Hello,
I’ve set up a fairly large Aqara system integrated with Apple Home. It includes:
one Aqara M3 as the primary hub
one M1S Gen 2 as a secondary hub
and approximately 20–25 sensors of various types
I’m currently facing the following issues when connecting to Apple Home:
- When I connect via Matter / Third-Party Ecosystem, the Aqara System does not appear and can’t control the aqara status modes (Off / Home / Away / Night) in Apple Home.
- When I connect via HomeKit, the air conditioner connected to the M3 does not appear in Apple Home.
- When connected to both ecosystems, all sensors appear duplicated in Apple Home.
Am I missing something in the configuration?
Is there a solution or best practice for this?
Any help or clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
it’s a common behavior when using Aqara Hubs with Apple HomeKit. The duplication happens because of how Aqara exposes devices:
- Aqara Hub = HomeKit bridge.
The hub itself exposes both the hub (as a device) and each connected accessory to HomeKit.
- Sensor functions may be split.
For example, an Aqara temperature/humidity sensor might appear as two or three separate tiles in the Home app (temperature, humidity, air pressure) rather than a single combined device. This isn’t a bug — it’s how HomeKit treats multi-sensor accessories.
- Extra hub-level controls.
Some Aqara devices are represented both as a direct accessory and as part of the hub (e.g., motion sensors showing up under the hub in addition to their standalone tile). This can look like duplication but really reflects multiple services being exposed.
- Automations vs. display.
Even if you see duplicates, HomeKit usually only recognizes one instance of each sensor in automations. The extras are “services” attached to the accessory, not truly separate devices.
In short: You’re not seeing true duplicates. Aqara splits devices into multiple HomeKit “services” (one per capability) and also exposes hub-level functions. The Apple Home app shows each service as a tile, which looks like duplication.
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Hello @akis_papadopoulos
I will answer your questions in order.
-
- This is not forwarded to Homekit via Matter, you need to connect the M3 hub via the Homekit code in the Apple home app.
-
- You need to add an air conditioner to the m3 via the item - air conditioning mode and not via IR remote controls. And add the M3 to Homekit via the HK code and not via the Matter code.
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Hello Raman, thanks for your response.
I need to clarify that my M3 hub is connected deliberately via matter AND via HomeKit code.
This way I see two bridges in Apple Home and this is the reason I get duplicate sensors.
The reason I had to to this is that Air Conditioning appears only connected to the matter bridge and system (alarm status) only connected to the HomeKit bridge.
When I delete one of the two bridges the sensors appear correctly, just one instance per service. BUT I lose in Apple Home either Aqara System status OR Air Conditioning, depending on which bridge I keep in Apple home
two different bridges are used, that’s why it happens, you can turn off the display of the device on the home tab and move the duplicates to a separate room (doubles) so that they don’t bother you - this is the option that I would use.
