Cannot Invite Resident to HomeKit on iOS 17.0.1/2

I’m trying to add someone to my home and all I have is LIFX bulbs. Updated to the latest iOS and the option to invite people has disappeared. If I need to have an Apple TV or HomePod to be able to invite people to my home on the Home app to turn the lights on and off, that is profoundly terrible. God help us if this is the case.

Since iOS17.0.X, I too have been unable to add people to HomeKit via iOS. If I invite the Apple ID, and accept, it says "Joining Home" for about 5 minutes and then says "Unable to accept the invitation."

I'm wondering if anyone has successfully invited and accepted invitations from and to iOS since iOS17?

More detail below:

Background

The following is relevant:

• All iOS17 devices are running 17.0.3
• All HomeKit settings have been upgraded to the latest architecture on all devices
• The HomeHub is an Apple TV - this is also on the latest tvOS
• The Macs are running macOS Sonoma 14.0

Behaviour

When inviting a new member to the Home, it says "Invitation Pending" to the new home user.

The new home user receives the invitation. Clicking 'Accept' results in a long "Joining home" message which eventually disappears and then displays a "Unable to accept invitation" prompt.

Canceling and resending the invitation results in the same behaviour.

When sending the invitation from iOS or macOS, and *accpeting* the invitation on macOS, the behaviour is as expected and the member joins the home.

After waiting several hours and eventually rebooting the phone, the Home appears on iOS.

Troubleshooting Steps

I've undertaken the following troubleshooting steps:

• Rebooting both iOS devices
• Rebooting the HomeHub (Apple TV)
• Removing the home (painful as ****) on both phones
• Using the Apple Support profile to reset the home on both phones
• Uninstalling and re-installing the Home app on all devices
• Factory Resetting all Bridges and third-party devices
• Performing the above in varying orders
• Disabling Home iCloud Sync and re-enabling it
• Factory resetting the HomeHub (Apple TV)
• I’ve tried inviting four people - three unsuccessfully on iOS, one successfully via macOS

The only step I haven't tried, I don't think it'll fix it, and I'm loathed to do it because of the pain, is factory resetting both iOS devices.

Apple Support

I've contacted Apple Support about this issue. They have been totally useless. I'm waiting for yet another call back, after sending them screen recordings of the processes above on pretty much every single device. They've failed to return the calls three times now.

I am facing the exact same issue.

I have talked to 3 senior advisors for a total of 4 hours of phone calls & screen sharing. They have collected screenshots, recordings, logs and my content for them to access my icloud account. Hope I can get a resolution back today ...

The method to resolve the issue of not being able to invite others to join the Apple HomeKit without reactivating all smart devices is as follows: In the Home app, go to Home Settings, add a new home, then add a central device. Invite the person who couldn't join initially to this new home. Once they successfully join, you can return to your original home and invite the person who couldn't join before!

I am facing a similar issue as you, but instead of not seeing the invitation button, I can send an invitation for an existing home, but the other party cannot accept my invitation.

I have been working with senior apple support for a month now.

I have been asked to replicate this issue 4 times, and uploaded logs and screen recordings 4 times (each time it take 1 hour)..

Today they just informed me that my Duo Mobile is also interfering with the logs, I need to replicate this issue for the 5th time and upload logs and screen recording for the 5th time...

Should I just give up and set up a new home??

To be clear, your original setup did not have a HomePod, iPad or Apple TV setup as your hub? After os 17 update you are now required to have a device to serve as a home hub. Kinda stinks. My setup only used Lutron bridge (aka now called smart hub.

Follow-up: so my issue here resolved, but I don’t know specifically how. What I do know: we left the house for a week and the Apple TVs were all off. When we got back, to our surprise my wife could see and interact with the HomeKit home.

Which I realise isn’t amazingly helpful. (“Go on holiday for a week” isn’t exactly tech support step one, as much as it would be a lovely step one.) But perhaps a more extended period of away time could work for some people. (So: turn off all the Apple TVs and HomePods for a week. Put the phones on cellular rather than Wi-Fi.) I dunno.

SOLUTION

I had same problem. I was the resident which cannot be invited.

We have two wifi at home. One for house and one for garden. Everything in HomeKit is connect to house wifi. Everytime i tried to connect my iPhone to HomeKit i was at house wifi but when I connect my iPhone to garden wifi and tried again to connect to HomeKit it works.

Also you make sure, that you are not updated version in any device at HomeKit and you have the same software version as the rest of devices.

Hope this help for you too.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have been working with apple tech support on this issue. I too am unable to invite people to the home app - even after I updated the Home app architecture on both my iPhone and my son's iPhone. I am simply running Lutron Caseta Bridge 2 as my hub. I am not using Apple Tv or Apple home pod as the hub. I am waiting to hear back from tech support on my case and I hope to share a solution.

All phones are now running iOS 17.0.3 with updated Home App architecture.

hopefully there is a fix soon.

heath

Never really did much HomeKit here until the past week. My initial Home in theory can be shared, but my wife only once received the invite and it was then rejected by the app. Since then, nothing.

No new home created by either of us has the means to share. The option simply doesn’t exist. Every piece of kit is on iOS 17 or equivalent (and includes iPhones, two Apple TVs, some HomePods, etc).

Attempted remedies here: remove/recreate new home; delete/reinstall Home; use that profile doing the rounds to remove HomeKit settings; device restarts.