Just wanted to share my experience on how I ultimately got everything to work and what I had to sacrifice.
I set up hue lights with HomeKit for the first time in my home. In the hue app all this went well. On my iPhone I then used the HomeKit option in the hue app to set up my hue lamps in my Home app (lesson: never attempt to do this directly in the Home app as it never really works properly).
Next, I searched endlessly on ways to setup a home hub. I have two Apple TVs and an iPad. I went to check out the HomeKit settings on my Apple TVs. None of my hue lamps appeared. Neither did my Apple TVs in the Home app. After many attempts of logging out and back in of all accounts on all devices I gave up and stuck to controlling my hue lights via the hue app and my Google account.
So then I went out and bought myself a HomePod, hoping the magic of the HomePod would solve everything. It didn’t. I panicked and thought, what a waste of money! Until I realised what was going on. Like many people, I have multiple accounts for multiple things I use Apple products for. My Apple Music is on one, my iCloud account is another, etc. So then I discovered that I really had to have my Apple Music (which also means iTunes) on my iCloud account to get everything to work properly.
After spending 2 hours with Apple support, I had to cancel my Apple Music subscription on one account and set it up on my iCloud account. Which meant I sacrificed my entire list of Playlists which disappeared on my iTunes account. So there’s a fresh start for you!
Apple really means it when it says, make sure you have everything on one single account! Because otherwise you won’t be able to use the full potential of your HomePod. You can’t control your home accessories with one account and play Music with another. You have to really have everything on one single account!
So after logging out and back in on all acccounts one last time and switching my iPhone on and off, the magic of the HomePod finally came to life!! Everything worked! I was able to control all my lights and play music. Oh by the way, if you set timers in your hue app, forget those! Once the HomePod takes over you have to set all your tomers in the Home app.
One peeve I’ve got with Apple: no matter how hard you try they won’t let your merge multiple accounts into one. This is a real shame. Specially for those of us who have been so loyal to Apple over the past thirty years. For now, you have to live with the fact that your movies library would be on one, your music on another and your iCloud stuff on one of those. Until they allow us to merge accounts, it’s gonna remain a tricky and thorny path and a lot of head scratching to make use of all those wonderful features.
I set up hue lights with HomeKit for the first time in my home. In the hue app all this went well. On my iPhone I then used the HomeKit option in the hue app to set up my hue lamps in my Home app (lesson: never attempt to do this directly in the Home app as it never really works properly).
Next, I searched endlessly on ways to setup a home hub. I have two Apple TVs and an iPad. I went to check out the HomeKit settings on my Apple TVs. None of my hue lamps appeared. Neither did my Apple TVs in the Home app. After many attempts of logging out and back in of all accounts on all devices I gave up and stuck to controlling my hue lights via the hue app and my Google account.
So then I went out and bought myself a HomePod, hoping the magic of the HomePod would solve everything. It didn’t. I panicked and thought, what a waste of money! Until I realised what was going on. Like many people, I have multiple accounts for multiple things I use Apple products for. My Apple Music is on one, my iCloud account is another, etc. So then I discovered that I really had to have my Apple Music (which also means iTunes) on my iCloud account to get everything to work properly.
After spending 2 hours with Apple support, I had to cancel my Apple Music subscription on one account and set it up on my iCloud account. Which meant I sacrificed my entire list of Playlists which disappeared on my iTunes account. So there’s a fresh start for you!
Apple really means it when it says, make sure you have everything on one single account! Because otherwise you won’t be able to use the full potential of your HomePod. You can’t control your home accessories with one account and play Music with another. You have to really have everything on one single account!
So after logging out and back in on all acccounts one last time and switching my iPhone on and off, the magic of the HomePod finally came to life!! Everything worked! I was able to control all my lights and play music. Oh by the way, if you set timers in your hue app, forget those! Once the HomePod takes over you have to set all your tomers in the Home app.
One peeve I’ve got with Apple: no matter how hard you try they won’t let your merge multiple accounts into one. This is a real shame. Specially for those of us who have been so loyal to Apple over the past thirty years. For now, you have to live with the fact that your movies library would be on one, your music on another and your iCloud stuff on one of those. Until they allow us to merge accounts, it’s gonna remain a tricky and thorny path and a lot of head scratching to make use of all those wonderful features.