Home Automations and travelling

TidBITS Talk
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I have the house on autopilot, using a mini-HomePod as a hub. The Home app is on two phones and two iPads (have shared Home with my wife!). If we are travelling OS, there will be times on planes and when we are out of cellular coverage that our iOS devices will not be able to connect to the mini-HomePod in our house. Does this mean the automations will not work (ie do I need to ensure that an iOS device is always in contact with mini-HomePod for automations to work)?

Second question, is around timezones. If my iOS device is in contact with the mini-HomePod, but from a different timezone, which timezone will the automations use - the current one my iOS device is in (bad) or the one where the mini HomePod is (good)?

Thanks in anticipation!

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I believe that the hub controls the automations using its time zone and time…and if you were to create another automation on the road in a different time zone but out of cell signal the new one will remain on the phone until signal happens then be synced to the hub which will fix the time zone and run the automations per whatever schedule you set. I haven’t actually tried this though…

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No. They work just fine. (I have plenty of relevant experience with this.)

The local time zone of your home.

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Thanks for your replies Neil and Doug. Good to know that the timezone my house is in will be maintained.

I still have some concerns about whether the automations will run if all my devices are not able to connect to the hub.

@jcenters - your book seems to imply that there must be a device running Home connected to the hub for the automations to run (ie the automations run from the macOS or iOS device, rather than the hub). Are you able to clarify? Thanks!

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I have a summer house that for a few years ran all automations with just an Apple TV HD as a hub - no iOS, iPadOS, or macOS devices at all. Now there is a Mac that runs only when we are there for the summer (but not 24x7) and everything still runs fine (well, except for the Logitech Circle View camera that keeps dropping off the network, but I have it plugged in to a smart plug so I can restart the camera remotely. Don’t buy a Logitech circle view camera - I’m not the only one with this problem.)

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Thanks Doug - great input - much appreciated. I may leave one iPad at home powered up if we go away as I don’t have definitive info on what the mini HomePod can do, as a hub - ie will it run automations without any connections to devices with the Home app running installed and automations setup. Josh Centres book “Take Control of Apple Home Automation” does not cover using the mini HomePod as a hub.

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The way I look at it, Homekit creates a local cloud for storing its settings. All devices designated as a home-hub access, and effectively share, these settings. So the task of running automations can be taken on by any hub device. TvOS and HomePodOS run this software - Apple TVs and Homepods are the only devices that can be Home Hubs. iPads can no longer do this.

Macs, iPhones and iPad can manage the Homekit settings (and add devices) but my understanding is that they cannot run the automations directly. They can run Shortcuts that control Homekit devices, or trigger Homekit automations but don’t take part in Home Hub functionality.

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Thanks Michael. From this I understand that automations will run if the hub is powered (a HomePod in my case), even if all all macOS and iOs devices are off/ out of reach. Good news.