Just set up my U400 earlier today and I’ve spent hours trying to connect/have two ecosystems concurrently. I started off with pairing to smartthings then attempted to connect to homekit, I eventually gave up and tried the other way around and same thing, connects to homekit but doesn’t connect to smartthings despite being exposed via matter. I honestly want to keep the lock on smartthings since I have/will have a larger mesh network, mainly want the homekit so the HomeKeys are exposed. If its possible I would like to just share them straight from samsung wallet but it seems like they dont work like digital car keys. Although I believe Aliro 1.0 specification allows for this, there should simply be a share button in the key menu top right corner.
Also to be blunt I’ve also reset almost everything multiple times, its been to no avail. HomeKit seems to be having a lot of issues with this lock and i can’t pinpoint why. All other matter products onboard easily when connection is exposed through smartthings.
Here’s a question. Did you use the supplied QR code for both environments? If so, that is your problem.
You use the supplied QR code on first environment, then in that environment you Share the device and it generates a new key code and puts the device in pairing mode. You then go to the 2nd environment, and then add the device using the newly generated code.
Just to be clear, you were able to get it set up in the first ecosystem each time, but not the second?
Can you describe your set up in more detail? Siobhan may be getting to this, but I’d like to understand how your thread network is set up in each ecosystem?
So I have a thread network in SmartThings via a Q990D hub that can act as a Thread border router, the other thread network is through a HomePod Mini, which is its own network (not unified in any capacity).
I’ve set it up in both ecosystems a few times now, I’ve reset hubs, tried connecting through different devices in both HomeKit and SmartThings, but again nothing will work, it will remain on one ecosystem. Although just a bit ago I tried connecting it to my Google Home ecosystem and it worked perfectly with no issues, but still won’t with HomeKit this leads me to believe the issue is isolated to HomeKit, I’ve also updated firmware the latest beta firmware, still no luck.
I also was wondering if unification would solve the issue but as of right now my SmarThings hub would be running Thread 1.3. Manual unification isn’t possible, unless (and I’m not quite sure about this) the other border router of another ecosystem just chooses, to join the Preferred thread network. But I’ve tried doing that in the past and it won’t work.
OK. This is your problem. You have Islands of Thread. So if you put it in Apple Home, it is on your Apple Thread network, which can’t be seen by Smart Things.
If you put it on SmartThings network it can’t be seen by Apple Home.
This issue is supposed to be fixed, or made better by Thread 1.4. However, basically, you need to bring those two Thread networks together… I’ve seen it talked about for other vendors, but not AH/ST.
Your issue may be related to Thread then. A Thread device can only belong to one Thread network at a time, so if your SmartThings, Apple Home, or Google Home ecosystems are operating separate Thread networks (running 1.3 this is the case), that could explain the behavior you’re seeing.
It could very well be a thread issue, but my understanding is thread doesn’t operate like that. When a device is first commissioned it uses the thread network of the ecosystem, once you expose it via matter another ecosystem can pair to it via matter but it won’t be imposing its own thread network, that would be a mess and cause unnecessary issues. Currently I have thread devices that were initially commissioned on SmartThings and shared to AH, it works, as it shouldl As I said I believe the issue is isolated to HomeKit and the lock, I’ve seen quite a few people complain about the AH/HK integration and the steps they have to take. I also want to add that I see on a forum that there is a user using both SmarThings and AH, so it should be possible. I’ll probably figure it out eventually.
Thread is a tricky, nuanced beast. You’re correct that a device commissioned into one ecosystem will join that ecosystem’s Thread network, and when you share it via Matter multi-admin the second ecosystem typically just controls it over Matter rather than moving it to a different Thread network.
Where things can get messy in practice is when multiple ecosystems are running their own Thread networks in the same home. The device will stay on the original Thread network it joined, but the other ecosystem still needs a reliable path to that network via a Thread Border Router. Depending on the implementation, that’s where people sometimes run into reliability issues or odd behavior.
So you’re right that it should work, and often does, but when multiple ecosystems are involved it can introduce some additional complexity. My guess is the users running both successfully likely have Thread Border Routers participating in the same Thread network. For example, I use my U400 successfully across multiple ecosystems (Apple Home, Aqara, Homey, and Alexa), but in my setup they all share the same Thread network. I previously ran parallel thread networks and had plenty of issues that disappeared when I fixed this.
Do you know how to force a Thread Network to join another, without creating its own? I looked into this when I first set both Thread border routers, but at that moment it wasn’t much of an issue since everything was working without unification.
Also forgot to add, since I have 2 hubs with thread and one without, I unplugged the thread ones and let the Matter one onboard (in ST). This allowed me to see/connect to the Thread connection of the HomePod, but I cannot find its Thread network key anywhere, thus I think I’ve somewhat given up for now. For the time being the lock shall remain in ST.
So I’ve been tinkering with my setup for all of my Aqara devices (including U400).
I have had roughly the same experience for the lock, Aqara bulbs (thread/matter), and the FP300 presence sensor. It seems to me like the best way to go about it is to add the devices directly into HomeKit first. Then, when you go into the Aqara app, you will go to “add accessory” and choose the “Matter” option at the top. It will search for a second and then promo you to go into HomeKit, put the device in pairing mode, and then go back into the Aqara app and re-enter the Matter code. It will look like you are adding it to HomeKit AGAIN and give you a warning about it being setup on another home. But once it finished everything shows up correctly in both the Aqara and the HomeKit apps (no duplicate devices or anything).
Anyway…this may not directly apply to your situation, but I figured I would share.
It does seem like the best way to do it is adding everything to HomeKit first and then going about it with other ecosystems. My working theory is it has something to do with the commissioning of the digital key. Since both platforms now have digital key it simply won’t let it join both (since I’m assuming the backend handshake for digital key needs to happen via the respective hub and I saw someone stating it has to be thread?), they both will move to the last step and then fail to add.
I regret i think two things, first adding it to SmartThings (was excited for the digital key) and then updating it, only after that I started adding it to HomeKit.
From all the people that I’ve seen stated having it in ST and HK, it seems they had it prior to the firmware enabling HomeKey on ST. I have no idea if they are using HomeKey on both platforms and if they are, falling back to what I’ve been reading, (and what has been stated in this thread) since thread may be necessary for comissioning its possible these individuals have a unified thread network.
I had a similar issue. I first added the lock to the Aqara app, updated firmware, then added to SmartThings. Everything worked fine except for HomeKey/UWB since we didn’t have any Apple Home devices. Picked up a Homepod Mini, set it up and tried to share the U400 from SmartThings to Apple Home. It would connect, start to add to Home, then fail. I unpaired the U400 from ST and paired to AH. The U400 features all worked for Apple devices (digital key/UWB) with all other fingerprint and passcodes configured through the Aqara app. When trying to share the Matter code from AH to ST, it would fail to adopt the U400 in ST.
To further troubleshoot, I shared the device from AH to Google Home and it paired without issue. So that lead me to factory resetting ST, configured it after adding it back to my network, then shared the U400 from AH and then I was able to successfully add it back to ST. So now, I have it paired to both AH and ST, all Apple devices work with Homekey/UWB and I am able to use my S25 Ultra’s digital key through ST. I did not have to unify the thread network for it to work. Adding the U400 to ST first seems to cause an issue and even removing doesn’t help. Only after a factory reset of ST, adding U400 1st to AH, was I then able to use both ecosystems.
It’s possible his thread networks unified, but I doubt he used the same phone. Whenever I onboarded the lock on SmartThings via an iPhone, my Samsung devices wouldn’t get the digital key, it would only show the generic key with remote controls. Just waiting to get Thread 1.4 so I can unify.
Just wanted to add to this thread in the case anyone is struggling with this. My soundbar recently updated to Thread 1.4 and from that I was able to unify my networks, prior to deleting every single device I did try to add the lock without unification and just like the last few times it did not work. I want to say that unification may be a necessary step to get lock on both SmartThings and HomeKit with digital key, but others have said they’ve managed to do it without. In either case having unification should ensure onboarding.
