Apple Home "Unable to add accessory" when pairing HomeKit Bridge

[hakunamatata]

Steps to replicate:

1. Install the HomeKit Bridge integration: > Settings > Devices & Integrations > Add Integration > Apple > HomeKit Bridge

Upon successful installation, a HomeKit Pairing QR code will become available in the Notifications Tab.

2. Pair HomeKit Bridge to your Apple Device: Apple Home app > Add Accessory > Scan pairing QR code

Pairing fails with "Accessory not found" error message.

Suspect this may have something to do with mDNS. Is the mDNS port UDP 5353 open? I am guessing not for security reasons. In that case, how would one go about exposing it only to devices on the LAN?

[hakunamatata]

I tried whitelisting port 5353 on my cloudron server following https://docs.cloudron.io/networking/#whitelist-ports , but to no effect. I am guessing that something else needs to be done to the Cloudron host or within the Home Assistant container.

[nebulon]

The port would also need to be forwarded to the Home Assistant app instance. Currently the app package does not specify any additional ports to be forwarded to it. We need to add this to the package manifest. I don't have any Apple devices to test this. But do you know if Home Assistant needs to respond to the mDNS searches by your Phone or if the server itself needs to be setup to work with mDNS?