Frequently Asked Questions

No. HomeMapper discovers and inventories. It never turns things on, changes settings, or commissions devices. Scan-only is a design principle, not a missing feature.

HomeMapper is a discovery and inventory tool for your smart home. It scans your local network across five protocols: HomeKit, Home Assistant, IP Network, Thread, and Matter. Everything it finds shows up in one unified view: which devices are on your network, how they connect, and what protocols they use.

HomeMapper is scan-only: it never controls or modifies your devices. Your scan results stay on your device, and HomeMapper never sends them to a server of ours.

Your scan results are never sent automatically, to us or anyone else. They live in a local database on your device. HomeMapper has no analytics SDK, no tracking, and no cloud relay. When you connect Home Assistant, HomeMapper talks directly to your instance on your local network. Some of your setup (room order, Home Assistant connections, and saved setup codes) does sync across your devices, but through your own iCloud, never a HomeMapper server.

Your scan data leaves your device only when you send it, and only in two ways:

• CSV export. You choose when, what to include, and where it goes.
• Send Logs from Settings. Optional, for support. Logs include device names and scan details. They never include passwords, HomeKit credentials, or network keys.

Full details in our Privacy Policy.

Your scan data stays on your device, in a local database. Some of your setup (room order, Home Assistant connections, and saved setup codes) also lives in your own iCloud so it can sync across your devices, never on a HomeMapper server. HomeMapper does not send your scan data anywhere automatically. If you choose to send diagnostic logs for support, those include device data: see What's in the diagnostic logs?

Yes. Backup saves a snapshot of your scan database and settings to iCloud Drive or a folder on your device, automatically after each scan or whenever you tap Backup Now. Restoring replaces your data with the backup, and HomeMapper saves a safety backup of your current data first. Credentials are never included: your Home Assistant sign-in stays in the Apple Keychain. Backup and restore is a Pro feature.

Two permissions, both requested on first launch:

• HomeKit. Access to your Home app's accessory database. Without this, HomeMapper can't see HomeKit devices.
• Local Network. Permission to browse your local network for Bonjour/mDNS, subnet scan, SSDP, and Thread Border Router detection. Without this, only HomeKit discovery works.

Both can be managed later in iOS Settings › HomeMapper.

Logs include discovery session details, device metadata (names, IDs, categories, protocol details), correlation results, and error messages with timestamps.

Logs do not include HomeKit credentials, Home Assistant passwords or tokens, network passwords, or personally identifiable information beyond device names you've set in the Home app or Home Assistant.

Log sending is always opt-in, uses your device's email app (so you can review contents first), and is only used to troubleshoot the specific issue you've reported.

HomeKit and IP Network are two different ways HomeMapper discovers devices.

• HomeKit queries your Home app's database, so it sees device names, rooms, and reachability.
• IP Network scans your local network directly using Bonjour/mDNS, subnet scanning, and SSDP/UPnP to find devices announcing themselves.

A device can be found by both, which is why you sometimes see multiple protocol badges on one device.

Each badge shows which protocol discovered the device:

• Amber: HomeKit (found via your Home app)
• Light blue: Home Assistant (found via your HA instance)
• Teal: IP Network (found via network discovery)
• Orange: Thread (found via the mesh network)
• Blue: Matter (supports the Matter standard)

A device can show multiple badges if it was discovered by more than one protocol.

HomeMapper uses definitive hardware identifiers to merge records across discovery methods, like a serial number or MAC address, never names. If two records can't be confidently merged, HomeMapper shows them as duplicates rather than risk collapsing two different devices into one.

No. HomeMapper works on its own. HomeKit scanning, the device list, and room-based view are all available on the Free tier without Home Assistant. If you do run Home Assistant, Pro unlocks a unified inventory across both platforms.

Open Settings inside HomeMapper and find the Home Assistant section under Discovery. HomeMapper can auto-detect Home Assistant instances on your local network. If one is found, its URL appears automatically. You can also enter a URL manually.

Tap Connect, then sign in through the browser sheet that appears. You're signing in to your own Home Assistant instance, so HomeMapper never sees your password. After you approve access, HomeMapper stores the OAuth tokens securely in your device's Keychain.

HomeMapper pulls the full device registry from your Home Assistant instance during each scan. You'll see all physical devices: Zigbee sensors, Z-Wave locks, Wi-Fi plugs, MQTT devices, and anything else Home Assistant manages.

Service entities (like the Home Assistant Supervisor or add-ons) and explicitly disabled devices are filtered out. Each device shows its Home Assistant integration type, area (room), and device class.

Yes. HomeMapper connects directly to your Home Assistant instance on your local network. No data is relayed through cloud servers. When you tap Connect, HomeMapper automatically checks whether your instance supports encrypted connections (HTTPS) and upgrades if available, including self-signed certificates. A confirmation alert tells you whether the connection will be encrypted or unencrypted before you sign in.

You sign in through a secure system browser sheet, the same mechanism used by Sign in with Apple. HomeMapper never sees or stores your Home Assistant username or password. Only the OAuth tokens Home Assistant issues after you approve access are retained. Tokens are stored exclusively in the iOS Keychain (encrypted, hardware-backed) and never saved in the app's database, preferences, or logs.

When you disconnect, HomeMapper removes all tokens from the device and requests Home Assistant invalidate them server-side.

When you have both HomeKit and Home Assistant connected, HomeMapper needs to know which one is your primary system. The Primary Platform setting decides which system wins for room assignments, device names, and ordering when a device is known to both.

If you manage most devices through Apple Home, keep it on HomeKit (the default). If Home Assistant is your primary system, switch to Home Assistant. You can change this any time. It takes effect on the next scan.

Not yet. HomeMapper currently scans one Home Assistant instance per home network. Multi-instance support is planned.

Every HomeKit, Matter, and Z-Wave accessory ships with a setup code: the number printed on the device's sticker or box. You need it to pair the device, and again if you ever reset it or move it to a new home. If the sticker is gone, so is the code. HomeMapper gives you a place to save each code with its device, while you still have it. Saving and managing setup codes is a Pro feature.

A setup code never travels over the network, so a scan can't see it. The only place it lives is on the device's sticker or box. HomeMapper gives you somewhere to save it yourself so it's there when you need it, but it can't find one for you, and it can't recover one you've lost.

Not every device has a code worth saving. HomePods, Apple TVs, and AirPlay speakers and TVs are added without one. For a bridged bulb or sensor, like Hue or Aqara, you pair the bridge rather than each device, so the bridge is the one with the code. Routers, printers, and other plain network gear have no setup code at all. HomeMapper only offers the option where a code actually makes sense.

Two ways. In the app, Settings › Setup Codes lists every device that's missing a code, room by room; tap each one and enter its code. Or work in a spreadsheet: export a CSV worksheet with one row per device, fill in the blank cells, and import it back. Importing only adds or updates codes; it never creates or changes a device.

Yes. With Pro and iCloud Sync on, your saved codes sync automatically across the devices signed into your iCloud, so a code you save on one shows up on the others. It's your own iCloud, never a HomeMapper server, and you can turn it off per device.

You can also move codes by hand: export to CSV on one device and import the file on another signed into the same Apple Home. Scan first on the second device so HomeMapper knows what you have, and anything it can't match it lists instead of guessing. To copy everything onto a brand-new device, restore a backup there.

You are not the product. No ads, no trackers, no selling your data. Your scan results stay on your device, and they stay yours. Paying for Pro is how we keep it that way.

Pro funds the work: keeping up with each iOS, macOS, HomeKit, Matter, Thread, and Home Assistant release, fixing bugs, and building the next things on our roadmap.

The Free tier covers HomeKit scanning, the device list, and the room-based view. Pro is for people who want the full picture across protocols and who want to back what we're building.

HomeMapper is an Apple-platform app: iPhone, iPad, and Mac. HomeKit's framework is Apple-only, and that's where HomeMapper starts. We have no Android or Windows version planned.

Everything in Pro: all data columns, multi-protocol scanning, protocol filtering, combined “All Homes” view, Home Assistant integration, CSV export, backup and restore, and setup code saving. The trial starts when you opt in. You can cancel any time during the 7 days through your App Store subscriptions.

Through the App Store, like any Apple subscription: Settings › [your name] › Subscriptions › HomeMapper. Cancel any time; you keep Pro features until the end of the current billing period.