FabianOver the past few days, I’ve received a noticeable number of emails and comments on one topic: Philips Hue devices are no longer accessible in Apple Home. Many users are also unable to establish a new connection to the Hue Bridge Pro via Matter. Unfortunately, I have not yet received an official statement from Philips Hue on this issue.
However, it’s not quite as simple as it seems at first glance. At my home, the connection between Philips Hue and Apple Home has worked flawlessly so far. I can easily control lamps via Siri voice command using my iPhone or HomePod.
And if the worst comes to the worst, you’ll encounter a rather annoying problem: the error simply cannot be identified. Apple is the main obstacle here. In Apple Home, formerly known as HomeKit, there is no log. No database of errors that have occurred. No clues as to what the problem is. This makes troubleshooting all the more difficult if you are actually affected by problems.
iOS 26.3 as a hot lead for the problems?
Comments are piling up on social media that after installing iOS 26.3, tvOS 26.3, or software version 26.3 for the HomePod, all Matter devices in Apple Home are no longer accessible, including those from manufacturers other than Philips Hue. I installed the relevant updates today and lo and behold: after my HomePods had updated to the latest software version, my Hue devices were also no longer accessible. Other Matter devices, on the other hand, remained accessible.
How are things looking for you in Apple Home and Matter? Are your Hue devices still connected there? Or have you also noticed problems in the last few days?
Hello Fabian,
“Glad” to see it’s not only me…
Since some time my hue product fall unavailable thru Apple home
Most of time a hard reboot of bridge could correct the issue… but that’s not smart!
waiting to get feedback from Hue thru you 🙂
Wondering if this is a HomePod specific? I just did these updates on my phone and Apple TV in the US after reading this article because it would affect some of my clients, and I still have control of the new Hue Pro hub in Apple Home via Apple TV.
I updated my Apple TVs and HomePods along with iOS, iPadOS and MacOS devices to 26.3 the day it came out. Later that evening, HomeKit was no longer communicating with my Hue Bridge Pro. It showed the time it stopped communicating was right around the time I updated. No amount of rebooting and unplugging helped. Not a word that I could find from Apple or Hue so, I eventually just removed the Hue Bridge Pro and then added it back. While time consuming and frustrating, it does seem to be working normally now.
This is curious because while I’m not having any issues with Hue lights in Apple Home, I am having problems with lights becoming unreachable in the Hue app. I am fully updated to 26.3 across all Apple devices, HomePods, Apple TVs, etc. Surprised I haven’t run into these issues outside of the Hue app.
Best guess this is happening to ignorant people who never updated to the “new” HomeKit architecture, despite being prompted for over three years to do so. Apple has long been warning that the “old” version would stop working right about… now:
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/03/apple-home-app-final-reminder/
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/02/11/apple-home-app-update-now-required/
Unfortunately I don’t think this is that simple. I updated to the “new” architecture when it came out in beta (which came with its own problems at that time, but that’s the risk of beta!) and am completely affected by this 26.3 HomeKit issue with Hue/Pro Bridge.
Also notably the “failure” that users will get on the old architecture is that the Home app will stop working, not just Hue / Matter integrations.
I was not running an old version of anything. Home just stopped talking to hue pro hub last night with zero warning. The hue app still works fine as do all the light switches etc.
I was not on an old version of anything either. Hue Pro up to date. Hue devices up to date. HomePods up to date. iPhone and iPads up to date.
Negative. Home Hub Pro, newly set up with new architecture and matter integration. Check your lingo there Ringo. You’re one slip on an an icy step from being ignorant yourself.
Same here. Have to restart Hue Bridge Pro or AppleTV every 2 days, to keep it functioning. It’s very annoying. No issues with other matter devices.
Thanks for posting this. I had the same problem with my hue pro hub this morning. Ended up removing it from Home and re-adding. Every. Single. Hue. Device. One. By. One.
I did that yesterday and it worked for two days and now it’s gone ! Spent 1 hour resetting one by one the architecture and then it lasted 24 H … so frustrating …
since yesterday problems with homekit & hue: device not connected anymore. cut off power of hue hub pro and homepods didn’t work. I had still an apple tv on 26.2. Set Hub within Apple Home manual to this hub: everything working fine again. Switch off automatic update for the Apple TV till I know it is fixed in general 😉
Wow I’ve been stumped by this, glad it was out of my control.
I lost control of everything Hue in HomeKit. Lights would show they were 100% on when they’re actually off, seems no longer worked, and none of the switches do anything. Out giving up and moved everything to Home Assistant which works perfectly with them
@Mayhem What an uninformed comment. This bug has -nothing- to do with what you posted and is a completely separate issue. For those wondering, I updated to the v26.4 public beta and while it did fix a homekit secure issue I had with another device, all Hue devices are still broken.
I’ve been a Mac user since the 80’s. I’m no expert.
Interestingly the now UNPAIRED HomePod works fine if i am sitting net to it and operat any/all devices on HomeKit.
Walk 20 feet away it doesnt. Leave wifi, it doesnt.
How interesting !
Same. 26.3 and all hue device are unreachable after the update.
+ 1 here.
Same problem, but i dont think
its ios 26.3, because my problems began before i updated the os on tv, iphone and homepods. i think its more a problem on hue side. today i tryed to pair an unised hue bridge to apple home. unfortunately i had to update it first. also the pairing does not work.
Same here, the connection between Apple Home and my Hue Bridge Pro stopped working on Monday – not sure if before or after updating to iOS 26.3.
The Hue support‘s only suggestion was to remove the Hue Bridge from Apple Home and re-add it. I spent four hours redoing everything – creating all my Apple Home scenes and automations. Unacceptable!
But a different issue I keep having since having migrated to Hue Bridge Pro a few months ago with my 40+ devices: with my Apple Home scenes and automations, some Philips Hue lights randomly first turn on with the wrong colour or brightness and it requires to activate the scene again to set the correct colour. It’s like having to send a signal twice to send the right light settings. Anyone else having such issues?
Same here but weirdly not for all lights in Apple Home. Majority are fine if they come on via an Automation but if I turn on one of my Hue Play lights manually, they’ll turn on at a random colour rather than Adaptive Lighting.
That being said, I’ve been without HomeKit integration for the past few days as well. All Hue devices showing as ‘Unreponsive’. Hue support went through a long process of fault finding (including directing me to screens in the Hue app that haven’t existed for a few versions now….) only for them to now tell to me to delete the Hue Bridge Pro from HomeKit and re-add it. I’ll be damned if I’m doing that for over 50 lights again for it not to work.
Just went through the “fun” process of removing my Hue/Home integration and redoing from scratch. After the joy of adding all 80 devices, (let’s see that’s one tap to confirm device, then a scroll and tap to select room, then another tap to confirm device name in Apple Home, then another tap to turn off adaptive lighting, and a final tap to confirm) times 80… that’s… too many taps for this to just…
Not have worked and all devices still showing “unreachable” in Apple Home.
I have this issue as well. All Philips Hue devices can be controlled via the Hue app, but not via the Home App. Siri doesn’t want to know, and when trying to set up in Hue again (Hue App > Settings > Smart Home > Get Started) I notice that Apple HomeKit or any link to Apple is now gone.
You can tap “Other Apps” and you get a Pairing Code for Matter, but Apple’s Home App, doesn’t accept such a code to my knowledge.
So.. Nothing doing! Infuriating that the plug just got pulled it would seem, and if it stems from iOS 26.3, it’s been nothing but chaos.
I’ve just switched to new Hue Bridge Pro and I thought that this problem was related to it.
All of a sudden all my hue devices become uncontrollable through Apple Home.
They are still shown as available and I can try to change their settings, but it won’t affect real device.
I can still do it in HUE app, but it won’t be reflected in Apple Home.
Hope Philips’s gonna find a solution to it soon.
Removed from apple home, added from hue app, did not work, removed again from home app, added from home app, did not work – has not worked for months so has nothing to do with latest iOS update for me, nothing changed on my network configuration – just stopped working. I removed and re-added then and I have tried four times today.
Note, just added access to Google Home app and it worked the first time.
Hope there is something that can be fixed but when others say it is working fine then it seems like I must have some network setup complexity that is causing the issue (i.e. one router with two network switches where Apple TV is connected to one switch and Hue Bridge to the other).
Seems to work for Google. Always works in the Hue app – my conclusion has to be that Apple is doing something different that is causing the problem