Homebridge running but “no response” in HomeKit

[jeffl78]

The title pretty much says it all but this seems to be happening more often since I updated to iOS 11.3 on the iPhone X and 11.3.0 on the Apple TV 4th generation. I have tried deleting persist and accessories, resetting Apple TV, upgrading homebridge, adding and removing accessories in HomeKit. After repeating this a few times I started removing homebridge completely and reinstalling, which I tried a few times. Homebridge will run just fine but after a while, say an hour or so, homebridge and accessories stop responding in HomeKit. After a reboot homebridge will once again, work for about an hour.

Any help would be appreciated.

• Homebridge: 0.4.38
• Node: 9.10.1
• NPM: 5.6.8
• OS: Raspberry Pi 3b with Rasbian and Noobs

[paki81]

Same issue for me after update my device to 11.3

[cmcken]

Also same issue for me after update to 11.3

[davidvanvo]

has there been any changes to the network or to the raspberry pi? i’m on a mac installation with the latest tvos and ios and all of our phones have been working fine.

[cmcken]

No network changes - only change I am aware of is update to ios 11.3. I am also running on a raspberry pi.

[Veldkornet]

I have no problems either...

Node: 8.9.4
NPM: 5.6.0
homebridge: 0.4.38
OS: Raspbian (RaspberryPi 2)

[paki81]

No network change, only devices updated to last ios and tv os

[paki81]

Can you tell us how you solve the problem?

[mbdmbd]

FWIW, I was following this as I was having similar issues over the past couple of days (running on a mac). I noticed that Little Snitch was blocking connections to node due to an 'invalid code signature'. I was able to confirm this by testing the configured port (as defined in the config.json). After forcing the rule in Little Snitch to allow connections, and a successful tcp connection was possible from devices on my network, I was good to go again

➜ nc -z 192.168.1.88 51826
Connection to 192.168.1.88 port 51826 [tcp/*] succeeded!

[jeffl78]

I reformatted my pi, reset my apple TV, and re-added everything and my HomeKit accessories work for a about 10 hours or so before I get "no responce" from them after which a reboot seems to reproduce this. I am trying to figure out what mbdmbd did and if it applies to my situation but otherwise I am running out of things to try. I have a feeling on of my plugins may be causing the issue. Any input is certainly welcome.

[mbdmbd]

In my case it was effectively a network issue where Little Snitch (a Mac App that acts as a kind of firewall to stop your machine from sending/receiving unexpected data) had some issues with node and was blocking incoming and outgoing tcp connections. So, it may not be the exact same issue, but it may be worth checking whether or not you're able to access homebridge on the TCP port of the RPI from other network hosts. (and vice versa).

[andyoneal]

same issue here. not running little snitch. also running off of a raspberry pi 3.

[popepay]

Same issue here. Running on raspberry pi 3.
I don’t have any firewalls (little snitch, etc).

My router system is Eero. Maybe they have a firewall? Idk

[we5]

In my experience there is usually some problems with the platforms or accessories which messes up HomeKit. Unfortunately sometimes even the 3rd party apps like Home or Eve can not unblock it.

I am running FHEM with homebridge-fhem and I keep getting problems or unreliable behavior if the homebridge-fhem platform plugin gets more than 50 devices. I now try to split this up to multiple platforms or multiple homebridge instances. I already have one separate instance for a guest Home and this is working just fine, even if there are the same "problematic" devices (but a lot less than 50 of them).

[jungopro]

Hi All
I'm having the exact same issue. My Homebridge is running on:

• Levnovo Yoga with Windows 10
• iphone 8 with latest iOS

In my case, restarting homebridge fixes the issue for a few minutes and then it returns and status is no response

[jungopro]

FYI, I installed homebridge inside ubuntu wsl on Windows and getting the same issue...

Anyone? Anything???

[tosate]

I am having the same issue on an iPad and an iPhone running iOS 11.3. These devices state that there is "no response" in Homekit. I have another iPhone that is still on iOS 11.2.6 and my homebridge instance is working fine on this device.

[jungopro]

So it's an iOS issue I guess.. funny, I'm testing HA with the HomeKit plugin in parallel and I don't experience the same issues there...

[Squuiid]

"Homebridge will run just fine but after a while, say an hour or so, homebridge and accessories stop responding in HomeKit. After a reboot homebridge will once again, work for about an hour."

Same issue here. Running on Ubuntu Server 16.04.4 LTS VM and iOS 11.3 devices.

[jeffl78]

I got mine running fairly well now after resetting everything I listed above. Everything works fine for days at a time, the same “no response” in HomeKit issue only happens and requires a reboot to correct every few days. I’ll try to get more details about the logs and post them when I can.

[Squuiid]

@jeffl78 Can you post what versions of everything you are now running with it working? This would be very helpful. Also, are you on iOS 11.3 on all of your devices?
Thanks.

@Veldkornet You mentioned that you have no problems, are you also running iOS 11.3?
Thanks.

[Squuiid]

UPDATE: I downgraded Node.js from 9.11.1 to 8.11.1 LTS and now it all works perfectly!
It would seem as though, at least for me, Node.js 9.x was the problem.

[Squuiid]

UPDATE 2: Nope. Issue persists when using Node.js 8.x. It just took a little longer to become unresponsive.
This is very frustrating.

[cubilon]

let’s try node.js 1.0
just kidding

_{Sent with GitHawk}

[Erokani]

Hi,
Same thing, hombridge running on debian jessie, devices with iOS 13.
For me, when it happens, I need to change the rooms in the homekit app until it finally ends recovering the connection. I don't need a reset. However this is very frustrating to wait until it succeeds...

[HelloNewW]

Erokani - That exactly my situation...
How can I debug my case?

[Squuiid]

It turns out that my problem was that the plugin I was running crashes Homebridge.
The only plugin I run is HarmonyHub and it is incredible unstable. Dev seems to have abandoned the project so there’s little hope of things improving unfortunately.

[HelloNewW]

Thanks for your guidance...
It`s looks like that I need to load hombridge in debug mode and make some research.
Possibly one or more of my plugins unstable with the new IOS11.3
Hope

[tosate]

As I have already mentioned, I have an iPhone which is still running on iOS 11.2.6 and another iPhone which runs iOS 11.3. Homebridge works perfectly with the first device. On the iOS 11.3 device I get the 'no response' error.
I have used tcpdump and wireshark to find out what the two devices do when I start the home app. In both cases I have killed the home app on the device and restarted the homebridge daemon. After that I have recorded the network traffic on the homebridge port and I have started the home app.

Disclaimer: I have no knowledge about HomeKit or homebridge, therefore I can just describe what I see in the network traffic.

[iOS 11.2.6]
The iOS device sends a request to the homebridge server. It's a raw TCP packet with probably encrypted data. I cannot recognize any familiar strings in the data. Homebridge replies with three acknowledge [ACK] packets, followed by a [PSH, ACK] packet. The iPhone responds with two [ACK] pakets. Everything happens in 7 TCP packets going back and forth.

[iOS 11.3]
The iOS device sends a synchronization request [SYN] which is acknowledged by the homebridge server with a [SYN, ACK] request. The iPhone also acknowledges the synchronization with an [ACK] packet. After that the iPhone performs a pairing over HTTP (media type: application/pairing+tlv8). The homebridge server replies with HTTP 200 OK and the iPhone acknowledges this packet. Then the iPhone sends another pairing request over HTTP and the homebridge server replies with HTTP 200 OK.
After those two pairing request (which have failed probably), the iPhone stops the connection with a FIN packet.
Then it all starts from the beginning and this sequence is repeated 5 times.

So what is the problem? Unfortunately, I don't know. Maybe the pairing mechanism was not enforced in previous versions of iOS and is mandatory now. I could not find the string 'tlv8' in the homebridge repository, so my guess is that this protocol is not implemented yet by homebridge. Maybe I am completely wrong.

A copy of the "HomeKit Accessory Protocol Specification" describing the pairing over IP can be found at https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0ahUKEwjpiJmtxt_aAhVGFywKHQ6xCgYQFghGMAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fcommunity.ubnt.com%2Fubnt%2Fattachments%2Fubnt%2FairVision_Ideas%2F2505%2F1%2FHAP-Specification-Non-Commercial-Version.pdf&usg=AOvVaw07maQN8gvW6VeZbamuoJux

Another HomeKit HAP implementation with implemented tlv8 is https://github.com/etwmc/Personal-HomeKit-HAP

Hopefully this will help to fix this issue.

Cheers,
tosate

[a-x-]

I have "no response" too. I have to wait about minute before device becomes responsible

when I used raw HAP and iOS 11 earlier, I had no problems

[hepcat72]

Since I restored my phone after a trip to Mexico, I’ve been getting either no response or “couldn’t find anything like that” on a frequent and regular basis. Some iDevices completely refuse to control Homebridge devices and other iDevices insist that I append “outlet” or “switch” to the device name - but only for specific devices. It’s a royal mess and I believe it’s either Apple’s fault or the result of a mixed iOS environment. What I’d like to know is what tools can I use to determine where the breakdown in communication is?

[inikolaev]

FYI, I installed homebridge inside ubuntu wsl on Windows and getting the same issue...
Anyone? Anything???

I finally managed installing homebridge with WSL (Ubuntu on Windows 10).
config.json:

{
 "mdns": { "interface": "192.168.2.103"}, // <-- HERE
"bridge": {
    "name": "HomebirdgeWSL",
    "username": "CC:AB:3A:E2:CD:32",
    "port": 51826,
    "pin": "313-44-555"
  },
  "description": "Homebridge Example",

where, of course, interface has the value of the Windows machines network interface.

This resolved an issue for me while trying to run Homebridge on Raspberry Pi, though still running into the same issue when trying to run it with systemd.

[mrdc]

I have "no response" too. I have to wait about minute before device becomes responsible

The same issues for me after I've installed Homebridge Mi Humidifier plugin. Before it was fine.

[mrdc]

BTW Looks like it caused by an old unused bridges in persistent folder. Deleting them improves speed in my case.

[harveyappleton]

It may be of some help to someone - but I a few months ago swapped my home network infrastructure to be 2x Netgear switches (24 port and 8 port), and was having no end of issues for months. Couldn’t trace the problem but last night spotted that both switches had IGMP snooping turned ON, which after turning off, has made my homebridge installation so much more reliable and fast.

Perhaps there should be a “recommended network settings / environment” page to help avoid issues like this? :)

[mafyata]

I use apple airport extreme 6th and igmp snooping has no effect. Homekit is working good when it is on and off.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity, and will be closed if no further activity occurs. If this issue was overlooked, forgotten, or should remain open for any other reason, please reply here to call attention to it and remove the stale status. Thank you for your contributions.

[hepcat72]

I'd like to provide some tips that can mitigate this issue in some cases so as to make it less frequent. I discovered that sometimes, I was getting the error responses when my Pi showed 50% cpu usage (which is really 100% of one of the dual cores). The culprit in this case was my pilight server. It would get busy from time to time churching away on processing background RF signals. I disabled the receiver (because I was only using it to record new remote buttons) and the incidence of the Siri error responses went way down. It didn't completely go away, but not only did it become much less frequent, it also became much faster when it did work. To see if this is an issue, do a top when Siri starts throwing errors and see if the pi is busy doing something else.

[snowdd1]

After a long and successful uptime, even surviving a move between two raspberries, it suddenly happened to me when switching to systemd-networkd for network card management (for getting a reliable LAN/WLAN failover). Now I have to remove/re-add 5 homebridge instances with hundreds of devices :-(

[mbicca]

Started having issues recently as well ...

Homebridge status says "not responding"

Tried pretty much ALL releases from 1.1.5 up to 1.3.0-beta-13

Previous configuration worked perfectly for a long time, it seems the issue started after updating nodejs to 12.19.0

Tried also a fresh install on Ubuntu 20.04, with new config file no luck, same message.

Everything "seems" to be up and running, don't really see any errors in the debug logs.
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# node -v
v12.19.0
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# systemctl status homebridge.service
● homebridge.service - Homebridge
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/homebridge.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue 2020-10-20 00:14:20 PDT; 4min 30s ago
Process: 32879 ExecStartPre=/bin/run-parts /etc/hb-service/homebridge/prestart.d (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Process: 32882 ExecStartPre=/usr/lib/node_modules/homebridge-config-ui-x/dist/bin/hb-service.js before-start $HOMEBRIDGE_OPTS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 32889 (node)
CGroup: /system.slice/homebridge.service
├─32889 hb-service
└─33161 homebridge

Oct 20 00:14:19 linux-atom1 systemd[1]: Starting Homebridge...
Oct 20 00:14:19 linux-atom1 run-parts[32880]: Ensuring /var/lib/homebridge is owned by homebridge
Oct 20 00:14:20 linux-atom1 systemd[1]: Started Homebridge.
Oct 20 00:14:20 linux-atom1 hb-service.js[32889]: [10/20/2020, 12:14:20 AM] [HB Supervisor] Homebridge Storage Path: /var/lib/homebridge
Oct 20 00:14:20 linux-atom1 hb-service.js[32889]: [10/20/2020, 12:14:20 AM] [HB Supervisor] Homebridge Config Path: /var/lib/homebridge/config.json
Oct 20 00:14:20 linux-atom1 hb-service.js[32889]: [10/20/2020, 12:14:20 AM] [HB Supervisor] Logging to /var/lib/homebridge/homebridge.log
Oct 20 00:17:21 linux-atom1 sudo[33139]: homebridge : TTY=pts/1 ; PWD=/usr/lib ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/npm install homebridge@1.3.0-beta.13
Oct 20 00:17:21 linux-atom1 sudo[33139]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session opened for user root by (uid=0)
Oct 20 00:17:32 linux-atom1 sudo[33139]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# hb-service status
ℹ Testing hb-service is running on port 8581...
✖ Homebridge UI Not Running
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# hb-service start
ℹ Starting Homebridge Service...
✔ Homebridge Started
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# hb-service status
ℹ Testing hb-service is running on port 8581...
✖ Homebridge UI Not Running
root@linux-atom1:/var/lib/homebridge# ps -ef | grep -i home
homebri+ 32889 1 5 00:14 ? 00:00:17 hb-service
homebri+ 33161 32889 17 00:17 ? 00:00:16 homebridge

I did notice that hb-service seems to start up fine but then when I run hb-service status it says UI not responding.

Is anyone having similar experiences right now?

Thanks,
Marco

[jnpatrick99]

I started to experience the same after Node upgrade to 14.15.1. Tried everything, nothing helps.
Tried removing Homebridge from accessories in Home App - now I lost all accessories and can't connect.

It's Windows, all ports are open, Bonjour is working.

[jimhosmer]

OK. So I've now deteriorated from a very nice Homekit/Homebridge/Homeseer installation that worked beautifully, through the irritating "no response" issue, to now being completely unable to reinstall Homebridge in Homekit.

I'm on HomeBridge 1.1.7 on Windows 10. I removed Homebridge from Homekit due to the "no response" issue on all accessories and now I get an "accessory not found" response when I try to add Homebridge to Homekit.

Homebridge is still working fine with Alexa and I can control accessories via the Homebridge UI, so Homebridge/Homeseer are working very nicely.

Peak frustration.

[skywalker1979]

i've had a similar behaviour with a friend...
i managed to solve it by updating one of the npm modules...i think it was related to encryption.....
i'm not at home right now so i can't check....
i'll try to check what it was later on.
i don't know if it works the same on windows 10....i've seen it on raspbian.

[Supereg]

@jimhosmer "accessory not found" typically means, that HomeKit unpaired the accessory (while it is offline) but the accessory doesn't know that it was unpaired, thus thinks it is still paired, and thus not showing in the list of available accessories.
Try to reset the pairing of your homebridge installation (either through Homebridge UI or by deleting the persist folder) followed by a restart.

[jimhosmer]

Thanks, I'll try these recommendations.

[jimhosmer]

OK, Reset worked. Accessories all added to Home app. Now let's see how long it all stays connected.
Thanks.