Rachio 3 Not Responding in Homekit (Again)

Same with me. Happened a few weeks ago and I haven’t been able to reconnect since. Though i spent a little time trying to troubleshoot without success, I feel the same way and have basically given up.

I’m in a similar boat with giving up. Been working thru Rachio support for 1.5 years, and trying everything on this forum to try to fix HomeKit issues. My rachio3 is still on firmware x615. It hasn’t prompted me to update it for some reason, which I guess is a good thing since others are reporting issues.

Mine was working fantastic for months on previous firmware‘s 615. Like an idiot I prompted the update to 631 which broke it and it hasn’t worked ever since!

Can you tell me how to do this on the synology ?

Rachio is no longer working for me (*after months and months of working well in HomeKit) since the last / most recent firmware update Rachio pushed out which broke it permanently for me - Thanks Rachio). I give up… . THEY need to fix this…

This may not be the best place to answer a Synology Router question but here you go:

To assign devices to specific bands you need to turn “off” Synology “Smart Connect”:

In Synology SRM (Synology Router manager) go to: 1. Go to SRM > Wi-Fi Connect > Wireless > Wi-Fi > Smart Connect and turn it off. Then go to Traffic Control and assign devices - See: https://www.synology.com/en-us/knowledgebase/SRM/tutorial/Wi_Fi/Which_Wi_Fi_frequency_2_4GHz_and_5GHz_should_I_choose

1 Like

IMHO I really don’t think it had anything to do with the firmware I believe my controller was on the - 631 before HomeKit became available and it was working fine until the latest app update

So I’m just patiently waiting for a fix not to mention there’s isn’t much you can do with HomeKit besides to ask Siri to water ZONE 1 or ZONE two for XYZ like any new technology, there will be some issues to work through. and this is where RACHIO is incredible when we enter questions here on the community they always responded with detailed so let’s be patience fix is on the way

I disagree - Rachio just pushed out the .631 controller firmware like last week. That update broke Rachio / HomeKit integration for many including myself. It worked perfectly for over 8 months prior to .631 for me… It has never worked for most that have tried to get it to work…

As the OP of this thread back in April 19’, I have said numerous times that Rachio’s capability is minimal at best in HomeKit. Almost a joke compared to the Rachio App itself… Yet, Every time I said that others gave valid reasons why they needed and wanted Rachio to work in HomeKit. My point is everyone’s use case is different… You don’t care about HomeKit and either do I…

A promise is a promise and Rachio promised HomeKit integration with the release of Rachio 3 over a year and a half ago… It still says it is on the box in the stores to this day… People purchased the product based on HomeKit integration alone. Just like I did… While I think most of us believe it is a great irrigation controller I do believe that this is a big fail on Rachio’s part and they do not deserve any excuses for prematurely announcing product that has yet to work consistently for most people.

I have everything made that works with HomeKit and it all works well. Over 50 different devices from bulbs to blinds to fans, thermostats, hubs, cameras, locks, garage doors x3, smart switches and outlets and on and on… Call it a hobby of mine. Drives my wife nuts… It all works except for Rachio… Cmon, 1-1/2 years later, Really? = Sad. They should be ashamed… It has become false and mis-leading advertising at this point. They need to Apologize to their customers, stop advertising it works, Take it off the box “Works with HomeKit” OR Fix it Now!!

2 Likes

Thanks it may not work for Rachio but I have a bunch of other devices I would like to use this on.

Just bought Rachio 3 because of the HomeKit support. I have over 120 HomeKit devices from various companies including Homebridge accessories / KNX Thinka etc etc and the only devices which is not working correctly is this Rachio Gen 3.

Like others, it stopped responding, so I had no choice but removing it from Home App, and now I can’t add it anymore. Will try the 10s stop push and switching to 2.4Gz only with a dedicated AP and see but I have to say this is a bad customer experience. Rachio team, please fix that mess.

Ok, thanks to you guys, I was able to add this device to Home App again. Thank you. So, I dedicated an AP in the 2.4Ghz band only for this device, at few feet. Let’s see if it works better or not.

Rachio is going to find out they need more processing power to get all this done… Then they will come out with the new “Rachio 4” with HomeKit!!

I forbid my Rachio 3 to connect to my 5Ghz AP and it’s working smoothly since the last 3 days. I will keep you updated but the dual band theory may be correct.

1 Like

When I tried to get our rachio controller set up with HomeKit and couldn’t do it I spoke to them. They acted surprised. They asked if I had the latest firmware (I did).

After reading this thread my jaw is on my keyboard. This has been an open problem for nearly a year?

Over and over, rachio employees say, “I hear we will have a fix soon!” alternating with, “this is all Apple’s fault”.

Really? Wow.

Hey friends!

After a ton of time and research, we’ve determined that the HomeKit integration can have difficulty connecting to mesh routers depending the physical configuration of your home’s network. We ask that you continue to reach out to our support team to troubleshoot all HomeKit connection issues. The team has had success getting most integrations reconnected. We apologize for the incredible headache this has been and appreciate all the work everyone has done to work with us to learn and troubleshoot to get to this conclusion.

:cheers:

It went down a few times over the last few weeks and now no matter what I do I can not get it to connect again.

I’m pissed off beyond description!!!

Hi @Tzterri I totally understand how upsetting this is. Have you tried to troubleshoot with our support team by chance?

Yes I have. They even sent me a replacement controller to see if that fixed it. It did not.

I actually know what causes it to go offline. If any of my mobile devices are on the 2.4 ghz network and I leave my home often it will go offline requirerung me to add it back in.

So I keep all my mobile devices on my 5 ghz network but my cello Apple Watch can not use a 5 ghz network so I just leave Wifi off on it. But last night there was an update and it turned Wifi back on my watch and sure enough the first time I left home it knocked the controller offline.

I have wasted hours today trying to get it to reconnect to HomeKit. Out of frustration I removed it from HomeKit. Now it will show up when I try to add it back in but I keep on getting unable to add it in.

So… why does this function okay in Google Home but not in HomeKit?

It has no problem staying connected to WiFi as when it goes offline in homekit it can still be reached with the rachio app.

I do not have a mesh network so that is not the issue,

What is the issue is if any of my mobile devices are connected to the same network as the controller leaving home will often knock it offline requiring it to be added back in. Often this is a time consuming ordeal requiring multiple tries.

The problem is its Homekit software that needs to be fixed.

We were promised an update months ago and still nothing.

Thanks, Laura.

This is still really aggravating. I did contact Rachio’s support, and while kind and helpful, the steps provided were too time-consuming or too frustrating for something that just used to work without any problems.

I don’t know if this is a mesh network problem, an Apple problem, or a Rachio problem, but having folks contact support instead of explicitly stating why the issue is occurring and the steps to solve here in this thread it makes it feel like this isn’t actually resolved, or worse - that you guys maybe haven’t even pinned down the issue.

Could you please explain “the HomeKit integration can have difficulty connecting to mesh routers depending the physical configuration of your home’s network” a bit more? I’ve had a mesh network since before I had my Rachio. I installed my Rachio last summer and didn’t have any HomeKit problems for the whole watering season. I had no issues at all until I tried to use Rachio via HomeKit at the beginning of this year’s watering season. I’m not having any issues in HomeKit with any other devices. I have not made any changes to my network setup over this time.

As mentioned by someone above, all of this is particularly frustrating since this concern has possibly been outstanding for almost a year. However, the most discouraging part of all of this is that you have now marked this issue as resolved when many of us are continuing to have issues.

I do really appreciate your help and the fact that you keep returning to this thread to give us updates. I know it’s hard to provide good customer service in a public setting while not always having the answers. I just wish the updates were more open or more substantial, and I feel like a year is a good amount of time for Rachio to figure this out - even for a low priority issue.

1 Like