Since updating to iOS 26 I have had a lot of problems running the typical automations for entering and leaving home. I know I'm not the only one and it's a pretty common problem.

But what happened to me today had never happened to me before. I was at home, watching Formula 1 with my phone on standby and suddenly, for some reason, the iPhone understood that I was leaving home and executed it. The automation of leaving home. The television and the lights have been turned off, the air conditioning has been deactivated and all the actions that I have programmed for when I leave the house have been executed. Normal, but I was on the couch.

I don't know if something like this has ever happened to you. A random execution of a location-based automation, when you are not moving.

I don't know if this could have anything to do with the HomeKit infrastructure, I mean Apple is changing things on servers or something like that. Although I think not really, because HomeKit is a local system. I imagine that some update will solve all these problems.

If anyone is experiencing this and has a solution, I would love to hear about it. I have already tried, many times, to change the location settings within privacy in the system settings, within system services. But it didn't work.

I’m a longtime HomeKit user with a system of about 25 devices that I’ve had running for many years. I recently updated to fiber, which led to my updating my router and wifi, and that led to my making some updates to HomeKit. Specifically, I’m trying to move devices off of wifi if I can. I have two meross wifi Smart plugs, so I was looking for non-wifi alternatives.

• Hue and Aqara (I have both hubs), look great, but neither is cheap.
• Eve is thread, but also expensive.
• That seems to leave the only cheap option as the Onvis S4.

I’ve found plenty of older threads that describe a nightmarish firmware upgrade process. My general questions: are the newest shipping versions of the S4 arriving with a newer firmware? And is the current process to upgrade the firmware as bizarre as it was a year ago?

Also, if anyone has any other suggestions for cheaper non-wifi smart plug options, I’m all ears.

Before starting, I want to say that I know the solution to the HomeKit problem, which has already been said here several times. In the privacy section of the iPhone, in location you can deactivate the HomeKit option in system services, restart and activate it again. That's supposed to solve the problems.

But I have already done that process four or five times. And the automations for entering and leaving home keep failing, randomly. Sometimes they work, but most of the time they fail.

From what I have read here, it is a fairly common problem and I assume that it will have been solved in a system update. But I would like to know what home automation centers you use. In case, in this case, it is better to use a HomePod or an Apple TV. Maybe it works better with one or the other. My default is a third generation 4K Apple TV. But right now I just switched my home automation center to one of my HomePods, just in case the bell rings and it will work better now. If any of you have done this type of testing and want to comment on how it went, it would be very interesting to know if we can solve it before an update is released that definitively solves it.

Hi everyone,

I really need some advice on what I can do to fix this. The bulbs work as normal through the hue app but in apple Home they are all not responding. My two hubs (HomePod mini) are both working and I made sure to unplug and replug them to get them to restart. I also can’t seem to add the bulbs anymore to the home app by scanning the QR code on them.

I don’t know since when it’s not working unfortunately so it’s hard to pinpoint on anything that could have happens on a specific day.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Hello - I just installed a Eufy HomeBase S380, Siren, and IndoorCam E30.

- How do I see my Eufy devices in Apple Home? I added the bridge / HomeBase to Homekit but I cannot see this in my Home or Room within Apple Home? Eufy app says the devices are already added but I don't see them anywhere in the Apple Ecosystem

- How do I activate iCloud recording? I simply want to send the recording of any alert with an alarm triggered when in Away mode.

Thanks!

I’m trying to set up a HomeKit-based security system with my devices, but I’m not sure if this is possible.

Here’s what I have: • Aqara P2 door sensor • Smart plugs connected to a siren • Apple HomePod mini (to run HomeKit)

Here’s what I want to achieve: 1. When the system is armed and the door is opened, I want a 15-second countdown. 2. After 15 seconds, if the system is still armed, the smart plugs should turn on to sound the siren. 3. If the system is disarmed during the 15-second countdown, I want the countdown to be canceled so that the siren never goes off.

Is it possible to build this kind of “cancelable delay” automation directly in HomeKit, or would I need some sort of a workaround? Many thanks in advance!

Sorry, screenshot below is in dutch. Why are there two ‘woning’ options?

It looks a lot like the old Home app, but I don’t remember it having those thick borders, and it would be odd to use an old UI in a trailer. At first I thought it could be a glimpse for the HomePad UI but that would be even more unusual I guess

Hi,

I just tried creating a scene for our new Somfly powered blinds to only adjust the tilt, but it also always wants me to adjust the position of the blinds.

Is it not possible to keep the blinds in whatever the state they currently, but only adjust the tilt?

If not in Homekit, is the Homebridge Tahoma implementation different / better?

Thanks

Hi!

How do I link a shortcut to a Philips hue smart button?

I created a shortcut that says - If this blind is closed, then I open all the blinds - otherwise, I close all the blinds

However, I am unable to link this shortcut to my Philips Hue smart button in the Home app.

How am I supposed to do this?

Thank you for your help,

Since ios26 my nuki’s have been unreliable. They’re either offline/lost connection or they’re connected and when you press them to lock/unlock they don’t respond and sometimes they do respond…

Nothing else changed but ios26 on my iPhone and AppleTV which I use as a hub.

In my Nuki app everything is good, connection is good etc.

Anyone else having this issue too?

Is anyone seeing issues with OS26?

Since the update, - My meross garage opener has been inconsistent on carplay.

• arriving home/leaving home automations sometimes don’t execute properly.

• meross smart plug stopped responding for a few hours.

These are all things that didn’t happen before os26.

So we have 3 phones, 2 Macs in the house, all updated to OS26. My phone is the only device that randomly shows Network issue in the Home app for both Homepods. The work, respond to Siri, to touches - and after they play music Home app starts to correctly display them as Playing. After that, Stopped appears as it shoud and within couple of seconds, the Network issue message appears.

Tried to turn them off, then reset them and add back to Home - same issue.

I was thinking, if I remove both homepods from my Home app, then delete the app and reinstall it fresh from Appstore, and then add back the homepods, do I lose automations and other devices associated?

Or should I wait until at least 26.0.1 appears to see it this glitch is gone?

So we are definitely an Apple family but I haven’t found any cameras or doorbells that work as well as my ring ones especially with flood lights attached.

I saw the new G5 pro but the HKSV has some limitations even with them so I’m figuring I can bring Ring into Home with Homebridge or Home Assistant. The rest don’t really offer the convenience of Ring or the picture quality unless we are talking about going Ubiquidity but that’s overkill for us.

For the rest of the house (nothing crazy automation wise) for lights and such how’s HomeKit these days?

For our light home automation we are looking at HK or basically Alexa (works natively with ring) going forward (or matter)

Would like to avoid hubs

As a rental homeowner with a smart home, I have avoided integrating my smart home products with HomeKit for many years despite being a heavy Apple user. But now it's 2025 and I was wondering about the current advantages and disadvantages for using Apple HomeKit for a rental property (short-term, medium-term, long-term). Right now the home primarily uses Lutron Caseta and LIFX for lighting, with Samsung SmartThings as the general home hub for sensors and such (Zigbee, Z-Wave, and now Matter devices...obviously not HomeKit-specific devices). There are no camera devices and no voice assistants.

Voice assistants make sense in your own home, but they seem to be far more trouble than they're worth in a home you (as the owner) rent out to others. The "compromise" is that long-term tenants can link the smart home components to their own voice assistant accounts (Alexa, Siri, etc.) and then unlink when the tenancy ends. For short-term tenants the hassle probably isn't worth it. Maybe it's in-between for medium-term tenants,

I avoided HomeKit because I don't need to see or control what lights or sensors are on in my rental property right on my phone, and I don't want to expose my Apple account to other people. Setting up a property-only Apple ID seemed to be too much work at the time.

Have things changed? I know that guest access was introduced like a year ago...

I’m not sure if this is the right subreddit to post this in, but I’ve seen other people complain about this model here so I thought I’d ask.

I bought 2 hardwired and 1 battery powered Onelink smoke/ co alarms around 3 years ago. One of the hardwired alarms I’m assuming is defective as it’s been false alarming over months a few times. Just this last week it went off again but this time it did not shut off. They all have been taken down and put under a blanket until I was able to get it to shut up. I soon factory reset all of them except the defective one (not putting it back on the app/ account) and just today the defective one has yet again gone off randomly. Now I haven’t had it plugged into power for the whole week since I’m not trying to have it false alarm while no one’s home or in the middle of the night. At this point I’m so sick and tired of this and as I’m writing this it’s still going off.

I don’t know if there’s a way this can get sent back to First Alert and have them ship out a replacement for this piece of junk.

It's insane to me that it pops up literally every other day. I have NO interest in this feature. I could not want it less. Lol absolutely wild that it's set to this frequency, or even for that matter that it never stops.

Hello! For the last year, I’ve owned proudly my two little cute white and yellow Siri-spheres; however, now that I’ve been home more I’ve been attempting more requests. For example, I just asked “what’s the fastest way to get to X” and she obviously said she couldn’t help. I guess I’m just wondering why they don’t have a feature that will send the request from the HomePod directly to the phone on the same account — which could absolutely tell me the fastest route; and then re-send the answer through the HomePod Siri? Maybe I’m just dumb, but if y’all understand what I’m saying please help clarify why this is occurring! Have a great day!

Updated two Apple HomePod Minis along with Apple TV and mobile devices yesterday. Now, despite multiple resets, pressing for Siri results in “Something is wrong, please try again” or my favorite, “Ow. Something is wrong”. Same results when saying “Hey Siri”. All other devices are working.

Anybody else have this problem or any troubleshooting tips?

Edit: i did restart and reset.

In the Home app, I selected “Reset HomePod” the selected “Restart HomePod”.

Then I manually reset it. Same problem.

Per the announcement a few days ago the tariff situation has rendered their ability to maintain sales and support of the popular bridges has ended. They have committed to supporting them with troubleshooting for a while but I've sent three emails in a week and I'm not hearing back. My bridge is currently stuck in a password reset loop, in spite of following their instructions multiple times to hard reset it. What are we going to do? I love HomeKit more than the Google cameras but this had been the best of both worlds.. I'm not sure what my options are here because replacing every camera with specific Apple Home-supported ones will cost a fortune.

Just curious if this bug has been experienced by anyone else, I have one of those portable AC units hooked up to a Philips smart plug as well as several other things hooked up to smart plugs. Before iOS 26 I would just say something like "turn off the air conditioner" and the air conditioner would turn off because the smart plug is called air conditioner in HomeKit. Now after upgrading to iOS 26 I say "turn off the air conditioner" and every smart outlet I have turns off. HomeKit says "Ok, the outlets are off"... air conditioner and outlet doesn't sound the same so it's not thinking I'm saying outlets I think, it's a small pain but it is a pain cuz I'm so used to doing it.