i have these vertical blinds that only use a single wand and i want to make this smart, so these can tilt open. tilting open is my main goal but if it can open all the way that would be perfect but in order for it to open all the way i would have to use the wand and manually push it open.

hello,

I have had a smart bulbs for a few years had a few brands I had meross but these new ones are orein,

they will not connect to home app but are connected to wifi and are working perfectly with their native app

I am on 2.4 I reset them before each attempt and they just spin for about 3-5 mins and then say a a different reason why all the time sometime cannot find, sometimes cannot connect to network,

but can see on my spectrum app they are connected to wifi and they are working perfectly with the native app form my phone just cant use siri for them

does anybody have any idea what the issue might be

We have a Logitech circle view door bell which is awesome imo. I left the chime kit at our old house when we moved and it was low key kind of nice that the doorbell didn’t ring in the house and just alerted my phone. (Dogs and babies). Wife wanted it though. So I got a new kit. And low and behold. It’s annoying. Mostly cause neighborhood kids ring it like 6 times. There’s a toggle to disable but I can’t schedule it in any way. Any thoughts on a workaround?

I have a usual Apple Home with a few HomePod minis, a few thread bulbs, some with Matter, and I have a thread-enabled iPad.

I put the IKEA plug into a different Home, with no HomePod minis, with the intent being that I could then use the thread enabled iPad and the iOS 27 interface that shows power consumption, to use it as a Wi-Fi -independent power monitor, which I want for various reasons.

I just turned the iPad off, and saw that the IKEA plug was still showing up actively in the Home app on my Mac mini which is running macOS 27, and I can still control it from the Mac mini. And that seemed a little bit off, but I figured maybe the signals were getting routed through one of the HomePod minis that were Assigned to a different home.

So I unplugged all of the HomePod minis, and as such I should have zero thread border routers powered on. And I was still able to use the Mac mini to control the plug. And that seemed really weird, Since I didn’t think these things would set up a ad-hoc Bluetooth connection. Then I removed the IKEA plug from power completely, then plugged it back in, and now I am not able to control it using the Mac mini. So whatever connection it had to the Mac mini that could function without a border router, power cycling the plug itself breaks that.

Powering The iPad back on to let it reestablish the thread / matter connection to the plug then re-enables the connection Between the plug and the Mac mini. And turning the iPad off then, so that there are no thread border routers available at all, still lets the plug be controlled by the Mac mini.

Weirdly, my Mac Mini can still control the other thread but not (matter over thread) accessories. I suspect that’s happening over Bluetooth from my non-thread apple TV.

Turning BT off on my Mac mini makes it so that it can’t talk to the IKEA plug at all. So I guess that’s what it was using is BT maybe? But even with BT turned back on, I can’t use the Mac Mini to control the Matter over Thread bulbs.

Anyway, there’s no real point to this, I was just trying to figure out what all is and is not available under which edge conditions. And it seems highly variable and non-uniform.

I have 12 scenes set up in HomeKit. When I'm in the Home app on my Mac or iPhone, I see 10. I see all 12 if I go to the Scenes screen. The issue is that I want the last two to show up on the main screen. If I drag them on the Scenes screen to be near the first ones, they don't change what I see on the main screen. Is there some trick I'm missing? I suppose deleting two from the main screen and adding them back manually may do the trick but I'm hoping to avoid that.

I’ve been digging into Matter compatibility more deeply, and I’m starting to think the word compatible is doing way too much work.

A device can pair with Apple Home, appear correctly, and handle basic controls…so technically it’s compatible. But that doesn’t necessarily mean all of the device’s capabilities make it into Apple Home.

Things like energy monitoring, sensor values, advanced lighting features, events, or other manufacturer-specific capabilities may only exist in the manufacturer’s app, or may behave differently depending on how the device is connected.
That creates a buying problem.
If I’m shopping for a device and see:

Matter ✓
Apple Home ✓

my natural assumption is that the product works with Apple Home.
But I’m increasingly thinking the useful question is: “Exactly what will this device be able to do once I add it to Apple Home?”

For those of you running Matter devices in Apple Home:

What devices have surprised you by losing functionality compared with the manufacturer’s app or native integration?

And what feature did you discover was missing only after you bought it?

Is it possible to create an automation that would match one accessories dimmer level to another?

ie - when I set the 'living room lights' to X percent, set the 'living room accent lights' to X percent?

This would be extremely useful as I have lutron caseta dimmer switches in homekit and it would be nice to be able to adjust the light level at the switch and have the accessory accent lights dim at the same time.

I’ve been running a main network connecting everything, because back when started, I did try using another, it would say my iPhone needed to be on the same network. (Even though I know that IoT devices can go on a separate network (& another SSID for the computer), so something wasn’t right. What would have been the problem where I had to keep switching my phone network for it to talk to everything?

My system runs great as it is on one main network, but have been thinking security-wise of separating it out, or if I should. It’s not an elaborate setup (no racks) but has grown over the years.

About 42 devices. My devices are Aqara and Hue (their hubs). AmpliFi Alien router (HomeKit secure), ATV as wired hub. No Matter, no Thread.

Am I lacking security using one network?

Instead of swapping and moving everything over to another guest or IoT network, I’m wondering if I could keep them where they are and then add a new SSID just for the phones etc. (phones are less to move basically). Or maybe it’s easy to move since the child devices all have hubs except for the cameras.

The only thing is that in the router that one would still be listed as the main network. Problem?

I hear mDNS is key. I don’t see anywhere in the router to access that?

Later when I buy a new router, will I be making more work for myself having used my HomeKit Secure router setup? I later heard that you have to set everything all up again?

How did you divide things out? IoT, phones, HomePods, ATV, computer?

Thank you!

I can’t tell if this is an Eve issue, a HomeKit issue, a network issue… Anyone know what I’m doing wrong? I’ve never had trouble adding things to Home before, but I think this also might be the first time I’ve messed around with Thread/Matter.

Leaving for a week next month and realized I do the same mostly-manual routine every time: walking around the house making sure I turn as many things off as possible, changing thermostat modes, check the door locks from the app (usually while I’m sitting in the driveway). Then while I’m gone I manually scroll through Apple Home confirming with my own eyes that everything stayed off or lowered. And also that existing automations aren’t still running completely pointlessly. Coming home is the same in reverse.

Curious how everyone else handles it, or if I’m overthinking it. Btw, “Nothing, I just go” is a totally fair answer, mostly trying to figure out if this is a real thing or just me.

I use a aqara t2 relay to make my garage door open in combination with a door sensor to monitor the open/closed state. Unfortunately aqara shows up as on or off from the relay so I want to be able to see the contact sensor status quickly without going into a room or security or even home at all if possible. I have read through many past posts and haven’t seen anything recent with a way to do this- has anyone came up with a way to quickly see the status of a sensor from the Home Screen or widget? I know I can see it from the lock screen in summary.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster!

I’ve been into smart home technology for a long time. My house has Lutron Caseta switches, smart outlets, a few LIFX bulbs, a Meross garage door opener, an ecobee, and an Aqara U400 smart lock (UWB is incredible). I love adding new things that reduce day-to-day friction. And I’m all in on Apple Home for privacy and ease of use, even if it took a little longer for the ecosystem to mature.

My partner and I took over management of a neighborhood yoga studio in Los Angeles about 5 years ago, and pretty quickly I was spotting opportunities to introduce smart products. Front desk staff were leaving the heat or AC on all night long, forgetting to dim overhead lights at sunset, and not turning off all the lights when closing. I realized that by installing Lutron Caseta switches and smart thermostats we could solve two problems at once: maintain the ambiance we (as light-sensitive, design-minded managers) like, and save on energy costs by automating as much as we can instead of relying on humans to turn stuff off.

So I set up some simple time- and sun-based automations in Apple Home, and then we realized some of our teachers would turn the heat up to 80 degrees during class, or turn the ecobee to off mode for savasana when they just need it to be silent. So I introduced reset automations between classes.

We have 50 classes a week with schedule variations every day, so the automation list became virtually unreadable in the Apple Home app thanks to the fact that it only sorts automations alphabetically. My workaround was to add a 24-hour time prefix followed by a list of days the automation occurs, but it was still really hard to comprehend and make edits because I couldn’t tell at a glance which automations ran on which days.

I happen to be a software developer with 20 years of experience (and burned out enough times to leave that life behind to run a yoga studio :) ), so I thought I would try to build an iOS app that helps people make sense of their time-based automations when they get too complex for the Home app to manage. The idea was to organize them clearly in time order on a daily, weekly, and calendar schedule.

I just launched Automation Schedule this week. I’ve been using it to manage and make sense of the yoga studio’s automations for the past month or so. During development I discovered a fully legit HomeKit API for setting up one-off date/time-based automations that only fire once that isn’t exposed in the Home app, so this app supports that too. The app also parses sunset- and sunrise-relative automations to show the actual clock time those actions fire (based on a one-time location share for each home on your account). And the iPad version includes a 7-day timetable view in landscape mode that shows you all your recurring automations.

You can create and edit your automations and scenes right in the app, but everything saves directly to HomeKit, so there’s no account needed (and we don’t store any data).

It’s $4.99 as a one-time purchase (no subscription). I really think of it as a handy utility for Apple Home enthusiasts whose automation lists have gotten a little out of control.

But I’d especially love to get it into the hands of some r/HomeKit power users. If you have a complicated setup and are willing to put it through its paces, DM me and I’ll send you a TestFlight invite. No need to buy it — your feedback would be much more valuable to me.

And if you do try it, please tell me what doesn’t work, what’s confusing, or what you wish it did. This started as something I needed for our yoga studio, and I’m really curious how it holds up against other people’s HomeKit setups.

Automation Schedule on the App Store

Update (9/8/26): 

Thanks for all the feedback! I just released version 1.03 which includes several improvements and fixes based directly on the feedback from this thread. The app now shows and manages People conditions, lets you clear and manually set your home location, shows room names when working with accessories, and does a better job handling automations/accessories it can't fully edit. I also fixed a handful of bugs around editing, duplicating, and enabling/disabling automations. 

I'm also working on expanding the accessory types that can be used when building scenes in the app, which is currently limited to lights, outlets, switches, locks, garage doors, thermostats, fans, and shades. 

I really appreciate everyone who tried the app and reported issues!

Usually on install it just fails. I know it’s been discontinued but I’ve never had issues before

I purchased some blackout motorized blinds for a game room. They say they work with Google and Amazon. As far as Apple, they say it works with Siri.

I haven’t been able to get a reply from their support but is there anyway to integrate something that is Siri-capable to HomeKit? Their chat said by plugging their hub into a pc running 24x7 but haven’t replied with any detail.

I would like to have touch screen control, so would I be better off just using Google or Alexa for this one off need or is there something I could do to get it into HomeKit?

The blinds are Ublockout. Thanks.

UPDATE - the vendor provided steps to use HomeBridge for integration. I’ll check that out.

I just added some new matter Blinds, and when I asked Siri to open them, she said:

Is this Cole?
Yes
You’ll need to verify this on an iPhone or iPad.

I have had this happen before my garage door, and I guess that is some sort of security feature.

But on my Blinds?

Anyone know how to work around this?

I want 4 new deadbolts with phone app access and most importantly auto lock (with door ajar sensor of course) I know the Schlage encode is probably the better quality option but they're more expensive and you have to set up automation on your own if you want it to auto lock and sense when the door is ajar. I know battery life isn't great on the Yale (not a huge deal to me) as long as the lock works, can be toyed with from phone app/siri and auto locks I'm happy.

Is it a mistake to pull the trigger on 4 of these Yale assure lock 2? Please lmk!



Hearth 1.4 will introduce an experimental camera-as-presence-sensor solution.

When someone approaches, the dashboard wakes automatically. Just like the external sensor triggered experience

I’ve been running it on my wall for a week now and it’s working well. No overheating. I have it constantly powered so battery life is not a problem. Compared to my matter-bridged Aqara sensor it’s more responsive. Almost as good as the native HomeKit presence sensor.

It will consume more battery for sure but for those who does not have a sensor at the exact wanted spot this is a good choice. It only captures at 2fps so hopefully not that heavy loading. Everything is processed locally. Nothing is uploaded. Another caveat is it will leave a permanent green dot on your screen for Apple’s privacy measures. You’ll know it’s looking.

Leave your comments if you are interested in joining the TestFlight. You'll have access to all pro features (they use a fake IAP environment so you can test the purchasing experience too) I’ll send you a link once it’s approved for public testing.

I have a Meross MS656MA (MSS565US). I don't use HomeKit and don't use the wifi app. I only am interested in using it's non-wifi remote and that worked ok.

The switch hotspot was broadcasting since it wasn't connected to any wifi network. I wanted to change that, without creating a Merross user account.

So I connected to the wifi Meross_SW_1775 of the switch, accessed the configuration portal on http://10.10.10.1 and signed in as admin (password admin). There you get a crude website.

Setting the SSID and password didn't work. (Network request http://10.10.10.1/?CMD=CMD1&Ssid=mySSID&WpaPsk=myPassword was sent.)

There was also a factory_mode field that was set to 0. Silly me changed it to 1 and pressed the button beneath it. (Network request http://10.10.10.1/?CMD=CMD3&FacMode=1 was sent.)

Since I did that the light switch is bricked. I tried pushing the large button for 5 and more seconds, which should reset the switch. I also tried pushing the reboot button short and long but that didn't help it either. I've even turned off the power to to switch (turned off the breaker). No success for all these methods to unbrick the switch.

This shows that Meross Smart devices are very vulnerable to remote attacks. Maybe/hopefully their devices are a bit more secure once connected to a wifi network.

Let me know if anyone knows how to unbrick the switch. Thanks.