I've been using Homekit for over year with various devices, Wemo, Lutron, Philips Hue & Sylvania, and up until this point without too many issues. However just lately, after the Hue lights were switched off for an extended period (remodeling the house), then getting them back on line, some of them turn on in the middle of the night. I have 12 Hue bulbs on Homekit and 8 will turn on at 1am! My dimmed outside lights controlled by Lutron will also change from 10% to 100% (they were never off during the remodel). - After I've removed all family users from the Homekit as well as remove and reinstall the Hue and Lutron bridges, and remove all automation it seemed to start behaving. But no, couple of days later they started again to turn on in the middle of the night. Any ideas?
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HomeKit Lights randomly turning on
- Thread starter steve5673
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Everything (automation) is set up in the HomeKit app. You can see the lamps and bulbs in the Hue and Lutron apps but they not operating them.
I've deleted all the apps again, HomeKit as well, started from scratch seems to be working. so we'll see.
I've deleted all the apps again, HomeKit as well, started from scratch seems to be working. so we'll see.
Well, the issue is back again, automation schedules all out of wack after power outage. Groups of lights that in sync together now come on several hours earlier than they should, then go off early as well. Removed the Home from the HomeKit app, re installed. Deleted the Philips Hue hub and Lutron hub, and re installed. Still the lights come on to the old automation time without there being any automation set up in HomeKit. it's the most weird thing ever.
What I don't know, and you may know, is where is the HomeKit automation timing / schedule is stored. Is it effectively in the HomeKit app or passed through the Philips and Lutron hubs. While I can set up scenes and timing for lights in the respective hubs I don't, everything I set up in HomeKit.
My guess would be that anything and everything HomeKit related to settings/times/automation....everything really, must be stored in the cloud...wether that is the cloud linked to an Apple ID or just a cloud storage we have no access to for devices that are linked to a users apple id I have no idea.
I have 5 devices in my house that are hubs for my house (4 HomePods & 1 4k ATV) and of course none of these you actually connect to directly to change any settings.....its all done through the home app on any apple device/user that has permission to change settings.
I have 5 devices in my house that are hubs for my house (4 HomePods & 1 4k ATV) and of course none of these you actually connect to directly to change any settings.....its all done through the home app on any apple device/user that has permission to change settings.
I believe the timers/automations are stored in your hubs, so on the appleTV or hompod. (the will be shared though the cloud to each other, but the the hubs have to run them)
If you don't have one of those it should come from one of your phones if it's home.
I don't know if leaving an old phone at home would run automations while you're not there. You wouldn't have the remote access the Hub grants, but your lights should come on a sunset if you had that set.
If you don't have one of those it should come from one of your phones if it's home.
I don't know if leaving an old phone at home would run automations while you're not there. You wouldn't have the remote access the Hub grants, but your lights should come on a sunset if you had that set.
I had a similar problem last week. All my time based Automations would not work. I used an Apple TV as a hub. All my idevices were updated to 14.2 last week also.
I tried everything to fix the issue. Reboot, reset, sign out and back into iCloud and nothing worked. I finally gave up.
Then by chance I asked Siri where my wife was. Siri glitched out and flashed on screen . This led me to test other location features like send my location in iMessage or use the “where’s my” app. All location stuff totally broken.
The only solution was to completely wipe my iPhone 11 and restore from back up using iTunes.
Everything works now
I tried everything to fix the issue. Reboot, reset, sign out and back into iCloud and nothing worked. I finally gave up.
Then by chance I asked Siri where my wife was. Siri glitched out and flashed on screen . This led me to test other location features like send my location in iMessage or use the “where’s my” app. All location stuff totally broken.
The only solution was to completely wipe my iPhone 11 and restore from back up using iTunes.
Everything works now
The HomeKit hub is where automations are stored and executed. When you make a change in the Home app on your phone, those changes are sent to iCloud, and then pulled back down by all HomeKit hubs in your home. No Homekit automations or scenes are stored in the Hue or Lutron bridges.
Because automations are stored and executed locally by the Homekit hub, you could even lose internet connectivity and those automations would still run. So if your misbehaving automations are firing on a schedule, but just at the wrong time of day, that gets back to a potential timezone issue on the Homekit hub(s). What are you using as a hub? Homepod? AppleTV? Both?
Yes, timeline and location services need to be checked. Make sure keychain is on and HomeKit is on in system services.
I have also read about issues when the iPhone and hub are not on the same iOS version.
All my problems started with the 14.2 OTA update. Only complete wipe and restore from back up fixed it for me. YMMV.
I have also read about issues when the iPhone and hub are not on the same iOS version.
All my problems started with the 14.2 OTA update. Only complete wipe and restore from back up fixed it for me. YMMV.
just came across this thread. any chance you ALSO have an Amazon Echo anywhere in your house? A feature of the Amazon Echo is a thing called "Guard" mode that you can turn on when you leave the house and it automates a random use of your lights at night so you appear at home, I inadvertently selected Guard mode when I was home and for several days I had lights turning on and off until I figured it out (I have HomeKit and HomePods also).
No Echo in the house. All Apple.
I have several Apple TV's in the house (3); 1 is listed as the Home Hub & "connected", then a second is on standby. 3rd. isn't listed. So maybe having more than one is upsetting the whole timing?
No HomePods I assume? All AppleTVs should be using the same iCloud account for HomeKit. Here's what I'd try: On each AppleTV, sign out of iCloud. Then on your iOS device (iPhone) make one minor change in the Home app, such as renaming an accessory. Using the System meny on each AppleTV, restart them. Then on each, sign back into iCloud. That should force each to fetch the latest HomeKit config. Finally, on each AppleTV, make sure Location Services is enabled (They need this to know what time zone they're in)
Thanks, and no HomePods. - Before your post I had made sure only 1 of the AppleTVs is being used as the Home Hub, all others are disabled. Previously to this, one AppleTV was showing connected and the other on 'standby'. So I think two "heads" had created a monster. - Anyway all seems to behaving at the moment so I'll wait and see. It has to be something simple, so hopefully this is it.
Any updates on this? All of the sudden I have lights turning on randomly during the night. And every morning at the exact same time, one light will turn on in my bedroom, and then a few seconds later everything JB my bedroom will turn on. All scenes and automations have been deleted. Also from the native app. Also from Amazon. The only change I’ve made is I switch from AirPort Extreme to eero. Made the network name and password the same so everything will connect normally. All devices are connected to the eero devices and all have permissions to use the network, etc etc etc. Nobody else is in my home in the Home app, and nobody else is on my network. I am completely baffled. Everything worked fine for months, and now this. Any ideas?
Rjalumbo24
Everything has been behaving somewhat since I made sure I only have one Home Hub enabled. (I had several Apple TV's that were all acting as Home Hubs which may have been the source of my issues).
The only problem remaining is with my Sylvania strip lighting. I have a couple in my kitchen which should, according to Home Kit, act together but don't. I have another that ignores the automation timing as well. I often have trouble turning them off and on manually. I think however this is more down to the 'crap' integration of Sylvania into the Home Kit eco system as they don't have a hub as does the Philips or Lutron devices. They may also have trouble with the Eero's I have also.
So deleting my home profile and starting from scratch, as well as ensuring only ONE Home Hub is in control has seem to cure the random lighting issues, but was a real pain to reprogram everything again.
For the heck of it I deleted everything from the native app (used for firmware updates…do firmware updates get pushed to the “software” update section in the Home app?) which unexpectedly removed communication between HomeKit and those devices. So I’m adding them back manually now. Do you think it’s worth trying this or should I delete the Home and start from scratch?
I got so frustrated with it I deleted everything, the home, the hubs, everything associated with home kit, even cleared my iPad, 2 Macs, Apple TV's. Reset the Philips and Lutron hubs back to factory default, a complete clean sheet. It was driving so mad that's all I could think of to do!
Before that I did try the piecemeal approach but that didn't seem to work, but then I didn't realize I had two or more Apple TV Home Hubs in the system, until everything as wiped clean and started to rebuild it.
Sometimes a wipe clean and start again is the only way
I went ahead and deleted the Home. My two Apple TVs used to be on standby (o tried turning it off on the Apple TVs but it seems once you turn it on, you can only go into standby). So far I’ve only paired my HomePod Mini as a hub. Am adding devices back now (such a pain in the keister). Will see what happens. This behavior is nevertheless bizarre. I’d have swore someone somehow hopped onto my network and was messing with me. But impossible without also having jacked my
iCloud account
iCloud account
I know exactly how you feel. At 3am in the morning the bedrooms lights coming on was like WTF! - I did think it was my son having a joke but it wasn't.
I went to the Apple TV to turn off the Home kit Hub so they can't even be used in 'stand-by' mode.
I went to the Apple TV to turn off the Home kit Hub so they can't even be used in 'stand-by' mode.
I’ve been dealing with this too, both with HomeKit bulbs and a non-HomeKit bulb I’ve set up automations with using the Shortcuts app. They’ll just randomly turn on a couple of times during the night.
Makes me miss the 90’s, before all this stuff.
Makes me miss the 90’s, before all this stuff.