I’m having some issues sharing my home configuration with a second IOS device in the household. I’ve had this working, so don’t understand why it’s stopped.
I’m running V6 of Roomie and have a subscription for 24 devices on my iPad, which should enable me to share one home.
I’ve shared the app through Family Sharing so my partner can install the app on her iPhone. I’ve then shared the home configuration via an email, which I can see under Homes on my partners iPhone, but that’s as far as the setup on my partner’s iPhone gets. She’s on a different Apple ID, which shouldn’t be an issue. Am I supposed the restore the configuration from iCloud or should it sync somehow? If I attempt a restore, I simply get a message pop up stating it’s failed.
Would someone be kind enough to work me through this… it’s so frustrating.
Since we get this from time to time in support, here is the resolution.
You say you can’t restore. 100% of that is caused by your iCloud Drive configuration, basically the file of your backup cannot be found. Make sure you have a “Roomie Remote” folder at the top of your iCloud Drive. Do not create that folder yourself. Make a fake backup from the app as one way to force-create that. Then put your “RoomieBackup.zip” file at the top level and delete anything else in the folder.
Once you get restore working, everything else should fall into place. We have a detailed full reset procedure for some edge cases. Don’t go through this unless you really feel something is wrong with your config/cloud and you have already restored and tried every other resolution. Here is that procedure which is rock solid and has worked for 100% of the cases of this for months.
On the main device associated with the Apple ID that owns the subscription:
Ensure you have a backup of your configuration, the file named RoomieBackup.zip, and move it out of your iCloud Drive.
Go to the iOS Settings app, tap the top item for your iCloud account, tap “iCloud”, tap “Manage Storage”, scroll down to any items labelled “Simple Control” or “Roomie Remote”, tap them and then tap “Delete Documents & Data”. Also perform this step on the iCloud account on devices to which you plan to share.
Delete all Simple Control or Roomie Remote apps from your iOS device(s) as well as any iOS devices to which you plan to share. Make sure this is complete including any older apps.
Install Roomie Remote V6.
Make a fake backup just to ensure the Roomie Remote directory exists in your iCloud Drive. Then delete everything in that directory.
Restore your backup from step 1 via Restore from iCloud Drive (move RoomieBackup.zip back to the top level of the empty Roomie Remote folder). Make sure never to create the iCloud Drive directories manually.
[If your subscription was started in Simple Control V5, at this point install Simple Control V5 on your owning device as well. Run it and Restore Purchases. Nothing else needs to be done in that app. Make sure to turn off Background App Refresh for it in Apple’s Settings app.]
Use the Restore Purchases button (in V6) after your configuration has been restored.
Assuming everything is now working, install V6 on any additional device of the same Apple ID, launch it, and allow 1 minute to synchronize with the app open in the foreground.
Assuming everything is now working, install V6 on any devices that use a different Apple ID, launch it, and then return to the owning Apple ID’s device and then share the home from the Homes panel in Roomie to the Apple ID of the secondary device. We recommend using iMessage for this step.
Accept the share on the secondary device and return to Roomie Remote on that device. The home should populate. If not, check the Homes panel to make sure the correct Home is now added and is listed under the “Shared” category, and Activated.
Restore Purchases on the owning device. Restore Purchases on any shared device. Leave them open for 1 minute to ensure full sync and recognition of purchases.
This was a huge help Will. Been having this problem with my wife’s devices and I was ignoring it. Thanks.
I ran through these steps and they seemed to work for the first of my wife’s devices (iPhone). But I ran into trouble again when doing the same thing on her iPad. I even tried resending a sharing invitation and opening it from her iPad and still get the “Roomie Service is required to use…”. Is there a limitation on the number of devices a single person can be shared to?
You can’t share to the same Apple ID more than once, that’s meaningless. You already shared to her and her device already works, so that’s not an issue. If one of her devices has an issue, delete the app(s) from it, install fresh, run, wait 30 seconds. If the config has not fully populated, the problem is not in the app. Restart her device, relog her iCloud, and start the reset sequences for the iPhone itself (network first, etc.).
Hi there, I’ve been having problems syncing/sharing with my wife for a few years. I keep improperly bandaging it, and am trying to do this right because I don’t want to switch remote systems.
My wife got frustrated and bought her own subscription to try and fix it. I loaded a Zip of our home to hers, and that got us through a couple years. Now hers has stopped functioning properly, and rather than compound/extend the problem, I want to share/sync properly, now that we will also have my son, and soon other children with installations.
So, for now I’ve cancelled the renewal on her device/apple ID. I cleared down all of her iCloud Drive, uninstalled and reinstalled the app. The old configuration came back again. I tried to share it with her, like I do my son (working perfectly), but it fails and says she doesn’t have permission (when link is sent), and when I try to send the iMessage collaboration, it won’t actually ever send to her.
So I’m at a loss, I feel like this share should be working, but realize it must be a setting on either of our ends for permissions I think. Any idea what I should do next?
This KB article exists for the purpose of making sure users know that technique is definitely not a good idea:
At a high level, iCloud Sharing is the “old way”. You should move on from that and use Instant Home Sharing these days. Use the full reset procedure here and make sure to use Instant Home Sharing when settings things back up:
Hi @Will_Price really appreciate you chiming in, and sharing the guides. I’ve gone through each step thoroughly. I’m now on to restoring my backup. I saved the Zip to my Google Drive, and removed everything from iCloud Drive on all devices (and reset/verified). Caveat - some old backups remained and were unable to be deleted from the “recently deleted” section of iCloud files. These would need to be “recovered” to be restored, so I figured this shouldn’t mess with the reload.
Now when I want to select my RoomieBackup.zip from the top of my Files it’s grey. I then uncompressed it, and still have it greyed out (as seen below). I’m not sure what to do at this point, and really don’t want to make a mistake. Appreciate your guidance.
