HomePod Airplay from iPhone to HPM: ATV gets involved all on its own!

[zachiedoo]

I am getting frustrated. I used to be able to select my music on my iPhone SE 3, select AirPlay and send it to the HPM, or move it close and tap and it would go.

NOW, every time I try to do this, it turns on the %$# AppleTV HD at the same time and I get the info from the iPhone on the TV. Also, on my iPhone, it shows the music is not playing from there any longer. If I turn off the ATV, the music reverts to the iPhone only, not the HPM. And this happens even if I select only the HPM in the Airplay menu that pops up...

All devices are up-to-date on OS's

What is going on? Can anyone explain this to me?

 

[waw74]

at the bottom of the airplay menu, in the control other speakers section, do you have the right thing selected?

In theory it changes between devices on its own, so that when you play something on the aTV, the controls pop up on your phone's Lock Screen. Mine never actually does that. It's possible yours is swapping to the TV when you watch something on the TV, but never changes back to your phone or HPM when you're done. (Do you get lock screen controls for the aTV when watching something?)

When using handoff (what happens when you do the tap) it's supposed to transfer the music to the player on the HP, and then the music app becomes a remote for that player. Assuming you're using Apple Music, if using another service like Spotify, it will continue to play on your phone, but airplay to the HP.

at the bottom of the Music app, it will say "iPhone", "Living Room", or "iPhone -> Living Room". (the room will be whatever the HPM or aTV Is configured in). The "Living Room" means it's controlling the player in the HPM. The "iPhone -> Living Room" means it's playing on the phone, and air playing to the HPM.

 

[zachiedoo]

Thanks much for this.

I am using Apple Music, and I never play to the ATV from my iPhone. I know that at the bottom of the app it was showing "living room' and both the ATV and HPM were there. I can't recall if it would show iPhone -> Living Room, and I can't check right now 'cause my spouse is monopolizing the HPM for her 'Sunday morning oldies' 🙄😂

I will check/try when I can and come back.

 

[waw74]

it's entirely possible your phone is "automagically" switching to the player in the aTV when you play something on the aTV. Like I said, this is something it's supposed to do, but it rarely ever happens for me,

I think if the HPM and aTV are both in the living room, it should have the appropriate icon beside the room name so you can tell them apart,

 

[zachiedoo]

I think if the HPM and aTV are both in the living room, it should have the appropriate icon beside the room name so you can tell them apart,

It does, and I can, but they seem conjoined: if I turn off the ATV, the HPM stops playing the music and it reverts to coming out of the iPhone only. It's as if the HPM no longer wants to play music with the iPhone as the source...

This is what I prefer, because I can then crank up the volume and go do the dishes in the kitchen, and have the phone nearby to skip songs if I want to. If it's playing from the ATV, the HPM won't hear me from the kitchen...

Apple continues to be love/hate-provoking. They do something great, but screw it up with software issues...

 

[waw74]

oh...
do you have the mini set up as default audio for the appleTV?

that kinda combines them into one thing, don't really use default audio, but I've seen talk here of some weirdness like that.

 

[Itinj24]

oh...
do you have the mini set up as default audio for the appleTV?

that kinda combines them into one thing, don't really use default audio, but I've seen talk here of some weirdness like that.

I’d bet that they do have HomePod default audio turned on. This seems like a bug of sorts with iOS 17 (seen it briefly in previous software versions too). Used to be able to ask the HomePod to play music and that’s all that would happen. Now if you ask the HomePod to play music, it turns on the associated AppleTV and television showing the album art of the song playing.

During normal hours, I wouldn’t mind but it’s rather annoying when I just want to listen to some nature sounds while going to sleep and the TV is glaring in my face.

 

[zachiedoo]

oh...
do you have the mini set up as default audio for the appleTV?

Nope, can't do that on ATV HD, it's a feature only on ATV 4K.

 

[Zea74]

Same problem here. ATV 4K uses HomePods as default sound device, and when trying to play music from my phone to the HomePods, the ATV - and TV set - gets activated as well! And when that happens, trying to resolve it sometimes results in having something I was watching on YouTube via ATV earlier on to start playing instead. All devices at most recent SW version. Messy implementation…

 

[Itinj24]

Nope, can't do that on ATV HD, it's a feature only on ATV 4K.

That’s a head scratcher…. Forget what I said then.

 

[zachiedoo]

So I ended up trying it again later on Monday, and it worked! I have no idea what I did different, if anything...🤷‍♀️