Can't get rid of Phantom Hub(s) - Please help!

I'm the creator of the thread on Reddit. I still have the phantom 'default room' home hub. It has been nearly 3 months. While it causes no immediate issues with my HomeKit it's annoying and makes it harder to tell when I actually have an unresponsive device that needs to be fixed.

I keep hoping an update will fix the issue. I'm losing that hope since it sounds like the problem started with iOS16 long before my issue.

I'm glad others are also contacting Apple. I've tried text support and have submitted bugs with the Feedback app.

45 days ended yesterday, no change, didn’t work, what a waste of time. The error dot still annoys me. Apple needs to sort this nonsense out.

I have the same problem, and have tried just about every ‘solution’ I can find online (to no avail). Apple TV 4K (gen 1). I suspect it happens when you reset an Apple TV that is the active (connected) home hub. Has anybody ended up with this issue (i.e. a ghost hub that can’t be removed by simple fixes such as removing it from iCloud) where the hub in question was in standby mode?

I’ve been on to Apple three times. I’ve been told it’s a global, reasonably common, bug that Apple is actively working on, and that it should be fixed, via an update, once Apple work out what’s causing it.

Until an update, maybe, arrives, all I can do is wait 45 days (or delete my home - which would be too much hassle for me - complex smart home setup). If there is no ping to Apple servers from the ghost hub for 45 days it should be removed. I asked if the Apple TV is still in use, and is pinging the server, could this result in the ghost hub not being removed in 45 days. The reply was… maybe. As such, I’ve reset my Apple TV again, unplugged it, and will keep it in a draw for the next 45 days. This should maximise the potential that it will be removed in 45 days. Down one Apple TV :( Not impressed, but I can’t stand the constant error symbol!!

Thanks for posting this, and that's great that it worked for you! I've repeated these steps on two separate occasions and unfortunately the old hubs don't disappear.

So I also had this problem and after reading this post and trying all the steps the original poster suggested, I actually did go nuclear and spent an entire day removing accessories, fully deleting my Home, and rebuilding the entire thing by rejoining each accessory again.

And then just today, fully functioning under the freshly rebuilt Home, I removed the last Apple TV HD I had so that I could swap in a new 4K and the issue occurred again. The reset Apple TV HD is now showing as an unresponsive hub and my freshly rebuilt setup is doing exactly the same thing it was doing before.

I seriously hope this is a known software bug that Apple is able to help with, as I've now spent a whole day fixing this issue and I'm on track to have to do the same thing a second time.

Does anyone know of anything else to suggest?

Apple knows of the problem. I think it is low on their priority list. I spent several hours with them sharing my screens, log files, etc. They aware of this thread and Reddit post.

There last comment to me was they don’t know and will have to wait and see approach.

Today I updated my Apple ID and asked to log out of all devices. I logged back into MacBook, iPhone and iPad. I went to HomeKit and all devices were unresponsive requiring me to log into Apple TV and HomePods with new Apple ID password. This took awhile, but the phantom hubs disappeared. I have no explanation!

Did you get logged out of your Apple ID for no reason? I did. Search the web. This happened to me on Friday. I had to reset my Apple ID password. I asked all devices to be logged out. This was a pain, I have 14 devices in the household, including Apple TVs and HomePods. I first updated iPads, iPhones, MacBooks. I then opened HomeKit and found it non functional. I had to update those passwords. Once I did, HomeKit did not work till I unplug my Apple TV and did a restart. HomeKit came back to life and I noticed my two phantom hubs were removed.

I'm not sure if logging out of all the devices and logging back in did the trick.

i have no explanation for these unverified failures from Apple.

Note: Apple would not let me post the link on the password reset.

@Meckisland I also had some weird thing happen with my Apple ID Friday night, around 9PM ET. All my devices starting throwing Apple ID errors and I ended up having to reset my password. I didn’t log out all my devices when I did, but I effectively had to log into all of my devices again before they would work normally. I also had to factory reset one OG HomePod. All of my home hubs had disappeared from the Home app (device still showed in its room, but not in the Hubs list) and when the list finally came back, the OG HomePod displayed as “Default Room” in the hub list despite still showing properly in its room. The factory reset brought everything back in like at least.

Here’s the weirdest bit—I have no phantom hubs because back when I was dealing with this issue I blew up and recreated my full Home setup to fix it. So it almost seems like Apple had to fix something at an account level and whatever the fix was resulted in people having to do a password reset. Weird…

If you want to disable one from being a Hub you can go into Apple TV Settings - AirPlay and HomeKit and under Home Hub where it says “connected”, click on that to disable. Following this it should not show up in the Home App.

I posted just above you what you might need to do. This sometimes happens with HomePods where you factory reset them but they are still ‘ there’.

Other than that, it’s been awhile since this thread begun and there’s a significant Home upgrade you might want to install: Upgrade to the new Home architecture - Apple Support. Please read carefully, as once you’ve installed the upgrade any devices not able to run the latest OS won’t be able to use the Home App. This goes for others you invite to share Home. Devices running the latest can use the Home App to control Home. It’s optional at this point in time and up to you if you wish to proceed with it.

I haven't seen anyone post these steps. These are the steps I used to remove my phantom appletv:

1. remove appletv in question from icloud account.
2. on apple tv (for the moment, ignore apple tv asking you to verify account settings) change device name to something new
3. after changing device name, verify account settings by following apple tv's on-screen popup directing you to sign back in
4. after logging back in, verify new device name by looking at your list of devices in icloud settings.

NOTE: Do not sign back in Apple TV until after you've changed device name. Otherwise, the name change might not set (yes, yet another related bug).

Same issue and it's been over 45 days too. If you click the “i” up on the second image status bar the same thing comes up like yours and the option to delete is nowhere. It also doesn't appear in my iCloud account anywhere. This drives me crazy cause apple home no longer can turn everything off and all my shortcuts won't work either.

Has anyone had any luck resolving this without erasing the entire Home and resetting everything up?