Apple Outlines What to Do If You Have Issues Accessing a Home in iOS 16.2

Apple today published a support document designed to help those who are having issues with HomeKit, outlining what to do if you can't access a home or accept an invitation in the Home app.

homekit showdown 2 thumb
Apple says that on an iPhone or iPad running iOS 16.2 or iPadOS 16.2, users should use the Remove Home option on any listed homes that don't have accessories. If the invited user has a home with accessories, Apple support must instead be contacted for help.

If there is a home with no accessories listed, after it is removed from the Home app, the invited user and home owner's devices need to be restarted, as do all Apple TV and HomePod devices in the home.

From there, the home owner will need to remove any pending invitations to the invited user, and then re-invite the user to share control of the home. An invited user must accept an invitation to access a home within three hours or the invitation will expire.


Apple's instructions come just a day after the new Home architecture that was introduced in iOS 16.2 was pulled. At the current time, Apple is not allowing users to upgrade to the architecture, likely due to multiple bugs that users have reported with the update.

Issues with the architecture update include ‌‌HomeKit‌‌ devices stuck in an "updating" or "configuring" status, devices going missing, HomeKit Secure Video not working, and invitations to share the Home with other users failing, which is what the support document addresses.

In a separate support document, Apple says that the new Home architecture will be reintroduced at a later date, and that it has been temporarily removed.

Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

TonyC28 Avatar
18 months ago
Tell me you give zero f—-s about a platform you’re hosting without telling me you give zero f—-s about a platform you’re hosting.

Good grief what a joke. It’s crystal clear HomeKit is a weekend hobby to them because it doesn’t generate revenue but come on, this is getting sad.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)
airwalk331 Avatar
18 months ago
Apple lost their touch. You can't trust any OS update. It's all, literal, crap : (
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TonyC28 Avatar
18 months ago

And yet it is working just fine for me,
Is it possible… just hear me out…is it possible that even though things went well for you they may not have for others? Could there maybe be a reason Apple yanked the update and had to issue this? Just…is it possible…?
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
haruhiko Avatar
18 months ago
Upgrading the architecture is an absolute mess. First the shared user disappeared and couldn’t accept the invitation, then after a few reboot of home hubs the user was finally added to the home with all sorts of problems. After that the HomeKit secure video failed to record anything, after another round of rebooting home hubs, the recording is still not back now.

I’m about to give up HomeKit. It’s an absolute garbage.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Burger Thing Avatar
18 months ago

And yet it is working just fine for me, I installed from the beta. But hey, I did figure out that:
1) HomePods had to run completely new versions of software. As with all new versions I added them to home via a reset. I mean how else would you do that they had to be removed from other homes on old architecture first. So your HomePod is about to reset continue holding until you hear three beeps
2) only other accessories were appletvs they added just fine

So ok this is an oversimplified case as I have no other Matter accessories. But if I did, I would guess that they had to be updated and reset as well
No offense but this all seems like common sense. Of course I wish installation was more Apple like. This kind of reminded me of windows and why I ditched it
No offence, but I have the slight impression that with your few HomePods and one Apple TV as your only accessory, you have absolutely no idea how complex home automation can grow.

And with “complex” I mean also its maintenance, updates and troubleshooting of multiple hubs, accessories of different manufacturers.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexhardaker Avatar
18 months ago
Apple’s software quality has been going downhill ever since they fired Forstall 10 years ago
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
iOS 18 Siri Integrated Feature

iOS 18 Rumored to Add These 10 New Features to Your iPhone

Wednesday April 24, 2024 2:05 pm PDT by
Apple is set to unveil iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, so the software update is a little over six weeks away from being announced. Below, we recap rumored features and changes planned for the iPhone with iOS 18. iOS 18 will reportedly be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, with new ChatGPT-inspired generative AI features, a more customizable Home Screen, and much more....
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...