Lately, when I check my Home app while connected to my Home WiFi, all the accessories are constantly showing as “Updating”, then switch to “No Response“ then back to “Updating” in this constant frustrating loop and all while this is happening, the Home app is frozen. Can’t scroll, swipe or tap. The only solution I’ve found to this is to force close the app then turn off WiFi and control everything using LTE. Was working great for a while but it seems one of the recent iOS updates broke this and I can’t pinpoint which one. Anyone else seeing this before I send feedback to Apple or am I having an isolated issue?
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HomeKit HomeKit Crappy Over WiFi Again
- Thread starter Itinj24
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I would try simple things first. Power down your phone. Then power-cycle your router. Wait 5 mins for accessories and hubs to reconnect. Then power the phone back on. Try the app again.
More often than not, if the Home app is having trouble communicating with accessories when you're at home, but has no problem when on LTE, it's the WiFi router that's doing some kind of filtering on the WiFi network(s) - Especially if your phone is on 5GHz WiFi and your accessories are on 2.4GHz. So a firmware update on the router may also be in-play. There may be config options in the router you need to look into as well. But that will vary depending on manufacturer.
More often than not, if the Home app is having trouble communicating with accessories when you're at home, but has no problem when on LTE, it's the WiFi router that's doing some kind of filtering on the WiFi network(s) - Especially if your phone is on 5GHz WiFi and your accessories are on 2.4GHz. So a firmware update on the router may also be in-play. There may be config options in the router you need to look into as well. But that will vary depending on manufacturer.
It was working great until one of the iOS updates. There were so many in such short time, can’t figure which one but I think it was the latest. The odd thing is, works fine on my two iPads and my wife’s iPhone. I changed the Home Hub from one ATV to another and it seems to be stabilized now. For some reason the ATV that was giving me issues this time on WiFi used to give me issues on LTE. I don’t even know if the Hub is being used while on WiFi but this fixed the problem. Appreciate the feedback. If this craps out again, I’ll try your troubleshooting tips.
I also see this same issue of HomeKit constantly updating/no response on WiFi while it is ok on LTE from my phone on iOS13.2 unless I reboot the phone, but I do not see it on my Macs, which both are still on Mojave and not upgraded to Catalina yet. I have not tried rebooting my Synology router yet because it works so well on Macs.
To expand a bit on @dotme's post...
HomeKit uses an encrypted communication channel called HAP (HomeKit Accessory Protocol). HAP runs on specific bluetooth and/or wifi stacks.
HAP is a proprietary protocol that communicates directly from host to client and is only done locally.
So when you are at home on wifi and/or within bluetooth range of your HomeKit accessories your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac is communicating directly. Keep in mind you only need a HomeKit Hub when you are remotely accessing devices.
When you are not at home your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac uses iCloud to tell your "connected" HomeKit Hub what to do. The connected hub will then use HAP to talk to your accessory or talk to another "standby" hub if its in range of a accessory your "connected" hub isn't which then can relay the command.
The reason I mention all that is because knowing how it works often helps understand how to fix an a problem.
So if you are at home and you see "no response" its unlikely your hub. Generally this is caused by some sort of communication conflict likely with Bonjour or something. Because of that generally the solution is power cycling the router, sometimes power cycling/restarting the accessory is required.
HomeKit uses an encrypted communication channel called HAP (HomeKit Accessory Protocol). HAP runs on specific bluetooth and/or wifi stacks.
HAP is a proprietary protocol that communicates directly from host to client and is only done locally.
So when you are at home on wifi and/or within bluetooth range of your HomeKit accessories your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac is communicating directly. Keep in mind you only need a HomeKit Hub when you are remotely accessing devices.
When you are not at home your iPhone, iPad and/or Mac uses iCloud to tell your "connected" HomeKit Hub what to do. The connected hub will then use HAP to talk to your accessory or talk to another "standby" hub if its in range of a accessory your "connected" hub isn't which then can relay the command.
The reason I mention all that is because knowing how it works often helps understand how to fix an a problem.
So if you are at home and you see "no response" its unlikely your hub. Generally this is caused by some sort of communication conflict likely with Bonjour or something. Because of that generally the solution is power cycling the router, sometimes power cycling/restarting the accessory is required.