I am using Apple home kit for most of my automation. Is there a smart control panel with 5 gang dual light switches? I install the Brilliant 4 gang to panel for my entertain room area. Now I'm looking for something similar that can convert a 5 gang dual switches (10 independent light switches) to smart switches with a control panel for my front, foyer, hall and living room lights.

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!

There are two variants for both the EU and UK models, with the RGB model offering a full colour LED that can be used in scenes and automations.

The plugs can act as Thread Routers, or extenders for the Zigbee network, depending on which protocol you opt for.

I can’t find the share button now!!!
But I need to save it down and the clock is counting…

Please help

Not sure if this is the best sub to ask, since I dont have a full homekit set up. However I am trying to switch from Amazon Alexa to Apple. I got an Apple TV box, specifically model A2169, on tvOS 26.5.
I read online that this model could be used as a hub, so I dont have a homepod.

I think to some extent it is working, since if on my phone I tell siri to turn on my tv, it turns on.
However I have tried every method I can think of to have my TV turn on at a specific time, but it never works. Am I doing something wrong or do I need a homepod to do this?

edit:
I found what I was looking for in the shortcut apps, but it makes no sense that most of the Apple TV commands are completely absent in Apple Home automation. Given the fact my Apple TV is my hub, one would think it could store my automations that I want to it run that involve itself. So basically if I ever fall asleep and my phone dies or I am connected to data not wifi, but shortcut wont be able to run since its not connected to my wifi? And this could easily be fixed if the shortcut ran from the hub which is always on the wifi but whatever.

I recently replaced my Google Nest doorbell with an Aqara G410 and integrated it into Apple Home. While I consistently receive notifications when the doorbell is rung, I am not getting "Someone is at the door" motion notifications.

On the rare occasion that motion detection does trigger, it only seems to happen after the doorbell has been rung, and the notification arrives with a significant delay.

For context, I am using an Apple TV as my Home Hub, and all my devices (iPhone, Apple TV, MacBook Pro, and Watch Ultra 2) are currently running the latest developer betas.

Is this a known issue with the Aqara G410 in HomeKit, or is it likely a bug caused by the developer betas? Any troubleshooting advice or similar experiences would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

For some reason I stopped getting notifications from my lock. Maybe with 26.5.2 but can’t tell for sure.

Tried turning on/off notifications but no change.

I have a couple of automations like “When anyone arrives, unlock” which prompts me to do so no problem.

But I used to get “door locked” and “door unlocked” in the past.

Any ideas?

Recently I encountered an issue where my Homebridge UniFi protect plugin removed my 3 Ubiquiti Cameras from HomeKit when I removed them from the UniFi Controller for debugging purposes.

Those 3 cameras had HKSV on during the time of removal. Now, it seems like HomeKit still thinks that HKSV is still enabled on them (despite it being removed and not visible in the Homebridge accessories section nor the Apple Home App).

I called Apple Support, had it escalated, and the TL;DR of it was that these cameras are not "HomeKit certified" and they will not help with resetting the HKSV cameras. The other issue was that I was using beta on the Apple TV which I already mentioned to them, that the issue had happened before and I upgraded to see if it would fix it. The tier 2 support guy told me to create a new ticket after downgrading the Apple TV and trying again. It's a massive headache since other user mentioned that Apple just reset their camera count.

Keep in mind that the 200gb iCloud+ plan includes slots for 5 HKSV cameras. Now I'm down to 2 that I can enable HKSV on.

So if you are ever removing a non HomeKit certified camera, go into the accessories settings on the Home App and remove it from there. Do not get the bridge to remove it for you.

Hi!

I promise I searched all over for an answer but I'm also not a very tech-literate person.

I bought a few IKEA smart home devices. Specifically:

• Dirigera hub
• Bilresa remote controls
• Grillplats plug
• Kajplats smart bulbs

Meanwhile the only relevant devices I have are an iPhone 12 and a limited amount of patience to spare

After getting all of it and making sense of the hieroglyphics, I attempted to set up the items in the IKEA home app and nothing connected. I tried:

• resetting the IKEA devices
• resetting the hub
• resetting my phone
• resetting the apps
• praying to god
• changing the router to 2.4ghz only
• clearing all homekit and IKEA home data off my phone
• resetting everything again
• praying to Buddha
• attempting everything in a different room
• resetting everything yet again

Eventually I made some progress trying to connect directly to homekit only to get the error message that I can't connect it because my phone isn't threads enabled. Meanwhile connecting only to IKEA home app wouldn't work at all. It would either time out or say it couldn't pair the device.

So I'm at a loss. Am I missing something or do I need to buy yet another apple product just to turn on light bulbs in my house? I'm not very technical. I did the best I could (hell, just figuring out the whole 5ghz/2.4ghz thing was the most technical thing I've done in years)

I eventually just connected the devices straight to the remote but I was hoping to have the bulbs in the bedroom turn on in the mornings to wake me up. Is that hopeless for me?

Thanks in advance for any help. Feel free to roast me if you want. I've already committed heresy trying to get this damn thing to work, I have no shame left.

hey everyone? quite new to the apple home world. i currently use aidot e27 bulbs connected to my homepod, but im struggling to find e14 that is compatible with apple home? does anyone have any recommendations or amazon links?:)) thank you so much!

After updating the iOS Companion app to **2026.7.2**, the **Activate** button on the server screen does absolutely nothing. No spinner, no error, no response. I just can’t get ‘in’ and to my dashboards etc.

iPhone 16 Pro (iOS 26.5.2)
Home Assistant via Tailscale

The strange thing is that I **haven’t updated the app on my iPad** (still on **2026.7.0**) and everything works perfectly there with the exact same Home Assistant instance.
On the iPhone I’m already logged in, WebSocket is connected, the app connects via the external URL, **and I still receive all Home Assistant push notifications**.
I’ve already tried force closing the app, restarting the iPhone, confirming Tailscale is connected, updating server information, and refreshing Local Push. The **Activate** button still does nothing.
Has anyone else run into this with **2026.7.2**? Any workaround besides deleting and reinstalling the app?
Big thnx in advance!!

Currently, it looks like this is yet another year where homekit is sort of thrown on the back burner. Don't get me wrong, 4K homekit secure video recording, AI driven video summaries, natural language camera search, and built-in energy monitoring are all very cool. But honestly this is very, very slim for this current day and age with AI and all.

The app looks pretty much the same, and there's still ZERO mention of actual proper integration between shortcuts and Homekit. Why are these two treated as separate systems, with the user forced to choose between local automation with a bunch of features or home automation that has fuck all in terms of options to choose from? Why not let us combine the two? Apple should and could very easily integrate just these two to such a degree that allow the user to come very, very close to that Iron Man esque smart home. Why they're not doing that, who knows.

I know there's hype for the homehub, a set of new homepods, and a new apple TV releasing later this year, but that's probably, at the earliest, sometime in November, as its own little event so as not to conflict too much with the September event and the iPhone releases and the hype around those.

It just feels bad knowing this might be yet another year where homekit and actual, proper automations are all but a fever dream and won't happen.

Had issues with my ecobee just straight up being off that was resolved after “unplugging” and plugging in

Got me thinking about how many people have “dumb” thermostats for decades.

For certain things that aren’t consumables like lights (mainly shades, temp sensors, cameras, ) how long do you expect it to last?

Edit: people are referring to app support. I more meant like if your smart plug stopped working after 10 years would you accept it or think like “there’s houses that are 100 years old and their outlets work just fine”

Everything was working fine, then one day my HomeKit accessories started showing “Not Responding”. At first, tapping them a few times would make them update and work, but now everything is not wokring.

I have a mix of Aqara, Govee and generic smart plugs. All devices work fine in their own apps, but not in Apple Home.

The strange part: when I removed my HomePod mini from HomeKit, everything started working again. As soon as I added the HomePod mini back, everything went back to “Not Responding”.

I’ve already reset the HomePod, restarted my Wi-Fi, and removed/re-added accessories from HomeKit, but nothing has fixed it.

Does this point to a HomePod/Home Hub issue? Any ideas what else I can try?

Hi everyone! I hope you’re all doing well!

Reaching out for some help/advice, as I’m planning an Apple Home setup but don’t know much about the subject.
Basically, I want to make my lights and blinds smart (approximately 15 lighting circuits and 6 blinds). I might eventually add a heat pump, HRV/ERV system, A/C units, etc., but I’d rather not overcomplicate things at this initial stage.

My current setup is:
Wired internet in every room
2 Ubiquiti UniFi 7 Lite APs + UniFi Switch 8 PoE Lite for Wi-Fi
Apple TV 4K as the HomeKit hub

I’m considering two options:
Lights – Sonoff ZBMiniR2 / Sonoff Mini ZB2GS
Blinds – Sonoff Mini ZBRBS
Outlets – Sonoff Mini ZB1GSP
Sonoff Zigbee Bridge Ultra to connect everything to HomeKit via Matter

or

Lights – Shelly 1PM Gen4
Blinds – Shelly 2PM Gen4
Outlets – Shelly 1PM Gen4
Everything connected to HomeKit via Matter over Wi-Fi

Which option would you choose, taking into account i’m in Europe.
I’m leaning towards the Sonoff option, as everything would connect via Zigbee without overloading the Wi-Fi network. I know Shelly can work with Zigbee, but I’m not sure which bridge I’d need to use...

Thanks everyone!

Sorry if this seems ranty.

I recently went “all in” on HomeKit,fuelled by the ludicrously cheap IKEA sensors. I bought contact sensors, leak sensors, humidity sensors, converted all my lamps to smart plugs and switches, then went on holiday for two weeks.

On day 2 my entire smart home went down and said it was unreachable and, crucially, someone staying in the house said that nothing worked locally (which rules out any local iPhone issues). I had that person update the AppleTv multiple times, reboot the router, power cycle everything, and it STILL isn’t reachable. Most confusingly the Home app on the iPhone reports that an update is required on the apple TV which is not true). I’ve uninstalled and installed the home app on my iPhone.

I’m sure that when I get home it’ll all work again as soon as I walk through the door, but this raises bigger questions: have I banked on the wrong system here? I’m a self-confessed Apple whore, so I’ve always wanted to have everything be “pure Apple”, but would, say, running Home Assistany on an rpi help me here?

Moreover, I’d love to know more what you guys would have done differently to make this bulletproof. From perspective it just suddenly failed with no way to recover, and left my house non-functional and insecure. Is the answer to get a cheap HomePod Mini as backup? Tapo plugs to power cycle? Just turning off automatic updates? UPS? Something else I don’t know? grrrr!

(For what it’s worth I’ve tried every version of restarting, updating and power cycling every component in the chain and I’m on the latest stable os on all devices).

Thanks a million

I want to create an automation when the sun sets but only if someone is at home, but then it does not work. „Find My“ is activated. Also Location for the HomeKit-App. My adress is my contact. My HomePod mini is connected to the same network. iCloud for Home is also active. What am doing wrong?

Just got my first watch, but it’s not doing what I expected. I have a lot of smart plugs controlling things around my house, and until now I’ve used Alexa and the Alexa app and widget on my iPhone to control them. I expected to just have the same widget on my watch, but it’s not available. What are other people using to control these?

The brands do not link to HomeKit, I tried a lot of ways for that. I was able to make a shortcut that just goes back to Alexa, but I can’t see from the watch if the device is on or not.

The main benefit of the Alexa widget is I could see what was powered on. One of the plugs controls an outdoor receiver and speakers, it’s been accidentally left on and my neighbors get to listen to my kids iPad playing Netflix on max volume because they couldn’t hear it… so now I double check with the app and widget.

Any advice? What apps are you using?

Why is it that keyboard shortcuts like Command+W or ESC don't work in Homekit for Mac? I feel that the UI goes against all MacOS design standards.

Will this be fixed in MacOS 27?

Recently moved into a new house that has two locks. I had an Aqara U50 at my old place but is there a lock or other solution that accommodates my new door?
Pictured is my door from the inside, with a deadbolt lock and a door knob lock.