All about a HomeKit backup
Setting up your HomeKit home is not something you do overnight. Over the years, you expand your collection with new HomeKit products. Setting up all the devices is a step-by-step process, and eventually you have a fairly well-built system with devices, scenes, automations and more. Of course, you don’t want that to be lost if something goes wrong. So you may rightly wonder whether you can make a backup of HomeKit. In this article, we explain how Apple ensures that you don’t lose any data and what you can do yourself to make a backup of HomeKit.
How do I create a HomeKit backup?
There is no setting to manually back up HomeKit. All HomeKit data is stored on your device and synced with each other via iCloud. All data is also stored in an iCloud backup. In any case, check whether the Home app is enabled in your iCloud settings:
- Open the Settings app and tap your name.
- Tap iCloud.
- Turn on the switch next to Home.
If you also make local backups via Mac or PC, make sure that this backup is encrypted.
There is no standard way to manually back up your HomeKit data yourself, other than backing up your iPhone and iPad regularly. To restore from a backup, you must restore your entire iPhone.
Switch to new iPhone
If you upgrade to a new iPhone, all of your HomeKit data will be transferred as well. So there’s nothing extra you need to do other than transfer all of your data to your new iPhone and sign in with the same account.
Help! The Home app is empty!
Open the Home app and all your devices are gone? Does the Home app suddenly seem empty? First check whether you are logged in with the correct account. You can check this via Settings > your name. At the top you can see which iCloud account you are logged in with. Is this not your usual account? Then log out at the bottom and then log in again with the correct account that also contains your HomeKit data. In most cases, your HomeKit backup will then be restored.
HomeKit devices have been reset and scenes have disappeared
In rare cases, despite having the correct settings, something can still go wrong with your HomeKit setup. Here are some issues that can occur:
- Devices will have their original name again, instead of the name you chose.
- Devices are no longer in the correct room.
- Scenes are missing or contain no devices.
- Automations no longer work (usually due to missing devices and/or scenes).
In these cases, try restarting your device first. Also check if the problem occurs on another device that is logged in with the same account or on the device of someone you share your HomeKit home with.
In some cases, you can restore the devices by using the manufacturer’s app. For example, if you have Philips Hue lights, you can sync the names of your lights with HomeKit from there. Also check the other apps from the manufacturers of your HomeKit accessories. The Eve app can also be useful for restoring data. For example, it may appear that HomeKit scenes have disappeared, but in reality they are not visible in the Home app because, for example, no accessories have been assigned to them. You can restore this manually via the Eve app.
HomeKit backup via apps
There are a number of apps that can help you back up your HomeKit data, so you can be sure that you won’t lose any data.
Controller for HomeKit
Controller for HomeKit is a handy app that lets you create multiple HomeKit backups. This is useful if you want to change settings, but are ultimately not satisfied. With this app you can easily restore the settings to the moment before the changes. This is also useful if you want to have multiple setups for different times of the year. During the holidays or in the winter, you might want to organize your HomeKit home differently than during the rest of the year.
Controller for HomeKit supports backing up a variety of components:
- Rooms and zones
- Names of devices and services
- Layout of devices in rooms
- Service groups
- Scenes
- Automations
To make a backup, you need the pro version of the app. This costs a few tens of euros per year.
HomePass
HomePass is another HomeKit app that lets you save HomeKit codes. This is also useful as a backup, because you can quickly add a device again in case of problems. You can manually add new devices and codes, but you can also import them if you have already added them to HomeKit. HomePass is therefore mainly a backup for your HomeKit codes. The app itself can also make a PDF backup of all your HomeKit codes. You can do this manually or have a PDF automatically generated when a change has been made (such as adding a new code).
Also check out our overview of HomeKit apps to get more out of your smart home.
Taking screenshots of your HomeKit settings
A manual way to back up HomeKit yourself is to regularly take a screenshot of your settings. You can’t quickly restore everything at once, but it does allow you to quickly recreate your devices, scenes, and automations in case something goes wrong. For example, take a screenshot of your room layout, individual scenes, and automations. By then creating an album in the Photos app, you can keep these screenshots together in an organized way.
If something goes wrong and all your settings are erased, you can always refer to your screenshots to manually restore everything. This is also useful if you are moving and want to recreate some settings.
Looking for more HomeKit tips? Read our round-up or check out one of the tips below:
- Control HomeKit: Here’s How
- How to add HomeKit devices to the Home app
- How to add and modify rooms in your HomeKit home
- How to create a HomeKit group: combine multiple accessories
