Apple TV Remote stuck at "searching"

[birkagal]

Hey! I'm a first time user of Homebridge and connected my Samsung TV AU7200 to Home with the plugin. I went for the basic configuration for now and just added the MAC address and IP, and it got recognized. I can turn the tv on and off from the Home application.
I added the Apple TV Remote to control center, but every time I open it its "searching" for TV forever.. I have "choose a TV" at the top but I can't click on it because it keeps showing the loading "searching" icon and nothing happen. I made sure the TV was turned on and even re-started my phone but nothing worked.
I'm running ios 17.4 if it matters and using the latest plugin version (installed it today)
Thanks!

[birkagal]

Maybe a silly question, but is Apple TV a must to use the apple tv remote on iphone? I don't have apple TV.. connected the Samsung TV via homebridge.

[tavicu]

Maybe a silly question, but is Apple TV a must to use the apple tv remote on iphone? I don't have apple TV.. connected the Samsung TV via homebridge.

Nope.
Apple TV is used only as a proxy if you want to provide access to your Home App while you are away from Home.

[nalz0]

I'm having the same issue. I can't choose a TV and it is stuck on "Searching..." The TV is on and added to the Home app.

[danyaero]

Maybe a silly question, but is Apple TV a must to use the apple tv remote on iphone? I don't have apple TV.. connected the Samsung TV via homebridge.

Hi did you find the way to solve this issue? Yesterday I had to reset the location services on my phone to troubleshoot some issues I was experiencing, and all the sudden I can't use the remote any longer and stays stuck in the searching view...

[RafaelMiquelino]

Hi, any insight on how to solve this issue? I’m stuck on that.

[danyaero]

Hi! In the end it solved on its own a couple of days later. I gave up on getting this to work as I though it was an iOS18 beta bug/incompatibility and all the sudden it started working again. Hasn’t failed ever since. I know it might not be the kind of response you might expect, but I would give it a couple of days in case there’s any indexing in the background happening.

[tavicu]

This has been discussed in previous issues. In the end you are using a hack to trick homekit that a device is compatible. It will not work 100% every time and it will not be perfect.

HomeKit itself has bugs and it's not that reliable. I personally stopped using HomeKit a couple years ago because of this. Not reliable and also limited functionality (we are in 2024 and HomeKit still not have a toggle action to automations ...).

In this specific case, the plugin itself is responsible only with mapping the actions. The plugin receives an event that button X was pressed and then it triggers an action. Same for controlling the volume, we get the event that user pressed volume button and then the plugin send command VOL_UP or DOWN. But if there is a glitch in Apple workflow and not send that event, there is nothing the plugin can do.

[RafaelMiquelino]

Thanks. Unfortunately in my case it hasn’t worked since the beginning. Just for my info, what kind of alternative you use for HomeKit that has a good integration with iOS devices? I don’t appreciate Smart Things app that much.

[tavicu]

I have switched to Home Assistant. It may be intimidating at first, but it's another league.