Smart AC (2x) and Homekit “not responding” issue.
I have an issue with my 2 (two) Smart ACs. They continuously go to the “not responding state” in Homekit. They are still reachable and usable in the Tado app itself at that moment though.
What works for me consistently as a workaround, is blocking internet access of any ONE, or BOTH Tado Smart ACs in my wifi router. When I do that the “not responding” state does not happen at all in the Homekit app on the Iphone, iPad or Apple TV4K. Of course you cannot use the Tado app after a short while, with internet access blocked for the Smart ACs. But homekit works fine then.
What also works is removing any one of my Smart ACs from power. Then the “not responding state” does not occur for the remaining Smart AC.
Tado helpdesk says it is probably an issue with iOS 15.2. And recommends upgrading to a new beta release, but failed to mention whether this worked for support themselves. After I tried iOS 15.3 beta the issue remained. I am not sure why Tado specifically mentions iOS, the iPad uses iPadOs, the Apple TV 4K uses TvOS, and the Homepod uses HomepodOS.
I have my doubts whether this is iOS related, it seems more like a possible software issue in the Smart ACs that impairs homekit communication when two Smart ACs are connected at the same time to the Tado cloud. Maybe a connection “hangs” sometimes when multiple Tado devices connect to the Tado cloud on a single account, and prevents further network sessions. I see in Discovery DNS-SD app there is no _hap._tcp traffic from the Tado device when it is in “not responding” state.
But I might be wrong, maybe it is a network routing issue or indeed a Homekit issue. But my devices from Eve, Hue and Nanoleaf have no issues at all in Homekit.
Comments
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Just FYI - iOS 15.3 beta 2 (released yesterday) does not resolve 'device not responding' issue.
Also the lag in transferring data to Apple Home App / from tado° still exists, so customers will get contradicted temperature / humidity readings.
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I experience exactly the same thing and have seen others report the same issue like in this Reddit thread: https://reddit.com/r/HomeKit/comments/rs6tmy/anyone_else_have_issues_with_their_tado_homekit/
It might be an iOS issue, but surely it is also just as much a Tado firmware issue if it’s the only one affected? I have plenty other Wi-Fi accessories (Nanoleaf, Eve Cam, Wemo plugs, Molekule, Kaiterra, and several others) in my home and ONLY Tado disappears in HAP and goes unresponsive in the Home app. 15.2.1 and 15.3 (beta 2) doesn’t do much to help resolve the problem.
I can replicate the 'temporary' fix by blocking internet access to the Tado (in my case: thru HomeKit Secure Router) but it hoses my router. It seems like the Tado goes haywire and makes a lot of calls after it notices the block. In a few hours after the block it completely crashes my router forcing me to turn the physical switch of the router off then back on before removing the block to the Tado otherwise it will crash my router again in just a few hours time.
Other 'temporary' fixes I noticed would be restarting the iPhone, or turn off the Wi-Fi and turn it back on again, or power off a different HomeKit accessory to force HAP to rebuild. All three only last a few minutes before the Tado drops off from HAP again and becomes unresponsive.
One quirk I noticed after leaving Bonjour on to monitor the situation is that HAP rebuilds pretty often even though other accessories in my home haven't changed states. One problem appears to be that every time it rebuilds the Tado has a problem getting back there.0 -
Strange, someone seems to have deleted my previous reply here. I can't see it anymore. But just to write it again:
I'm experiencing the same exact issue as outlined elsewhere on the internet like Reddit. Out of all of my Wi-Fi accessories (Nanoleaf, Kaiterra, Eve Cam, Molekule, and others) only Tado Smart AC Control V3+ suffers from this issue. Should this truly be an iOS issue it sounds likely it can also just as much be a Tado firmware issue if it's the only one affected.
I can replicate the 'fix' you mentioned by blocking internet access to the Tado, but it hoses my router. It seems like the Tado goes nuts and makes plenty of calls after it notices the block in an attempt to check connectivity. A few hours after I block Tado using HomeKit Secure Router it crashes my router forcing me to use the physical switch of the router (turn it off then back on) and then change the HKSR back so the Tado would have access to the internet again. So I can't use this fix unfortunately. I'm not sure why the Tado can cause the router to crash as I have other HomeKit accessories on block and they don't suffer from this problem.
Other very temporary fixes I encountered would be
- Turning off Wi-Fi and then turning it back on;
- Restarting the iPhone;
- Powering off/on a different HomeKit accessory
Any of the three seems to force HAP to rebuild. And speaking of rebuild, I've been monitoring HAP for the last few weeks since the problem began and what I noticed is that HAP seems to rebuild on its own pretty often, and when that happens the Tado drops off completely and has great difficulty coming back. Meanwhile, other Wi-Fi HomeKit accessories have no problem getting back to HAP immediately.
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I only have a Tado V3+ and "not responding" is the usual status for this buggy accessory. I have more than 40 accesories at home (Lifx, Aqara, Nanoleaf, Ikea, Yeelight...) with no problems but Tado is a disaster. Restart device or router, change the router preferences, etc. It only gives me an hour of normal operation.
Tado should start working on its software, because I don't think it's Apple's fault, it's this poorly made machine and/or software.
I am already looking forward to replacing it with another similar product that works as expected.
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@Jose7 does blocking the internet access for your Tado device result in stable homekit connection, like it did for me?
I have been looking at my Asus wifi router log. Both Smart ACs break their wifi connection and disassociate, between 1500 and 2500 times a day. And reconnects to wifi immediately again after the disconnect.
Interestingly the wifi disassociating stops when I allow internet access for the Smart ACs. It seems whenever the internet connection is blocked (or in any way not present) the Smart AC responds by continuously stopping and starting the wifi connection. My router can handle this but if a lot of devices would do this it would perhaps have an impact on overall wifi performance.
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In the Reddit thread “Anyone else have issues with their Tado HomeKit accessories after 15.2?” by missbootleg there are more posters having the same issue as mine.
“No response” issues in Homekit for them do not happen when blocking internet access for the Tado devices, but then there are soon issues with i.e. a Velop wifi router crashing after some time when restricting internet access.
I have an Asus rt-ax86 (non Homekit)router plus two AImesh nodes, and my router seems to be able to cope with the spamming of wifi disassociations. The Velop seems not to like that. In any case it is a very unsophisticated way to check/repair internet connections.
What I also noticed when I upgraded my Asus a few days ago I had to power on/off the router after the upgrade. After the reboot all my devices reconnected to wifi with no issues, only the Tado Smart AC needed to be powercycled to reconnect to wifi. Seemingly although it stop/starts wifi many times when no internet is available, it has difficulty to get a new wifi connection without help.
My feeling is that the network part of the Smart AC is simply not very stable. Mainly when connected to the Tado cloud.
Earlier I said that if I only block ONE of my Smart ACs the “no response” in HomeKit does not happen. That is not true it seems, I still get “no response” but much less frequent and it sometimes resolves itself.
This morning Firmware version 95 was pushed by Tado to my Smart ACs without any action by me (came from v94) as also mentioned in the Reddit thread. Homekit issues came back after some time. Even after a powercycle of my Smart ACs, Apple TV4k, HomePod, iPad and iPhone. I only need to reboot my wifi router later to see what happens then. I could also try to hard reset my Smart ACs but I am reluctant to do that.
So I am probably back to blocking internet access for the Smart ACs.
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Where do you see a firmware v95? My thermostats are running von firmware 54.20 and my bridge on 92.1.0
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It is the firmware for the Tado Smart AC. It is on a different version than other Tado products.
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UPDATE: I have found something else while looking at my Asus router log. My Netatmo v2 weather station (non-homekit version) also disassociates every five minutes or so and reconnects. Then I remembered an article about explaining why my Netatmo v2 could not use homekit but later models could, and I found the article.
Netatmo quote “We have also had to make changes to the Weather Station’s circuit board. The Stations connect to Wi-Fi at regular intervals to communicate their data to our servers. However, the HomeKit protocol requires a constant Wi-Fi connection. After carrying out tests, we realised that this constant connection was causing the circuit board to heat up which could distort the Station’s internal measurements. Due to the design of the circuit board at that time we were therefore unable to provide accurate internal measurements. We have therefore modified the implementation of the components on the circuit board to move the temperature and humidity sensor away from the Wi-Fi chip in order to limit the impact of the heat on the measurements.”
For the Netatmo v2 is explains why it disconnects. But for the Tado smart AC it would be bad. Netatmo states an continous connection with wifi is needed (I think it is true HomeKit needs a continuous connection, you don’t want delays because the device has no connection to the homekithub. So if there is no internet connection i.e. it is blocked or if the Tado cloud account does not respond in time, the Smart AC resets the wifi connection which is not nice for HomeKit. Strangely enough it works for me with blocking internet still most of the time. Only a delay would happen when the Smart AC is in the proces of disassociating, reconnecting and DHCP negotiations.
But it would be surely nice to be able to tell Tado Smart AC that I do not use Tado cloud and want HomeKit only, and thus it would stop disconnecting wifi. Tado should at least find a better way to check internet connections, especially for those users who want to use homekit, but blocking their internet connection crashes their wifi router seemingly because of continuous wifi disassociations.
For me it is most likely a bad networkstack on the firmware of the Tado Smart AC. Based on the info I have now, I say sometimes the Tado cloud does not respond soon enough for whatever reason. And this triggers a bug that prevents any more Homekit traffic sessions initiated, but still allows Tado cloud trafic.
Also Tado @Jurian confirms there are Tado cloud issues. In https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/4783/launch-a-range-extender-or-upgrade-to-mesh-network/p2 Jurian states:
“Improve the reliability of the connection to the cloud from the tado bridge (making sure the bridge does not lose connection unless there is a real internet outage, which is very rare).”
“I linked to the other thread, to let everyone know that we will NOT be developing a local schedule, instead we will look at significantly increasing the stability of the connections from the tado bridge to the tado devices and from the tado bridge to the cloud.”
“Please note: This firmware has not done anything for the stability of the connection to the tado cloud (the LAN connection).”
I think firmware v95 if anything has made it worse. My feeling is that homekit has become less stable. It takes sometimes a few seconds for the Smart AC to reconnect and even other devices seem to be affected by it. It still works but is closer to breaking now.
Btw, I use static IP addresses for all my devices.
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I did an upgrade to iOS 15.3 , iPadOS 15.3 , HomepodOS 15.3 and tvOS 15.3. It does not solve the issue of “not responding” in HomeKit. I do not think it is a HomeKit issue.
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@MichielTado Adding HomePod mini to the network has resolved “device not responding” messages.
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@rafm5 what do you mean exactly? You just added a homepod mini to your network and it works now?
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Hi @MichielTado
Correct, after adding HomePod (mini version) no more “device not responding” errors.
Tested for over 30 days on iOS 15.3 + latest 15.4. No issues.
Additional benefit:
- remote access to Home devices
- additional automation
- voice commands
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@rafm5 I am happy for you that you have no issues, but I doubt it is related to adding a HomePod Mini. I have a HomePod mini too. Remote access and voice commands always work when my Smart ACs are responding/available in Homekit, even in 15.2. But unfortunately they are mostly not in iOS 15.2 and 15.3.
What additional automations are possible for you after adding the homepod mini? And is your experience with the Smart AC?
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I'm experiencing the same exact issue as outlined elsewhere on the internet like Reddit. Out of all of my Wi-Fi accessories (Nanoleaf, Kaiterra, Eve Cam, Molekule, and others) only Tado Smart AC Control V3+ suffers from this issue. Should this truly be an iOS issue it sounds likely it can also just as much be a Tado firmware issue if it's the only one affected.
I can replicate the 'fix' you mentioned by blocking internet access to the Tado, but it hoses my router. It seems like the Tado goes nuts and makes plenty of calls after it notices the block in an attempt to check connectivity. A few hours after I block Tado using HomeKit Secure Router it crashes my router forcing me to use the physical switch of the router (turn it off then back on) and then change the HKSR back so the Tado would have access to the internet again. So I can't use this fix unfortunately. I'm not sure why the Tado can cause the router to crash as I have other HomeKit accessories on block and they don't suffer from this problem.
Other very temporary fixes I encountered would be
- Turning off Wi-Fi and then turning it back on;
- Restarting the iPhone;
- Powering off/on a different HomeKit accessory
Any of the three seems to force HAP to rebuild. And speaking of rebuild, I've been monitoring HAP for the last few weeks since the problem began and what I noticed is that HAP seems to rebuild on its own pretty often, and when that happens the Tado drops off completely and has great difficulty coming back. Meanwhile, other Wi-Fi HomeKit accessories have no problem getting back to HAP immediately.
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I'm experiencing the same exact issue as outlined elsewhere on the internet like Reddit. Out of all of my Wi-Fi accessories (Nanoleaf, Kaiterra, Eve Cam, Molekule, and others) only Tado Smart AC Control V3+ suffers from this issue. Should this truly be an iOS issue it sounds likely it can also just as much be a Tado firmware issue if it's the only one affected.
I can replicate the 'fix' you mentioned by blocking internet access to the Tado, but it hoses my router. It seems like the Tado goes nuts and makes plenty of calls after it notices the block in an attempt to check connectivity. A few hours after I block Tado using HomeKit Secure Router it crashes my router forcing me to use the physical switch of the router (turn it off then back on) and then change the HKSR back so the Tado would have access to the internet again. So I can't use this fix unfortunately. I'm not sure why the Tado can cause the router to crash as I have other HomeKit accessories on block and they don't suffer from this problem.
Other very temporary fixes I encountered would be
- Turning off Wi-Fi and then turning it back on;
- Restarting the iPhone;
- Powering off/on a different HomeKit accessory
Any of the three seems to force HAP to rebuild. And speaking of rebuild, I've been monitoring HAP for the last few weeks since the problem began and what I noticed is that HAP seems to rebuild on its own pretty often, and when that happens the Tado drops off completely and has great difficulty coming back. Meanwhile, other Wi-Fi HomeKit accessories have no problem getting back to HAP immediately.
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@katkat thanks for sharing your experience.
Why your Homekit router crashes puzzles me. I would imagine that wifi disassociations every minute would be something a router can handle easily. But my Asus router is not giving all network traffic info. Maybe it is something different like i.e. DNS requests https://community.tado.com/en-gb/discussion/4353/dns-queries-gone-crazy My knowledge of Pi-hole or wireshark is zero, but these would be the tools to check that. I would speculate the router has something like an memory overflow caused by persistent requests by the Tado smart AC. I also block other devices and they certainly do not disassociate wifi every minute.
On the topic of HAP tcp, I use the Discover mDNS app for that. And when Tado is not sending Hap tcp traffic my other devices are still visible as sending HAP, and are working in HomeKit. So it seems to me it is not a total breakdown of HAP.
I still guess it is a bug in the smart AC network software, and needs to be resolved by a firmware update by Tado.
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Tado released v95.0 of the firmware as a solution https://status.tado.com/incidents/2t23gfwl6vlz
Difficult to check if I have received that firmware since I already have v95.0 since Jan 18th 2021 which did not solve the issue. It would have helped if Tado would have named it v95.1 assuming it is a newer firmware. Also a pity Tado gave no indication what the issue and solution was. But I will test in the coming days.
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After almost two days of testing I think the issue is resolved with the updated v95.0 firmware. HomeKit “not responding” messages do not happen in the Home app anymore.
I am still perplexed by the lack of proper versioning of the firmware. You really have no clue if some firmware update was done, not even an notification in the Tado app or a changelog. Why be so opaque about that?
But I am happy it works again.
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Hello everyone!
unfortunately I'm experiencing this issue on Firmware 118.2
It happens with AppleTV or HomePod and iPad mini as Hub.
Network runs on Eero Pro 6 on 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. Of Course the controllers are reachable by the Tado app but not through the Home app.
I already reset the devices and they come back on line in home for 1 day or 2 than they disappear.
I wonder why they do not work by connecting to the Tado Gateway...
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Hello @GLOP . What do you exactely mean with the devices ‘disappear’? They disappear from the Home app or they go into the ‘not responding’ state? Are you talking about the Tado Smart AC? You refer to the TADO gateway, what do you mean with that?
For me 118.3 is working fine for my Smart ACs in homekit, no disconnects in Homekit.
The Smart AC uses 2.4 Ghz only.
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