HomeKit No Longer Lets Me Add Accessories

[jkeitz]

I have an extensive Home setup, but recently Home will no longer allow me to add accessories from either my iPhone or my wife’s. It just tells me it was unable to add the accessory (in less than a second), and suggests I reboot my router (I have).

I then tried adding the accessories using my iPad, and they added in no problem, just like my phone always did.

Once the accessories are added using the iPad, the rest of Home functions flawlessly on our phones. The only thing we can’t do is add accessories.

The only variable I can think of is I added my Linksys Velop mesh system to Home, but it kept kicking out my devices, so I removed it from Home a week later. Now, the nodes just show up in Home as “not responding,” but I cannot remove them from the Home app or re-add them from the Linksys app. This problem started after all that, but it could be coincidental.

I'm wondering what is going wrong with Home on our phones that I can fix?

 

[EdwinG]

Do you have an Apple TV or HomePod on your network, in addition to the iPad?

Also, what app are using to add HomeKit your device?

These three classes of devices can act as HomeKit hubs, and I’m wondering if the iPhone can’t communicate with the hub to register the device.

 

[jkeitz]

I have three Apple TVs and two HomePods on the network. I tried using the native app (VOCOLink), but that just opens the Home App device add screen. I also tried directly through Home.

You bring up an interesting point, though. The iPad can act as a hub, whereas the phones cannot. If both of our iPhones cannot connect to the hubs, then the iPad would bypass that right?

If that's the case, what can I do to fix it?

 

[EdwinG]

In theory, it means the iPad would be the hub. That's typically necessary for out-of-home access, or

I would do two things:

1. Check the VOCOLink's Settings.app preferences to check that it has these 3 permissions enabled.
   If you know exactly how it communicates with your HomeKit hub (Bluetooth, Network - either WiFi and/or Ethernet), you can be more precise with these.
   • Home Data
   • Bluetooth
   • Local Network
2. Check which of your HomeKit devices is the hub and make sure your iPhones are able to talk to them.

• On the iPad, it's in Settings.app, under Home. The setting is called Use this iPad as a Home Hub.
• On the Apple TV, it's also in the Settings App, under AirPlay and HomeKit, Home.
• I don't know how it's set up on HomePod. I don't own one to check.

 

[jkeitz]

In theory, it means the iPad would be the hub. That's typically necessary for out-of-home access, or

I would do two things:

1. Check the VOCOLink's Settings.app preferences to check that it has these 3 permissions enabled.
   If you know exactly how it communicates with your HomeKit hub (Bluetooth, Network - either WiFi and/or Ethernet), you can be more precise with these.
   • Home Data
   • Bluetooth
   • Local Network
   
   
   It is allowed WiFi (the devices it handles are all WiFi not Bluetooth)
   
   
   
2. Check which of your HomeKit devices is the hub and make sure your iPhones are able to talk to them.

• On the iPad, it's in Settings.app, under Home. The setting is called Use this iPad as a Home Hub.
• On the Apple TV, it's also in the Settings App, under AirPlay and HomeKit, Home.
• I don't know how it's set up on HomePod. I don't own one to check.

I checked the settings on my Apple TV’s and they all say “connected to Home,” but nothing about being the hub. Likewise, there isn’t a setting for that in the HomePods, but they are accessible in the Home app, so they should be working as hubs.

I can verify that all HomeKit functions are working perfectly for all my Smart devices. The only thing I couldn’t do was add new devices.

 

[EdwinG]

I checked the settings on my Apple TV’s and they all say “connected to Home,” but nothing about being the hub. Likewise, there isn’t a setting for that in the HomePods, but they are accessible in the Home app, so they should be working as hubs.

That's how the Apple TV appears as a HomeKit hub.

Another place that I just thought of to see the hubs is in the Home app, under the home icon at the top, choose Home Settings. Then press on Hubs & Bridges. All your HomeKit Hubs will be listed under Home Hubs.

I can verify that all HomeKit functions are working perfectly for all my Smart devices. The only thing I couldn’t do was add new devices.

On one of the iPhones, install an app like WiFiMan by Ubiquiti and have it scan your WiFi networks (Discovery tab in WiFiMan). You should see your HomeKit Hubs appear, as well as your Wi-Fi HomeKit devices.

I'll try to sleep on it to see if I can thing of something else to try.

 

[jkeitz]

Ok, all the hubs show up in the settings in the Home app on my phone, and they all show up in the Discovery tab of WiFiman.

 

[EdwinG]

I have run out of ideas, because your phone is able to talk to your devices.

He you looked at this Apple suppprt article https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204893? The section called “If you can't add an accessory” might help you.

I hope someone else might be have other ideas as well.

 

[jkeitz]

Thanks for trying!