Phillips Hue Not Connecting to HomeKit

ever since hitting upgrade to apple home new architecture it hasn't worked. Hue will work directly but won't connect to apple home. I had to buy a homepod mini but that didn't make hue sync work. I've already tried everything here and then some. called xfinity, apple, philips hue and the fault seems to be with philips hue. Already have the latest xfinity modem. Philips hue told me they were aware of the bug and would put out an update. well my firmware on my bridge just got the new update 1.62.1962097030 and still broken. Just got the new 17.3 from apple still broken. xfinity said my modem supports mdns so that's not it. and so we wait for this matter garbage to fix their bugs. until then i'm stuck using shortcuts on my home screen to adjust the lights. According to many other forums this problem is widespread.

Have you guys had any updates on this? I’m having the same issue and haven’t been able to figure out how to get HomeKit to see the hue bridge or the Hue app to connect to home app.

I had the same issue as well. All was working for over a year. I had the Hue Bridge connected to an old Apple AirPort Extreme (802.11ac capable) via an RJ-45 with the wireless turned off. The HDD had failed, but I used it as a simple router to connect other devices as well via hardwired connections. Again, all worked fine. I also have a Hunter-Douglas Hub to control my motorized shades and a Chamberlin MyQ Hub to control my garage door.

Then I decided to recycle the Apple AirPort Extreme and added a 4-port araknis networks router and connected the Hue bridge. Hue hub, Hue app and controls still worked fine. However, when I tried to get it to work with HomeKit, it was not found by HomeKit and I got an "HFErrorDomain error6" when I tried to link Hue with HK. The Hue app on my iPhone worked fine all this time. Both the Hunter-Douglas Hub and the Chamberlain MyQ Hub continued to work well.

So, I removed the Hue hub from the araknis switch and directly connected it to the one "free" network port I had on my CenturyLink Modem/router. Went to HomeKit and it automatically displayed the Hue bridge as a hub device when I went to add an accessory ... Bam! Re-entering the descriptions of the 20 Hue devices I had was a bit of a pain but all is now well, working on my iPhone, my wife's iPhone, my iPad Pro and my Mac.

Given everything else I have read, and my personal experience, it appears that the router part of the Modem/router (or in my case the external araknis router) seems to be the culprit between Hue and HomeKit. However, the router is not a problem at all with the other two hubs.

Hope this helps you ...

I just got off the phone with xfinity and they are sending me a new xb8 modem. My current xb7 might be the issue. I'll let everyone know it it works.

Having this issue with my parents setup. Was rock solid until last month. I have done everything talked about above and have not had any success. It was intermittent, then when I tried troubleshooting it died (connection) completely and now won’t reconnect. They too also have an Xfinity gateway. I am trying to reset and set it back up to see if the hue can be re-added again. This sucks so much as Hue has been so reliable as a HomeKit device for years and I just had them get this this summer and now it does this lol.

Have had the same problem for several months. Hue was connected just fine and working just fine. Then suddenly every device had "no response". Tried every step you have and more. Nothing works. I even connected a spare hub from a second home. Immediately it said "mandatory firmware upgrade" needed. Therefore my suspicion is that this upgrade broke HomeKit compatibility - at least for me. The second hub also after the update will no longer connect. Same error.

At this point, I have a mix of Hue and Lutron Caseta. I don't need both and therefore will be throwing out Hue from my home. Frustrated beyond belief.

The new XB8 works perfectly. To all those who have Xfinity XB7 modem's, they don't support the new matter protocol. the hue bridge won't sync to apple home. call xfinity and have them give you the xb8!. Right after setting it up hue app connected to my apple home and now i can adjust my lights without getting all the way into my phone.

I can see the Hue bridge in my Home app when I try to add “an accessory”. Similarly, Hue can see my home network and the “home” I want to add to. Just never succeeds.

No response from Phillips. My suspicion is they broke something with the last firmware update.

I have an idea but it requires a Wireless Access Point (pick 802.11 ac or better) separate from the Router's Wireless radios to work as mine does. If you have, or can get one inexpensively. My set up has been working since January 16th flawlessly:

1. First, connect the separate Wireless Access Point to one of the xFinity Router ports with an Ethernet cable and get it set up to be on your wireless network.
2. Next, disable both the 2.4 GHz and 5.0 GHz wireless radios in the xFinity Modem/router.
3. Then, use another port on the xFinity Router to connect your Philips Hue Bridge using another Ethernet cable.
4. After a few minutes all three blue lights on the Hue Bridge should be on.
5. HomeKit should correctly see the Hue device as a bridge and you can easily(?) add it to HomeKit.

I hope this helps all of you experiencing problems with any 3rd-party bridge/hub, if the regular approaches fail to work!

I came across this forum, I had a block rule intentionally on my router for port 5353 to stop broadcast flooding. I struggled with hue for days. Then, I saw this forum post.

I set the Rule to allow 5353 UDP to be UDP

Allow,any, UDP, Source Any, Src Port 5353, Destination Any, Dest port 5353, Vlan Default,

Instantly everything started working, Doorbell camera, Home Hubs, Apple TV video, and I was able to add the HUE to my new home with the new Architecture update.

My recommendation for those of you struggling with Xfinity. is to get some Generic WIFI that is NOT a router, connect your devices to that, so they have unimpeded network access to each other.

because Mdns does not need to traverse the WAN it just Local communications and it appears your router/Wifi devices have some limitations or settings you cannot access.

IN short, I was Dead in the water confused as all got out why everything was such a struggle till I allowed 5353 UDP traffic through my switches.

even my August lock works again.

Thanks for pointing out that it's mDNS related. Unfortunately these xfinity modems have no settings that i can get to so upgrading from xb7 to xb8 was the only way to make it work. I didn't want to hook up a second router and go through a whole complicated thing. too messy. Thanks for the help.

Is there any recent updates as of 3/25/24? I got home from my extended stay with family and as soon as everything updated it’s not working. Happy to hear it’s not only my problem, but frustrating nonetheless. I don’t understand the homepod answer? I have 5 mini HomePods throughout my house, so am I able to use that as a Hue Bridge?

Thank you so much for any updates/information!

i also bought a homepod thinking it would fix my problem but nope. my problem was my router. the xfinity xb7 router isn't configurable and it doesn't support the new matter technology. i had them send me a newer xb8 and it works perfectly now.