Hi there,
We’re developing a companion app for a smart home product that communicates over the user’s local network.
To provision the device, it initially creates its own Wi-Fi network. The user joins this temporary network and enters their home Wi-Fi credentials via our app. The app then sends those credentials directly to the device, which stores them and connects to the local network for normal operation.
We’re using AccessorySetupKit to discover nearby devices (via SSID prefix) and NEHotspotManager to join the accessory’s Wi-Fi network once the user selects it. This workflow works well in general.
However, we’ve encountered a problem: if the user factory-resets the accessory, or needs to restart setup (for example, after entering the wrong Wi-Fi password), the device no longer appears in the accessory picker.
In iOS 18, we were able to work around this by calling removeAccessory() after the device is selected. This forces the picker to always display the accessory again. But in iOS 26, a new confirmation dialog now appears when calling removeAccessory(), which confuses users during setup.
We’re looking for a cleaner way to handle this scenario — ideally a way to make the accessory rediscoverable without prompting the user to confirm removal.
Thanks for your time and guidance.