Apple Home 2.0: Rebuilding My Smart Home

After experiencing some issues, I decided it was time to rebuild my entire Apple Home smart home from scratch. In this video I will bring you along so you can exprience my process and learn from my journey and mistakes.

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SOCIAL
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🎥 RECOMMENDED
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▶ HomeKit 101 Playlist: Getting Started

▶ Backup Your Smart Home [Controller for HomeKit]

▶ Matter in 2023: Your Smart Home is Changing

▶ My Ultimate Smart Home Tour!

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CHAPTERS
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0:00 Starting Over
1:50 New Wi-Fi 7
3:10 HomeKit Backups
4:00 Saving HomeKit/Matter Codes
4:25 Starting my Rebuild
6:44 Adding Hubs & Thread Devices
8:00 Restore from a Backup
9:06 Tips for Rebuilding
10:22 Assign Accessories for Backup
13:17 Restore Home
15:06 Restore Automations
16:15 Restore Service Groups
16:54 Restore Scenes
18:46 Final Thoughts

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#AppleHome #SmartHome

[jeffn]

Apple really needs to put more effort into homekit in regards to letting us make backups of automations to prevent things like this from becoming a mess down the road. Also their HomePods that constantly have thread issues and feel the need to take over as the main home hub. Ive had to rebuild twice in the past

[Polkster]

I am so sorry you had to go through all of this pain. I am so glad that your wife was supportive and understanding as you had to go through this. I have only had to do this once and I dread ever having to do it again. I feel your pain, brother.

[bwadley]

Wow I have been through this more than once but I only have 50 or so devices not 165! I could feel your pain watching this as it’s not easy, and I agree hubs are great! Still love HomeKit 🥰

[jvonkas]

Thanks a lot for being the HomeKit lab bunny! I had my share of trouble with a MUCH smaller setup. Trouble started with Apple's New Architecture. Apple support included designing a plug-in for me to reverse to old Architecture but they also had to reverse a server upgrade at their end. I had to setup my home from scratch and things came back to 99% reliable! The next hurdle was vendors upgrading firmware to include Matter. That was bad news for me. I had go through hoops to exclude the Matter protocols and just use Thread. My conclusion: HomeKit is certainly not plug and play. I loathe to imagine an uninitiated person (like my granny) getting into it! It's nerd stuff for sure, like the early Internet. I'm also glad I did not pay for Controller! Instead I used screenshots to record my settings.

[MrNatetheTeacher]

So eager to watch this video. I have had trouble with my home for months. Tried starting from scratch and even failed at that. Hoping I get an idea from you here.

[faengelm]

Thanks for detailing the steps. Your comments on the benefits of hubs were great.

[gregghayes]

I am sorry for your pain Shane! I found this super interesting to see how to selectively restore with controller.

[GeorgeLangabeer]

Man, I can only imagine how frustrating this must be. Such a weird & crazy thing. You had me scared to death I was going to have the same issue, but knock on wood, so far so good. So strange it hit you like this. I’d be going nuts. You’ve handled this very well. This should be a great help to anyone experiencing the same issues.

[MarkGreenwoodOfficial]

Thank you for the post Shane. I have been watching your channel for some time. But this was a great post, in that I'm facing the same decision. I started such a long time I have some devices that started at the beginning of Home Kit. I look forward to hearing how everything goes for you.. Best of luck my friend.. I'm hoping it's all successful!!!

[mikerisner]

What a coincidence! You're not alone. Ghosts in the machine here and there. Erratic functionality, mostly related to my HOOBS box. I went thru a process starting with simple fixes (that did not work), and ended up starting over completely from scratch. Then reviewing ALL of my automations and shortcuts. It was a slog, but I got thru it.

[zain-zeus]

I went through the same situation after updating to 16.4 and all my HK accessories was not responding so I started from scratch as well, luckily I had a backup with controller and most of my accessories are from Aqara plus couple of other hubs and few wifi devices, some automation I couldn’t restore from controller but I had I photos of my all automations. What I learned is I should always have a QR code backup, I keep most of the automation as scene based automation and always using a hub. Thanks Shane for your video 🙏🏻

[EmilTheoneandonly]

Very smart content as always! Well done

[BSDjunkie]

Interesting video! Have had issue with Philips Hue in the past, so I got rid of the Hue bulbs and hub and switched to Nanoleaf smart bulbs. Occasionally they need to be reset to factory default settings and added back. I keep all of my codes in the Notes app with #Home and #HomeKit so I don’t have to go climbing ladders and re-looking them up! But resetting to factor and adding them back seemed to help. Not sure what you were experiencing but will check your videos Shane! 👍

[michaelthompson]

If you want a full backup so you can even change the device you’re running it on I would 100% recommend home assistant

[dit]

This really has me thinking. I’ve been debating about moving all the smart devices to a separate SSID. I don’t have nearly the amount of automations you have. It might be easier to move the non smart off the current SSID LOL.


Thanks for doing this video.

[stevesmacfix]

Still watching the vid as I'm typing but I feel your pain. I just redid my homekit from scratch and I'm glad I did. . Obviously it's not as big as yours but I do have 44 devices. I did not change the name of the network but I did reset each device. I noticed response times are faster and definitely less problems. Feel your pain. That was smart to setup a new home. I will do that next time. Great vids man.

[jdb]

I know how this feels Shane. After fighting Homekit for over 1 year I gave up and jumped to home assistant. Never looking back. One day you’ll be fed up with apple ignoring homekit issues and maybe you’ll be brave enough to do it too.

[evan]

Dang this is a NIGHTMARE. I’ve had to start from scratch once from similar problems last year and LORD did it take ages to redo all my automations and scenes. Thankfully my lights are hue so yeah the hub saved me lots of time

[howardzhao]

I had tons of troubles at one point, and talked with Apple support and vendors without any good results and solution. Just about to the point to rebuild the entire Home, then I noticed as soon as I removed my original HomePods from the Home, everything came to life as I was expected. I reported this to Apple. ever since I removed original HomePods, my Home has been working for the past two years without any problem. The HomePod mini is fine. My problem started with Threads devices as well, then getting worth with other devices and WiFi performance, especially with the 2.4GHz network, which was also Homwpods as the primary clients too. Just some experiences to share. Thanks again for your video.

[Jupiterne]

First of all, thank you very much for sharing this Shane. I would imagine it was very difficult and maybe a little embarrassing for a HomeKit content creator like yourself to have to show just how difficult and a mess HomeKit can be. I am *slowly* setting up a HomeKit home and am fortunate enough to be doing this in a new build where Ethernet was run everywhere. And if there is one thing I consistently see on the various forums is that a ROCK SOLID WiFi network is needed. I was wary of mesh Wifi so I hardwired my APs for WiFi on each floor. Perhaps it is easier for someone with a one story or wood-framed home, but I'm glad I don't have to rely on mesh. Keep up the good work!