HomeKit broken after iOS18 update

Well, something is deeply wrong with HomeKit after the 18/18.1 update. I have been fighting for days to add new HomePods and Nanoleaf bulbs, but the Home app simply won’t properly update and control anything. Rebooted every device and reset WiFi, bulbs, pods, etc.

The one certain bug I found is that HomePods will not join WiFi networks with a ”-“ in their names.

But I’ve now abandoned Home entirely, and reverted to Hue lights and the Hue app, which pretty much works normally.

Of course, I can’t add the Hue bridge to the HomeKit network, either.

Shame, Apple, for screwing up one of the best and most useful apps on the phone.

This sounds like iOS 18 bug. My HomeKit works but is slow and constantly updating. I’d wait till they release 18.1 which will be in October, hopefully sooner than later. Fingers crossed it fixes all the HomeKit issues

This exact thing happened to me. And after 30min with Apple Support chat and eventually phone support, they weren't able to suggest anything beyond what can be found on: If your HomeKit or Matter accessory isn't responding in the Home app - Apple Support (CA)

But the information provided by Bjm070 fixed it. I also found that I my Homekit Home Hub (see in Home Settings in the Home App) was set to my Apple TV. In the AppleTV's settings, I went in and removed it from the "Home". Then in the Home Settings in the Home App, I assigned one of my Homepod Minis to act as the Hub. This immediately fixed everything.

Hope this helps someone else too.

I was in the exact same scenario. Woke up one morning and none of my Matter devices were responding. Rebooted devices, hubs, routers. I spent hours trying to troubleshoot and the solution was to start a new home from scratch and rebuild the whole thing. I haven't had another Matter problem yet, but I did have to reboot my Apple TV this morning because one non-Matter smart plug stopped responding.

is this something that has to be done only by calling or did they provide steps to resolve?

For anyone still having problems with HomeKit constantly updating. iOS 18.1 is now available and after updating all my HomeKit problems with constantly saying updating is now fixed

Hope this helps someone

WOAH 🤯

Bjm070 wrote:

Don’t know if this helps you but I talked to Apple support. The problem was that iOS 18 designated my Apple TV as the home hub. It wasn’t compatible with that version 1 of Apple TV 4K for that set of accessories. My HomePod was too old too and I had to make an Apple mini pod the home hub. Might help to check if your current devices are compatible with Ios18 to use as a hub for your homekit accessories. Apple support can tell you. .

had spent an hour resetting devices and trying to get a garage door opener back online. Saw this, unplugged AppleTV Ethernet cable and BAM fixed. I hate that it’s the solution but I’m assuming this is an early ios18 issue?

I have the exact same issue with my hue bridge. I saw some people said the opposite lol. They connected ethernet to their apple tv and it worked. So I was using wifi, connected ethernet nothing changed. I am literally digging down every single post I can here and reddit and nothing works. I still cannot add it to my apple home. So frustrating.

I had the same issue. I kept getting an error saying the accessory couldn’t be found when trying to add the hue bridge to HomeKit from the hue app. What worked for me was adding the bridge from the home app by scanning the code on the back of the bridge after pressing the round button on top of the bridge.

Hope this works for you too!

i experienced a little of all of this or all of this - can’t keep track.

Updates took place (HomePod Minis, AppleTVs, iDevice Switches, Nanoleaf bulbs)

here we are at 18.2…

Things seem cool all around EXCEPT NANOLEAF

Current message is “device is already connected to a Home” so I deleted the devices and tried to reinstall

fail

downloaded Nanoleaf app and updated each of the four bulbs through their app.

tried again

failed again

same message

ATTEMPT:

created a new Home (Home 2), hoping to add bulbs to that Home (Home 2) before transferring them to my original Home.

nope! Fail again - same message: Already connected to a home.

ATTEMPT:

tried to delete them from the Nanoleaf app, to eliminate confusion.

nope! Failed again - same message.

still sitting on four Nanoleaf bulbs that WILL NOT CONNECT TO HOME.

:/

I've had a very reliable setup for several years, noticed many issues around the time updated iOS 18.

1) ATV via Ethernet has always been the best standard for a reliable thread network on HomeKit. 18 released the ability to prefer a hub, but prior to this I had my HomePods on smart switches power cycling nightly to insure they were ALWAYS on and ethernet Apple TV's. the Apple TV has a much more powerful CPU, and that seems to be required with larger or more complex setups. I suspect when people unplug the Ethernet (or plug it in) it is simply loosing the hub and causing it to rebuild the thread network from scratch which resolves any issues.

2) I've noticed that the iOS version and updates are very temperamental after updating to 18. If ANY device is outdated (iPhone, mac, Apple TV, iPad, HomePod etc..) then I've noticed constant issues. Another thing I've seen is that the hub will prefer (if on auto select hub) the latest updated hub over any other hub. This also explains why people are getting a new phone, Mac, Apple TV etc... and it "fixes" it, I'm guessing it simply received the latest update. I don't know why they can't have different versions, but this has fixed it for me 3 times now, then rebuild the thread network and I'm back until the next update.

2 things I to try that should recover the your thread network.

1) update all your devices

2) In home app > home settings > home hubs & bridges, change the hub to different hub (or power cycle the current hub) to trigger a rebuild of the thread network. Give it 10 min, but can be up to a full hr to complete. For anything not responding after 1hr, you power cycle that specific device(s) they should all add back in fine.

PS, for those with Nanoleaf products. I've done extensive research. They are complete crap now, my old thread only bulbs still work great but any of the new "matter" devices are awful and can even mess up OTHER devices on my your thread network. A few tips for Nanoleaf stuff...

• You can use them in the Nanoleaf app (without matter integration) OR you can add in home app and not complete the setup in Nanoleaf app. But if you try to let both home app AND Nanoleaf app have full control of the bulbs at the same time, they will wreck your network. So either choose limited features home app, or choose Nanoleaf and loose the ability to use voice commands/automations app control.
• If you can't adopt, you may need to hard reset them. Turn them on/off 5 times for bulbs, hold power for light strips etc.. should blink several times red and reset. If you see device is already there, the ID is 3 characters and likely matches an existing IS, turning off the other bulb or device with the same ID while setting it up will work, but note those devices will likely get lose and mixed up.

We are on iOS 18.1.1 and the "updating" "no response" issues still exist.