I recently moved into a new house and installed six G5 Pro PoE cameras. All six connect to a Netgear 16-port 1Gb PoE switch. The switch connects to my main TP-Link Deco router, which is connected to the fiber modem. I am also using an Apple TV 4K for my Home Hub (currently over WiFi)
Connecting all six cameras using the Aqara app was a breeze. They were detected and added without any issues.
However, my goal has always been to connect them to HomeKit. Unfortunately, every time I go to any of the camera settings to add them to HomeKit, I get the error in the screenshot: “Connect your phone and device to the same LAN and try again.”
I’ve tried everything I can think of. I verified that all the devices are on the same subnet. I’ve forced the WiFi network to 2.4 GHz. I turned off iCloud Private Relay. Nothing helps. I also tried adding the cameras directly via the Apple Home app, but it always times out.
What’s strange is that I was able to add my two W200 thermostats, the U400 lock, and the G400 doorbell camera to HomeKit without any issues. The problem is only with the G5 Pro PoE cameras.
If anyone has any ideas, I’m all ears. While I can just use the Aqara app, I’d really like to keep everything in Apple Home. Thanks so much!
I created a similar thread in the r/Aqara subreddit. As you can see, there are several other users experiencing the same issue with their G5 Pro PoE cameras.
I really hope Aqara Customer Support sees this and acts on it promptly. Please push a fimrware fix for those so that we can use these cameras with Apple Home, as it is advertised.
This sounds very much like an mDNS (Bonjour) discovery issue. The “Connect your phone and device to the same LAN” error often appears when Apple Home cannot discover a device correctly during HomeKit pairing due to network restrictions.
Speaking from personal experience, my own G5 Pro PoE paired flawlessly with Apple Home (and Home Assistant via HomeKit) when connected through a simple unmanaged switch. This makes me suspect a network-specific routing issue in your setup. The bottleneck for mDNS is often the bridge between your wired and wireless networks—which in your case is handled by the TP-Link Deco, right? Some mesh systems can occasionally block multicast traffic, especially when features like IoT networks, guest networks, client isolation, or specific wireless optimizations are enabled.
Your working devices actually support this network division theory:
Your Apple TV and W200 are on WiFi, so they talk to your iPhone without crossing the wired/wireless boundary.
Your U400 lock uses Thread, meaning it communicates directly with your Apple TV via a wireless mesh, bypassing the Deco’s routing and the switch entirely.
This brings up a crucial diagnostic question: Is your G400 doorbell connected via PoE to the exact same Netgear switch, or is it running on WiFi?
If the G400 is wired via PoE to the same switch and works fine in HomeKit, then basic wired-to-wireless discovery seems to be working. That makes a specific multicast setting much stronger suspect.
Here is how you can narrow it down:
Take one G5 Pro and plug it directly into the TP-Link Deco router (using a PoE injector or a separate power source). If it pairs successfully without the switch in the path, your Netgear switch is likely blocking the traffic.
Look through your TP-Link Deco app. Ensure the cameras aren’t being placed into an “IoT Network” or “Guest Network”, and verify that any “Device Isolation” or “AP Isolation” features are turned off.
If your 16-port Netgear is a “Smart” or Managed switch, log into its web interface. Try toggling IGMP Snooping off. Poor switch implementations or misconfigured multicast settings can sometimes disrupt link-local traffic like mDNS.
Thanks so much for the in-depth reply, John! Let me lay out my current network and device setup as a baseline, and then address your questions.
At the top of the stack is my fiber modem.
The fiber modem connects to one of my TP-Link Deco nodes. This node doesn’t have a dedicated WAN port. Instead, it auto-detects the CAT 6A cables that are connected to it. The fiber modem connects to the first port (for all intents and purposes).
The second port on the Deco node connects to TP-Link TL-SX1008 8-port 10 GB unmanaged switch. This switch connects to my computer and the two other Deco nodes via ethernet backhaul. None of the Aqara devices connect to this switch.
The third port on the Deco node connects to the Netgear GS316PP 16-port PoE 1 GB unmanaged switch. All six Aqara G5 Pro PoE cameras connect to this switch using CAT 6A shielded cables. From what I can tell, this unmanaged switch does not utilize IGMP (based on this Netgear Data Sheet)
As far as I can tell, there is nothing about this configuration that should be causing this sort of headache, right?
Now, you asked about the G400 doorbell. While I initially hoped to connect that via PoE, I couldn’t easily run a cable, so I opted to connect it via WiFi and, as mentioned, I was able to connect it to Apple Home with relative ease. Same with the two W200 thermostats.
I also went through the Deco app and can confirm that neither Guest nor IoT networks are enabled. There is also no trace of a Device Isolation setting that I can find.
While I may next try ordering a PoE injector to test connecting directly to the Deco node, I first went a bit overkill and ordered a Netgear Orbi 770 3-node setup from Amazon, which arrives tomorrow. If switching to that ends up fixing the issue, then I know it’s the Deco. If not, then I may try the PoE injector route directly to the Deco.
Still, what concerns me is the number of people who replied to the Reddit post I linked to above, all of whom are apparently experiencing the same issue… and not all of them are Deco users.
Again, I’m grateful for your insights, John! If you have any other ideas, please let me know. I’m up to try just about anything.
Quick question: what do you see when you look in the Aqara Home app under Profile → Connect to Ecosystems → Apple Home → HomeKit devices? Are the cameras listed as “Bound” there?
simple test. When you go to add the G5 pro to HomeKit, it immediately goes to camera to read the QR code. There is an option for “More options…” in Orange. If you select that, it should show you the G5 pro.
Is it there?
P.S. it’s been so long now that you’ll have to reset it.
Fair question. I am not running any VPN on my mobile device. I even tried adding these cameras to HomeKit using my wife’s iPhone (she is also an admin in the Aqara app), and she got the same error.
This is what I currently see, and at one point, I saw six of those camera hubs (one for each of my G5 Pro cameras). Attempting to add any of them resulting in an immediate “unable to add accessory” error.
Yup, numerous times. When I try to do that, HomeKit attempts to add a Camera, but always times out after about two minutes. I’ve tried doing that ad hoc, as well as after resetting the camera and bypassing the Aqara app.
Interesting. I just noticed that I’m also getting this error message—“Connect your phone and device to the same LAN and try again”—in the HomeKit settings of my device. However, my camera is connected to HomeKit in Apple Home and to Home Assistant via Matter, and everything works without any issues. But the message has only been there since the last firmware update (4.5.30_0004.0017), I’d say.
It’s oddly reassuring that you’re seeing that message, too, John. I was just about to open the new Netgear Orbi mesh nodes that Amazon delivered to see if it’s due to my Deco system. But, if you think it’s a firmware issue (which I’m also leaning towards), then I may wait to see if a fix is rolled out before going through the process of building out a new wifi network, resetting the cameras, and re-pairing them. Do you agree?
In hindsight, it seems it was just a dumb coincidence that your WiFi devices connected without a hitch while the LAN ones failed. The fact that the cameras appear as hubs on the “More options” screen means that mDNS discovery should be working correctly.
Could you double-check if all of your cameras are currently on firmware version 4.5.30_0004.0017? Unfortunately, I can’t confirm myself if the firmware is actually preventing the initial connection, since my cameras are already paired and working flawlessly, and I really don’t want to reset everything just to test it!
In the meantime, please forward this issue to Aqara Support (you can do it right through the app). They might already be aware of the problem, but if not, they definitely need to know.
Just a thought. You may have tried this but ensure you have the HomeKit setup code for each camera, often on the base of the camera, then ignoring the Aqara app open HomeKit on an iPad or iPhone, touch the “+” icon top right corner and add each camera that way, adding the set up code when promoted. You can do it on a MAC through the HomeKit app there on.
