The most recent talk about Apple Home has centered on Apple’s update to the HomeKit architecture, which was announced in the summer. What Apple said should have brought about fundamental improvements, has caused serious problems for at least some users. Apple has now posted the update internally as a particularly serious failure.

The American blog MacRumors has learned from Apple circles that the manufacturer has included the HomeKit update associated with macOS Ventura 13.1 and iOS 16.2 in an internal info database that contains only common and unusual problems. The list appears to be used equally by Apple support staff, Apple retail stores, and Apple Authorized Service Providers. The main focus here is otherwise on hardware issues.

Apple had to withdraw the update

This classification really only reflects what was declared at least two days before Christmas. Apple withdrew the option to update to the new HomeKit architecture on December 22 and did not say when or with what fixes the option will be made available again.

In connection with the update shutdown, Apple also released a help document before Christmas, which aims to help users who are facing access issues related to the update resolve them. Annoying for Apple customers in Germany: Even a week later, there is still no official translation.

In fact, the revision of the HomeKit architecture, which was released in mid-December, should make everything better. According to Apple, the new base for HomeKit should not only ensure more reliable communication between the connected devices, but also speed it up. However, so far only a few users have seen these improvements. On the other hand, the first reports of massive issues started circulating on the night of the update release, a good week before Apple first officially acknowledged and confirmed the issues.

The chronology of our coverage on this: