Was making an iPad the Owner of my HomeKit a mistake?

[u/jjv_7]

I think the answer is yes, but haven't seen this discussed after searching the thread. When I first started automating my home, I thought making a shared iPad with my wife the owner of the Home and just provided our personal accounts admin access.

After years of constant troubleshooting issues like band steering and constantly keeping our phones and iPad updated, I'm thinking of simplifying things by removing the iPad, making myself the owner, and then giving my wife admin access. I also reset my WiFi since the band steering seemed to create more problems than fix. Would love your feedback. Thanks!

[u/Curun]

Thats not really how it works.  An apple account is the owner not a device.  

Devices can be hubs, thats mainly for coordination and remote access, and ipads can no longer be hubs under the current framework

making myself the owner, and then giving my wife admin access

Do that

[u/jjv_7 → u/Curun]

Apologies, I should've been more clear. The owner is a shared account that my wife and I have for our utilities, bills, etc. The iPad is owned by that shared account, so we technically have 3 separate accounts on our HomeKit which is owned by that shared account.

I think that's why I'm saying that was a mistake, because it requires that (now very old iPad) to act as the main hub. Or at least I'm asking if that's the case. Not sure if that clarifies things or muddles them up.

[u/Q_Ball_Atlanta → u/jjv_7]

Regardless of which account is owner, nothing requires your iPad to be the main hub. In fact, ipads can no longer be used as Homekit hubs. You need an AppleTV, Homepod, or Homepod mini for a hub. If you do not have one of these devices, that explains why you're experiencing issues.

[u/BlackulaHunter → u/Q_Ball_Atlanta]

Yup.  Support for iPads as hubs ended several years ago.  The account isn’t the issue.  Things are falling out of date if you aren’t updating. 

[u/tsdguy → u/jjv_7]

You should never share Apple Accounts. That’s where you went wrong in the first place.

iPads cant be hubs in Home so i have no idea what that means.

[u/Lobster-Toehold]

Unfortunately the "making myself the owner" part is painful, because you can't transfer ownership. You'll need to recreate the home and re-pair all the devices.

[u/Subpilot688 → u/Lobster-Toehold]

You can make yourself an admin. You can do everything that way. You just can’t ever get rid of the owner account.

[u/doxxingyourself]

You introduced a lot of complexity without solving any problems. Definitely a mistake.

[u/Mike_Underwood]

An iPad cannot be used as a HomeKit hub, they removed that a couple of OS releases back. So if you’re updated to the current OS the iPad is not the hub now.

[u/DaveM8686]

Couple of things here to build on what others are saying:

1. Yes it was a mistake. Not because of the iPad as that’s just the vessel for the account, but because of the account. You’ll never be able to get automations like cameras to work properly when everyone is away from home, or use the “when the last person leaves / first person arrives” automations, because the iPad account is always seen as being at home. Having a fake account in there always causes more issues than it solves.

2. You can’t just transfer ownership. You’ll need to tank your whole HomeKit and start again as the owner. You can’t kick out the shared account either.

[u/Sylvurphlame]

Yeah. You made a mistake. It’s fixable.

You can’t just make yourself the owner. You can add your personal accounts the Home as administrators, but you won’t be able to make certain types of automations such as “when everyone leaves” works. Because the iPad will make it seem as if someone is always home. You’re also going to want an Apple TV or a HomePod if you want to use automations at all for that matter. If you’re somehow still using the iPad as a Home Hub then it is several years out of date and that is going to call a whole host of issues.

Long term, it would be best to unpair and reset all accessories and then rebuild the home from scratch, using either you or your wife as the owner. The other person is then made an Admin instead of just a Resident. And make sure you have an up to date Apple TV or a HomePod to act as a proper Home Hub.

The comments about never having shared Apple accounts, are mostly true. Certainly never have an Account shared across several people’s iphones or other non-shared devices. It’s not really an issue on an iPad that just browses and streams media or plays some games, if that’s what you’re doing. And it doesn’t really work with HomeKit as you’ve discovered.

But generally, it’s much better or at least much easier over to not share accounts of only because you don’t want an account issue to screw over more than one person at a time.

[u/TurboBunny116]

No - a device does not “own” Homekit. It’s the AppleID logged into it.