FAQ

Is it official?

No. Home Connect Local is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or supported by BSH Hausgeräte GmbH, the company behind Bosch, Siemens and Home Connect. The names “Home Connect”, “Bosch” and “Siemens” appear here only to say which appliances the plugin works with.

For help, use the plugin’s GitHub repository, not Bosch or Siemens support.

Does it work with ovens or dishwashers?

No. It works only with fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers from Bosch and Siemens. Ovens, dishwashers, washing machines, coffee machines and other Home Connect appliances are not supported.

If you import a profile for one of them, the plugin skips it and stores nothing. The message ends with is not supported in this version.

Will it break my warranty or the Home Connect app?

The Home Connect app keeps working alongside the plugin. You can use both.

The plugin does not change your appliance’s firmware, the software built into the appliance. It connects to the appliance over your home network, reads its state, and changes settings such as the temperature and the modes when you ask it to.

This project cannot tell you what Bosch or Siemens would say about your warranty. If that matters to you, ask them before you install the plugin.

Do not run another local integration for the same appliance at the same time, such as Home Assistant’s homeconnect_ws, hcpy or the openHAB Home Connect Direct binding. Nobody has checked whether the appliances accept two local connections at once.

How do I update?

The Homebridge UI tells you when there is a new version.

1. Open the Homebridge UI, as in Step 1.
2. In the side menu, click Plugins.
3. If an update is available, the Home Connect Local card shows an arrow pointing up. When you hover over it, it says Update. Click it.
4. A window opens about the update. Click Update.
5. When the update finishes, restart. If you followed Step 1, the plugin runs in a child bridge: click the three dots on the Home Connect Local card, then click Restart Child Bridge. If you turned the child bridge off, in the side menu click Power Options, then click Restart Homebridge.

Your imported appliances and settings stay as they are. You do not need to import the profiles again.

How do I uninstall?

Uninstalling takes four parts: remove the plugin, remove it from Home, delete the keys, and deal with old backups.

Remove the plugin:

1. In the Homebridge UI, click Plugins in the side menu.
2. On the Home Connect Local card, click the three dots, then click Uninstall.
3. Confirm in the window that opens. If it asks whether to remove the plugin config, say yes.
4. Restart Homebridge when it asks, or in the side menu click Power Options, then click Restart Homebridge.

Remove it from the Home app:

• If you followed Step 1, the plugin ran in a child bridge. Remove that bridge from the Home app. The Homebridge UI points you to Home Settings, then Hubs & Bridges. Removing the bridge also removes all its accessories.
• If you turned the child bridge off, remove the appliance accessories that show “No Response” from the Home app.

Delete the keys:

The plugin’s folder holds your appliance keys, and uninstalling does not delete it. It is the folder homeconnect-local inside Homebridge’s storage folder, the folder that holds Homebridge’s config.json. Delete the whole homeconnect-local folder, for example with your NAS’s file browser.

Old backups: every Homebridge backup you made after you imported a profile still holds your appliance keys. Delete those backups, or keep them somewhere safe. To make the old keys useless, rotate them, as in Rotating keys.

Does it need the internet?

Only once, for Step 2, where you download each appliance’s profile with your Home Connect login. After that, the plugin works with your internet connection down.

Homebridge itself needs the internet to install or update a plugin, and you need it again to pair an appliance again or download a new profile.

Does anything track me?

The plugin does not. It sends no usage data anywhere.

This website counts page views with Umami, an analytics tool that the plugin’s author runs. It sets no cookies, and it does not count you if your browser sends Do Not Track. Security and privacy lists what it records.

How you know it worked

• After an update: in the side menu, click Plugins. The Home Connect Local card shows the new version number and no up arrow.
• After you uninstall: the Plugins page no longer lists Home Connect Local, the Home app no longer shows your appliances, and Homebridge’s storage folder has no homeconnect-local folder.