How to make your Apple Home more reliable

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CHAPTERS:
00:00 Intro
00:58 Quick Fixes
03:35 Quick Fixes Continued
05:32 Bigger Fixes
10:20 Prevention Strategies
#applehome #applehomekit #smarthome
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[@andrewharris-schulz356]

I appreciate you sharing your experience Eric! However, did anyone else skip through this video and had a feeling of it not being worth expanding their smart home any further? From doing a moderate level of research, it doesn’t seem to be worth it and all that “smart” currently. The Matter standard might eventually solve a lot of the plug and play issues but it seems like it’ll take years for that to come to fruition (if the big players can get a long).

[@EricWelander]

The big reasons I like smart home tech are peace of mind, convenience, and consistency. These are attainable, especially with a simple setup. For me, the benefits outweigh the troubleshooting and issues but I would be surprised if we don't see smart home tech get easier, smarter, and more reliable over time, even if the big players never get along lol!

[@TheFluffyDuck]

The BEST advice I can give is to get rid of that horrible trash tear modem that your ISP gives you. Replacing that fixed ALL my problems. I got an Eero 6 and my wifi is rock solid.

[@MelissaAtwell]

Thanks for sharing these helpful real-world tips! You make the best HomeKit videos!

[@JoshsSmartHome]

Nice video. Great reminders of things to keep an eye on and remembering that sometimes, it’s just time to move on from a device!

[@John-Smith-1]

This is the best KZbin channel ever!!!

[@singlesparq]

I find the most important aspect is a good solid network. I went through a few routers that were top rated but terrible for home network (looking at you TP-Link) that just disconnected devices all the time. Now been great with Linksys Velops (2 nodes) split network with devices set to 5ghz (most seem to prefer the 5ghz connect) bridged to a fiber modem router. So far it’s been pretty reliable. My only issues are with devices that don’t stay on the network I want, in particular the HomePods. Even tho I reset them to be on one network they sometimes show up on the other. I find now the best way to deal with that is to use the reset option (not unplug) in home pod HomeKit area on a device that on the network you want. It then prompts you to switch the home pod to that network. Other than that things work well.

[@mazagami]

Great video Eric! Would really love a video or two on networks and Apple Home.

[@anthonytan8751]

This clip is what i am looking for when my homepods have the same unresponsive message. Thanks Eric!

[@connaghankevin]

Great video! Really wish Apple would get back into the networking game and revive the Airport line.

[@alastairclarke]

YES! I gave up on our Nanoleaf lights. And damn. I spent $$$ on those things and they just don't work. My wife is still mad at me....

[@fredaker8353]

I’ll be giving up on my Essentials soon as well.

[@Simcitywok]

@@fredaker8353 Matter?

[@waynecrumhorn8877]

My system consists of Eeros, NanoLeaf Essentials, Eve Aqua valves, HomePods, HomePod Minis, and Apple TV’s. I found that when I start having communication problems like this, it is much simpler to throw off the 110V breakers on my home (unplug battery backups), then restore power. The Thread network re-maps itself and all the problems disappear (until the next time). Resetting a couple of appliance clocks is much easier than resetting all of the HomeKit components.

[@debbiebridygham9230]

Thanks for the video, I have an extensive Home setup, though not nearly as sophisticated as yours. Some thoughts for future videos: Can too many home hubs cause more problems, is there a practical limit to the number users should have in each room or even the residence after which they interfere with reliability? My biggest issue with Apple Home is that reliability has not been great, things stop working properly at the most inconvenient time of day

[@lthomas63]

Awesome video, the current issue that I’m having is that my TV is on occasion both say “updating“ not sure what this is causing this but it’s both on my LG TV and also my high sense TV both are hooked up to Apple HomeKit

[@hectortenorio777]

Thanks for putting me out of my misery! All I had to do was wire my primary Apple TV to my router and it worked instantly! Google couldn’t figure this one out.

[@EricWelander]

Great! I bet that would help

[@marksmith3617]

Recently I get an alert saying no hub is operational, after a while something works again.

[@davidjohnson2782]

I have a couple Logi Circle 2 cameras on the HomeKit firmware. They would drop off the network whenever I had to restart the nearest UniFi access point. So I had to power cycle them every time. I tried to “fix” this by resetting one of the cameras (removing it from HomeKit) and setting it up again from my iPhone on iOS 17/17.1. Unfortunately the camera fails setup every time I try to re-add it. It times out connecting to the WiFi. So I’ve gone backwards and would caution against resetting Circle 2 cameras! The firmware on the camera hasn’t changed since the first release and I guess it’s not liking the newer HomeKit architecture.

[@stevedekorte]

Eric, some of my HomeKit light automations which are triggered by a motion sensor and timed to turn off after a few minutes properly only turn on when triggered but sometimes never turn off. Any advice? The lights are Lutron, and the motion sensors are a mix of Nest and Ring.

[@VICT0R.Y]

Is there any solutions that can let me use smart lights with smart light switch? Tkss

[@Delyn]

Great video Eric! Anyone else have their HomePods on smart plugs so they can quickly disconnect the “wrong” home hub 🙋🏼‍♂️

[@ronthorn3]

I’m just curious, how to make my iPhone 15 pro max another hub, like I took my Apple TV to my brother and as I unplugged it, I tried to see if I could still access my lights with my iPhone 15 pro max, and the lights just said disconnected or whatever on my home. I read that you could have multiple border routers or something? I can’t find anything online on this.

[@jcamp9293]

My most troublesome devices are my two Hunter HomeKit fans, they are always needing power cycling, resetting or adding them back to HK. Auto updates in the Hunter app never helps. Great video, Eric.

[@EricWelander]

Thanks! All the best with those Hunter fans. I have one too and they can be temperamental, but mine at least works well as a fan for moving air. I keep the Hunter fan lights always on and use Hue bulbs in the sockets.

[@morells09]

@@EricWelanderdo you have any kind of physical control for the fan itself?

[@penningtonsm]

Do I need a HomePod to use hands free Siri for my automations or will my Apple TV suffice? I use Sonos for my Audio and don’t really see a need for a HomePod.

[@reinaldoperez1725]

I love all the videos, great job, but I have a main question: How long are the video clips from HomeKit and how long they take to be uploaded to iCloud? My concern is an intruder going straight to the camera and disconnecting or damaging the unit before the clip ends up in iCloud.

[@user-ql7tb1mu4s]

Eric, could I please have your opinion - we had some issues with family sharing (kids music etc showing up on organiser’s devices) so we set up the HomeKit with a separate family email address (separate iphone). I think this might be causing some connectivity issues but not sure how to streamline it? It also affects the smart home, as in, we can’t set it up so things turn off “when everyone leaves” as the “home phone” is always at home - wondering if you’ve had experience with this setup and any pros/cons for either? TIA

[@bobjazz2000]

My HomePod mini constantly says downloading

[@Waterbottle365]

RE: Wired Apple TV's I have two of them wired up in my house and Apple STILL is preferring the HomePod with the worst wireless connectivity for some reason. Ultra annoying.

[@guillaumedube8141]

Update your Apple TV to TvOS 17

Turn off auto update on your hub. I use my Apple TV as a hub, and had auto update on. In the middle of a trip I lost complete access to my home because it auto updated and connection to my IoT devices got lost.

[@StephenMatrese]

Serious question, what are you using your hair?

[@Codestud]

This issue has happened to me often enough to be annoying. I had some Meross smart plugs and they would frequently just drop off my network and I'd have to unplug them and plug them back in again, and eventually I just got rid of them. I also have two HomePods and the other day I asked one HomePod to stop playing music that was playing on the other one, and it just didn't respond, and I had to unplug the HomePod itself and plug back in again. And if everything in your house is dependent on your Wi-Fi router and a power cut knocks out your Wi-Fi then what? The only thing that has been reasonably reliable is my Nest thermostat, but even on that my Heat Link failed once and I lost control of my boiler until Google sent me a new one. I have had relatively few smart devices and I've found the smart home experience to be unsatisfactory. I once had ambitions to have my entire house using smart lighting and control but I don't feel confident enough with it.

[@DW-ph2xg]

Not to mention rebooting your device may help too. Also, having your modem/router/hubs setup in your basement is not a good option.

[@allurevibe]

I appreciate this video, but I also feel uncomfortable this popped up in my feed. I had this issue last night and was complaining before I went to sleep these phones are always listening lol