This should be an exciting time. Officially certified Matter devices are arriving and becoming available. So the promise of simple device onboarding and support for multiple smart home ecosystems is here, right? Not so much if you’re an Apple HomeKit user. In fact, the old HomeKit “it just works” experience is now the HomeKit with Matter “good luck with that” experience.
I got my first taste of this when I upgraded the Eve Energy Smart Plug firmware to support Matter back in December. While the firmware upgrade process worked perfectly fine, getting the smart plug connected to my home was a major chore. I spent a few hours trying and re-trying the process to no avail. Eventually, I found a workaround and had my first Matter device working.
I chalked that experience up to early growing pains for Matter, which I think was fair at the time. However, it’s now four months later and I’m having the exact same issues. I just received a pair of brand new, Matter certified Meross smart outlets, for example. These were available for pre-order discount back in January, and now cost $39. They arrived a few days ago and yet, the same onboarding issue exists.
I don’t blame Meross, just as I didn’t blame Eve back in December. And I don’t blame the many folks working on Matter either. In this particular case, it appears Apple has fumbled the ball.
I say that because I used the same workaround I used in December to add the Meross plugs to my smart home. And that work around requires using an Android phone and the Google Home app.
Yes, that’s still what it takes to get a new Matter device in a smart home that runs on the Apple HomeKit platform. You also need an Apple Matter controller, such as the HomePod mini that I have. But the Apple Home app isn’t capable of adding Matter devices yet. In fact, a Matter-certified device, such as my new Meross plugs, don’t come with the old HomeKit QR code. These have their own unique Matter QR code.
That means you need to use another smart home ecosystem app. I happen to have an Android phone, mainly because I reviewed mobile devices for 15 years and still have a few alternative handsets in my closet. That’s how I was able to add the Eve Energy Smart Plug and, more recently, the Tapo Smart Plug, to my home.
However, most people aren’t like me. If they’re a HomeKit household, the odds aren’t good that they have a spare Android device to onboard devices.
Instead, they’re going to see this message when trying to add a Matter-certified device.
Simply put, I don’t think Apple was quite ready for Matter device launches. I say that because Apple introduced a new HomeKit architecture as a software update in December.
I got the upgrade on my iPhone and that’s when everything went downhill. Indeed, Apple pulled the software update and we’ve been waiting for a few iOS updates now for that rollout to restart. And I’ve been waiting for a fix for all of the issues that December update caused.
Aside from the Matter device provisioning problem that requires a non-Apple device to work, my wife got booted from the HomeKit home. My Apple Watch sends me multiple reminders daily that there was a problem adding her to the home. My HomePod mini routinely tells me that my Apple password is incorrect, so I re-add it to reauthenticate.
And I’m not alone in dealing with this. I’ve seen many reports in the Apple Support forms from people that upgraded their HomeKit architecture and are having this and other problems.
I have full faith that Apple will address the HomeKit architecture issue in the near future. That should restore broken HomeKit functionality and add full support for Matter devices. Until then though, the Matter train has left the station, leaving Apple HomeKit users stuck with issues and watching other platforms move forward.
I don’t know if this it your problem, but you will see that error if IPv6 is not working properly in your house. For example I discovered my oldest router did not route IPv6 multicast. The packets went into the router and never came out. IPv6 not working right has nothing to do with Matter itself, but since Matter is the very first widely deployed IPv6 system for the home it is going to expose existing problems in your IPv6 network.
Unfortunately I do not know of any good method to test and debug the functioning of IPv6 in your home. I work in this area so I could debug it, I don’t know how consumers are going to find these issues. I’d like to see Google or Apple provide some way of testing IPv6 since it is difficult to debug. In my case most of my house worked except for the area covered by the old router. That gave me the clue the router was the problem.
I agree that many people are not going to understand that the issue is the router they are using. But I think what’s going to happen is that they will contact the matter device manufacturer and that company’s support will walk them through the check. Or tell them to contact their ISP to check it.
The first step for many consumers would be just to check an IPv6 test site from a device connected to the router they have concerns about. It won’t show everything, but it may be enough. There are a number of these with different tests and features: usually your own Internet provider will have one. If you want a big-name site, Google has one.
It appears that this is a common enough problem that some of the device manufacturers are already providing FAQs with links to an IPv6 test site. For example, Meross now does:
https://www.meross.com/mTerminal/support/FAQ/554.html
(There has been a long-standing issue since IPV6 was first introduced that powerline devices generally didn’t handle multicasting. For those, you have to go to the powerline device manufacturer to see what your options are.)
So you make a very good point that some people won’t have any idea that their home Wi-Fi network isn’t matter-ready because it isn’t IPV6 ready. But I do expect Matter device manufacturers to start including this in their support checklists soon if they haven’t already.
You don’t need IPv6 working through your home router. For Matter and Thread, IPv6 is currently only used on the local network (LAN/VLAN) and the border router uses IPv4 when needed to communicate externally.
I don’t understand why Meross want the users to troubleshoot their Public IPv6 for Matter to work.
I may be mistaken, but my understanding is that there’s an IPv6 requirement for the multi admin feature when onboarding a device that was first added by a different Matter Controller.
Matter Controllers are “Matter nodes” but are NOT “Matter Devices” and so don’t have to follow all the other rules. For example, their communication can be cloud to cloud to another matter controller, rather than local. They specifically don’t have to be on the same network.
But maybe Meross is just using the external test site as a quick field test way of checking if the customer’s router is set up for IPv6.
@Jon, are you sure IPv6 is the problem here? It could also be that you have a separate network on your oldest router and because mDNS isn’t routable this traffic stops there. mDNS has nothing to do with IPv6. (Apple calls mDNS “Bonjour”.)
The solution would be an mDNS proxy in your old router, for example, based on Avahi.
BUT, I believe mDNS proxy currently doesn’t work reliably with Matter/Thread and is not supported.
I’ve been having issues with adding Eve Motion sensors to the Matter network on HomeKit since I upgraded. I simply cannot get them to add. Upon reading this comment I checked to see if IPv6 was enabled on my LAN and it wasn’t. I got super excited, thinking I’d finally found the solution, I turned on IPv6 and restarted my whole network, rebooted my devices and to my dismay, they still won’t connect.
It’s driving me insane. I just get a popup saying “accessory not found” or “accessory not reachable” every time.
In the Discovery app, I can see now that I have a “meshcorp” network which is coming from my Apple TV and I have two thread devices showing too, which I assume are my 2 eve motion sensors but they are not able to connect to the network when I try to add them.
I’ve restarted them a million times and reset them with the button press until 6 flashes numerous times, it just won’t do it.
You can use an app called ‘mDNS Discovery’ on your phone to see Matter nodes. Search for ‘matter’. Setting your phone to use the wifi network and walking around will do some basic testing. Make sure you can see the matter devices everywhere.
I don’t have an of the Meross plugs, but I’ve had matter since early ios16 beta’s with a home made matter device. My Hue Bridge got matter on 11/7 and worked fine. Some initial Firmware issues with Eve devices needing an android to provision first. Since then I’ve had Tapo plugs that paired flawlessly. Matter now works perfectly for me on IOS, and HomeAssistant. My Aqara hub now has matter and works flawlessly too.
Google and Amazon only work with an Android phone, can’t use Amazon’s own tablets to add matter devices. Smart things works with devices but not bridges. I was able to use Ios’s Matter Multi-Admin to flawlessly pair everything to other platforms without any problem.
I’m sorry for your troubles.
Interesting. AFAIK, Philips Hue hasn’t yet pushed the Bridge update for Matter yet. How did you get Matter on it back in November?
It’s been available to those with a hue developer account as a beta since November 2022.
https://hueblog.com/2022/11/04/philips-hue-matter-update-available-for-testing-now/
I didn’t have any of your issues when I upgraded my Eve Energy to Matter using the Eve and Apple Home apps. Maybe because I don’t have upgraded to the new Homekit Architectural infrastructure?
Kevin,
Not sure exactly what your issue is, but I am running the beta for 16.5 and there are a number of fixes for Matter, especially to do with Shared Admin. So, if your wife is also an Admin, this may be your issue.
I have bought many Matter plugs, I have ios 16.5 of course Homepod as well aTv. When I try to add the plug inside homekit it says pair faild.
It happen the same inside smarthings. It seems the plug can be added only inside alexa…but then when i try to add (multi admin function) to homekit and smarthing pairin fails. I have eero 6 with theater network enabled. My internet connection is on ipv4, could it be that?
So I wonder if is just me having this kind of issue or is there anything I can do to make my plugs working…
Many thanks for any suggestion
Yes, it could be the IPv4 issue. Matter requires IPv6. Meross support has a note about that. Look down near the bottom of the following page. (And note that the “test result” numbers that they show are just an example, you have to actually click on the tiny link to go to the page that does the compatibility test.)
https://www.meross.com/en-gc/smart-plug/matter-smart-plug/136
You might also want to check with the manufacturer of the smart plug that is failing in case it needs a firmware update or something.
I believe I read from Meross or Nanoleaf that they doesn’t support Eero right now. I use UniFi APs so don’t remember details.
The strange thing about IPv6, is that in the past I have been able to pair both meross matter plugs and eve matter sensor. Now both can’t pair neither on HomeKit and Smarhings. Despite the meross plugs pair inside alexa but when i try to apply multi admin code on both says can’t pair (on both cases it seems that when it goes to icloud something blocks connection)
Here an exemple when I try to add matter sensor inside HomeKit as primary platform
https://share.icloud.com/photos/0c3GszwM8-Zrd5GddJB4CKsIw
As of July 2023, still experiencing this issue, I think. It’s frustrating as hell.
Picked up a few Eve Energy smart plugs because I figured they’d work okay in my Apple ecosystem thanks to Matter support. Not sure what’s happening, but nope. I get the annoying ‘Unable to Add Accessory’ error over and over.
I’ve got an Apple TV and a HomePod mini, both of which could serve as hubs if necessary. But I don’t see anywhere to configure that.
Also, this is extremely inelegant and dumb, which is precisely what I’m hoping to avoid. Kind of shocked this wasn’t far more intuitive and immediately successful.
Any tips welcome. I may give it one more go tomorrow and if I can’t figure it out, the Eve plugs go back. What a shame.
I wish I could help you. I am having same issue here. Tried every solution, spent almost 3 hours over the phone with apple support, and smarthings. I can’t add my matter merross plugs, (same error as yours) about eve I have two matter sensor, actually added inside homekit (after days of pairing failed) and alexa, but there is no way to add them to smarthings (pairing faild). Just today I have bought some eve plugs, thinking that the merross plugs have some trouble. But from what you wrote probably won’t work. Can tell you more tomorrow. I THINK MATTER HAS A LOT OF TROUBLE BUT NOBODY SAYS THAT.
My eve matter plugs arrived today, and I am having same issues of you. Matter just doesn’t work inside apple ecosystem. Sent back.
Beauty of Matter you can commission with Apple Home, Google Home or Alexa apps. Try commissioning it, first time adding it to your network, then use Multi-Admin to turn on pairing to get a new code to add to your Apple Home. Was it an EVE plug with MATTER on the box and a MATTER QR code? The Firmware update to add Matter to their Homekit plugs creates an entirely new code that makes the one printed on the device worthless.
I guess its too late to ask if you have an Echo 4th gen or an Alphabet Google Nest Hub? both of which were $50 recently.
AH MATTER STILL DOESN’T WORK 13.07.2023
I am writing this to advise to all people that try to add Matter devices to their ecosystem, and can’t add reporting pair faild. DON?T LOOSE TIME, THE FAULT IS NOT YOURS.
The problem is not on the configuration of your system, so don’t loose time trying to see if the thread router (pod or any other hub, like smarthings works), Matters still doesn’t work on practically all platform and probably APPLE is the key.
Try to explain what I did.
My system
Internet connection: optic fiber
Router: Amplifi Ubiquiti wi-fi 6 https://amplifi.com/ Iphone 12 with iOS 16.5
Homepod: have 10 around mu home (all updated) AppleTv: 2 (all updated and homekit enabled) Hub for smarthings: Aeotec GP-AEOHUBV3EU
My smarthome needs to work with HOMEKIT, ALEXA and SMARTHINGS
Everything started when I bought some Merross Matter plugs, as soon they arrived, after few attempts I have been able to pair some of them, first inside HomeKit and then with the multi admin future to Alexa and Smarthings. Of course I have been able to add some of them not all, and those installed kept disconnecting.
So following Merross instruction I reset the plugs and tried to use Alexa as primary platform (this is the one that works better for me and I use the most). Plugs are able to connect (80% of attempts to Alexa) but when I try to add them with multi admin future to HomeKit and Smarthings reported same error 39-900 (18). Homekit gave the error after a second, and smarthings after a while, when sends the plug to iCloud (the end of the process)
I tried to figure out from Apple side and this is what I did:
Turn off router, and power off all devices for 10 minutes, reset devices, turn everything off
Out from iCloud, and back
Cancelled my home (and all devices), named another home
Used only one HomePod as thread router
cancelled inside apple all matter devices
changed my wifi with eero
log with another cloud account
reset my phone as new and without using back up I log in with my iCloud.
I ask to a friend to land me his iPad, invited him to join my home, in this case I have been able to add some devices but never to all of 3 systems (homekit, Alexa and Smarthings).
I think I did everything possible.
I called Apple, and spoke with a second level, after 90 minutes over the phone, suggesting same things I have done nothing changed.
I sent a message to Samsung and this is what they wrote: From your inquiry, I understand that you are having some difficulties with Smart Things application.
Since this might be caused by an internal software issue that has not been properly updated with the software update and the new Smart Things version, please follow the steps below in order to try to solve the issue:
Open ‘Smart Things’ application > Click on three horizontal lines (more) > Settings (cog wheel icon) > Auto update devices and services.
After that, please go to Settings > Apps > Smart Things > tap Force stop > Storage > Clear Cache. If the issue still persists, please send us a screenshot of the error situation along with your service log file.
of course I did everything they said but nothing changed, I wrote them back and the wrote: Dear Customer,
Thank you for contacting us.
We appreciate the opportunity to assist you.
I understand that you have an inquiry concerning adding a device on Smart Things application. We kindly inform you that we sent your case to the department in charge and we are expecting an answer from them.
SO AT THE END MATTER HAS SOME TROUBLE, I SPENT ALMOST 20 DAYS, thinking was my problem on devices.
Today will receive eve matter plugs, but from a post I read also those will fail.
If anyone is experience same trouble please report, matter was supposed to make our life easier, but at the moment for me is something to be moved in the trash.
If anyone has suggestions, I’ll be glad to hear. Francesco
I also have smartthings, Alexa, and Apple Home, and my experience has been pretty much the opposite of yours. Devices such as the SwitchBot hub 2 added easily to Apple home using matter, and brought in some of their devices, most notably, the curtainbot, with them. SmartThings does not as yet support importing matter bridges, and initially Amazon didn’t support matter over thread, although it does now.
My own feeling, for what it’s worth, is that the blame doesn’t belong to any one of the individual home automation brands, but rather to the matter standards organization, the CSA, who decided to go ahead and allow Matter logo use even though the platforms had not fully completed Their matter support. This is what has led to all the confusion, and the fact that we’re back to the original first rule of Home automation: “the model number matters.“ Which is what matter was supposed to fix.
I’ve just stopped buying anything that relies on matter for now, and will wait until the brand platforms have completed their feature support before trying it.
It’s disappointing, but since I have to pay someone else to do any of the fiddly bits (I’m quadriparetic), even just resetting a device and trying to add it again, it would be a hugely expensive project for me to try to get all these different devices working with all the different platforms.
I do have a number of the older Meross HomeKit-compatible devices and really like them, but I didn’t even order the new matter ones yet, because I had read multiple reviews that they were having issues with some of the platforms.
I’m not giving up on Matter altogether, I’m still hopeful they can just eventually get to where they need to be, but I’m not putting any time or money into it right now, either.
I feel like this is the only place online I’ve actually seen this discussion occurring and I’ve been scouring the internet for days after purchasing my first Matter device.
I feel disappointed by Apple for the millionth time and I hope they sort something out. I’m using an Echo ecosystem with the 4th Gen Echo as my hub. I purchased an Eve Matter Door sensor and only my Echo is able to support it, shockingly. I used to have a mixed ecosystem with Google Home and had no issue adding devices to both at any point.
After years of hearing praise from HomeKit users, the fact that I’m not even able to add the sensor to Home on my or the Eve app on my iPhone without a second (read: Apple) hub came as a surprise buried in the fine print. Nevermind removing the ability to use an iPad as a hub. I have no need for more hubs and now have a door sensor with barely any functionality. I guess I will be holding off on the dream of controlling the devices on my Echo system using my iPhone for a while.
Update: As I wrote on my previous post I spent almost a couple of months trying to add smart meross plugs to my echosystem (homekit, alexa and smarthings). Spoke tons of hours with apple second level as well I had tons of mail both with meross and samsung. I was frustated thinking it was a problem inside my echosystem that has around 110 devices.
After I decided to give up, and keep my old homekit plugs I wrote an e-mail asking meross a refund…..after tons of email (and nobody will refund my time), this is the mail received today 8 of august 2023 I got from them….Currently, we have been in communication with our Apple representative, and we’ve discovered a method for obtaining pairing logs. Our development team is actively testing this approach. If successful, we hope you could assist us in retrieving the failure logs from the pairing of devices in your environment. These logs would be captured via iPhone.
I’ll endeavor to send you the method within the next two days. I apologize for any delay, and I appreciate your patience and cooperation.
By the way, I have tried eve matter plugs and those works fine on all my system. Those have only some problems when you have to upgrade to new firmware (had to reset few times) but other than that works. Also the assistance team is very efficient and proactive…it’s not the paste and copy answers…on the other side there is someone who think.
Other than plugs, lights etc….will I ever be able to connect my homepod to Alexa and use my apple speackers with Alexa?