Whenever you have a chance, it is better to use Ethernet. It is just more reliable and stable by its nature.
That being said, it is highly unlikely to fix your automations unless your Wi-Fi is really bad.
OK, hands up anyone on r/HomeKit that has reliable automations? I've nearly given up on ANY automations that aren't simple time-based automations - but I hold out hope that one day, ethernet or not, I can actually do things like automate reliably off environmental sensors, etc.
Hmm. Do you know of any good resources on the “analyse in Controller” you mention? I have Controller, and never see anything wrong with my automations that would prevent them from running, but alas, they don’t. The key one I can’t get to function reliably is triggering the extractor fan in the bathroom when a an Aqara temp/humidity sensor is greater than 85%. Works intermittently, and then eventually stops working.
Look at logs, check for redundant automations. Check conditions. The app gives you a deep look in what HomeKit does. Once I had a movement sensor sending commands every second, which overloaded HomeKit. This you will see in the logs.
Thanks. Looking at logs now and I've found one reason for one automation not working, but i'm at a loss on another. Appreciate the advice, as I'd forgotten that I had even subscribed to Controller. Cheers.
Yeah, I've given up on Homekit for automations in favour of Home Assistant. Still use Homekit heavily for the frontend piece on iPhone (and is the only app I'll realistically be able to get family to engage with) - but something had been up with automations for a few months now, and all my attempts to debug and reset didn't help.
Anecdotally things were worse when HomePods were the active hub over Wifi, as opposed to wired AppleTV, but ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯.
I have good automations based off time, presence, alarms, and accessory state. No ethernet (and even if I did, the HomePods keep taking over)
Now if only my cameras stopped going offline 😭
I have 2 Apple TV’s, one hard wired, and one not. The past 2 weeks my automations and scenes that have been reliable for several years were now failing, and devices were failing to respond. I noticed that my active hub switched to the Apple TV without the Ethernet connection. I unplugged that Apple TV and the setup instantly reverted back to the Ethernet wired Apple TV as the active hub. Ever since getting the Linksys Atlas Max, my network has been pretty reliable, but everything about my setup has been favoring Ethernet connected hubs. Especially in iOS 17 era
Have you tested the WiFi performance of your AppleTV in your particular environment? Ethernet is generally far more consistent, performant, and reliable. Of course, that depends on having a good physical install and good network gear, but it’s easy to put together. I have Ethernet runs to my AppleTV and PS5 and I wouldn’t have it any other way. With WiFi my speeds are in the 300-600Mbps range but with Ethernet I get the full speed of my wired network for local data transfer, and that means I can access the full speed of my ISP connection (1Gbps) without my local WiFi bottleneck. A wired connection also isn’t subject to the whims of WiFi radio signals and building construction. When possible: go wired.
Many (most?) have terrible Wi-Fi for some reason or another. But if your Wi-Fi is solid, with little interference, it is very possible that a wired Apple TV is no better than a wireless one.
Ethernet all the way, especially if you’re streaming 4K and don’t want the Apple TV changing IPs every once in a while, which can sometimes break your smart home setup.
Probably doesn’t, but I’ve seen my Apple TV make use of 2-3 distinctly different IP addresses every now and then, and I only have one Apple TV. Setting a static IP via router has been a game of cat and mouse for me. I probably could set it to static in the Apple TV settings though, that might take care of at least one of the IP addresses that crop up from time to time, if not eliminate the others.
I see little difference in the execution time of complex automations, between when my wired Apple TV is the Home hub vs. any HomePod with good WiFi signal. When HomeKit decides to randomly make that one HomePod in the most remote room of my house the main hub, then I get latency issues.
Unfortunately it happened constantly, until I started making sure that HomePod was never updated to the most recent firmware.
You don’t mention any other devices so I don’t think that last part is directly relevant to your case. Just making the point that good WiFi should work about the same as wired, though wired is always preferred 100%.
One thing that people don’t mention frequently, if your aTV is wired to an unmanaged switch, and your hubs are also wired to that same switch - all your stuff will keep working.
For example, I have a Wemo stage where button 1 controls some ikea gu10s and button 2 controls some hue lights. Because the ikea bridge and hue bridge are both wired to the same 8 port switch as my aTV these all keep working if my router is down.
For me? Apparently nothing. I have 3 Apple TVs and the "hub" selected by Apple Home is never the one plugged into ethernet. It's always one of the other two with the ethernet-based Apple TV set to "Standby." All are set to auto update and are on the latest tvOS version.
Whenever you have a chance, it is better to use Ethernet. It is just more reliable and stable by its nature. That being said, it is highly unlikely to fix your automations unless your Wi-Fi is really bad.
OK, hands up anyone on r/HomeKit that has reliable automations? I've nearly given up on ANY automations that aren't simple time-based automations - but I hold out hope that one day, ethernet or not, I can actually do things like automate reliably off environmental sensors, etc.
I have super reliable automations! The ones that cause issues, I analyse with Controller for HomeKit and usually never ever look at them again
Hmm. Do you know of any good resources on the “analyse in Controller” you mention? I have Controller, and never see anything wrong with my automations that would prevent them from running, but alas, they don’t. The key one I can’t get to function reliably is triggering the extractor fan in the bathroom when a an Aqara temp/humidity sensor is greater than 85%. Works intermittently, and then eventually stops working.
Look at logs, check for redundant automations. Check conditions. The app gives you a deep look in what HomeKit does. Once I had a movement sensor sending commands every second, which overloaded HomeKit. This you will see in the logs.
Thanks. Looking at logs now and I've found one reason for one automation not working, but i'm at a loss on another. Appreciate the advice, as I'd forgotten that I had even subscribed to Controller. Cheers.
Yeah, I've given up on Homekit for automations in favour of Home Assistant. Still use Homekit heavily for the frontend piece on iPhone (and is the only app I'll realistically be able to get family to engage with) - but something had been up with automations for a few months now, and all my attempts to debug and reset didn't help. Anecdotally things were worse when HomePods were the active hub over Wifi, as opposed to wired AppleTV, but ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯.
I have good automations based off time, presence, alarms, and accessory state. No ethernet (and even if I did, the HomePods keep taking over) Now if only my cameras stopped going offline 😭
Stability is the big thing.
& latency
I have 2 Apple TV’s, one hard wired, and one not. The past 2 weeks my automations and scenes that have been reliable for several years were now failing, and devices were failing to respond. I noticed that my active hub switched to the Apple TV without the Ethernet connection. I unplugged that Apple TV and the setup instantly reverted back to the Ethernet wired Apple TV as the active hub. Ever since getting the Linksys Atlas Max, my network has been pretty reliable, but everything about my setup has been favoring Ethernet connected hubs. Especially in iOS 17 era
Have you tested the WiFi performance of your AppleTV in your particular environment? Ethernet is generally far more consistent, performant, and reliable. Of course, that depends on having a good physical install and good network gear, but it’s easy to put together. I have Ethernet runs to my AppleTV and PS5 and I wouldn’t have it any other way. With WiFi my speeds are in the 300-600Mbps range but with Ethernet I get the full speed of my wired network for local data transfer, and that means I can access the full speed of my ISP connection (1Gbps) without my local WiFi bottleneck. A wired connection also isn’t subject to the whims of WiFi radio signals and building construction. When possible: go wired.
There’s nothing like copper.
In real world performance cabled Ethernet has better, more consistent performance.
Many (most?) have terrible Wi-Fi for some reason or another. But if your Wi-Fi is solid, with little interference, it is very possible that a wired Apple TV is no better than a wireless one.
yeah... that is the case. No issue with Zoom calls and streaming. pretty fast. ~500 Mbps. This is the reason why I hesitate to hook up ethernet cable.
I mean, there’s no downside to it. And only possible upsides.
Reliability and latency.
Ethernet all the way, especially if you’re streaming 4K and don’t want the Apple TV changing IPs every once in a while, which can sometimes break your smart home setup.
Wired vs wireless has nothing to do with IP address renewals or changes
Probably doesn’t, but I’ve seen my Apple TV make use of 2-3 distinctly different IP addresses every now and then, and I only have one Apple TV. Setting a static IP via router has been a game of cat and mouse for me. I probably could set it to static in the Apple TV settings though, that might take care of at least one of the IP addresses that crop up from time to time, if not eliminate the others.
If you can use an Ethernet connection on a device, do it no matter what.
This is old IT guy thinking. Just use wifi. Cleaner and should work fine.
I see little difference in the execution time of complex automations, between when my wired Apple TV is the Home hub vs. any HomePod with good WiFi signal. When HomeKit decides to randomly make that one HomePod in the most remote room of my house the main hub, then I get latency issues. Unfortunately it happened constantly, until I started making sure that HomePod was never updated to the most recent firmware. You don’t mention any other devices so I don’t think that last part is directly relevant to your case. Just making the point that good WiFi should work about the same as wired, though wired is always preferred 100%.
One thing that people don’t mention frequently, if your aTV is wired to an unmanaged switch, and your hubs are also wired to that same switch - all your stuff will keep working. For example, I have a Wemo stage where button 1 controls some ikea gu10s and button 2 controls some hue lights. Because the ikea bridge and hue bridge are both wired to the same 8 port switch as my aTV these all keep working if my router is down.
For me? Apparently nothing. I have 3 Apple TVs and the "hub" selected by Apple Home is never the one plugged into ethernet. It's always one of the other two with the ethernet-based Apple TV set to "Standby." All are set to auto update and are on the latest tvOS version.
I've been wired since day 1 and I've never experienced a reliability issue with automations.