How to reconnect Flic hub to HomeKit?

[t.parker.gash]

I just received my hub + 3 buttons yesterday. Went through the process of adding a button to HomeKit, set it all up great.

First thing this AM I used the button to turn on my lights, fantastically simple!

However then my wife walks over, tries to double-click to turn off the same light, and she reports it doesn't work.

I check via Home app on my phone, and the button has the dreaded "not responding" message. I tried repeatedly to restart the hub, but nothing.

Finally I went into Home app, and removed the Flic Bridge. Assuming I could reset the hub and re-add it easily.

However no amount of holding down the reset button on the hub makes a difference. I can forget the hub, I can delete the button. But once I re-add them to my Flic app on the phone, and even when I toggle on the "add to HomeKit" option, nothing happens.

The bridge is still missing from my Home in HomeKit, and I cannot find any way to get it added back.

Any tips?

[andreas.lorentsen]

@emil It works! I don't know if it was significant or not, but I logged out of the Flic App on all devices, and logged into another user account. Then I reset the Flic hub, first by pushing the reset button for about 13 seconds. The orange light went out completely. Then I power cycled it, and held the reset button for another 4-5 seconds until it started blinking. Added Flic 2 and enabled Homekit support. I don't know what made it work this time, but I suspect that the new user account forced the app to ask for new network permissions. At least that's my qualified guess

Andreas

[andreas.lorentsen]

@emil Thank you for the suggestions. However, I have no extra router or firewall in between, and multicast DNS (Bonjour) is not blocked. I can see the "hap" service running on the Flic hub, but the Home app somehow doesn't. When I enable Homekit for a button, there is no notification regarding access to the local network, access to Homekit data, or anything else for that matter. It just switches to the Homekit button interface momentarily (clearly not working as intended, in other words)

Andras

[Emil]

@andreas-lorentsen the only thing I can think of is that the Flic hub and your home hub and phone must be on the same local network with no additional firewall or router in between. Make sure that multicast dns is not blocked for some reason by your router. Multicast dns is what Apple uses in their software we put on our hub that the Home app / Home hub later uses to find new devices on the network.

[andreas.lorentsen]

@emil Hello. I have tried to re-add my Flic LR hub (and Flic 2) since october without any luck.

I have reset the hub at least 50 times (pin hole button, 13-15 seconds) and the hub is resetting OK. Then I add a Flic 2 button and receive a message saying the hub's firmware needs to be upgraded, which I do. The firmware upgrade is successful (3.0.12), but when I try to "Add to homekit" from the button configuration, the hub (and button) is not seen by HomeKit/Apple Home, and I never get any notifications regarding the Flic Hub requiring access to Homekit or network (that only happened once, the first time I went through this setup). There is no mention of Apple Home in the Flic app settings either.

I've also tried to add a new home in the Apple Home app. I have the latest iOS (15.x) installed on both iPhone and iPad. I have an iPad and Apple TV (also latest TvOS) configured as Home hubs. I've also removed the Flic app from all devices, and reinstalled it. No luck whatsoever. Any ideas?

Andreas

[Emil]

@t-parker-gash please hold down the pin hole reset button for exactly somewhere between 10 and 15 seconds and then release. A longer or shorter time the button is held down will not reset the hub.