What to do when Home Automations stop working for no apparent reason?

[pbGuy]

I'm using iOS 12.1.2 & macOS 10.14.2. [Automations are basic ones - time of day - cycling 3 Koogeek outlets, which all have latest firmware.]
Until New Year's Day, my Automations were working reliably. But, as of 1/1/19, all stopped, and I'd not made any changes to anything. ...Manually triggering these light outlets, using my Watch4 or another iOS device, continues working without issue.
I've tried unchecking / rechecking the particular outlets, in their respective Automation setup, as well as deleting the Automation and then, adding it back. Neither effort worked.
I'm at a loss figuring out what may have caused the Automation stoppage and what's a definitive procedure, when such stoppage subsequently occurs, to get the automations reliably reactivated. (I can't find any Apple Support doc about how to troubleshoot Automations.)
Currently, I've deleted all Automations and I am waiting 24-hours before adding back to see if something, in the sync between my devices got corrupted and will be resolved by extended period of no Automations. ...I've not experienced any sync issues with either my Home Pod, Apple TV 4K, and my devices (iPhone X, iPad Pro 2018, Watch4, MacBook Pro 2016).

Thoughts - suggestions?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Hopefully, someone who is familiar with your items will be able to respond with a recommendation soon.

 

[iKevinJ]

I'm using iOS 12.1.2 & macOS 10.14.2. [Automations are basic ones - time of day - cycling 3 Koogeek outlets, which all have latest firmware.]
Until New Year's Day, my Automations were working reliably. But, as of 1/1/19, all stopped, and I'd not made any changes to anything. ...Manually triggering these light outlets, using my Watch4 or another iOS device, continues working without issue.
I've tried unchecking / rechecking the particular outlets, in their respective Automation setup, as well as deleting the Automation and then, adding it back. Neither effort worked.
I'm at a loss figuring out what may have caused the Automation stoppage and what's a definitive procedure, when such stoppage subsequently occurs, to get the automations reliably reactivated. (I can't find any Apple Support doc about how to troubleshoot Automations.)
Currently, I've deleted all Automations and I am waiting 24-hours before adding back to see if something, in the sync between my devices got corrupted and will be resolved by extended period of no Automations. ...I've not experienced any sync issues with either my Home Pod, Apple TV 4K, and my devices (iPhone X, iPad Pro 2018, Watch4, MacBook Pro 2016).

Thoughts - suggestions?

You might try unplugging your HomePod for a minute or two and see if that helps. I have similar devices, maybe more as you can see from my iPhone screenshot. Siri stopped working on my HomePod a few days ago and that fixed it.

My outlets are all Koogeek and the Floodlights dimmer is Koogeek. Sometimes it helps to go into the Koogeek app and change some settings, timer etc., I can’t tell from your post if you’re using that or the Home app or both. If nothing else my post is ruling out a widespread issue since mine are all working. The reason my Guest Room switch says no response is because it’s currently unplugged in a box not being used.

 

[pbGuy]

@iKevinJ: Thanks for your thoughts.
I don't control my Automations (nor were they setup) using my Home Pod. I control all my Automations (& set them up) only through my iPhone X. ...I do have the Koogeek app on my iPhone X & confirm the Automations are correctly shown in that app, after I've completed the setup using my iPhone X's Home app.
I use the Koogeek app principally to confirm whether there's any firmware updates available for the respective outlets. I have 2 versions of these Koogeek outlets. 1 x P1 (older generation) & 2 x P2. Sometime prior to 1/1/19, I checked for firmware updates (so, this was when all my Automations were working). All show latest firmware. Again, manual triggering (either through the Koogeek or Home apps) have worked reliably.
I use my Home Pod - for Apple Music only at present - just about every day; and, Home Pod's Siri responds to music requests without issue. So, I don't believe it's playing any role in my Home Automations' stoppage.
I remain puzzled by my Home Automations having stopped working on Jan 1 (New Year's day may not have had anything to do with this stoppage other than simply being a coincidence; but strange nonetheless since Automations were working on 12/31/18). The manual triggers have continued working reliably throughout the Automations' stoppage.
It's been about 48 hours since I deleted all my Home Automations, and I've just renewed their setup (using my iPhone X). ...I'll update as to whether the Automations are again working.

 

[iKevinJ]

Intentional or not, the HomePod and/or Apple TV are in the mix of communication, that’s how it’s communicating with your iPhone when you’re not at home. Have you tried turning things on and off through the iPhone Home app when away from home (prior to things not working)?

 

[iKevinJ]

@iKevinJ: Thanks for your thoughts.
I don't control my Automations (nor were they setup) using my Home Pod. I control all my Automations (& set them up) only through my iPhone X. ...I do have the Koogeek app on my iPhone X & confirm the Automations are correctly shown in that app, after I've completed the setup using my iPhone X's Home app.
I use the Koogeek app principally to confirm whether there's any firmware updates available for the respective outlets. I have 2 versions of these Koogeek outlets. 1 x P1 (older generation) & 2 x P2. Sometime prior to 1/1/19, I checked for firmware updates (so, this was when all my Automations were working). All show latest firmware. Again, manual triggering (either through the Koogeek or Home apps) have worked reliably.
I use my Home Pod - for Apple Music only at present - just about every day; and, Home Pod's Siri responds to music requests without issue. So, I don't believe it's playing any role in my Home Automations' stoppage.
I remain puzzled by my Home Automations having stopped working on Jan 1 (New Year's day may not have had anything to do with this stoppage other than simply being a coincidence; but strange nonetheless since Automations were working on 12/31/18). The manual triggers have continued working reliably throughout the Automations' stoppage.
It's been about 48 hours since I deleted all my Home Automations, and I've just renewed their setup (using my iPhone X). ...I'll update as to whether the Automations are again working.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT207057
That article explains the HomePod and Apple TV roles as a home hub. It also says HomePod sets itself up as a home hub automatically. Another thing I thought of that you could try to fix your issue is to restart your Apple TV.

 

[pbGuy]

Yesterday, I did check Home's Home Hub status; and while I've not set up any device (particularly, my iPad Pro where Home Hub is Off) as a Home Hub, Home shows my ATV4K as connected (it's on my LAN via ethernet) & my Home Pod on standby. ...If I'm correctly understanding how Home Hubs work, it seems as Home Automations are only being set up through my iPhone X, my Home app shows correct, Hubs status.
Regarding restarting my ATV4K, I did a restart (albeit for a different reason) during the interim of this Automations stoppage; and this restart had no positive result for Automations.
Regardless of all the previous, I do have an interesting update... Yesterday (early AM), I again setup my Automations, which involves only 2 of the 3 Koogeek outlets & they're triggered by Time. [Additionally... After newly setting up these Automations, I kept both the Home & Koogeek apps in Background on my iPhone X - as X's Home is acting as the Home Hub. I know Home must be in Background on the X, but I've no real idea as to whether the same is true for the Koogeek app - at least, through the first, complete series for all Automations. ...Thoughts about whether this is correct?] The first Automation was to trigger at 4PM; nothing happened. ...Then, I had a thought about unplugging all my Koogeeks (even though 1 Koogeek is not subject to any Automation); and I did so just after this first Automation not triggering. The next Automation was to trigger at 9PM; to my pleasant surprise, it did trigger (both for On & the subsequent Off). [My third Automation is set to only trigger on Weekdays.]
Now it may be premature to say, since the next triggering won't be until 4PM this (Sunday) afternoon, my Automations are now working; but if the 4PM Automation triggers, it seems probable all will now likely correctly trigger. ...I'll update on Monday.
While deleting the Automations (and not immediately setting them up again - I've no idea about what's an appropriate wait time) may have played a role, I sense it has more to do with unplugging & plugging-in all the Koogeek outlets (keeping in mind the new Automations had previously been setup) and once the outlets were back on my WiFi network, they were then subject to the newly set up, Automations (completed earlier in the day; meaning, whatever had previously become corrupted, had now been eliminated).
This conjecture still does not answer what caused the Automation stoppage, as absolutely no changes (either to Automations or my WiFi network) had occurred between 12/31/18 (when working) & 1/1/19 (when stopped). This is frustrating since it highlights there's no specific detail (from Apple Support docs) about how the Home app carries out an Automation instruction; and therefore, how to efficiently troubleshoot a stoppage and get it quickly corrected.
I apologize for the lengthy reply, but since there's no clear guide about stoppages, I'm being overly detailed, hoping these details will eventually reveal clarity in troubleshooting Automations.

 

[pbGuy]

I am happy to advise all of my Automations (3) have now triggered as they should during the last 24-hours (prior to this post).

Here's what I've learned about my Automations setup, which involves 2 (of my 3) Koogeek outlets...
1) Remain uncertain about cause of most recent stoppage.
2) Believe there's a correlation between either editing or deleting all the Automations and then, after a period (remain uncertain about time length), unplugging the concerned outlets so when the rejoin my WiFi network, they are correctly subject to the refreshed Automations.

While I deleted all my Automations and then, waited 48 hours (likely much longer than needed) before again setting up my Automations, I will try (next time there's a stoppage) to simply edit my Automations. Then, I'll wait, say an hour or so, before unplugging the concerned outlets. ...If that doesn't do the trick, then, I'll delete the Automations and wait several hours before unplugging the outlets. ...Whether this approach points towards a reasonable procedure for reactivating Automations, that have stopped, time will tell. But, I sense this is a logical approach that should have reasonable expectation for successful results.

Lastly, I do not believe this stoppage episode had anything intrinsically to do with the P1 & P2 Koogeek outlets. Also, the Koogeek iOS app seems effective in updating the outlets' firmware; but I sense that it's the iOS Home app that is really effecting the Automations (even though setting up Automations under Koogeek's Style tab is possible - I've never used this tab for that purpose). As I've had the P1 outlet since 9/2016 & the 2 x P2 outlets since 9/2017 and found them to be very reliable (with latest firmware), I do not believe either model contributed directly to the Automation stoppage. (FYI, I began using Automations starting sometime in the summer of 2018; so, I'd manually been triggering these outlets for an extended period before using Automations.)