HomePod Airplay issues

[brunosh]

Hey guys! So I just got a new HomePod mini, but I'm kinda disappointed because my main goal was to use it as an Airplay speaker from my iPhone but I'm having many problems with that. The connection keeps failing, and it's very frustrating... I've tried everything, like updates, reseting, restarting, and nothing seems to work. Sometimes I can airplay for like 4 or 5 songs, but the connection keeps dropping. It's not a Wi-fi problem because I can ask directly to siri on the Homepod and everything works just fine. I just started Airplaying from an old iPad and it works smoother, but not Apple smooth like I was used to. It's the first Apple product I'm having trouble with, and I can't believe that a cheap bluetooth speaker works much better than the HomePod mini. Is anyone having the same problem? Will it be addressed in some future update? I'm really thinking about returning the product, which is sad because when it works the sound quality is amazing for it's size.
Thanks in advance!

 

[waw74]

it is a wifi problem.
seeing that playing music directly on the speaker works, but when you're tying to stream from your phone it does not, makes me think it's wifi.

have you rebooted your router?
have you tried moving the pieces around to get better signal?

you might google "airplay <your router>" and see if anything shows up, occasionally there's settings that make it work better.

When you're air playing from your phone, it requires 3 wifi jumps. And if you're at the far end of your house from your router, then you could have 3 really poor connections.
router --wifi--> phone --wifi--> router --wifi--> homepod
vs one when playing directly on the homepod
router --wifi--> hompod.

there are other ways besides using siri on the HomePod to have something play on the homepod

-- you can use handoff, when you're playing something on your phone, simply hold the phone next to the HomePod, and it should transfer whatever is playing to the homepod. This also works in reverse, so you can pull music that's playing on your HomePod to your phone . For Apple Music, this transfers the player. For other apps, It continues to play on your phone, and airplays. (I don't think this works for iPads)

--on your phone either go to the music tile in control center and hit the airplay icon, or hit the airplay icon in the bottom center of the Apple Music app.
then hit Control other speakers, then select your hompod,
the music app now acts as a remote for the HomePod,
(this will look exactly like playing music on your phone, but somewhere you'll see the name of your HomePod instead of "iPhone")

--you can also ask siri on your phone to play music "in the living room" or whatever room the HomePod is assigned to.


bluetooth is a completely different, it has much shorter range, it's a direct connection as opposed to airplay which goes over your network. it's also limited in bandwidth and number of targets compared to airplay. On the surface they kinda look the same, but underneath they are extremely different..

 

[brunosh]

I've tried everything. It's not that it doesn't work at all, it's just annoying that randomly disconnects several times a day, and it keeps saying something like "Couldn't connect to Homepod" for several minutes before picking up again.
Everytime I run a speed test I get +10Mbps, which I think is more than enough.

About the handoff, I'm a Spotify user so for now the only way is Airplay.
I know that bluetooth and Airplay are completely different, and the latter should be better, but It's never been a smooth experience for me, even on Apple TV. I'd rather if they allowed for bluetooth connection instead, which in my opinion is much more reliable and stable than Airplay. Just look at Airpods that have a solid connection without dropping several meters from the iPhone, I just wanted that.

 

[waw74]

no worries
it's just from being around it awhile 98% of airplay problems are wifi/network related

if you can make your wifi better, it should help with your problems.
if you Google router placement, you can find guides online for things to avoid. and make sure your antennas are pointed the right way if they can move.
metal is bad for wifi, so if your HomePod or router are around a metal shelf, try moving them if you can.
and keep your other electronics operated if you can, a couple feet is more than enough.


hopefully Spotify will soon be added to the third party streamers that work directly on HomePod.

if you do decide to bail on the HomePod, sonos is great, and comarable in price to hompod, plus it allows you to play from a bunch of different services directly on the speaker. the only thing you really loose is siri, but you can have Alexa/google. You can control it from an app on your phone, or Mac.
It's not quite as small as the mini though.

 

[brunosh]

no worries
it's just from being around it awhile 98% of airplay problems are wifi/network related

if you can make your wifi better, it should help with your problems.
if you Google router placement, you can find guides online for things to avoid. and make sure your antennas are pointed the right way if they can move.
metal is bad for wifi, so if your HomePod or router are around a metal shelf, try moving them if you can.
and keep your other electronics operated if you can, a couple feet is more than enough.


hopefully Spotify will soon be added to the third party streamers that work directly on HomePod.

if you do decide to bail on the HomePod, sonos is great, and comarable in price to hompod, plus it allows you to play from a bunch of different services directly on the speaker. the only thing you really loose is siri, but you can have Alexa/google. You can control it from an app on your phone, or Mac.
It's not quite as small as the mini though.

I'll see if it gets better on the next few days, otherwise I'll have to return. Thank you for all the advice!

 

[dotme]

...Sometimes I can airplay for like 4 or 5 songs, but the connection keeps dropping. It's not a Wi-fi problem because I can ask directly to siri on the Homepod and everything works just fine...

As others have pointed out, WiFi in general terms is most likely to blame here. It's not about your internet speeds when it comes to AirPlay. It's about signal strength, number of devices hanging off the WiFi node/router, and possibly WiFi router security settings as well. AirPlay is a very "chatty" protocol, so a clean connection between source (Your iPhone) and destination (HomePod) is essential. Equally important is that your WiFi router not filter between 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks. If you have multiple WiFi access points, they should also be flat (Set to Bridge mode)

I'd encourage you to check your router settings and make sure both devices are on a clean and unfiltered network.

 

[brunosh]

Well, I just switched from Spotify to Apple Music and everything feels much smoother. Just what Apple wants I guess...

 

[Scott452]

My HomePod mini sucks, handoff and airplay will work only if I reset the HomePod and reconfigure it. Then it works until I turn off the music or audio. After that I have do reset it again. My wifi is good. It seems odd that Apple standard reply is that your non-Apple hardware isn’t working correctly. I have a Bluetooth speaker that I have never had any problem with. Apple handoff via Bluetooth should work right, it’s Apple to Apple. Nope, I reckon it’s the non-Apple air that lies between my iPhone and the HomePod. Sometimes rebooting the phone works, that’s simple. So the standard way to use my HomePod is reboot phone 2 min, probably won’t work so then reset my HomePod 10 min. Now listen to HomePod for 20 min while I wash the dishes. And this is supposed to be better that a Bluetooth speaker. Yet another Apple product that just works. It took Apple 20 years to figure out how to make a decent remote for the appletv, so I will box it up and hope the don’t discontinue it before the 10 year fix cycle takes care of it.