Migrating Eve Door & Window from HomeKit to Matter

 

I've seen a lot of people complaining about the firmware upgrade that then enables you to migrate from HomeKit support to Matter. Eve calls it an upgrade. It isn't in my books as it doesn't really gain you any functionality, except that multi-platform support.

Generally, I have a rule that if it works in HomeKit there is no need to migrate to Matter. However, I bought a pack of 3 of these, and so I thought I'd give it a go.... with a mixed experience.

There are two versions of the Eve Door & Window out there. I'm talking about the HomeKit ones, not the ones that support Matter out of the box. Right now, in the UK, if you buy on Amazon, the HomeKit ones are ½ the price of the Matter ones. I've seen this with Nanoleaf as well. I'm guessing that companies are winding down their stock of HomeKit specific devices and ramping up on the Matter ones.

In terms of adding the device to HomeKit, this is all fairly standard and it works first time. Mine were running quite an old version of the firmware, which connected via Bluetooth. If you try to do the Matter migration, what you'll see is this:

That means you have to do a firmware upgrade first.

When that is done, you can now perform the Matter migration.

It will initially make sure you have all the pre-requisites:

You know go through a set of screens that you really need to read to set you up for success. The first two screens are particularly important.

on selecting "Start Upgrade", you actually start moving through the whole upgrade process. First, it wants to scan the existing HomeKit QR code.

Then it generates a Matter QR code and then asks you to save it. In my case, I saved it into my photos, so I selected "Save Image"

It then now wants to read the Matter QR code that you previously created. in my case, I selected an Image and selected the one I had just saved in the photo library.

and from that point, the migration to Matter actually starts.

And you know end up with a sensor ready to be added to the home, again.

.....But it can go horribly wrong!

I'll point out that my phone, HomePod mini and Sensor were all within 30cm of each other, so there were not any issues with distance. 

I tried a number of times, and it would not work. It would show as an accessory to be added, but just would not add.

It took me a while, and I found that the thing that made the difference was holding the reset button down (which is inside the main sensor at the back) for 20 seconds. Then adding it using the code, that I copied from the image in the photo library.

I know, in the diagram, it says for 10 seconds, or when the light starts flashing red, but I tried that and it just didn't work. 

It then added just like a normal accessory.

..... But sometimes it works beautifully

It is where it says Connecting that it either works or not.

In this case, it got past that and it did say "Setting up" and then went into the normal steps of asking where it is and what it's name is.

Then what do you wish to display the sensor as, and then it adds it to the home, as usual.

Summary

Since I've installed these, I've not had any issues with them working as sensors connected via Matter, rather than HomeKit.

Of the three I converted from HomeKit, only one did it straight away, and the other two I had to keep trying and trying. The second was worse than the first. So it seems that they will work, you just have to keep at it. With the second, I was watching TV and would be trying to set it up. Eventually it worked.

It's not a great experience and I can understand why people get frustrated and accuse Eve of bricking their devices. It must also be costing Eve a small fortune in time wasted in customer support as well as potentially loosing customers due to that poor experience.  However, persevere and it will.... eventually.... work!