Homekit - all items not responding after upgrade to 4.3.2

After upgrading my openhab instance from version 4.2.x to 4.3.0 the homekit binding ist not working properly and i got “all items are not respoinding” errors after some time on my apple devices.

Details:

  • after restart of raspberry pi, homekit items are working with all ios devices
  • after some time (mostly after 1 day, sometimes also within one day) i get the error “all items are not responding” at my ios devices (no matter if its the ipad, the iphone or the iphone of my wife, all cannot connect to the openhab items)
  • after i restarted the raspberry pi again, all items are reachable again for some time.

What i tried:

  • turn on trace-logs on openhab (output you can see here), but besides the interface changes sometimes, everything seems to be ok)
  • i checked router settings
  • checked wifi-settings on ios devices and turn off private modes for ip tracking and id-changes
  • restarted openhab several times for 2 weeks now
  • turn off ipv6 server on fritzbox router (i have seen there where some problems some versions ago with it)
  • upgrading from 4.3.0 to 4.3.2 some days ago

All things didnt work. Do you have an idea how to solve it or does someone else face the same issue now?

2025-01-14 12:06:44.431 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /2001:9e8:3381:6700:1e94:3026:c950:42f5%wlan0
2025-01-14 12:06:44.433 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /fe80:0:0:0:dcc9:a65a:1de3:cd6c%wlan0
2025-01-14 12:06:44.434 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /169.254.224.85
2025-01-14 12:43:52.518 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 12:46:52.549 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 12:46:52.552 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /fe80:0:0:0:dcc9:a65a:1de3:cd6c%wlan0
2025-01-14 12:46:52.553 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /169.254.224.85
2025-01-14 12:48:52.582 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 12:50:52.612 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 12:57:00.668 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 12:57:00.670 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /2001:9e8:3381:6700:1e94:3026:c950:42f5%wlan0
2025-01-14 12:57:00.672 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /fe80:0:0:0:dcc9:a65a:1de3:cd6c%wlan0
2025-01-14 12:57:00.673 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /169.254.224.85
2025-01-14 13:06:08.734 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 13:07:08.762 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 13:11:08.795 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 13:16:16.849 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - HomeKit bridge reacting on network interface changes.
2025-01-14 13:16:16.851 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /2001:9e8:3381:6700:1e94:3026:c950:42f5%wlan0
2025-01-14 13:16:16.852 [TRACE] [nhab.io.homekit.internal.HomekitImpl] - removed interface /fe80:0:0:0:dcc9:a65a:1de3:cd6c%wlan0

Hi Dominik
the issue is the interface changes. homekit addon not always handle interface changes correctly, especially if they happen quick / often.
there is not fix for it yet (one fix is in the review, but it will be for OH5.0).
the solution would be to avoid or reduce network changes.

these two look like IPv6 address assigned to wlan0. try to disable them on raspberry pi
/2001:9e8:3381:6700:1e94:3026:c950:42f5%wlan0
/fe80:0:0:0:dcc9:a65a:1de3:cd6c%wlan0

not sure why your ipv4 - 169.254.224.85 disconnect and connect multiple times a day. maybe switch between access points. try to lock raspberry pi to one access point, if you have multiple access points and they support locking.

Hello Eugen,
thank you very much for your reply, i will try this out now and give feedback if it worked :slight_smile:

any feedback ?

As suggested, the problem was the interface changes as you have seen in the logs - they occurred very often.

I found out, that my raspberry was connected to LAN AND Wifi (i thought i had disabled wifi sone time ago) after i made updates, and the Wifi connection switched between FrotzBox and Access Point very often, due to bad wifi signal.

I disabled wifi and restarted the raspberry, and now it works like a charm again. No disconnects since than.

Thank you very much for your help.

sorry, forgot to update. please have a look at my comment now :slight_smile: