Hey all,
I've bought a bunch of Matter-supporting smart sensors with the plan to use the Thread border router function of my Google TV Streamer, however when trying to set this up, the devices fail to connect as iOS fails to find the Thread network.
There seem to be various existing threads on this, for example:
- https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Smart-Home-Developer-Forum/TV-Streamer-not-being-recognized-a..., which suggests the latest firmware fixes it. But that does not resolve it for me.
- https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Home-Automation/TV-Streamer-not-being-recognized-as-Thread-Ne... support suggests to reach-out to Aqara, commenters responded that Aqara support mentioned it should work with Thread-compatible devices, which the TV Streamer claims to be. One difference in this thread is that it talks about multiple networks being created, in my case there's no existing Thread border router. However, the error which they face seems to match.
- https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Streaming/TV-Streamer-not-acting-a-border-router/m-p/749999 no response from support nor community suggestions how it would be solved.
- https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Streaming/Google-TV-Streamer-not-being-recognized-as-Thread-B... Stale, support asked for clarifying questions on the setup but OP never posted any.
Below are all (technical) details:
- Google TV Streamer (4k), to act as Thread border router:
- Firmware version UTTK.250729.004, no newer versions available
- Connected over Wi-Fi, to the same router the mobile device is connected to
- Has enabled Thread-network support by following the steps provided by the Google documentation
- Has been restarted since enabling the Thread-network support
- Matter-supportive sensor: Aqara P2
- Router: AVM FRITZ!Box 7530
- No other Threads border routers or smart-sensors are on this network
- No firewall setup preventing device-to-device communication (verified by hosting a HTTP web-server on one laptop and accessing the web-server on another WiFi connected device by connecting to the local IP)
- Mobile device: iPhone 12 Pro
- Running iOS 26.0.1
- Google Home app, latest version as per Nov. 12 (4.2.45)
- Home app (from Apple), latest version as per Nov. 12 [no version number visible in App Store]
- Connected over Wi-Fi to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV Streamer
- Aqara app, latest version as per Nov. 12 (fails to setup the device too, as their flow assumes one of their self-branded border routers to be already setup before allowing you to add more devices)
Observed behavior
When setting up the device through the Google Home app, half-way through a pop-up comes up where iOS hands over the setup to Apple Home. The iPhone connects* to the sensor, then quickly after errors-out with a message indicating that a "Thread border router is required".
See screenshots below of the user-interface:
A similar error is encountered when trying to add the device directly through the Apple Home app.
Any ideas on how to resolve this? I've been monitoring the topics here for a while, and when hearing a firmware fix was on its way that made me hopeful. However, that sadly does not seem to have addressed the issue at all.
*This seems to work fine, because (1) iOS has both a "connecting" and "setting up" state in the UI, and also (2) the Aqara P2 sensor has a blinking LED whilst it is in pairing mode, after the mobile device connects to it this gets replaced with a slow pulse.
Thanks for the response.
This setting was already enabled, this is how that page in Settings is looking:
So I went ahead and raised it under https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/460404086. (I pressed "submit" too early without updating the title, cannot edit it now anymore, hope that someone with the needed access rights can still do so 😅.)
Thanks for the response.
This setting was already enabled, this is how that page in Settings is looking:
So I went ahead and raised it under https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/460404086. (I pressed "submit" too early without updating the title, cannot edit it now anymore, hope that someone with the needed access rights can still do so 😅.)
