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. All data stays on your device. Nothing is sent to any server unless you explicitly choose to.

Nothing is sent automatically, to us or anyone else. Scan results 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.

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.

Everything stays on your device, in a local database. HomeMapper does not send device data automatically. If you choose to send diagnostic logs for support, those include device data: see What's in the diagnostic logs?

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.

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, and CSV export. 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.