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Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,479
2,562
New York
Absolutely not.

While this used to sometimes work, it's been completely ineffective the last few times this status has appeared.

EDIT:

I clicked the HomeKit tile to open the remote control on the iPhone. The power button on this remote was unable to turn TV on (Samsung problem I think). However, while attempting to do this, I noticed the status updated itself to "Paused".
I been saying for years, the Home app needs a pull down to refresh like Safari got not too long ago.
 
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sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
I been saying for years, the Home app needs a pull down to refresh like Safari got not too long ago.

Yep.

So it appears that opening the ATV tile, as opposed to force-quitting, is getting it to update now. However so far, this has been with me at home. I wonder if I can force an update if I am away while status is jammed? Since HomeKit geofencing is so unreliable, it might think I am at home. 🤣

none-of-this-****-makes-sense-this-****.gif
 
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sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
The HomeKit sh*t show continues...

I have Meross light switches in my garage. I have an automation... when the door opens, the lights come on. Functionally, it works. However, yesterday and today in the Home app, I twice noticed the Meross light switch status was OFF while the lights were actually ON.

I cannot reproduce the issue, so I don't know if status suddenly flipped back after the lights came on or if it was wrong to begin with. I never noticed this before yesterday.

This is a real problem since both yesterday and today I used my Home app to check if I left the lights on and I trusted Home when it showed the lights as off. Hours later I discovered the lights still on. Today it was confirmed much quicker, as I saw the lights on and opened the Home app to turn them off, this is when I discovered Home was saying they were already off. I then had no problem clicking the tiles to toggle the lights remotely and then status was correct.

Just a side note: I actually implemented Address Reservation yesterday in my router so every single device on my network will always retain the same IP address. Apparently, static IP addresses don't really matter after all. Given the timing of the issue... maybe this is the cause of the problem?
 
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Trevanian

macrumors newbie
May 25, 2022
25
3
2 sets of HomePod Minis, status sometimes matches what is happening and sometimes not.
Tap on a room and the status at top can be different from the status by the play controls or it can be the same (playing, not playing).
Can also say status is playing and show music as playing but it’s not and time not advancing, for hours.
Sometimes room says "tap to connect", when I do, it takes me to Apple Music. What is that? Have I "connected"? With what?
Sometimes says "not responding" while it’s playing fine, often doesn’t say it when clearly it is not responding.
I have an automation to play a sleep sounds playlist on random repeat at night. For weeks it works and then it stops working for weeks. When it doesn’t work the playlist starts playing but then stops randomly. When it stops working, it might say playing or maybe not playing or stopped or paused. If I wake up and start it again, it never seems to stop again that night.
Sometimes it coincides with a software update, sometimes not. Was not working on 16.4. Worked fine after 16.4.1, for about 10 days, then it stopped working; no software update or hardware changes. Now it fails sometime each night, despite always starting fine.
Sometimes my playlists stop working during the day too, sometimes not. Again, the status might say anything.
I have no problems to speak of with my iPad, iPhone or MacBook on the same network: streaming video, VOIP, many different websites, video calls using several different software. It’s just the HomePods.
 

StumpyBloke

macrumors 603
Apr 21, 2012
5,404
5,988
England
I personally believe this issue is universal and whether people are aware of it or not they are affected by it: I mean everyone.

We all know that Apple these days are truly incompetent when it comes to getting devices talking reliably to each other and let's not even mention the joke that is Siri.

It just beggars belief to me that we are still in the same situation years down the line with exactly 0% improvement and, in many cases it would seem actual provable regression.

Nobody will ever convince me that the top brass at Apple use their own kit because there is no way on this earth this **** show would be allowed to continue year after year update after update if they did.

The managers of these teams should be accountable and sacked: they are clearly not fit for purpose, which coincidentally is like most of Apple's services.
 

BugeyeSTI

macrumors 604
Aug 19, 2017
6,873
8,729
Arizona/Illinois
I personally believe this issue is universal and whether people are aware of it or not they are affected by it: I mean everyone.

We all know that Apple these days are truly incompetent when it comes to getting devices talking reliably to each other and let's not even mention the joke that is Siri.

It just beggars belief to me that we are still in the same situation years down the line with exactly 0% improvement and, in many cases it would seem actual provable regression.

Nobody will ever convince me that the top brass at Apple use their own kit because there is no way on this earth this **** show would be allowed to continue year after year update after update if they did.

The managers of these teams should be accountable and sacked: they are clearly not fit for purpose, which coincidentally is like most of Apple's services.
I completely agree. Home hasn't worked right for me since the "new architecture" was released. Not only do they display the improper status of Apple TV but, I also have 2 Meross smart plugs that worked perfectly before the updated architecture and now show "not responding" in Home status. The Meross app sees them and allows control of the plugs with no issues so it's the Home Hub that's causing the issue.. I don't even use Home anymore and just stick with the Meross app. The plugs are the only devices on Home app and deleting the Home and plugs then setting everything up again doesn't seem to fix anything.. Maybe they can get it straightened out in iOS17
 

sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
Has said "Playing" all day today, despite being "off', "not playing", "paused", or whatever Apple is now calling the status of the Apple TV when not being used. None of the previously mentioned tricks has forced it to update.
 
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sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
The HomeKit sh*t show continues...

I have Meross light switches in my garage. I have an automation... when the door opens, the lights come on. Functionally, it works. However, yesterday and today in the Home app, I twice noticed the Meross light switch status was OFF while the lights were actually ON.

I cannot reproduce the issue, so I don't know if status suddenly flipped back after the lights came on or if it was wrong to begin with. I never noticed this before yesterday.

This is a real problem since both yesterday and today I used my Home app to check if I left the lights on and I trusted Home when it showed the lights as off. Hours later I discovered the lights still on. Today it was confirmed much quicker, as I saw the lights on and opened the Home app to turn them off, this is when I discovered Home was saying they were already off. I then had no problem clicking the tiles to toggle the lights remotely and then status was correct.

Just a side note: I actually implemented Address Reservation yesterday in my router so every single device on my network will always retain the same IP address. Apparently, static IP addresses don't really matter after all. Given the timing of the issue... maybe this is the cause of the problem?

I turned off "Address Reservation" and the Meross status issue has not returned. So much for the "it's obviously your network - DHCP confuses HomeKit." bullcrap. Firstly, my TP-Link router does not juggle IP addresses around when the leases expire; it's more likely to just re-assign the same IP. My devices always seem to get assigned the same IP when my lease expires every 48 hours... even after many many weeks. Secondly, "Address Reservation" only ensures that specific devices get assigned the same IP address when the lease expires... so it's strange that I only saw problems when this was enabled. Every device had/has the same IP address for both scenarios.
 

Toinman

macrumors newbie
Jan 20, 2015
14
17
I have pretty much all the issues mentioned above with Apple TV on my homepod mini (ever since I got the Homepod Mini over a year ago, but recently it's just unbearable) For some reason I always thought it was a network issue until recently the homepod randomly started playing music while becoming unresponsive, requiring me to unplug the power (which obviously is not a network issue but the damn thing crashing)

other issues I have:
- Home app displaying wrong status pause/playing
- Unable to play music from iphones or macs
- Unable the change a song moments after I started playing one (so it worked at first)
- Tried using it as an Apple TV speaker, but it drops minutes after it started playing
- Volume controls on top of the homepod mini are unresponsive

Before I realised it was a problem with the homepod itself I also tried controlling the homepod with HomeAssistant... the same buggy behaviour continued. I had setup actions like playing a sound or simply pause playing and they randomly work or fail. So 1 moment it works and seconds later it doesn't.

(I'm on 16.4.1)
 
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sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
Been saying for a few years now, the Home app would really benefit from a pull down to refresh like Safari has.

I agree. Start by getting rid of "Shortcuts" as a standalone app, rename it to give it the respect it deserves, and build it completely into Home... "Advanced Automation" or something.

Aside from the aesthetics of the Home app, which aren't terrible, just nonsensical and illogical in places, give us some decent HomeKit troubleshooting tools. When HomeKit is broken, at least tell us which link in the chain is the cause. Better yet, build some robustness into the system... more heartbeats, so things are better up to date.

Heck, at this point, I'd just be happy to know the exact flow of a Home command from initiation to output. How many back & forths to an Apple server, how many back & forths to my Home hub, where are my "shortcuts" stored, where are my automations stored, what are the connections to my iCloud account, how/where do the other apps get device updates, how/when does my wifi come into play, etc., etc. Right now, it's all just conjecture and "your network".

Nah, just kidding, I don't need any of that. It. Just. Works.
 
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sparky672

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 17, 2004
533
252
Since updating to 16.5, both iOS and tvOS, I am seeing really slow updating in Home app. It's ridiculous. Several times yesterday, the Home app was reporting my Meross lights as OFF when they were ON. The first incident, I noticed I was logged out of my Meross account in the Meross app and when logged in, status updated immediately (coincidence?) On another occasion, it just took a while and then status updated on its own.

Ironically, my BLE Schlage lock has been 100% reliable after coming out of the 16.3 fiasco. It's the devices connected directly to wifi that should be more reliable, and have not been.

This is really stupid.
 
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