so I started from scratch as well, luckily I had a backup with controller and most of my accessories are from Aqara plus couple of other hubs and few wifi devices, some automation I couldn’t restore from controller but I had I photos of my all automations. What I learned is I should always have a QR code backup, I keep most of the automation as scene based automation and always using a hub. Thanks Shane for your video 🙏🏻
16.3-16.4 new architecture update was horrible. Did the same for me. All devices non responsive.
If you want a full backup so you can even change the device you’re running it on I would 100% recommend home assistant
Was going to ask why not consider home assistant. HomeKit is developing so limiting yourself to HomeKit devices will work, but it's ultimately a lot more limiting than what you can achieve with a bit of work in hass.
@@marauder2575 exactly! Can’t believe some of the things HA can do!
I've heard this is the way to go, but have zero experience with Home Assistant. Is there any video you'd suggest watching to get started combining the two?
@@tjevo4g I’d definitely recommend Smart Home Junkie TH-cam channel, it’s what I used but beware HA is a rabbit hole!
Give it some time, I bet he’ll switch over. I love Apple. But not for my smart home. Home assistant all the way. The only single thing I like about Apple home is being able to access lights super quick by swiping down the control center. But I only use that for my nightstand light late at night. Also for some (not smart) reason you can’t choose which lights are in the control center they are just randomly there 😂 rant over. Gl Shane.
Man, I can only imagine how frustrating this must be. Such a weird & crazy thing. You had me scared to death I was going to have the same issue, but knock on wood, so far so good. So strange it hit you like this. I’d be going nuts. You’ve handled this very well. This should be a great help to anyone experiencing the same issues.
I appreciate the kind words! Those that live with me may not agree that I handled it so well 😅🤣. It's been a bit stressful. Honestly I appreciate the patience of everyone else in the house. Just when they get used to the convenience of smart home stuff, I rip it all up and nothing works. I'm sure it's been frustrating for them too.
I have a Notes document where I scan/photograph every homekit code for every accessory. That won’t help with my automations and scenes, but it’s a start. Also, if I’m starting over, I’d wipe the scenes and automations since those could be corrupted (?). Anyways, thanks for sharing this,we all face something like this eventually (it shouldn’t be like that, but it always seems to be). A good video to show how to rescue yourself in a situation like this, and also why hubs are not a bad thing.
Also, my 50+ device HomeKit home is working with no issues right now. It’s been pretty stable for the last 3-4 months 🤞
Using the Notes app is another great suggestion. Thanks for sharing!
Dang this is a NIGHTMARE. I’ve had to start from scratch once from similar problems last year and LORD did it take ages to redo all my automations and scenes. Thankfully my lights are hue so yeah the hub saved me lots of time
I recently switched to TP-Link Deco BE95 mesh WiFi 7 (four Decos) and it literally solved the problems I was having with my smart home. Just reinforces what you always say about starting with a solid WiFi system. Expensive? Yes, but I wouldn’t go back. Hubs are gold!
I only have a small setup, as I have a small home, and even with a complete Apple Airport setup, I still had issues. For a separate reason I switched to Unifi and everything has been infinitely more reliable. Most people are completely unaware of the crappiness of their ISP supplied network devices
The crazy thing is that Shane had been using the very high quality (& VERY expensive) Orbi Mesh WiFi - about $1500!! Still wasn’t enough.
I feel lucky that my home has Ethernet throughout, and I can just run a few Wired APs.
Sometimes I think we should be able to expect more, and other times it still seems like magic that it works at all. 😄
@@mmaxton Mesh is ok, but nowhere near wired AP’s. I had to do that. 150+ year old house with 1m thick stone walls doesn’t equal a good fit for mesh
I hard wire my APs also. Definitely recommended if you can. I did this with the Orbis as well. All my smart home wifi devices were working fine. Just the thread ones that had problems. And I think it's related to Apple or Nanoleaf border routers. Not wifi. Just some weird bug or issue with the thread network it seems.
@@ShaneCreates I have 3 of the old Nanoleaf E27 bulbs and, I would be very slow to buy more Nanoleaf stuff based on them
Hubs for the Win! Nothing like a Hubitat, or Home assistant with Apple Homekit bridging. One Single Zigbee/zwave mesh in the house. Even thread uses hubs contrary to what they want to call them, Homepods, Nest Hubs and Echos are all Thread Hubs.
Starting over you can use everything you have learnt since implementing it and build something better 😊
Silver lining. I like it!! 😃
@ShaneCreates Indeed 😀 look forward to the possibility of short videos of your implementations
First of all, thank you very much for sharing this Shane. I would imagine it was very difficult and maybe a little embarrassing for a HomeKit content creator like yourself to have to show just how difficult and a mess HomeKit can be. I am *slowly* setting up a HomeKit home and am fortunate enough to be doing this in a new build where Ethernet was run everywhere. And if there is one thing I consistently see on the various forums is that a ROCK SOLID WiFi network is needed. I was wary of mesh Wifi so I hardwired my APs for WiFi on each floor. Perhaps it is easier for someone with a one story or wood-framed home, but I'm glad I don't have to rely on mesh. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for watching and for the kind words. I also hard wire my access points. It was a pain to setup, as I don't have ethernet runs everywhere. It's great if you're able to do it. For those who can't, a good mesh network is the next best thing. All my wifi devices (and zigbee and everything else) worked fine... it was just thread giving me problems. That's also why it was a tough decision to wipe it all and restart... since everything else was still working well.
So eager to watch this video. I have had trouble with my home for months. Tried starting from scratch and even failed at that. Hoping I get an idea from you here.
What a coincidence! You're not alone. Ghosts in the machine here and there. Erratic functionality, mostly related to my HOOBS box. I went thru a process starting with simple fixes (that did not work), and ended up starting over completely from scratch. Then reviewing ALL of my automations and shortcuts. It was a slog, but I got thru it.
This really has me thinking. I’ve been debating about moving all the smart devices to a separate SSID. I don’t have nearly the amount of automations you have. It might be easier to move the non smart off the current SSID LOL.
Thanks for doing this video.
Thank you very much for sharing. This experience was very difficult and I hope your family understands what you have gone through.
Thank you! They have been very understanding in this process. I know it's been quite frustrating for them when everything stopped working as I was rebuilding.
Still watching the vid as I'm typing but I feel your pain. I just redid my homekit from scratch and I'm glad I did. . Obviously it's not as big as yours but I do have 44 devices. I did not change the name of the network but I did reset each device. I noticed response times are faster and definitely less problems. Feel your pain. That was smart to setup a new home. I will do that next time. Great vids man.
Thanks for watching! Glad to hear your rebuild seemed to be worth the trouble.
Thanks for detailing the steps. Your comments on the benefits of hubs were great.
Glad it was helpful. Thanks for watching!
That was the most resigned "Let's go!" I've seen on these videos! I think I'm going to have to do a rebuild myself soon *sigh*
Oh no... sorry to hear that. It's definitely a last resort.
My Apple Home setup stopped working after the iOS December 2022 update. After working with apple senior support and engineers for 6 months, they admitted it was a software database error on their side and was unfixable. I had to rebuild with 50+ devices. I got the sense they didn’t even understand how much work that is. Extremely disappointing. After the rebuild everything worked flawlessly but now I have ghost home hubs that constantly report as offline but I can’t remove them. It’s really been a nightmare. Terrible support tbh.
Sorry to hear this. Yea, unfortunately Apple doesn't have much help in terms of support for HomeKit.
Interesting video! Have had issue with Philips Hue in the past, so I got rid of the Hue bulbs and hub and switched to Nanoleaf smart bulbs. Occasionally they need to be reset to factory default settings and added back. I keep all of my codes in the Notes app with #Home and #HomeKit so I don’t have to go climbing ladders and re-looking them up! But resetting to factor and adding them back seemed to help. Not sure what you were experiencing but will check your videos Shane! 👍
Thanks Shane for making this. I thought I was alone in my smart home turning into a dumb home. I will be starting from scratch as well. The only difference is, I am going to do a do-over completely, not restoring anything from backup. Wish me luck! LOL.
~Dan
How many devices do you have Dan? It would be great if you could follow up and let us know how it went. How long it took to rebuild and if you think it was worth the effort?
Thank you!
Good luck my friend!!
@@bravomike09 I have 37 devices plus Homebridge. I am going to wipe the entire setup out and start from scratch. I will certainly come back here with an update.
I am sorry for your pain Shane! I found this super interesting to see how to selectively restore with controller.
I have had to rebuild in the past. It is the biggest pain in the a$$. The positive side is it will clean up any of the old codes or automations which are not being used. Starting from scratch makes me to fix the smart home the way I wanted and not just putting up with old automations. You know the ones you want to clean up and fix right, but still kind of works.
Oh my gosh…if even you have this problem, what hope is there for the rest of us? This stuff needs to just work.
People like your Grandpa and my mom can’t deal with this, and hell even I cannot deal with these types of issue. And more importantly, no one should have to.
Not until Apple figures out how to monetize it.
Shane, great video as always. I wondered what were the specific kinds of issues you'd been seeing that led you to a complete redo of your smart home. All I could really pick up from your comments in this video were that you were having issues with some of your Thread devices. Any details you could share would be helpful.
yeah I'm curious about the issues too. I have so many!
Home automation is supposed to make things easier but sometimes the opposite occurs. My smart home is not anywhere close to yours but own several Apple TVs and HomePods etc. When I upgraded from architecture 1 to 2, the Schlage deadbolt with apple home key generated multiple users with multiple keys and I spent weeks trying to delete and/or remove users.
Second, I absolutely love the way HomePods stereo pair works. It automates pretty much everything in a living room and turns on/off the TV etc. However, I cannot count the amount of times recently I have issues with no sound, one speaker disconnects, audio lags etc. specifically while watching the TH-cam Apple TV app between commercial breaks. I have tried everything to make this rock solid and although there are no real solutions posted out there, I think reserving a static IP to both HomePods seems to be a possible solution. Some say that part of the problem lies with using an ethernet connection to the Apple TV, it then makes the HomePods behave like a wired device. In my Eero setup this is exactly how they show up. if you ever want to revisit HomePod Stereo pair with new ideas and problem solving, this could be an interesting video!
I recently rebuilt my smart home when I got Starlink and eero Pro 6E a month ago. I ended up unplugging ethernet from my 3rd Gen tv 4K. My OG HomePods just kept dropping off and I wouldn’t be able to mute, Siri wouldn’t work, and I couldn’t use timers. They kept showing up as wired unknown devices in eero’s app just like you’ve stated. It’s been two weeks with no more issues. But I really wish I could hardwire the tv again. Overall even with these minor setbacks I’m loving my smart home again! I had a lot of issues with my home not working due to my previous ISP’s crappy Nokia mesh router.
And ima about to build it right with you. What a convenience, especially we are taking the big step in migrating away from traditional systems offered by companies 😂
The HUB takeaway is priceless and ironic for a common view in the smart home community. MATTER, no thanks?
Me: Hey siri. Do x.
Siri: I’m having trouble connecting to the internet…
Me: 😤🤬
I get that several times a day, but mostly with HomePod mini that are connected as a stereo pair. My router is less than 8 feet away from one of the HomePod minis, and less than 10 feet from the other. I am convinced that a lot of the issues people are talking about here or directly related to Wi-Fi issues and home pod hubs.
I was having trouble with my Thread network becoming slow and unresponsive. Resetting individual devices became very cumbersome. I eventually tried turning off the 110v breakers to my entire house, then restoring power. I also unplugged from battery backup systems. It restored the entire Thread network in less than a minute. Resetting some appliance clocks is a minor inconvenience compared to the alternative.
Thank you for the post Shane. I have been watching your channel for some time. But this was a great post, in that I'm facing the same decision. I started such a long time I have some devices that started at the beginning of Home Kit. I look forward to hearing how everything goes for you.. Best of luck my friend.. I'm hoping it's all successful!!!
Thanks for the support! Best of luck to you as well!
I understand your pain I've also been having home issues as well I would suggest not doing too much until the OS 17 releases on Apple and probably a few months after that then try to fix everything just suggestion and I think that's part of the issue that there's some issues with that with all the extra pushing of updates and well another stuff
Lucky that company sent some stuff right as you needed it!
The wifi wasn't the issue. I could have kept using the same wifi routers. It was definitely an Apple Home issue and not a wifi issue. All my wifi accessories were working fine (even in Apple Home)
1 year from now, "Apple Home 3.0" - Shane goes down the Home Assistant rabbit hole 😊
lol
You should AirBNB your home to developers to test their products!
😆 Actually one day I'd love to have an AirBNB , update it with cool smart home tech and then rent it out!
That seems like SO MUCH of a pain...I, honestly, think I might just go back to a 'dumb home' instead of trying to rebuild from scratch.
I'm really curious if the Controller for HomeKit back-up/restore would have worked successfully if every associated Accessory had been added to the Home prior to attempt.
Glad to see that you got things 'mostly' back to proper.
Thanks, as always, for the content!
Have a look at home assistant, full seamless backup and restore with any device
I had to do this because of the Matter update…but it was the best decision I made. Over 100 devices!
Yup! I’ve been having problems also, especially with my Onvis switch being forgotten, and my Eve Weather app needing to be manually REFRESHED to show “current” temperature. My wife saw me sweating over getting all the automations working, and said, “Wouldn’t it be easier and faster to just get up and switch a lamp on when you need it?”
Home Assistant is the answer. Thinking about it
Very smart content as always! Well done
Love the video Man however you’re adding all the stuff I would just go to Home Assistant route and still keep all the functionality you Apple home
Apple needs to do with homekit head what they did with one for apple maps! Homekit has so much potential!
„Lets go“ by Shane, fanbase knows this time its more like „Fuck my life“ 😂
🤣🤣🤣
Thanks, this is very helpful.
Wait till you get iOS 17 and see all your short cuts and automation are broken.
HomePod minis and the new HomePods disconnecting has increased immensely since upgrading to iOS 17. Biggest issue I've been having. Is that one the HomePods stop functioning properly if I reboot my router (Amplifi Alien) everything works flawlessly for about 24 hours. I have FIOS gig speed any great Wi-Fi speed internally.
@@HCraigF yes. And overall the AirPlay conditionality to AirPods is broken most of the time.
@@HCraigF… I recently purchased a second Alien and was devo when I received a notification that the Amplify mesh is not compatible with HomeKit. 😫
Have you found a work-around?
So much negativity. I haven’t had not one issue.
@@mikewolf5367 hmm. Negativity? You do know this comment was posted 4 months ago? iOS 17 was a cluster mess and nearly broke all home automations. We are now 2 major updates into iOS 17. Things have changed.
We are about to do the same. We set up our lake house with Apple Homekit. Now we are moving there full time because of kids left home, lifestyle change, etc. Automations will need to be different and it makes sense to just start from beginning and this time will be documenting it so it can be easily followed in a years time.
F in the chat for my man Shane
Feeling for you big time.
Our smart home had the same issue since the new architecture. We tried everything with apple and their seniors as well. We eventually moved and set everything up new from scratch, and factory reset all the accessories. We also replaced a lot of the accessories. It’s glitching again… beyond frustrating.
Oh no... sorry to hear that. I know the frustration...
Thread is the problem. I tried to go with Thread and Apple last year. Gave up on it especially with Eve stuff. Matter does better. I went to Hue and Aqara for lights and motion. Never looked back. So much better
Before doing this, I would have started first by removing everything from Nanoleaf. Their software and hardware have been highly unreliable lately. Second, I would have tried adding another Home to Homekit, rebooting everything and deleting that additional home. This trick has fixed some oddball things for me that defy standard troubleshooting methods. I would have also started by adding back an AppleTV vs a HomePod Mini. The minis has been the source of issues for many users. The idea of wiping everything out and starting over gives me the chills. Brave man!
Thanks for the comment. I tried just about everything I could think of. I removed all border routers and tried variations of just one or another, including the Nanoleaf ones, etc. Trust me, starting over was the very last resort. There's a reason it took a month or so of troubleshooting before I finally did it. I was able to isolate the problem, and even recreate it, which took many hours.. But there was no way to fix it.
@@ShaneCreatesI figured you knew all this, but thought it be good for your other viewers. I too faced this choice right after upgrading the Homekit database and facing the dreaded "Updating" message on several devices. Then my notifications stopped being delivered in a timely fashion. In the end, I fixed my issues by adding a new Home and then deleting it. But I was dang close to pulling the trigger on wiping the slate clean.
Nice video, thanks. So, what's the big orange buttons that look like cells or honeycombs?
I had a similar issue with my thread network. Not sure if you tried this first but I just did full erase/resets on my home hubs (3 ATV 4K 3rd gens) and everything worked normally after.,
It is a good decision. Now you can make more videos about it
I was in your shoes a month ago due to stability issues with Apple Home, failing automations, and Siri. During that time I migrated all of my accessories (150+ devices) to Home Assistant and forward them back to Apple Home so I can control them from both Apple Home and Home Assistant. Home Assistant automations are much more customizable and more reliable. Apple Home just isn't mature yet unfortunately imo.
Hi Shane, maybe you should consider waiting it out and rebuild from scratch with IOS 17, which should be released in the coming days...
best advice I can give anybody here is to setup home assistant on a raspberry pi or old computer and use that to integrate into homekit. I made the change after everything in my place was unavailable on homekit, and I haven’t had any issues ever since
I just started my smart apple home cause I was curious if it was better than smartthings and I have to say it's been nothing but a nightmare to get smart device's that need the apple home hub to function or work. My first problem that I ran into was the apple home hub couldn't find any nearby device's to connect to. So I fixed that by signing out of apple id and resigned in.then the hub could find device's and pair with them. But a new problem started and that was the device's wouldn't respond no matter what I did. so the only way I got aroundd this problem was to start a new apple home from scratch and doing that fixed all my problems and now everything works. But man all I have to say is, I appreciate smartthings alot more now because I thought smartthings gave me more problems.boy was I wrong.
I’m looking forward to the video where you share the source of your Thread problems. Before I read the comments I would have put money on the source being one of the Nanoleaf Thread border routers but after reading the comments it sounds like it might be an older HomePod. Let us know how you solve it!
I was not using an old HomePods. Only 2nd gen and HomePod minis (all with thread). After hours of testing and troubleshooting, I was able to find the source of the issue and even recreate it. There just was no fix.
The issue seemed to be related to the thread border routers and the Apple Thread network. When no Apple thread border routers were present, the thread devices worked. This was using an old Apple TV (no thread) as the HK hub and Nanoleaf shapes as thread border router. As soon as an Apple thread border router was introduced and took over as the HK hub, all thread accessories went unresponsive.
Meanwhile thread (Matter) accessories paired to Google Home and SmartThings worked. These create separate thread networks. Nanoleaf border routers and apple border routers now join the same thread network. And when I created a new HK home for testing, newly paired thread devices worked there too... assuming that new home creates a new thread network. It's almost as if something went corrupt in my main HK home's thread network.
@@ShaneCreates interesting…thanks for the explanation. I haven’t gone down the Thread rabbit hole yet, hopefully it gets sorted soon.
@@marcalvarado1915 This is one of the issues that Matter over Thread should address as some rules as to how Thread networks are setup would be in the specification.
Wife approval rating must have plummeted after this 😂
lol she was very understanding during the process. I think she knew how frustrated I was. Great example here of why manual control is still super important in a smart home. Llight switches, blinds, etc. could still all be controlled manually if necessary.
Very good reminder - thanks Shane. I am about to setup a first lighting automation using motion sensors to a stair light. I will pair them up so that they work independently of any controller, but then also pair them all into the controller in order to get the feedback, as well as being able to control more broadly. This way, if the controller is down, the lights will still function normally.
All my thread issues are from nanolead acting as thread router … and belkin wemo thread remote if you have one
I have more than 240 devices (eve, aqara, ikea, meross, netatmo, hue, eufy, somfy) with two old homepods, and all my issues are in nanoleaf and belkin remote only
And you cannot add them one by one because nanoleaf will fail after a week or so which is pretty long period
Believe me ditch nanoleaf
And if you added nanoleaf by mistake you will have to hard reset all your homepods mini again
As a tiny home (apartment) dweller it is such a short few steps to anything and my cardiologist recommends I walk more, smart home stuff is kind of the wrong direction.
I’ve had to rebuild Aqara twice (two separate hubs). Part of it could be user error but I have a ton in HK so I wouldn’t say I’m a novice. What I’ve heard and started doing is setting an IP reservation for my important wifi items. Too early to tell if that solves any issues but I’ve heard it does. Good luck, it’s no fun.
Thanks for the comment. I think setting reserved IP addresses is a good idea also.
I will say overall I’ve had much better luck with my hub connected items than wifi connected items. Just tried a few thread light bulbs and they went unresponsive (with the newest firmware) within a few days. 🙄
In hubs we trust! 😂
“I’m going to rebuild from scratch” … proceeds to restore everything he had before 😂
Hi Shane great video learning a lot for my new house. I see have homey could you make a video on this
Yes I can. Coming soon! 😀
I think there needs to get more discussion as to ones router and settings used.
Makes you wish you could have a hub/router for each room and have all chid dependencies connected to those hubs/router and just add each hub for each room
I was thinking the same rebuilding mine
this man on the phone with tech support is CRAZY. lol
can we get a video on the ipad home hub building from scratch so i can follow along?
I’m sort of getting there myself. I’ve been thinking about getting the Samsung Smartthings Station with Thread and Matter support and use Amazon Alexa. I can’t stand duplicate devices so I’d have to delete everything from Amazon and connect it all to Samsung which then adds the device to Amazon.
I've had a lot of Thread issues as well, I'm pretty sure it comes down to the fact that I have a 1st gen Homepod that does't support thread that keeps making itself the primary Homekit hub and when it is the primary, my Thread network goes offline. I ordered a couple more homepod mini's and will retire the 1st gen Homepod and hope that fixes my overall issue. That said, I do have one nanoleaf bulb that just won't add itself to the thread network for some reason, gotta try and reset that one again.
Only a few smart items in my home. Its Apple based. Of late i am having consistent problems with both my homepod minis and Gen 2 homepods. While they are paired in 2 separate areas, both sets seem to drop their link so i cant control their volume as a stereo pair. Tried a bunch of fixes but its nearing to to sell them and move on
amazing videos. why you dont start with Homey pro? I have only Homekit devices but Im thinking to start from scratch with homey pro at my new home.
Hey! Just getting into setting up my Apple Home, I’ve been learning a lot through your videos. What do you recommend for a smart sliding door lock? TIA
Felt the pain from the thumbnail. Been there already 😭😭🤬🤬
My wife laughed a little when she saw the thumbnail. Said it was perfect and is exactly how I've been looking the past few weeks walking around the house trying to fix everything 😅😭
Sorry to hear you have to do a full restart. In the video you briefly mentioned what you think the root cause is but I didn’t hear you talk much about things you would do to prevent? Does this change the way you’ll start adding devices to your ecosystem or is there some other lesson learned that would change how you move forward?
That's a really great question! That would be the gold from this horrible experience that others might benefit from.
Are you still using Hubitat to integrate some things into HomeKit? Also, how’d you get your Reolink cameras into HomeKit? I want to switch to HomeKit, but I also want to make sure the major things I have can be switched over.
I was but I did not re-add Hubitat to the new Home setup. I am also using testing out Homey Pro right now so I'm moving most of those devices from Hubitat to Homey while I test that out.
Reolink cameras are integrated into HomeKit via Scrypted. It works great. HomeBridge also works. I made a video about this a little while ago.
@@ShaneCreates I appreciate the reply, and I'll search the channel for your Reolink video!
If you did it all again, clean slate, where you had to acquire all of your smart home devices again, would you get nanoleaf devices again or would you try to stick to the Philips hue (or other) ecosystem?
Well I mostly use the Nanoleaf Lines and Shapes, which I love. I don't think Phillips Hue offers any products like that, so yes, I'd probably still use Nanoleaf if starting over for that. For Bulbs and lightstrips (which I don't have many of either brand), I might would use Philips if I had a whole lot of them.
I see that you set up a nano leaf border router for your daughter's room. Could you have just paired everything to the existing home pod?
Yup, I gave up on 1.0
To much fragmentation between apps.
Home assistant, Scrypted. Docker.
Constant reboots of home assistant.
It seems like it would be easier to switch platforms. Much more compatibility with Alexa with off brand devices.
I had high hopes with Matter but the implementation has been way to slow 🤷🏻♂️
What security cameras work with Apple HomeKit the best
Thanks for sharing this video Shane.
Was it a Homey 2023 I saw in your closet 😉 will you show it in future videos? 😍
Yes! Video coming soon! 😃
How do you feel about the TP-Link router after 2 months or so?
Can we get a video about how the new deco WiFi mesh system is handling the HomeKit devices because….. anything going to no response?
Regarding the lighting automations you use in your home, how do you make lights turn off automatically when there is no activity in a room or area? I've tried various approaches, but have yet to find one that works well.
I so wish there were detailed logging to help debug these kind of issues.
If you experience big problems and get through to senior level Apple Support, they can actually have you install profiles on your devices, even homepods and Apple TVs, to get logs and help debug/troubleshoot.
This was a fascinating…and frightful video of what you had to go through. It’s also an excellent demonstration of why NOT to automate everything in one’s home (in my humble opinion).
In my younger years, 30-40 years ago, I was a computer nerd and had an X10 based system controlling nearly everything possible in my home. However, after getting older I eventually realized having technology permeating everything in my home was not always a good idea. You inadvertently demonstrated that very thing here. Look at the enormous amount of time you invested in setting this all up to begin with…only having to spend DAYS rebuilding it again. And in some instances, just to avoid flipping a switch only a few feet away… Is that really necessary?
I’m really amused at the beginning of your videos when you say you try to keep things as simple as possible. But the very fact you have a “network room” suggests your setup is anything but simple…and with so many devices and hubs, it certainly is not.
Don’t misunderstand me, I think it’s awesome you are sharing these experiences as it can help those who have much simpler setups and avoid potential pitfalls. That’s the reason I’ve been looking at your videos.
I just moved into a new apartment and after many years of virtually no home automation, I will be venturing back into it via HomeKit. However, I will be using it sparingly-for controlling those items that truly benefit from remote control-for example, dimming table lamps that otherwise could not be dimmed. Now that’s genuinely useful! I refuse to spend hours setting up devices that I could easily just walk over and flip a switch to activate.
My initial dabbling in such things confirms what you said about hubs-they are fantastic. That’s why I’ve decided to get a Lutron Caseta hub. Direct WiFi control of multiple devices would be a huge nightmare in the making. My few experiences with such devices has taught me to never go that route!
Your later review of the Homey Pro suggests it’s “one hub to rule them all.” However, one has to ask, shouldn’t HomeKit really be the unifying factor in a smart home setup? I suspect if HomeKit was as robust as it should be, a Homey Pro wouldn’t even be necessary. It’s a pity with the billions of dollars Apple is sitting on, they can’t make a full hearted effort to make HomeKit a robust, one-stop, smart home solution.
Thanks for sharing your experiences!
I agree with you insofar as no system should be inoperable without an app or an interface. You should be able to use your house even if the system crashes. It should have high WAF (wife acceptance factor). But I do think it’s fun and worth the effort to automate where you can… having automations and integrations run is definitely experience enhancing. It’s not an endeavor for everyone tho. Just us nerds
This dude got the sleepiest eyes in the biz
lack of native backup/restore and overall incompetence of Apple support to address any issues is what stops me from going all in for HomeKit. I currently have about 20-25 devices, and might grow it by perhaps 5-10 more devices: need few more HomePods, 2-3 cameras and another smart door lock but that is it.
My setup started having the same issues at the same time I wonder what’s up
hey shane, great video as always. are you still using the tp link or you went back to the orbi? trying to decide between them and wondering what your experience has been
I've switched it up a few times. I went from TP Link and tried the new Orbi 960 series for a while. It was good, as was the TP Link. They are very similar and I'm not sure if I can choose one or the other as being better. I did like the TP Link app and some of the available features a little better than Orbi's app.
I recently went all in on Unifi networking gear. I like it a lot also, but it's not as "plug and play" as the other systems and requires more setup to get it just right, in my opinion.
why did you not use your homey and replace all those hubs?
How long did it take to restore everything?
My home has been broken for a while. Everything shows not responding. I have feared i would have to reset it all and it seems like that time has come for you as well.