HomeKit Integration Beta: Virtual Switch State not changing in HomeKit when it changes in Hubitat

user1478 · January 16, 2023, 1:56am

I cannot get any virtual switches to show a state change (from on to off; or from off to on) in HomeKit when I change them in Hubitat. Changes from HomeKit to Hubitat seem to be working perfectly.

I am using the HomeKit integration beta.

Mitch1138 · January 16, 2023, 5:41pm

I have a similar issue. Can anyone shed some light on this or try it to see if it works for them.

Set up a virtual switch in hubitate - devices/add device/virtual, device name:test switch, type: virtual switch
Add virtual switch to homekit: apps/homekit integration, select test switch, wait a while for it to show up in homekit
Add virtual switch to dashboard: apps, select test switch to add to dashboard; got to dashboard and add device test switch

My issue is that the test switch on the dash board turns on and off, but has no effect on the homekit accessory. They always indicate "No Response". I have tried to restart the homekit integration and even deleted and re-added the homekit integration.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

gopher.ny · January 17, 2023, 1:07pm

Is the Relaxed home hub pairing security toggle in the Advanced section at the bottom of the integration app turned off by any chance? If so, please turn it on and see if that has any effect.

user1478 · January 17, 2023, 3:18pm

Yes. The relaxed security setting is turned on. It doesn’t seem to help.

Mitch1138 · January 17, 2023, 5:00pm

Thanks for the response. Same here, relaxed security is on. gopher.ny, are you able to have a virtual switch in hubitat that is active in Homekit (as I summaried above)?

user1478 · January 17, 2023, 5:20pm

Mitch1138, try restarting your router to fix the "non responsive" problem. That worked for me. But I still have the problem of state changes in Hubitat not being reflected in HomeKit even though HomeKit changes show in Hubitat.

Mitch1138 · January 17, 2023, 5:45pm

Thanks but no joy on the reboot. I would love to hear from someone who has this working.....

Ken_Fraleigh · January 17, 2023, 5:45pm

I saw this, and hadn’t noticed any issues, but figured I’d double check. I have a couple virtual dimmers and 6 virtual switches in Homekit all of which work bidirectionally and without any delay. I’m on 1.3.4.133 and iOS/TVOS/HomePod OS 16.3 beta 2, but have not had issues with this on previous versions either.
I’m going to create a new virtual switch and I’ll be back.
Edit: it works perfectly.
Edit 2: My network is AT&T fiber, Arris BGW210-700 in passthrough to a Linksys Velop MX5300 connected to a Linksys SE3008 unmanaged switch that connects 2 Hue bridges, 2 HE hubs, and a Ubuntu pc running pi-hole, Homebridge, Echo Speaks server, and a ntp server. I have dhcp on the Velop router and ipv6 enabled.

user1478 · January 17, 2023, 7:04pm

I still only have one-way sync. HK to Hubitat works great. Hubitat to HK doesn't work at all.

user1478 · January 17, 2023, 7:16pm

I got it working. I disabled one of my appleTVs as a hub and it reconnected to another. Now everything works fine. I'm not sure why. Same OS on both AppleTVs.

Mitch1138 · January 17, 2023, 11:19pm

Progress. Ken_Fraleigh, could you outline the steps you took. Was it like:

Set up a virtual switch in hubitate - devices/add device/virtual, device name:test switch, type: virtual switch
Add virtual switch to homekit: apps/homekit integration, select test switch, wait a while for it to show up in homekit
Add virtual switch to dashboard: apps, select test switch to add to dashboard; got to dashboard and add device test switch
Thanks

Ken_Fraleigh · January 18, 2023, 2:58am

Except I didn’t add it to the HE dashboard, I just triggered it from the device page and from Apple Home. Do you have the same issue if triggering/viewing it from the device page?

user1478 · January 18, 2023, 7:18pm

Further on this. I added another new Virtual Switch -- Same problem, no two way sync. I finally figured out that I had to remove all of my hubs from my iCloud account and then re-attach them to iCloud. Now everything works fine.

user4021 · January 18, 2023, 10:13pm

I thought HK was not backward compatible to Hubitat, that is a non-Hubitat device cannot be synced from Home Kit to HE. Am I wrong or right? I don't quite understand the programming aspect of these Smart Home scenarios so bear with me.

My case: Setup new device in HE, Minoston mini-plug z-wave plus. Selected Apple HK beta from apps in HE and it showed up in HK, but when I closed the HE GUI it disappeared from Homekit. Now I can't get it back. What the heck??

Mitch1138 · January 18, 2023, 10:17pm

I dropped it from the dashboard. No change.

Mitch1138 · January 18, 2023, 10:17pm

This sounds encouraging, but a bit drastic. I will give it a try.

Mitch1138 · January 23, 2023, 10:22pm

user1478-I only have one hub, I signed out from iCloud and signed back in. My virtual switches did appear for about 4 minutes, then went back to "No Response". I repeated this, but this time they never came back at all. Frustrating.

user1478 · January 23, 2023, 10:40pm

Rather than singing out if iCloud,

Go to settings>your name>iCloud.

Scroll down to your hub and click on it.

Then click remove from account.

Then go to the hub itself (not your phone) and re-add the hub to iCloud.

That worked for me.

Mitch1138 · January 23, 2023, 11:05pm

Thanks, I will try it.

Mitch1138 · January 25, 2023, 7:56pm

I just wanted to close out my situation (HE virtual switches not showing as active in Homekit). Embarrassingly, my issue was that the HE and the Apple hub (AppleTV) were on different networks. I put them on the same network and it works great, almost like magic!
This was solved for me by user aaiyar (here) and I just wanted to say again how grateful I am for his help.