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HomeKit Troubles

A couple days ago, I attempted to write a lengthy explanation as to what has been going on, only realizing once I finished it that I went way over the character limit for posts on this board. I decided to keep the whole draft and post it as separate paragraphs on my Twitter - https://twitter.com/12378K/status/1199902757894967296 - so I didn't have to leave anything out.


If I can simplify the whole thing in any way, I use HomeKit accessories in my home, I set the whole thing up, I run it through my account and I share the configuration with my Mom and brother. Around the time tvOS 13 and iOS 13 released this year, for absolutely no reason, I've lost control of the HomeKit accessories from any of my devices, yet my Mom and brother are still able to control everything. There have been no changes to any settings that would warrant this to happen; it would just happen on its own.


I've attempted multiple solutions but all of them come up fruitless, leaving me with just resetting the configuration yet again. However, I'm reaching out this time because the last time I lost control was about a week ago. The next day, I reset the configuration, and lost control of it two days later.


Please refer to my Twitter thread for full details and examples of my problem, I would like to get any answers possible; I just hope the answer isn't really just resetting the configuration each time.

Apple TV 4, tvOS 13

Posted on Nov 29, 2019 9:58 AM

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Posted on Nov 30, 2019 4:34 PM

Update 1 • November 30, 2019

One of the details I had left out but felt wasn't necessary was tvOS 13's support for multiple users. My Mom has an Apple TV 4 in the other room (also Model A1625).


I had a thought earlier today thinking maybe having my login on that device, it could be causing some interference. So I decided to check, I went to the Apple TV in the other room and found out that I was the selected user. I don't remember when I did that but I switched to my Mom's account and went back to my room to find out that I had some control over the HomeKit stuff again, although the configuration got very confused, if that's a word I can use.


Long story short, by logging out of that Apple TV and keeping my account to just my machine, I was able to get my Apple TV working with HomeKit again, although I ended up having to reset the configuration anyway. Therefore, I consider this thread not completely solved, as I want to see what things will be like in a few days. I'll keep everyone posted.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 30, 2019 4:34 PM in response to Kyle82328

Update 1 • November 30, 2019

One of the details I had left out but felt wasn't necessary was tvOS 13's support for multiple users. My Mom has an Apple TV 4 in the other room (also Model A1625).


I had a thought earlier today thinking maybe having my login on that device, it could be causing some interference. So I decided to check, I went to the Apple TV in the other room and found out that I was the selected user. I don't remember when I did that but I switched to my Mom's account and went back to my room to find out that I had some control over the HomeKit stuff again, although the configuration got very confused, if that's a word I can use.


Long story short, by logging out of that Apple TV and keeping my account to just my machine, I was able to get my Apple TV working with HomeKit again, although I ended up having to reset the configuration anyway. Therefore, I consider this thread not completely solved, as I want to see what things will be like in a few days. I'll keep everyone posted.

Dec 7, 2019 11:53 AM in response to Kyle82328

Update 2 • December 7, 2019

After about a week of observation, it seems that the fix was removing myself from someone else's Apple TV.


Specifically, within iOS 13, iPadOS 13, and tvOS 13, you can add yourself to your Apple TV 4, HD, or 4K by using a compatible device with it. This will properly add your account to the Apple TV to be a user there, as well as make a tile of it visible in the Home app.


Now, everything in our configuration is on my account, as I run the entire HomeKit setup, except for my Mom's Apple TV, which is under her account login. I can add myself to that Apple TV, but my guess is that it creates confusion if I choose myself as the user on that Apple TV. I can't really prove or deny this being the case, but this was the first time since this problem started that something worked.


A side-effect of this whole thing seems to be that making edits on HomeKit accessory names or scenes, as well as adding new scenes tend to delete themselves shortly after making them, although this only happens occasionally. I see this more on my iPhone than my iPad, but this isn't the end of the world, so long as I have control still.

HomeKit Troubles

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