HomeKit Home Kit Sharing Dead?

[SiriusPhil]

So last November, I contacted Apple because I was unable to share all my new HomeKit appliances with any of my family members. The problem was legit enough that I wound up speaking to Apple Engineers about it. That last thing I was told is that they were working on the problem, that they have disabled family sharing for everybody, and that they have no ETA for a fix. Now that IOS 11.3 is out AND my hopes are dashed about a fix being included 5 months later, I am wondering why this issue is not being covered by anybody of the blogs or news sites.

1. Am I the only one trying to share HomeKit devices with family members?

2. Is anybody else having problems adding family members to HomeKit

3. Why is it not a priority for Apple to fix this? And why are people not up in arms about it not working

4. Or... Did Apple support just tell me a line of BS because they couldn't fix my individual issue?

 

[Bfarmer38119]

I’ve spent the last two months working with senior techs and engineers. I was finally abruptly told that they would be working on this in a future software update release. I really think their servers are screwed up with Apple IDs and data. Now I’m having trouble getting the new HomePod software to update.

You are not alone.

 

[SiriusPhil]

I’ve spent the last two months working with senior techs and engineers. I was finally abruptly told that they would be working on this in a future software update release. I really think their servers are screwed up with Apple IDs and data. Now I’m having trouble getting the new HomePod software to update.

You are not alone.

WOW... thanks for letting me know. I am stunned that this is not a HUGE public controversy in light of how bad Amazon is kicking their butt in Home Automation.

 

[EximiusVir]

So last November, I contacted Apple because I was unable to share all my new HomeKit appliances with any of my family members. The problem was legit enough that I wound up speaking to Apple Engineers about it. That last thing I was told is that they were working on the problem, that they have disabled family sharing for everybody, and that they have no ETA for a fix. Now that IOS 11.3 is out AND my hopes are dashed about a fix being included 5 months later, I am wondering why this issue is not being covered by anybody of the blogs or news sites.

1. Am I the only one trying to share HomeKit devices with family members?

2. Is anybody else having problems adding family members to HomeKit

3. Why is it not a priority for Apple to fix this? And why are people not up in arms about it not working

4. Or... Did Apple support just tell me a line of BS because they couldn't fix my individual issue?

I’m really sorry to hear you’re having issues, I’ve had issues in the past with HomeKit. I would be curious to hear more about what you’re exactly experiencing.

I agree there are some frustrating quirks in HomeKit, but if I understood what you’re trying to achieve, I can say I’m not experiencing it, which leads me to believe they have not “turned it off for everyone” as the representative stated.

I’m the primary account and the other account is also an administrator. I’ve uploaded a screenshot of the Home App’s screen illustrating multiple accounts.

Regarding Apple IDs, mine is an original @mac.com (with an alias to @icloud.com, which I rarely use) and the second account is newer, only having an @icloud.com alias. I also have a house/pet sitter regularly I invite and remove when they stay at the home for an extended period of time. (I wish Guest Access could be enabled with an expiration period)

I’m thinking aloud here, regarding some troubleshooting I performed in the past (could have ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on your issue):

1. Are you trying to achieve remote access? (Context: I recall the second account was required to enable TFA before accepting the invite because I had enabled Allow Remote Access)

2. Are all your accounts on a single iTunes Family Plan? (Context: The two accounts seen in the screenshot are on a family plan, but the house sitter is not, so that shouldn’t matter).

Simply trying to identify what may be different about a setup and accounts that work vs an account which does not.

If you care to dig in deeper, I’m happy to go back and forth identifying similarities and differences between our implementations.

 

[SiriusPhil]

I’m really sorry to hear you’re having issues, I’ve had issues in the past with HomeKit. I would be curious to hear more about what you’re exactly experiencing.

I agree there are some frustrating quirks in HomeKit, but if I understood what you’re trying to achieve, I can say I’m not experiencing it, which leads me to believe they have not “turned it off for everyone” as the representative stated.

I’m the primary account and the other account is also an administrator. I’ve uploaded a screenshot of the Home App’s screen illustrating multiple accounts.

Regarding Apple IDs, mine is an original @mac.com (with an alias to @icloud.com, which I rarely use) and the second account is newer, only having an @icloud.com alias. I also have a house/pet sitter regularly I invite and remove when they stay at the home for an extended period of time. (I wish Guest Access could be enabled with an expiration period)

I’m thinking aloud here, regarding some troubleshooting I performed in the past (could have ABSOLUTELY NO IMPACT on your issue):

1. Are you trying to achieve remote access? (Context: I recall the second account was required to enable TFA before accepting the invite because I had enabled Allow Remote Access)

2. Are all your accounts on a single iTunes Family Plan? (Context: The two accounts seen in the screenshot are on a family plan, but the house sitter is not, so that shouldn’t matter).

Simply trying to identify what may be different about a setup and accounts that work vs an account which does not.

If you care to dig in deeper, I’m happy to go back and forth identifying similarities and differences between our implementations.

1. I am trying to allow everybody in the family to control the lights in the house. I already have remote access / control through iCoud and the AppleTV.

2. All the accounts are on the same Family Sharing Plan.

Have you tried to ADD anybody since November? If the people were already in there, they did not disable them. It's only adding new family members that are the problem.

 

[DNichter]

Similar issues for me. I was able to get it working on 11.3 beta 6 by having my girlfriend share her location directly to me, but we updated to 11.3 final yesterday and now it isn't working anymore. I am going to mess around with it tonight and follow up on my findings.

 

[bripab007]

As a potentially unuseful point of reference here, I've never really had any trouble at all adding friends and family to my Home app/HomeKit, save late last year when the security bug was found with HomeKit remote access and Apple temporarily disabled it for a while.

What I have been experiencing issues with, however, is scenes/automations based on "last person to leave" failing to work. It seems like it only works when my wife's phone and my own are in the automation criteria, but the minute I add other friends/family to that "last to leave" automation, it never seems them as all out of the area.

 

[EximiusVir]

1. I am trying to allow everybody in the family to control the lights in the house. I already have remote access / control through iCoud and the AppleTV.

2. All the accounts are on the same Family Sharing Plan.

Have you tried to ADD anybody since November? If the people were already in there, they did not disable them. It's only adding new family members that are the problem.

Yes, the house sitter. I’ve added and removed her twice since the Christmas holiday, also my mother in law briefly to demonstrate how homekit work (that was over thanksgiving).

I see you mentioned you’ve already configured remote access, so I am inclined to go back to my original question (just to confirm my understanding, I’ll restate differently for clarity):

For each of the accounts you’re attempting to add, have they configured TFA prior to your attempts to Invite them to HomeKit?

It’s a long shot and perhaps irrelevant, but I recall having to configure Shaun’s TFA when I invited his account. I don’t recall the sequence (before or after the invite) or whether it prompted, I just recall having an “intense discussion” on why he had to “jump through all these hoops” (the other primary user isn’t tech-inclined)

 

[Bfarmer38119]

I’ve spent the last two months working with senior techs and engineers. I was finally abruptly told that they would be working on this in a future software update release. I really think their servers are screwed up with Apple IDs and data. Now I’m having trouble getting the new HomePod software to update.

You are not alone.

Additional information, if I shared with my wife and she accepted it would work but I lose my administrative privileges and can no longer administer the account. We went through multiple procedures but never could regain control.

I now have one HomePod automatically updated. I’m waiting on the other one to do so. Manually it requests the download and quickly returns to install. I’m sure it will eventually connect and update like the other one.

I reset homekit and she is is using native apps to do things but she’s not happy!

 

[koopster]

Additional information, if I shared with my wife and she accepted it would work but I lose my administrative privileges and can no longer administer the account. We went through multiple procedures but never could regain control.

I have the exact same issue. Is there any update on this? Or do you know of other places where it is discussed?

 

[Bfarmer38119]

I have the exact same issue. Is there any update on this? Or do you know of other places where it is discussed?

As far as I know this has never been fixed. I had to set up under a new Apple id and share the old one under family sharing so I didn't lose all my apps. It can get rather confusing at times.