Tips

As of iOS 16, the iPad will no longer work as a HomeKit hub

A heads-up to everyone using an iPad as their only HomeKit hub. When you update to iOS 16 later this fall, the iPad will no longer work as a HomeKit hub. The reason behind this is likely that the iPad lacks Thread, which is a low power wireless connectivity standard that is becoming more and […]

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iOS, tvOS, HomePod and iPadOS 15.4 are out

I installed 15.4 on my iPhone, AppleTVs and HomePod, and HomeKit seems to be working fine. If anything, my automations using HomeKit Shortcuts seem a bit snappier. If you have any problems after updating, your first action should be rebooting the whole chain (router, hubs and bridges). I’ve also heard of problems when using hubs

iOS, tvOS, HomePod and iPadOS 15.4 are out Read More »

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The power of the Format Date function and how to use it for shortcuts using time of day or sunrise/sunset (part 3)

Now it’s time to finally look at how we can use what we’ve done in part 1 and part 2, and add the ability to use offsets with sunrise and sunset time. When we’re talking about offsets, we mean using for example the time of the sunrise in a conditional but shifted by a predetermined

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HomeKit Shortcut bug fixed in iOS 15.1 / tvOS 15.1 / iPadOS 15.1 / HomePod Software Update 15.1

The bug introduced in iOS (and tvOS, etc) 15, seems now to have been fixed in the 15.1 update. If you used any of the workarounds in my earlier posts, those would of course continue to work. The Home app also seems a lot little bit more stable when writing longer HomeKit shortcuts.

HomeKit Shortcut bug fixed in iOS 15.1 / tvOS 15.1 / iPadOS 15.1 / HomePod Software Update 15.1 Read More »

Workaround for the HomeKit shortcut bug in iOS 15 / tvOS 15 (with examples)

What is the HomeKit shortcut bug introduced in iOS 15 / tvOS 15? The latest version of iOS 15 and tvOS 15 (at the time of writing) broke the use of conditionals (if-statements) in HomeKit automation shortcuts when it comes to three different inputs: The brightness level of a light The light level measured by

Workaround for the HomeKit shortcut bug in iOS 15 / tvOS 15 (with examples) Read More »

Workaround for the HomeKit shortcut bug in iOS 15 / tvOs 15

UPDATE: It appears that the bug has been fixed with iOS 15.1 / tvOS 15.1 / HomePod Software Version 15.1. There is a workaround for the HomeKit shortcut bug in iOS 15 / tvOS 15. The problem occurs in shortcuts using for instance brightness percentages values (of lights) or brightness lux values (from sensors) in

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Some HomeKit Automations (using shortcuts) are broken in iOS 15 / tvOS 15

It seems like some HomeKit Automations are still broken in the release version of iOS 15 / tvOS 15. For instance, HomeKit shortcuts using conditional if statements where the brightness off a room (with a lux meter / motion sensor), or even the brightness of a lamp is checked, these conditionals are always interpreted as

Some HomeKit Automations (using shortcuts) are broken in iOS 15 / tvOS 15 Read More »

The power of the Format Date function and how to use it for shortcuts using time of day or sunrise/sunset (part 2)

This is part two of the power of the Format Date function, and it will build on what we looked at in part 1. We’ll look at how we can utilize the Format Date function for use with the sunrise and sunset. In part three we’ll look at using this technique with offsets (for example if

The power of the Format Date function and how to use it for shortcuts using time of day or sunrise/sunset (part 2) Read More »

The power of the Format Date function and how to use it for shortcuts using time of day or sunrise/sunset (part 1)

In this post I want to spotlight the Format Date function, which is very useful and makes using time in shortcuts a breeze. I’ll explain how you can use it with a shortcut example. What is the Format Date function? 🤔 The Format Date function formats date values as the name implies. However, it also

The power of the Format Date function and how to use it for shortcuts using time of day or sunrise/sunset (part 1) Read More »

Building a shortcut using conditionals with sunrise minus one hour, time of day and room brightness

Keith, a reader of this blog, had a rather interesting problem he was trying to solve, and as I was taking a look at it, I thought the solution could help many with how to break down a trickier problem into smaller bits. What do we want to do? Use a Hue Motion Sensor to

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