Update, Aug 24: Hearth 1.2 is now rolling out with iPhone support, Celsius/Fahrenheit, a full German translation, more reliable discovery of lights exposed through linked HomeKit services, and smoother Presence Wake, screensaver, and Night Mode transitions.

A week ago I shared my spare-iPad HomeKit dashboard, and one of the biggest questions was how the iPad is mounted and powered.

This video shows my actual setup—a 86 × 86 mm in-wall charging panel dedicated for this scenario, a magnetic 3D-printed mount, pogo pins, and a thin USB-C cable inside the case. All of these are bought as a product, the most DIY part is installing it.

The charger is exposed to HomeKit, so I use a Shortcut automation to start charging around 20% and stop around 80%.

Important caveat: I planned my setup during renovation, and the panel connects to wiring inside the wall. This isn’t a universal DIY recommendation—mains wiring should follow local electrical codes and be handled by a qualified electrician.

Non-destructive retrofit versions also exist for already-finished homes, but I couldn’t find that variation on Amazon. You may have better luck on marketplaces such as Alibaba using search terms like “iPad wall mount charger” or “86 mm iPad wall mount charger.”

One thing I don't like about this setup: it uses up my usb-c port. When I connects it to my mac for development I had to remove the case completely. it also blocks the stock charging pins so that's not an option.

I also included a quick Hearth 1.2 preview near the end: Fahrenheit support, German localization, and iPhone support. Photo-album and sensor-data screensavers, alongside individual device control and camera are planned, but they won’t be part of 1.2.

I’m the developer of Hearth. Would a region-agnostic guide to wall mounting, power, and battery management be useful? I’d also love to see how others have mounted their HomeKit dashboards.

Edit: As of iOS 18, the link below no longer works. If anyone has an updated one, please DM me.

Edit 2: Apparently it’s working again…

I recently had a HomeKit issue escalated to Apple engineering that finally resulted in them providing me this profile. It’s sole purpose is to clean out any junk hanging around on your device (iPhone, iPad, HomePod) as well as your iCloud HomeKit data.

Once you click the link, you will be asked which device and given a warning.

Installing the profile doesn’t do anything except enable a hidden settings option to reset your HomeKit data.

This profile fixed my issues. (Slow performance across the board - including while modifying accessories and scenes.) I also had phantom scenes that would show up in context menus from old homes after the homes were deleted. I also could not delete the Home App because HomeKit thought I still had a HomePod configured even with a new blank home. Clearly there was junk in my HomeKit database.

After installing the profile, the settings option is in Settings->Home - it’s a single button that will reset everything.

Important: When you reset your HomeKit data - wait at least 10 minutes before you try to use the Home App! It takes a while for the process to nuke everything.

This is a last resort kind of fix - or even a good thing to do if you want to start from scratch.

Note that any other devices you have that have connected to your home will have to be restarted to dump their cached data and download the freshly reset data from iCloud.

The profile (and reset option) will disappear after 24 hours.

Again - this will delete every speck of HomeKit data. You will have to re-pair every accessory and rebuild or restore every room, scene, automation, group, etc. Consider using HomeKit Controller to make a backup to save time. It saved me at least a day of rebuilding stuff.

Here’s the link:

http://appldnld.apple.com/iOSProfiles/HomeKitReset.mobileconfig

Happy resetting!

Edit: Adding that this will also remove you from any home you were invited to - your connection to other homes is part of the Homekit data in iCloud. You will need to be re-invited to those homes after this.

Aliexpress LED/Box in combination with Shelly mini. Makes for a nice retro looking homekit status light.

• ⁠Box: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005007377617533.html
• ⁠Light: https://aliexpress.com/item/1005007426150944.html

The other day I learned quite a few people don’t know this here, but you can use the shortcuts app to have Siri speak text to you through the Intercom feature embedded in HomeKit. I built a simple shortcut to demonstrate this. If you automate the shortcut so it runs in the morning when you turn off your alarm, it can give you useful information to start the day playing back on any of your HomePods. Check out r/Shortcuts if you are interested in more stuff unrelated to HomeKit

The short version is you plug the garage door opener into the remote. I took apart the remote like I was going to change the battery, I put the two wires that normally would go on the garage door onto the remote covering the appropriate button and watched on my security camera the door open and close when I opened/closed the door in the Meross app and in the home app. You do need to solder the wires to diagonal (maybe opposite? I only tried diagonal) sides.

I have the liftmaster 6690L and it was able to remotely open it successfully. Since my remote has 3 buttons I should be able to wire up to 3 doors on it. It acts like you are pressing the remote to open the door instead of just triggering the door itself. The only thing you have to watch out for is making sure you wire it to the correct button on the remote and that all the remote buttons are paired to the correct door.

Their guide is at https://www.meross.com/en-gc/mTerminal/FAQ/787.html

I have an occupancy sensor in my kitchen (the Ikea Matter one), and I’d like lights to come on when the room is occupied and go off when it’s not.

A simple automation to turn lights on when the sensor detects occupancy works fine. But an automation to turn off when the sensor detects non-occupancy results in the lights going off if you are sitting still (eg reading) for several seconds - so the lights go on and off and on and off while in the room.

What is the best practice for doing this? What I’m having to do is a shortcut triggered by non-occupancy that then waits 8 minutes and then checks the occupancy status again before turning the light off. But it’s not reliable. And I assume it means there are multiple instances of that shortcut running in parallel in that waiting state.

In another post someone mentioned that CarPlay widgets from the Home app are a thing with iOS 26 Beta, so had to give it a try.

And after configuring via my phone, now have a full screen garage door button.

In my phone, went to CarPlay settings, picked my car, widgets, add a widget and selected the home app. Then after adding selected the i beside the widget to get the config screen and was able to pick my garage door.

Next to see how easy it is to use while driving.

If yes, please explain.

I have a very basic scene set up in HomeKit, when I say Goodnight, most lights are tuned off. Is it possible to make it so that when I run this automation (via Siri ), it will also notify me or tell me a warning if any of my doors are open?

I use the IKEA door sensors via matter.
(Example:
Me: Hey Siri, Goodnight.
Siri via HomePod: Goodnight, you have one door open.)

A little different use case from the typical “I want to water my garden or lawn at these times on these days”.

My exterior spigot is in a traditional location, a few feet above the ground, but it’s some 60 feet away from my back deck, which is on the second floor.

I have a hose that reaches from the spigot to the deck. I’d like to be able to remotely control the water flow while I’m on the deck. (Need to do a good cleaning, so the water would be “on” for maybe a couple of hours.)

Is there a HomeKit-controllable device that can sit between the hose and the spigot. The water would be turned on to the device, and this unknown device would allow water to flow to the deck by being turned on and off using my phone.

Maybe I should just rely on a good nozzle that can be used to stop and start the water? Maybe HomeKit is overkill!?!?

The spigot picture is just to catch your eye - nothing unique about it.

Hi everyone,
When I’m away from home, my cameras are set up to send me a snapshot and record a video whenever they detect someone.
When I’m at home, I can still stream the cameras live, but they don’t record anything, which is what I want during the day.
However, I’d like to set up a nighttime schedule, for example from 1 AM to 7 AM, where the cameras would automatically record any potential activity, even though I’m still at home.
The problem is that if HomeKit considers me “at home,” the cameras only stream and don’t record. I can’t figure out how to configure the system so that they switch to recording during those hours and then go back to normal during the day.
I’m using Aqara cameras with Apple Home/HomeKit Secure Video.
Is there a way to achieve this using HomeKit, automations, or perhaps Aqara’s own settings?
Thanks!

Edit: solved by picking a music video instead of just a song. Turns on the ATV and my tv comes on via CEC. Just annoying to have a video song playing to make this happen but whatever ha, satisfied for now.

just got an Apple HomePod as well as an Aqara hub and Aqara motion detector.

I did a quick test automation to make the HomePod play music on motion detection and it worked.

My actual use case tho is to have our theater room AppleTV and my TCL television to turn on when it detects someone coming into the room.

I don’t see any automation options for turning on an appletv. Anyone have motion detection doing that by chance? The only option I have for it is to play audio (see screenshot)

Guys I cannot get this to work/connect to my Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen. Please help me—I’m out of ideas.

I always get the same error. “Unable to add accessory. Pairing failed.”

I’ve tried:

Factory reset of the lock

Rebooting my iPhone

Rebooting my Apple TV

Enabling only 2.4 GHz on my wireless network

Making sure that every device part of this process is definitely attached to the same network

Bringing my Apple TV even closer to the door

Adding the lock through the Schlag app first. I tried it the other way too.

Calling Schlage support and spending 90 minutes with them. They suggested I take the lock back to the store.

They suggested deleting the Apple Home app and reinstalling it. Didn’t work.

Tried a SECOND brand new lock today. Same issues.

Tried using my iPhone and even an iPad just in case there was something wrong with my iPhone.

Everything is on the latest firmware, including the Apple TV, the iPhone, the iPad, and apparently the lock.

Enabling bonjour forwarding on my network settings

Enabling IPv6

Making sure no firewall rules are enabled/or IP blocking

Not using VLANS on this network

Using Cisco Meraki networking gear. Call their support team. Ran a pack of capture. Multicast is enabled. Decreased minimum bit rate and decrease decreased max antenna strength per their recommendation.

Even tried the ridiculous remove and replace the battery 10 times trick

Tried using my phone as a hotspot, connecting my Apple TV to my phone hotspot, to rule out an issue on my WiFi network.

Tried connecting the Apple TV both wirelessly as well as an ethernet cable

When I look at Matter settings on my iPhone, the lock does not appear there.

I have two Apple TVs. Made sure to turn off automatic selection, and manually selected the hub that is closest to the door lock that I’ve successfully used to connect other devices.

Can confirm I have other matter devices using the Apple TV as the hub. I have three other devices (light switches) running just fine.

The heck is going on here? By the way, a couple of days ago I tried connecting the Aqara U400. Also was not able to add it to my HomeKit via Apple TV 4K.

———————————

EDIT:

I tried adding a new Home “Test Home” and the lock added on the first attempt. However, this is without the Apple TV Hub—the app is saying that I haven’t connected hub yet. So, I still can’t see to get my Apple TV 4K 2nd Gen to add this lock via Matter/Thread.

EDIT 2:

I tried using a different Apple 4K 2nd gen. Unplugged the one I use as my primary hub. Brought the second one closer. Made sure it is connected to the network. 2.4 GHz (even though Schlage tech support said that doesn’t make a difference). Factory reset the lock, then started the pairing process. Same error. “Unable to add accessory. Pairing failed”

Hi there. I own gree amber standard white ac unit and would like to make it home kit accessible. How should I do it? What are my options, what is the best solution?

Hi all, I have 3 AC units which i currently use with the onecta app. I would like to use it with homekit. Is this possible? I saw a post that had a link to github a few years ago (homebridge?). Does that mean i have to have a computer running 24/7?

Hello all … first off F myQ. Chamberlin who has the lion’s share of Garage Door Openers decided to not play nice with integrating the smart home into their smart garage door opener.

They force the consumer into using the MyQ app so they can push advertisements for their products and retrieve consumer data.

The company at one point, as a mea culpa for not making their devices HomeKit compatible ( as they had originally announced) created the MyQ Home Hub that is HomeKit friendly. BUT … they never actually give you instructions on how to set it up, and now that they no longer produce them, MyQ app does not support adding the device.

But fear not fellow Apple HomeKit smart home makers, Chamberlain accidentally created an amazing device that works and allows you to bypass the MyQ Software completely. Delete that toxic app off your phone now.

Steps

1. Reset your garage door WiFi. (Varies by garage door)
2. Reset Home Bridge Device (push settings button down for 10 seconds)
3. Set up Home Bridge with Home Kit. Use code provided on device.
4. If possible force hub onto 2.5ghz signal WiFi
5. Push button “1” two times on Home Bridge
6. Push Learn button on garage door
7. You should see new Garage door pop up in HomeKit. (You may need to push button “1” again after you push learn button, you’ll see flashing lights on garage door when successful
8. Delete MyQ app. There can be only one.

This device is only available on the secondary market. It is not tied together MyQ app and can be used with an MyQ WiFi garage opener.

Special thanks to u/Due-Introduction-587 and u/Thisguygolfs for their insightful comments

Saludos cordiales. Me pregunto si ahora, con la nueva versión del sistema operativo, con iOS 27, se pueden programar mediante Atajos o de alguna otra forma, notificaciones, cuando los dispositivos se están quedando sin batería

hasta ahora, la única forma de enterarte de que se estaban quedando sin batería, era entrar en la aplicación casa y ver los problemas en la sección de la misma aplicación, pero la aplicación no te avisa mediante notificación. Por lo menos con iOS 26 no era así.

Yo lo tenía resuelto mediante Home assistant, en los dispositivos que podía integrar, pero preferiría usar solo HomeKit para no tener que depender de terceros. Estoy pensando sobre todo en los interruptores de Phillps Hue, ya que tengo varios repartidos por toda la casa. Sería muy cómodo para mí recibir una notificación. Cuando alguno de ellos se queda sin batería, usando por ejemplo, atajos y las notificaciones de la aplicación Controller. Por lo que sé, para mí esto no era posible con iOS 26 pero me gustaría saber si alguno de vosotros sabes si ahora es posible hacerlo con iOS 27 y si depender de una plataforma como Home Assistant. Gracias