Apple Home Setup Huge Tip

After setting up about 80 switches and other Matter/Thread devices at my home with an Apple TV gateway, here is a huge tip I wish I knew earlier.

Although thread is a mesh network, it appears that the initial pairing of the switch needs to happen directly with the gateway. If you have a big house and the gateway is far from the switch:

  1. Move the Apple TV close to the switch and power the Apple TV up. (ie remove HDMI cable, unplug, move it, and plug to an outlet close to the switch)
  2. Look at the home app (tap at top right) and make sure that everything else is connected and there are no “Not responding” devices. This should take a couple of minutes after you move the Apple TV and reconnect it.
  3. Now do the initial pairing of the switch

After the pairing you can move the Apple TV back to its usual position. Everything will work fine.

I am wondering whether this is an Apple TV limitation and whether it is a software or hardware issue.