HomeKit is reporting Home Hubs not responding

I think you totally miss the issue that I am reporting here. The issue is not with a singular HomePod but rather with the whole HomeKit ecosystem. If it were a singular HomePod I would expect the Hub responsibility to roll over seamlessly to the next HomePod (remember I have 7 of these) to take over. This issue is that the “Hub” master is not being taken on right away by any of the HomePods (6 mini’s and one of the large ones)! I wish I could further tell you which one was the designated master Hub and then which took over but there are no logs that I can see. This is a change in behaviour and stability of HomeKit that has arrived in more recent updates.

As for WiFi, there has been no change in my WiFi setup so I really don’t consider this to be a driver, though I agree the WiFi configuration is a critical component to any HomeKit operation. In the past I have analyzed issues that appeared to be WiFi based and struggled to understand why, but the issue was that the power block supplied for the HomePod appeared to not provide enough power based on the location of the HomePod. A change to a more powerful, and likely stable, power block solved the issue that I had. Note that I am not saying the issue reported here has anything to do with the power to the HomePods given that I have so many HomePods and they are all working fine.

As for contacting Apple Support, happy to do so except that the issue is so random, and I have no logs to use for debugging, that I don't know how we can figure it out.

That is why I don't have automatic firmware updates turned on. Further, I have a mesh network with three different routers to connect to and all three having a hardwired gigabit backhaul. The main router is also connected to a full Gig up and down ISP. The HomePods are spread across all three routers and the issue of no Hub being available happens while I am connected to the network and actively on the Internet. This is NOT a WiFi issue. This is a bug in the latest HomeKit implementation or the last update to the HomePod firmware.

I will add that since the last HomePod firmware update I am also finding the HomePods are slower with Siri and HomeKit command executions. We used to, prior to the latest firmware upgrade, be able to call out a request to Siri and the HomePod(s) would answer and our iPhones, MacBooks (Air and Pro), and iPads would let the HomePod(s) take care of the response. Now we have to make sure the iPhones and iPads are turned screen down so that the HomePod(s) take the commands. In other cases a command issued to the HomePod(s) come back with unable to perform the request but if I use any of my other Apple devices there is no issue.

Again, how will contacting support help if I have no logs?