How do I get smart lights to turn on when I unlock the smart lock in HomeKit?

[GraceT]

I’m trying to get my smart lights to turn on automatically when I unlock my smart lock, but the routine keeps failing half the time. I’m using HomeKit for everything and the automation seems straightforward, but there’s a frustrating delay or it just doesn’t trigger. Has anyone else managed to get this kind of entryway setup working reliably?

[OliverBJ]

Tried this a while back. The lights would pop on a second or two after unlocking, or sometimes not at all. I figured the delay was the HomeKit bridge trying to coordinate with the lock and the scene, and sometimes it just timed out.

[Brandon96]

I kept a tiny log for a week: unlock time, lights on time. Most days it was 4-8 seconds, a few times a minute, and once nothing happened. It felt random and made the routine feel unreliable.

[Gregory.G]

Do you have a HomeKit hub wired up like a HomePod or Apple TV?

[Zoey2]

I even tried moving the hub, swapping lamps, and blaming the lock battery, but the hiccups came back. Maybe the real issue is the network ping or the cloud relay, not the specific automation.