This becomes really annoying - every update breaks things - if not zigbee then other apps, the last update broke my withings / iftt, my flows do not trigger, wasting time for unnecessary debugging I am literally on the edge of throwing this thing to trash… Aqara and other devs show incredibly large lags, this has not been happening, it is such a nuisance…
how can you introduce an update and if something breaks you just say „it will be fixed with the next update"??
I am fed up with Athom approach and their self-joy about how great this system is…
I start moving my things to hass, it is at least open source so if something breaks I know that I have not paid for that so I can not expect that everything is smooth…
Bye bye Homey.
I can fully understand your frustration, and every update you hope (pray) maybe this solves al my problems. Version 13.2.0 did that for me.
Couldn’t (shouldn’t ) you you be more reluctant with updating your system, and in stead switch automatic updates off? And first work out (resolve) your problems?
I’ve always learned for critical systems (that provide you income of security) you test new updates and systems thoroughly, and not rely on the vendor.
Succes, I hope It will come for you as well.
I understand the frustration, but since this is a community forum, you’d better tell Homey about it:
For me personally I’ve disabled auto-update and take special care when updating especially with x.x.0 and x.0 releases.
Well, my experience with Homey support is that you get the answers from them (if you are lucky to get these in time, but I was experiencing their answers in 3-4 weeks) that are rather vague or not bringing much into solving issues. This community was far more helpful in solving problems then Athom, which takes money for their product (harder + softer)…
Indeed I might try this… but - as we are all customers, not open source devs - we should expect that the updates are checked and tested… but maybe I am already getting old-fashioned…
I am an parallel user of hass and - tbh - their approach to updates are much better - transparent and clear info what is going to change and your know when to expect that…
Anyway, thank you for your advice I shall follow it…
Yes, I have the same frustration as you when nothing is working like you experience now.
However, in Homey’s defence, new apps and devices are added almost daily and they can’t test every combination of devices before they release new software.
A bit similar to Windows with infinite motherboard, processor, graphics, memory combinations. Unlike Apple with its closed system approach.
Not that it helps you …
I almost never update my Homey, only when it adds meaningful changes that I actually use/need. My Homey is still on 12.7.1, and since all the apps that I use still work fine, I don’t upgrade.
Updating has never gone wrong though, I just don’t see the need to upgrade when the only things added are minor bugfixes that don’t impact my use of the system.
I have auto update disabled everywhere, on every device. Even the apps on my phone and tablet all have auto updates disabled. I do this because I want to click the update buttons myself, because then I know what is updated and if I encounter issues with something, I can at least know if an update could have caused it. While I do often run updates on my devices (sometimes daily), I think it’s important to know what gets updated instead of just letting everything update in the background.
Seems like a good strategy considering the crap Athom is shipping…
Well, yes & no 
understand that everybody wants / needs to be ahead of the peers. But - if you sell your stuff for money there is no excuse… either you test it and provide just a basic level of confidence for users (read: your clients) or … 
Very similar to the mechanisms of AI confidence… very hot 
nowadays…
Anyway, I wish you a great weekend with no hickups from our hardware… hopefully…
I can relate to “they should thoroughly test everything before publishing an update”, but that’s simply just not possible (not defending Athom) due to the nature of the system imho.
To compare, with Home Assistant things sometimes get fucked up as well, and often there’s a patch (in) the next (few) day(s).
Same situation: it’s impossible to test with each and every device and configuration out there.
“I paid lots of money” is a weird argument. Homey is not a watch running for years without maintenance?
However, enabling auto updates by default, “because of possible security fixes”, without giving the user an option (“think twice, things could go wrong for your unique setup, maybe updating firmware yourself suits you better”), is not the best choice to say it nicely.
I immediately disabled the automatic firmware updates after such a “surprise”. Auto update as phenomenon is evil and scary AF (just my opinion) .
My aversion to the inflexible automatic firmware (& app) updates by Athom is:
- There’s no changelog up front
(Well, maybe @ Slack Homey channel it’s published prior to the actual releasing, but Slack’s not for everyone).
In that case, we could decide to skip an update. But there’s no such thing
- There’s no way to pick a convenient auto install time, like, next Saturday at ten AM (when I’m having time to deal with possible failures). Yea, just like windows does with patches nowadays
- Worse, there’s no “Skip / postpone updates until [date]” functionality (for when you’re away from Home(y) for several days)
- There should be a confirmation dialog! Not this “Surprise, we updated your Homey firmware at 3AM” stuff.
- Folks should test beta updates to catch these errors; but who has a complete mirrored / failover system running? Very few.
And never install beta updates on your daily driver.
- There’s no easy way to revert! Besides creating an offline backup prior to each firmware update. But that causes Homey to be offline for 60 - 120 minutes, not something you’d keep on doing prior to every single update
I’ve sent suggestions on how to improve the firmware updating mechanism @ Jan 2024, but the response came down to “you are free to disable the auto update mechanism and take full control that way”
Its just what you see everywhere. - Apple, Microslop, .. they all have become so detached from their users. So Athom is in „good" company and just main stream.
Go open source or swallow the bitter pill. They are all beyond the point of really listening.
Hi Peter,
I was awaiting for your reply, which I always appreciate:-)
One thing, which is disputable imho - the difference btw Homey and Hass (first I need to clarify - I have not said „I paid a lot of money". I bough this product at the price, which I found fair considering the advantages and functionality it has offered, it was my decision) is the open source / commercial aspect of the offer. In hass things go wrong obviously, but this is very clear - it is open source and you may expect this. Homey on the other hand is a commercial product, if you deliver a commercial product you need to provide - maintenance in the warranty period, after warranty period and so on. The nature of this product is the unbound relation of hardware and software, so both things need to work nicely together and need to be maintained. Not comparing the amount of expense but going further the way of your example with watch - you expect your watch to work and not to show you the time of New York when you are in EU… (look at the story with Sonos app upgrade - the consequences of ill-considered update and the reputation loses to the brand… scale is different but story is similar…)
Further - when you introduce a change / update etc. you have to consider the end point of this action - the user. The user who sometimes spent multiple hours on setting his/her devices / flows and happily used that until the upgrade broke it down…
Unfortunately Athom’s approach toward users is exactly as you described in their reply to your well grounded request… my experience is similar
I have switched the updates off (which is a patch rather than a proper solution)… still I am intending to slowly as time allows migrate my flows and devices to hass (btw. I have become hass user thanks to you, which I am grateful for )
I have been working for many years in service businesses, my experience and lesson learned is that you need to develop your customer services well balanced to the development of your sales and core products, this is obviously not Athom’s case.
