HomePod Disable HomePod as a Home Hub

[cynics]

It’s completely random far as a I can tell and usually when I’m home on Wi-Fi. I’d have the Hub performing perfectly with regards to notifications, automations, recording clips, etc. than out of nowhere I’d have most, if not all, of my HomeKit devices go “No Response”. When they eventually come to, notifications are sent for anything and everything, even with my filters set. After 30 or even more minutes, there would finally be signs of a return to normalcy.

The issue with the auto switching of Hubs is not the fact that it’s switching but that it’s not a seamless switch.

Ona side note, since you mentioned it, the activity zones with my HKSV cameras are working pretty flawlessly.

That sounds like a network issue. Like Bonjour, HAP or some other protocol Apple uses isn't playing nice with your iPhone or accessories or anything. Its not uncommon for the network to work perfectly fine but a function like Bonjour not work giving the appearance the router isn't to blame. Start by power cycling your router and iPhone if you haven't already.

HomeHubs are only used for remote access and aside from AirPlay and Siri control of devices aren't required. When you are home on your local network your iPhone is communicating directly with your accessories. So if you see 'no response' at home the issue is between your iPhone, router and accessories.

The reason I bring up network, specifically your router is because ALL the accessories going on the Fritz is not impossible but unlikely. Your HomeHub switching its rare but it typically happens when the network connection is lost and another device its the opportunity to get in first and be the new connected device (my connected HomeHub has been my office AppleTV since 15.1.1 and before that it was my right HomeHub for a month or so since an electrical outage). Also you are getting a flood of notifications,

The notification thing is odd and while I'm still leaning toward the network the HomeHub could be playing a role in the issue too. After a lot of reading to see how notifications work with HomeKit it would appear the accessory is sending all the notifications to the device that is connected be it iPhone, HomeHub etc and the push notifications are don't want shouldn't be notifying you. The fact you get a flood of them seems like they were all waiting around but its hard to find quality information on that mechanic since Apple is doing most of the leg work.

 

[Itinj24]

That sounds like a network issue. Like Bonjour, HAP or some other protocol Apple uses isn't playing nice with your iPhone or accessories or anything. Its not uncommon for the network to work perfectly fine but a function like Bonjour not work giving the appearance the router isn't to blame. Start by power cycling your router and iPhone if you haven't already.

HomeHubs are only used for remote access and aside from AirPlay and Siri control of devices aren't required. When you are home on your local network your iPhone is communicating directly with your accessories. So if you see 'no response' at home the issue is between your iPhone, router and accessories.

The reason I bring up network, specifically your router is because ALL the accessories going on the Fritz is not impossible but unlikely. Your HomeHub switching its rare but it typically happens when the network connection is lost and another device its the opportunity to get in first and be the new connected device (my connected HomeHub has been my office AppleTV since 15.1.1 and before that it was my right HomeHub for a month or so since an electrical outage). Also you are getting a flood of notifications,

The notification thing is odd and while I'm still leaning toward the network the HomeHub could be playing a role in the issue too. After a lot of reading to see how notifications work with HomeKit it would appear the accessory is sending all the notifications to the device that is connected be it iPhone, HomeHub etc and the push notifications are don't want shouldn't be notifying you. The fact you get a flood of them seems like they were all waiting around but its hard to find quality information on that mechanic since Apple is doing most of the leg work.

Great information, thanks for taking my the time. Admittedly, I’m not well versed in Wi-Fi and networking. I can only call out what I observe. It appears that I get these random Home hub switches while everything was already working in harmony the way it should.

I moved about a year and a half ago and switched to video streaming since (as opposed to using Verizon FiOS cable). Because of that switch, I no longer needed Verizon’s router, which I used to have in bridge mode, so I connected my eero Pro 6 directly to the modem. Any chance that could affect any of what you were talking about? Doesn’t seem logical but then again, I wouldn’t know for sure. Thanks.

 

[jimkingwood]

We should absolutely have the option to select which device acts as the Hub and make it stick. I know exactly when a switch takes place. I start getting notifications for cameras/devices which shouldn’t be sending notifications at that time and lasts for a good 30 minutes until it catches up and settles with its duties. Why the random switch? Beats the heck out of me. The prior Hub was working just fine.

Last week I started getting some wonky behavior in my Home app. Just about every one of my devices went “No Response” and I had a huge banner at the top of the Home app asking me to set up my cameras using streaming only or streaming and recording. Mind you I had everything set up already. Turns out the acting Hub, an OG HomePod, was cutting in and out of Wi-Fi until I reset it. You would think this would’ve been the perfect time for the Hub to auto switch to something more reliable (I have 19 other Hubs on standby) but nope. Just stuck that one poor performing Hub even after I reset it. Had to go reset something else to force a switch.

We’re all being used as beta testers and the HomePod mini was absolutely not ready for release and arguably still is not.

I’m sick af with the HomePod blasting random music from my music library if the homepod icon gets touched in the Home app. And don’t all you apologists flood me with “Oh, it picks up where you left off” (it doesn’t) or “Well, why don’t you want your music to blast out without warning”

And my HomePod mini status indicates “configuring” in the Home app. I’m leaving it as such. We shouldn’t have to be restarting this freaking device to overcome Apple bugs.

Also, this morning I asked this POS what time my alarm was set for. It responded “4:00 AM tomorrow” I then asked it to turn off my alarm and it said “Your 7:00 alarm is off”

I’ve never set a 4:00 alarm. In my lifetime on any device.

The Homepod mini is a piece of unfinished crap and for reasons I can’t fathom users are just gushing over it and not holding Apple to account. You can’t even manually designate it as a home hub. It just decides to be. Or not. Whatever.

I‘d bet three weeks wages they haven’t fixed all the bugs because they have plans to deprecate and/or replace it. Mark my words.

Edit:I’ve used Apple products since the first Mac 30-odd years ago and I know when something is up.

 

[StumpyBloke]

We’re all being used as beta testers and the HomePod mini was absolutely not ready for release and arguably still is not.

I’m sick af with the HomePod blasting random music from my music library if the homepod icon gets touched in the Home app. And don’t all you apologists flood me with “Oh, it picks up where you left off” (it doesn’t) or “Well, why don’t you want your music to blast out without warning”

And my HomePod mini status indicates “configuring” in the Home app. I’m leaving it as such. We shouldn’t have to be restarting this freaking device to overcome Apple bugs.

Also, this morning I asked this POS what time my alarm was set for. It responded “4:00 AM tomorrow” I then asked it to turn off my alarm and it said “Your 7:00 alarm is off”

I’ve never set a 4:00 alarm. In my lifetime on any device.

The Homepod mini is a piece of unfinished crap and for reasons I can’t fathom users are just gushing over it and not holding Apple to account. You can’t even manually designate it as a home hub. It just decides to be. Or not. Whatever.

I‘d bet three weeks wages they haven’t fixed all the bugs because they have plans to deprecate and/or replace it. Mark my words.

Edit:I’ve used Apple products since the first Mac 30-odd years ago and I know when something is up.

The hardware is good, but the software is absolute garbage, across the whole range now.

 

[jimkingwood]

N

That sounds like a network issue. Like Bonjour, HAP or some other protocol Apple uses isn't playing nice with your iPhone or accessories or anything. Its not uncommon for the network to work perfectly fine but a function like Bonjour not work giving the appearance the router isn't to blame. Start by power cycling your router and iPhone if you haven't already.

HomeHubs are only used for remote access and aside from AirPlay and Siri control of devices aren't required. When you are home on your local network your iPhone is communicating directly with your accessories. So if you see 'no response' at home the issue is between your iPhone, router and accessories.

The reason I bring up network, specifically your router is because ALL the accessories going on the Fritz is not impossible but unlikely. Your HomeHub switching its rare but it typically happens when the network connection is lost and another device its the opportunity to get in first and be the new connected device (my connected HomeHub has been my office AppleTV since 15.1.1 and before that it was my right HomeHub for a month or so since an electrical outage). Also you are getting a flood of notifications,

The notification thing is odd and while I'm still leaning toward the network the HomeHub could be playing a role in the issue too. After a lot of reading to see how notifications work with HomeKit it would appear the accessory is sending all the notifications to the device that is connected be it iPhone, HomeHub etc and the push notifications are don't want shouldn't be notifying you. The fact you get a flood of them seems like they were all waiting around but its hard to find quality information on that mechanic since Apple is doing most of the leg work.

No offense, but what you are describing is a Rube Goldberg machine. About 1000 times more information than a product user should have to know.

What I am taking away from this is that to have an even REMOTELY reliable home setup, a dedicated hardware home hub is required, and trash-can the Apple home kit. Or whatever they call it, it just says “Home” on my homescreen.

 

[theviewer19855]

This most definitely sounds like a thread I should be part of. I have had SOOO many problems with HomeKit / HomePods. Just this morning I thought I might try to limit which is used as a hub and realised its not possible, then found this thread. Its something I'm going to do from now though, when I notice problems (which match a lot with what the OP is saying) Im going to check what hub is in use.

Incidentally, I noticed my ATV being the worst hub, so I disabled it months ago. Its hardwired so surprised me, but when it was the hub, my requests would sometimes take 30 seconds. I presumed its some stupid 'sleep' function in the ATV.

Anyway, below I will list some of my most annoying issues. If anyone has any ideas, then I'm all ears.

1. The most frequent and annoying problem is the wrong HomePod answering. Several times a week ill ask my HomePod in the kitchen something and ill hear a faint voice in another room. I will put my face right up to the speaker and ask, and still it happens. This can happen with my bedroom HomePod too, ill whisper a question and a different HomePod will reply. This is made INCREDIBLY annoying when the HomePod replying doesn't understand what I said, probably because its 10 yard away! Made triple annoying when I ask for a reminder or an alarm. A different speakers sets that alarm and then I have to locate which speaker it was to turn it off. PS. I don't use any stereo pairing.

2. Camera notifications. Firstly, the HK secure video was slow as F. But that's another problem. My main problem, is that seemingly at random, I will start getting hundreds of notifications saying its spotted movement. While I'm at home. Its set up only to notify when everyone is out. Itll work for days then spend a day giving me hundreds - to the point that I just turn it off.I have gone through 3x different cameras to fix it. Different brands. All have done it. I now have an Eve which seems a little better - although still it did it one time. It should never do it.

3. General Slowness. This happens randomly and across all devices. Sometimes its fast as hell. Sometimes I could say to turn off a plug and it'll take so long it says "somethings taking a little to long". However if I open up the home app and press the "plug button" it triggers instantly without fail. On off on off on off on off. Fast as lightening. Ask my phone or HomePod, it can take 30 seconds and then fail.

4. General retardedness...
"Siri make the lights red" - "would you like to change the light colour" - "yes" - "Ok all the lights are off"

"Siri Goodnight" - *Lights turn off, music turns down* - *Me relaxing and thinking thanks Siri* - seconds later - "working on that.... one moment.... something failed to respond"



I could probably go on for hours.

Cheers

 

[StumpyBloke]

I can echo everyone of those issues. Apple really have screwed up homepod/HomeKit. It’s truly awful!

 

[Itinj24]

This most definitely sounds like a thread I should be part of. I have had SOOO many problems with HomeKit / HomePods. Just this morning I thought I might try to limit which is used as a hub and realised its not possible, then found this thread. Its something I'm going to do from now though, when I notice problems (which match a lot with what the OP is saying) Im going to check what hub is in use.

Incidentally, I noticed my ATV being the worst hub, so I disabled it months ago. Its hardwired so surprised me, but when it was the hub, my requests would sometimes take 30 seconds. I presumed its some stupid 'sleep' function in the ATV.

Anyway, below I will list some of my most annoying issues. If anyone has any ideas, then I'm all ears.

1. The most frequent and annoying problem is the wrong HomePod answering. Several times a week ill ask my HomePod in the kitchen something and ill hear a faint voice in another room. I will put my face right up to the speaker and ask, and still it happens. This can happen with my bedroom HomePod too, ill whisper a question and a different HomePod will reply. This is made INCREDIBLY annoying when the HomePod replying doesn't understand what I said, probably because its 10 yard away! Made triple annoying when I ask for a reminder or an alarm. A different speakers sets that alarm and then I have to locate which speaker it was to turn it off. PS. I don't use any stereo pairing.

2. Camera notifications. Firstly, the HK secure video was slow as F. But that's another problem. My main problem, is that seemingly at random, I will start getting hundreds of notifications saying its spotted movement. While I'm at home. Its set up only to notify when everyone is out. Itll work for days then spend a day giving me hundreds - to the point that I just turn it off.I have gone through 3x different cameras to fix it. Different brands. All have done it. I now have an Eve which seems a little better - although still it did it one time. It should never do it.

3. General Slowness. This happens randomly and across all devices. Sometimes its fast as hell. Sometimes I could say to turn off a plug and it'll take so long it says "somethings taking a little to long". However if I open up the home app and press the "plug button" it triggers instantly without fail. On off on off on off on off. Fast as lightening. Ask my phone or HomePod, it can take 30 seconds and then fail.

4. General retardedness...
"Siri make the lights red" - "would you like to change the light colour" - "yes" - "Ok all the lights are off"

"Siri Goodnight" - *Lights turn off, music turns down* - *Me relaxing and thinking thanks Siri* - seconds later - "working on that.... one moment.... something failed to respond"



I could probably go on for hours.

Cheers

StumpyBloke said it best ?. No other explanation really lol.

I spent more time troubleshooting this mess than I do being convenienced by it. I do find my AppleTVs to be the better performing Hubs, especially if hardwired. Everyone’s layout is different I suppose.

Quick question, what type of network are you using? I switched to mesh (eero Pro then, eero Pro 6 now) and it’s been much better, but not trouble free. Sometimes my whole HomeKit system will just go haywire for no apparent reason (never mind, it’s the hub auto switching for no apparent reason).

And oh yeah…

 

[Marshall73]

I’m sick of my HomePods messing with HomeKit so I stuck them on their own subnet and blocked them talking to the rest of the network. Now my wired appletv 4k is the hub and everything is great again.

 

[cutienoua]

their own subnet and blocked them talking to the rest of the network. Now my wired appletv 4k is the hub and everything is great again.

great ! I have an Eero 6, how do I do that? they have an app for settings.

 

[jimkingwood]

The hardware is good, but the software is absolute garbage, across the whole range now.

@StumpyBloke I’ve been an Apple fanboy and bigot since the first Mac and I’m close to making a decision on Alexa. I REALLY want a realiable home setup and don’t see apple being there for at least a few years. Personally? I think it is not close to being a priority. If it was, they would not have discontinued their routers and airport would be the HomeKit hub.

What else going Alexa will lead to I don’t know but this would be a cataclysmic decision for me. I’m just done with the HomePod mini and their so-called “home” “kit”. And Siri’s and iMessage’s incompetent asses. I almost told my child that I love her c$nt.

And while I’m at it I don’t want to have to carry a Tom Brady-style playbook wristband to decipher what someone is talking about when they say “Apple TV”

And while I’m STILL at it I crapped my drawers when my new iPhone 12 came with a lightning port. Jobs long ago would have everything on USB C with no lightning or older USB part of the picture.

If Cook were in charge we’d still have diskette drives. I’m **** you not. EVERYONE including within Apple told Jobs that apple was finished in the PC market when the diskette drives were left off of the flower macs. And within 90 days you couldn’t buy any brand PC with a diskette drive.

/mega rant

 

[Haribokart]

I’ve been an Apple fanboy and bigot since the first Mac

Cute!

 

[ScottBarnesBass]

I have a couple of Aqara buttons with automation programmed to act as second switches in a room.

when I click the button, the automation triggers as expected, but the light doesn’t change.

After much faffing, I turned off my HomePod Mini to find that everything worked perfectly with just my ATV as the only HomeKit hub.

To make matters worse, the HomePod Mini doesn’t even sound as good as the Bose SoundLink Mini it was supposed to replace…

Too late for a refund ???

 

[Howlinmoon]

I’m sick of my HomePods messing with HomeKit so I stuck them on their own subnet and blocked them talking to the rest of the network. Now my wired appletv 4k is the hub and everything is great again.

Interesting!
Is this still working for you?
I happen to have a surplus Cisco WLC in my home network - and I can easily assign the troublesome homepod to a different VLAN than everything else in the house - if that will stop it from adding itself to both my house setups.

 

[Marshall73]

Interesting!
Is this still working for you?
I happen to have a surplus Cisco WLC in my home network - and I can easily assign the troublesome homepod to a different VLAN than everything else in the house - if that will stop it from adding itself to both my house setups.

Nah, it all went wonky. I have everything on the same subnet now but homekit seems glued to my Apple TV 4K as the primary hub. Still wish Apple made this a selectable option though.

 

[estabya]

I have similar issues to you all with my 3 HomePod minis. The Apple TV’s work great as the hubs, and it sticks to my wired, centrally located Apple TV 4K probably 75% of the time. But any time the hub functionality is handed to one of the HomePods, the August locks almost always stop working. It’s incredibly frustrating. I hope this gets patched or they offer an option to turn off the functionality per device, but I’m not holding my breath.

 

[robinp]

I don’t know if it is relevant to this discussion but I’ll share in case it helps any of you.

In parallel with my HomeKit / HomePod issues, I’ve had WiFi performance problems. It would be great but then periodically the speeds would get terrible and require a reboot of the access points.

Following some in depth support from the access point manufacturer, they identified that there was an Ethernet loop on my network. The result of this was causing multicast packets to overload the WiFi hardware of the access points which would then slow down.

After much trial and error I identified the cause as an Ethernet cable. It looks fine, tests fine with an Ethernet test device, but having swapped it out everything seems stable.

The reason for sharing this is that my HomeKit stuff seems MUCH happier now too. My guess is that perhaps these multicast packets that were causing the problem for the WiFi access points might well have been causing problems for the HomePods too.

So perhaps it’s worth checking your network infrastructure more generally. Even things that seem fine and innocuous like a 1m long Ethernet cable.

 

[diddl14]

Just setup a HomePod for my girlfriend in a different home with complete different LAN. Guess what, the Home Hubs are shared across the homes, although these are totally physically disconnected. When I'm at my home, it can randomly happen that the HomePod in her home gets to be the 'connected' hub, complete breaking the connectivity within my home. Totally unusable!

Homekit hubs appear in multiple homes - w… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[jimkingwood]

Just setup a HomePod for my girlfriend in a different home with complete different LAN. Guess what, the Home Hubs are shared across the homes, although these are totally physically disconnected. When I'm at my home, it can randomly happen that the HomePod in her home gets to be the 'connected' hub, complete breaking the connectivity within my home. Totally unusable!

Homekit hubs appear in multiple homes - w… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

One thing I would point out is that her pod would need to have been set up with her phone. She can reset it now and restart it with her phone and that should fix the issue.

 

[diddl14]

One thing I would point out is that her pod would need to have been set up with her phone. She can reset it now and restart it with her phone and that should fix the issue.

Except, she doesn't have an iPhone...

 

[jimkingwood]

Except, she doesn't have an iPhone...

Does she have an Apple ID?

 

[diddl14]

Does she have an Apple ID?

yes

 

[jimkingwood]

And her home was initiated completely with her Apple ID? Cause I think the pods are using yours.

 

[diddl14]

I set it up with my iPhone, adding it to a separate Home. Then I changed the account for the HomePod to hers (HomePod setup informs you about this option) so she can manage her own playlist (she's already using Apple Music on Android).

It all works fine except for her HomePod appearing as an 'active' HomeHub in my Home. That doesn't make sense as
1) her HomePod is not part of my Home and
2) her HomePod doesn't have network access to any of the devices in my Home

Not sure if this is a feature or a bug but either way, it makes setting up multiple Homes with a single iCloud account a no-go.

 

[Phat^Trance]

i have a Apple TV 4K and 2x HomePod gen 2 and I just noticed that my home hub is now one of my HomePods instead of my Apple TV 4K.

Is there a way to change this?

My Apple TV 4K is connected via ethernet cable which has way faster connection that my HomePods do. I noticed stuff like my electronic lock on my door is way slower now when I connected the HomePod to my network.