To run Homebridge in full debug mode run the following command DEBUG=* homebridge -D.

The first thing you may be asking is "where is my /persist folder to reset the pairing information"? The location is the same on all platforms ~/.homebridge/persist i.e .homebridge in the users home folder. Mac OS X hides folders and files that start with a "period" So to delete the file from terminal commandline use the below commands: cd ~/.homebridge rm -rf persist. If you prefer using a gui to access the files use open ~/.homebridge.

Homebridge logs to two places:

1. /var/log/homebridge.log
2. /var/log/homebridge.err

PROTIP: unix has the tail command, it makes it really nice to see logs in real time.

Assuming you have homebridge running, from that server run one of the following commands to see what is getting logged live.

tail -f /var/log/homebridge.log
tail -f /var/log/homebridge.err

Validate your configuation file online, many issues could be resolved if this step is followed. You can find many utilities here: Google Search: Json Validator As a side effect, most utilites format your configuration.

Receiving " Error: Not a valid username: DD: 33: 4E: F4: DF: 31 . Must be 6 pairs of colon-separated hexadecimal chars (A-F 0-9), like a MAC address." This issue is rooted in your config.json username as the error state. In this example the issue is the second "D". The correctly formatted version would look like "D3:33:4E:F4:DF:31".

Have you ever received an Error: listen EADDRINUSE? Well this error is a Generic TCP/IP message thrown by nodejs apps trying to listen on a port already being listened to.. This is normally caused by a homebridge process running in the background without you realizing it.

Trying to setup Remote Access and having lots of issues? Click on this Link to be directed to Apple's website for the almost all the ways to fix remote access.

What app should I use with homekit? Well right now there is a documented discussion with multiple people sharing their opinions which can be found Here.

Asking for help

To help problem diagnosis, please provide the following information:

1. Your configuration file, please remove the sensitive information
2. The part of the error log pertinent to your issue