Can’t Remove Accessory From Homekit? – Complete Fix Guide

Can’t remove accessory from Homekit? Such an occurrence will make it hard to readjust the device in a new house, especially if you want to sell it.

When you can’t remove an accessory from Homekit, you must check if you have permission. Other troubleshooting steps include checking your internet connection, the phone’s software, and the distance’s connection and integrity.

Some troubleshooting solutions require a bit of technical knowledge or detailed steps.

We will tackle those below in a way that is easy to understand and follow.

Can’t Remove Accessory From Homekit? – Reasons

When you cannot remove accessories from Homekit, that could be due to many reasons.

The tough part is finding out what reasons are at play and deciding which solution to apply. 

Perhaps you will remember something you did wrong or one notification that matches the description of the reason.

The most widespread causes of not allowing you to remove accessory from Homekit include:

✅ Insufficient Apple ID Permissions

Perhaps you are not the main person in control of HomeKit in your house. In that case, you might not be allowed to remove accessories.

✅ Software Bugs or Glitches

Sometimes, the Apple Home app is not working correctly, requiring you to restart the app/phone or update the app.

The same could be happening to your iOS.

✅ Network Connectivity Issues

If your internet connection is unstable, HomeKit might fail to communicate with the device you are trying to remove.

✅ Accessory Out of Range or Not Responding

Your device might be too far from the router, it has lost energy, or it has a software/hardware failure.

Can’t Remove Accessory From Homekit? – How To Solve It

After seeing the main causes preventing you from removing a certain accessory from HomeKit, we move to the solutions.

Just like the multiple causes, there are also multiple solutions you can apply.

Some are very easy, while others require a bit of work.

Solution #1: Manage Or Ask For Permissions

One common cause of not being able to remove an accessory from Homekit is very simple: you don’t have permission to do that.

Suppose you live in a house/apartment with your family or college roommates.

Suppose you are not the person who’s set up the Homekit system and integrated devices into it, likely.

In that case, you don’t have permission to remove them. 

Since you can’t give the app permission to yourself, you will have to ask the person to either try deleting the app or permit you to manage devices in the future. 

The person who has the power to manage permissions must do the following:

1. Open the Home app 
2. Tap “Home” 
3. Tap on the “Home Settings” 
4. Tap on the “Home Users & Access” 

The section entered allows the main user to give or restrain permissions for each user.

Here is how to proceed for each different action available:

• Adding a user: tap on the “+” and enter the user’s email address or iCloud account.
• Removing a user: swipe left on their name and tap “Remove.”
• Set permissions: tap on a user’s name and select the permissions you want to give them.
• It is necessary to tap “Done” after making changes.

So what you want your family member or roommate to do is go to “Set permissions” and allow you to add or remove devices.

Solution #2: Check Your Internet

Okay, so suppose you do have the necessary permissions.

Still, every time you try to remove a device, you get some notification error, or nothing happens at all. That could be your internet’s fault. 

However, before we blame it on your router or your ISP not providing a stable connection, you must check one important thing.

That is, whether all your devices are on the same network/whether they are even connected.

Checking The Device’s Connection

Some smart devices might fail while turned on and disconnect from the assigned network.

So, before trying anything abruptly, check if the device you are trying to remove is still connected to your main 2.4 GHz network. 

If you still have the proprietary app for the device installed on your iPhone, check it.

There, it must show your device’s configurations. If even this fails, find your device and manage its settings directly.

Since there is a huge range of devices, we can only tell you to check the user guide for instructions regarding internet connection.

Manage Your Internet

Is your device connected correctly? Is it on the same network as your iPhone? Then the problem might truly lie with your router or ISP.

The first thing you must try is the following:

1. Locate your router’s power button
2. Press it for a while until the lights go out
3. Wait for a minute
4. Turn it back on

The method above aims to reset your internet. As simple as it is, it can get rid of jammed data and fix instabilities in your connection. 

All the devices connected to it will momentarily lose connection to the internet. So check them after that to ensure they have connected again.

Note: If resetting does not work, but you can notice your internet is unstable, get in touch with your ISP!

Solution #3: Manage The Home App

Sometimes a bug or glitch happens when you try to remove an accessory from the Home App.

The issue can be a fault of the app, not your device. In that case, you might want to check whether the app is up to date.

Usually, apps will update automatically. But when they fail to do so, you can look for their updates and install them.

Here is how:

1. Open the App Store
2. Tap your profile icon
3. Look for pending updates
4. Check if an update is available for the Home app
5. If it is, choose to install it

Such a solution is very easy, and once you update your app, you can open it again and see if you can remove devices.

If you still can’t, or if no updates are available, check the next solution.

Solution #4: Update Your iPhone

A few apps, especially those highly integrated with Apple’s ecosystem, might not work well when your iPhone is outdated. 

Here is how to check if your iPhone needs an update:

1. Head to Settings.
2. Click General.
3. Choose Software Update
4. Now Download and install (if an update is available)

Was an update available for your iPhone? Perhaps it installed a few updates for your other apps too. Or it made a few of them available for you to install manually.

We recommend you go back to Solution #3 and check for updates for the Home app.

Solution #5: Check The Device’s Distance

The solution we propose here takes it that there is nothing wrong with your iPhone or its apps.

Rather, the device you want to remove is too distant, meaning it can’t respond to the request, so the app fails to do the removal.

What is meant is that the device is too distant from your Wi-Fi router, not the iPhone. As you already know, both devices must be connected to the same router.

But maybe you think that you’ve set up the device without issues and never moved it from the same place.

Then there are a few possibilities:

• You moved your router (even if only a few meters)
• Your router’s full range has become shorter because of some hardware issue
• There are too many new objects/other devices between the device and the router

A great way to check if the distance is the problem is by trying to control the device via the Home app.

Instead of removing it right away, try any other command. If it is not working, distance can be the issue, and you must take the accessory closer to the router.

After that, the accessory’s connection to HomeKit will be re-established. Now you can remove accessories from Homekit.

If that still doesn’t work, check Solution #6:

Solution #6: Check The Device’s Integrity

The final step in this guide is checking if the device your Home app fails to remove has any issues. That could be either a firmware issue or a hardware one. 

In that case, we advise you to find the device’s user guide (either on its package or the brand’s website) and update its firmware.

If you successfully update the firmware, proceed to remove the device from the Home app.

Suppose that updating the firmware still didn’t do it. Then, check the user’s guide and perform a hard reset/factory reset. 

There is a possibility that performing a reset will even disconnect the device from your Home app.

The device will also be ready for selling if that is your purpose.

What We Learned

Many factors might be involved when you can’t remove accessory from Homekit.

However, you can also proceed to the best solution once you find the correct culprit.

The guide above is full of solutions you can employ to eliminate this annoying bug.