Apple HomeKit presents a challenge with its cap of 100 scenes. Adding more isn’t feasible. The rationale behind Apple’s persistent adherence to this limit remains a mystery. However, fret not – there are ingenious strategies to reclaim room within your HomeKit setup.

Easily Locate Empty Scenes

If you’ve already hit the 100-scene threshold, odds are some scenes are gathering digital dust. If you have deleted devices, the corresponding scenes remain empty. You can, of course, check each scene individually. However, it is much faster with the maintenance feature of Controller for HomeKit. Here you will see Apple-exclusive scenes as well as empty scenes. This way you can quickly and easily identify scenes that are no longer needed and delete them.

Show empty HomeKit scenes

Note: You can leave Apple-exclusive scenes untouched. These encompass actions inaccessible to third-party developers – like controlling speakers and TVs. Since these scenes appear empty to developers, such scenes will also be displayed to you at this point.

Creating Automations without Scenes

While third-party apps can only create automations with scenes, devices can be selected and controlled directly via the Apple Home app. If you’ve already deleted empty scenes and still hit the limit, it’s worth recreating simple automations via the Home app without scenes. By “simple” automations, we mean those that do not have complex triggers or conditions. These cannot be created via the Apple Home app.

HomeKit Automations: With and Without Scenes
Left: Automation in Apple Home that directly controls a device – Right: Automation in Apple Home that controls a scene.

You also have the option to create complex automations in another HomeKit app first and then edit them in the Apple Home app. Even if the Apple Home app doesn’t display all the triggers and conditions correctly, they will remain if you replace the scene with direct device controls.