IKEA Matter plug pairs in Apple Home, but fails in Home Assistant with PASE timeout

Configuration Matter/Thread
1

Hello everyone,
I am trying to add IKEA Matter smart plugs to Home Assistant, but commissioning always fails. The same plugs can be added to Apple Home without any problem, so the devices themselves do not seem to be defective.

My setup:

Home Assistant OS 17.2 running as a VM on Proxmox
Home Assistant Core 2026.4.2
Supervisor 2026.04.0
Matter Server add on 8.4.0
Apple TV as border router / Home Hub
pfSense as router
Provider offers only IPv4 on WAN

Important network note:

Home Assistant, Apple TV, iPhone, and the IKEA Matter plugs are all in the same local network / same subnet.
So this is not a case where the controller and border router are in different VLANs or separate networks.

What I am seeing:

When I try to add the IKEA Matter plug directly to Home Assistant, commissioning always fails.
Earlier I had errors like “Network is unreachable” with IPv6 related log entries.
After changing the internal IPv6 setup, that specific error changed, but commissioning still does not complete.
Now the logs mostly show repeated retransmissions and then PASE session timeout / secure pairing failed.

Typical current log pattern:

Msg Retransmission failure
PASESession timed out while waiting for a response from the peer
Discovery timed out
Secure Pairing Failed
commission_with_code failed

What we already tested:

The plug was factory reset multiple times
I tested multiple IKEA smart plugs, not just one device
I moved the plug very close to the Apple TV
I restarted Apple TV, iPhone, Home Assistant, and the Matter Server
I also removed and re added the device several times

Pairing in Apple Home works reliably
Importing / sharing from Apple Home into Home Assistant does not work
Direct pairing to Home Assistant does not work either

What we were able to rule out:
It is probably not a defective plug, because multiple plugs behave the same and pairing in Apple Home works
It is probably not a battery issue, because these are powered smart plugs
It is probably not a general HomeKit / Apple issue, because Apple Home can commission the device successfully
It is probably not a different network / VLAN issue, because Home Assistant, Apple TV, iPhone, and the plug are all in the same subnet
It is probably not public IPv6 from the ISP, because the provider only offers IPv4, and we already understood that Matter only needs local IPv6 inside the LAN

Network / IPv6 notes:
WAN is IPv4 only
The provider confirmed they do not provide IPv6
Local IPv6 inside the LAN is enabled because Matter needs it internally
Home Assistant now gets an internal IPv6 address, not just fe80
So the earlier “network unreachable” state seems improved, but pairing still times out

Virtualization notes:
Home Assistant is running as a VM on Proxmox
So if there are any known issues with Proxmox networking, bridges, multicast, mDNS, or IPv6 handling in virtualized Matter setups, that could also be relevant

One thing I noticed:
When the plug is in pairing mode, the blinking sometimes stops very quickly. Before it stops, there is a very fast blinking sequence. I do not know if that has any specific meaning.

My questions:
Has anyone seen IKEA Matter plugs pair fine with Apple Home, but fail in Home Assistant with PASE timeout and retransmission errors?
Could this still be a Thread border router / multi admin / fabric issue, even though Apple Home works?
Could Proxmox VM networking be part of the issue?
Would an IKEA Dirigera hub help in this situation, or should direct Matter commissioning to Home Assistant normally work without it?
Is there anything specific in pfSense, Proxmox bridge settings, multicast, mDNS, Thread, or IPv6 RA settings that I should still check?

Any ideas would be very welcome. I feel like we have already ruled out the obvious things, but I may still be missing one important detail.

Thanks a lot.

2

Have you enabled ipv6 in Terminal? Just enabling ipv6 “auto” in the network settings isn’t enough.

To re-enable IPv6 forwarding, use:
ha docker options --enable-ipv6=true and restart your HAOS

1 Like
3

Are you using the latest Matterjs Server beta? It’s more robust and handles edge cases better than stable. Ikea hardware/firmware has quirks for pairing and firmware updates that the current end-of-life Python Matter server either handles poorly or not at all. The beta server has optimizations to mitigate these quirks. Stable won’t get these fixes.

Opt into the beta from the Matter Server app config page. Select “use beta” and restart the app. The first restart is slower due to database migration, but subsequent restarts are faster than stable, and connections are more stable. You can easily switch back by deselecting the beta option in the config page.

4

Thanks for the suggestions. Quick update after more testing:

I enabled IPv6 forwarding in Home Assistant Terminal with
ha docker options --enable-ipv6=true
and restarted HAOS.

I also switched the Matter Server to beta mode, so it is now running the JavaScript beta server.

Home Assistant now has both IPv4 and IPv6 on its main interface, and the static IPv6 address is present.

I then tested again with the Apple TV, the Bluetooth adapter, and the IKEA plug all in the same room, very close to each other. The Apple TV was powered and connected via Ethernet. No HDMI was attached.

The IKEA plug can still be added to Apple Home without any issue, so the device itself seems fine.

What is different now is this:
pairing in Home Assistant still fails, but in the latest attempt I did not even see a Starting Matter commissioning with code...entry in the Matter Server log. Earlier, I usually saw repeated commissioning attempts and long timeout cycles.

So it now feels like the failure may happen even before HA really starts the commissioning process.

At this point, these things seem unlikely to be the root cause:
the plug itself is defective,
missing IPv6 support in HA,
old Matter Server version,
distance between devices,
devices being on different local networks.

What still seems suspicious:
the plug leaves pairing mode very quickly,
multi admin handoff from Apple Home to HA may not fully reach the HA Matter Server,
or there may be an IKEA specific quirk with Apple Home to HA multi admin.

Does this updated behavior point to anything specific?

5

I have a similar setup and same failure. Following!

6

Thanks for confirming. That is actually very helpful, because it suggests this may not be an isolated issue in my setup.