Most people don't is what I'm saying. I certainly don't. Point being is that you DO NOT have to have ethernet for homekit. I think it's just a wording mistake on apple's part.
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You do not have to use ethernet, but hard wired is always better than wireless (in my opinion). I know many people that do use ethernet for Apple TV and HomeKit, so the notion that most do not is false.
Yes, ethernet is NOT required, but there should be no reason one cannot and should not use it if the option is available.
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Ok Start Over
I read a lot of the up above, I think there is mass confusion going on.
You are trying to add the Apple TV to your home as a home hub correct?
You DO NOT add it as a bridge device. All you have to do is setup/add the ATV to your Home.
You have to setup the HE integration app and add that as a bridge device. With the ATV on the same "Home" as the bridge, the ATV will act as a Home Hub (automatically I think).
You go to Home App > ... menu > Home Settings > Home Hubs and Bridges
My Homepod is listed at the top as "Home Hubs"
My HE Integration is listed below under "Bridges"
I think all I did was setup the Homepod from my phone and it automatically became the Home Hub.
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I set the ATV up last week with my phone. Set up the default room, then tried to add the Hubitat by clicking "+" then Add Accessory > Scan a Code and continuously get the error about making sure the "bridge" is connected with an ethernet cable.
This is the process I'm following (From the documentation)
My hubs are connected via a POE switch to the router, and the hub with the integration and devices is connected and powered up.
Ok, that has nothing to do with the ATV at all, it is not even in the picture for adding a bridge. The ATV is a "home hub" and the "bridge" it is talking about is the one you are trying to add (The HE integration).
Its a generic error message from Apple, saying it is having a problem connecting to the Bridge (HE Hub).
Have you selected any devices in the Homekit integration? You might need to add a device, not totally sure.
Also, could try doing the nuclear reset on the HK integration at the bottom, forget what its called, but it creates a new QR code and resets the whole thing.
Lastly, I believe the HK integration works with mDNS multicasting, so is it possible your switch is not allowing the mDNS to pass through to the router? To me it sounds like whatever signals the Home app is looking for are being blocked by your networking gear.
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I thought we were trying to get the Apple TV connected too.
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I think everyone did, hence my "Start over" post. I saw the screenshot about the bridge and knew something was up.
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I probabbly was confused, and made it worse. I have the ATV connected to my wi-fi. I interpreted that error as indicating it needed to be connected to my router by an ethernet cable in order for home Kit to be able to work and to integrate my hubitat.
Yes, the first few times I tried with everything that was compatible, the last few times i just had a couple devices.
I actually tried that already. Completely removed the system app and started over. I had the same result, but I will look at it again tonight and see if I'm missing something. It seems like your description is somewhat different from what I did, so maybe i was going down the wrong rabbit hole.
I guess it's possible. I'm looking through the manual (download link) and I don't see anything, but to be honest I likely am not too sure what I am looking for.
EDIT:
I have not changed any of the settings on the switch other that the IP address to get it on the same network at everything else, and it also has a DHCP reservation.
What about the router? That could be blocking multicast as well.
For the switch, things I see in the manual:
- VLAN could cause issues depending on configuration
- Port isolation would cause an issue if enabled
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I have an Asus Rx3000 (manual download link
I'll have to check that when I get home and see. I've never noticed a setting like that before.
- I've never set up a VLAN, at least not intentionally
- I'll also have to take a look at that and see, but I didn't change whatever it is set to by default.
In the hubitat integration make sure relaxed security is turned on
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I have an ASUS router also, there are a lot of settings in there. If you have not messed with anything it should be fine, but there are all sorts of firewall and filtering settings you can get into.
You are not using the guest networks are you? Those create VLANs if you enable the setting to block intranet access, and will segregate devices.
As a test, if possible, you could try plugging the Hubitat hub directly into the router. See if the home app can recognize the bridge that way. If it works, the problem is the switch, if still not working, problem is somewhere else.
Yes try that also if its not already set.
I will check that out as well. I don't recall seeing it, so if it is on by default, i dint change it.
Now that IS one setting, I have changed, yes, I do have those enabled, but I dont beleive i changed any settings on them. Just activated them. There are no Wi-Fi or HA devices on them. I literally just turned them on for the occasional guests. I can check it out and turn them off though.
If nothing is connected to the guest it should not be an issue. All the LAN ports on the router will be on the main LAN, I do not thing you can (easily) change that.
However if your mobile apple device (phone I assume?) is setup to connect to both Wifi names then when/if it connects to the guest it might be getting isolated from the rest of the LAN. I think the default guest network setting is to block intranet access.
It isn't. None of my devices are set up to connect to the guest networks, or ever have been. I've only had the iPhone about 7 months, I haven't done anything with those guest networks in over a year. Literally just had it available for the occasional guest. But it can't hurt to double check (or even just deactivate them).
I have no clue what is going on. The guest networks are turned off. I do not specifically see any settings that say mDNS, so I have no idea
Where to look. Even with deleting everything, the integration, my home in the ATV, and setting it all back up again, whenever I try to include the hubitat integration it is insisting that “the device” is plugged into the router with an Ethernet cable. I ASSUME it means the ATV since it’s the only device in this mix that Isn’t plugged into the router and running strictly on Wi-Fi.
The switch was apparently asleep or something as it was showing inactive (had been apparently at least 4 months) even though everything connected to it was still functioning just fine. I was unable to reach the interface to log into it. I finally had to pull the power and plug it back in to get it to where I was able to log in, and even then I still wasn't able to add hubiatat. Still getting the error to make sure "the device" is plugged into the router (the habitat is).
I guess at this point I'll just have to scrap this idea. I don't know enough about the router and switch settings to know what needs to be changed or what doesn't. With both the router and switch I haven't changed any things from the default except to change the IP on the switch to be in the same range as everything else, and changed the password on the router and turned the guest networks (which were unused anyway) back off.
Thats not what it means. I suspect you could de-register the ATV from your account and unplug it, and the error would be the same. The error is just a dumbed down apple error message to account for the most likely issue of the bridge not being discovered. The ATV is NOT a bridge, it acts a Home Hub (which is optional). The only Bridge is the HE Hub.
Did you try this?
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Sorry to hear about the frustrating experience you're having trying to get Apple HomeKit up and running. Not sure if any of this will help or not, but I'll give you my high level process for setting up HomeKit. (NOTE: Read the very last paragraph before attempting this process!)
- On your iPhone (signed into your iCloud account and connected to your home's WiFi), open the built-in Apple "Home" application. If it is the first time doing so, it may prompt you to create a "Home" and give it a name. (Note: The cool thing about Apple Home is that you could create a second 'Home' called something like "Vacation House" if you actually had a second home.)
- On your AppleTV, make sure you're signed in with the exact same Apple ID as you use on your iPhone for iCloud. Then, navigate through the AppleTV's Settings and find the "HomeKit" section. Make sure that you enable this AppleTV to act as a HomeKit "Hub"
- Go back into your iPhone's Apple Home app, click the circle with three dots in it (top right corner) and then click "Home Settings". Scroll down a little and open the "Home Hubs and Bridges" section. In the "HOME HUBS" section, you should see your AppleTV device showing up in this list at this time. If not, stop and start troubleshooting. If your AppleTV shows up in the list with the word "Connected" underneath its name, you're good to go.
- At this point, you should have a fully function Apple Home created with an AppleTV acting as your "Home Hub". The Home Hub is used to allow for remote access to your home when away from the house. It also performs any Apple Home Automations that you create, so that these will run whether or not your iPhone is home or not. To handle the remote access functionality, Apple uses their iCloud infrastructure. Thus, it is important that your iPhone and AppleTV are both signed into the same iCloud account, using the same AppIe ID (username.)
- Assuming you've made it this far, the next step would be to try to add an 'Accessory' using the Apple Home app on your iPhone. Click the "+" symbol in the top right corner of the Apple Home application, then click Add Accessory, and then scan the QR code from the Hubitat HomeKit integration.
In fact, you should be able to actually Scan the Hubitat Hub QR code BEFORE you add the AppleTV as a "Home Hub" to the system. The Home Hub is NOT required to add an accessory, IIRC. It is only needed to run HomeKit automations and to allow for remote access when away from home. Thus, try adding Hubitat first to see if you get the exact same message about connecting the device to your home network. If so, you will at least know 100% that it has nothing to do with the AppleTV. Another thing to try is turning off your cellular data connection, to force your iPhone to use your home WiFi network. If the iPhone is not using your home network for some reason, then it will never be able to 'see' the Hubitat hub.
I hadn't, I was trying to figure out how to do it with the power supply issues (Hence why I'm using POE. I just figured it out, and no, still won't connect, still same error about making sure the ethernet cable is connected.
A few more things to check...
- Make sure your Hubitat hub is using DHCP for its network configuration. If you've inadvertently made a mistake in setting up a hub-side static IP address, it could cause connectivity issues on your home network.
- Look in your Hubitat hub's Settings->Hub Details and take note of the hub's IP Address. Please share it here as there is nothing personal about a private IP address.
- On your iPhone, please go into the WiFi settings, then click the active connection's info button (circle with an 'i' in it). What are the IP settings shown there, including the Subnet Mask. This will help us to understand how your home network is configured.
If your Subnet Mask is anything other than 255.255.255.0, that could explain the issue. Hubitat is expecting 255.255.255.0 as the subnet mask. If your router's DHCP server is serving up a larger network space, then it might cause issues with the two devices communicating.
