HomePod HomePod Issues with OS 16.4

[Thomas Weber]

The new update totally messed up my HomePods (New and Minis)

When I ask Siri to...

• play a certain playlist, it regularly plays totally different music
• play in multiple rooms, it usually fails to do so. It plays on the addressed HomePod but the other rooms stay quiet, while they are shown as active in the AirPlay toggles

When I try to increase the volume with my iPhone, the volume sometimes gets louder when I decrease it and vice verse.
This update turns out to be another total failure (at least for me).

I wonder what you guys think or experience.

 

[benoit79]

This is not only the worst update since HomePod OS 16 in September 2022, but Apple's worst update on all products ever to my knowledge. All the issues I had happen even more now, and on top of that now there is sometimes 2 seconds from a song that plays when a song finishes, before the new one starts.

It feels like Apple don't even care about the HomePod. It's been extremely reliable since September 2022, they haven’t found any fix and they don't even rollback!

 

[tomdar2]

After updating my 3 HomePod minis to 16.4 they will not do alarms and timers.

When you ask them to set a timer they reply, “There was a problem with your timer request. Please try again in a minute.”

You can set an alarm in the Home app, but it won’t go off. When you ask them to set an alarm they reply, “Something went wrong with your alarm request. Please try again later.”

They worked flawlessly with 16.3 and prior.

 

[StumpyBloke]

and on top of that now there is sometimes 2 seconds from a song that plays when a song finishes, before the new one starts.

It feels like Apple don't even care about the HomePod. It's been extremely reliable since September 2022, they haven’t found any fix and they don't even rollback!

I've got the same issue on my HomePods running 16.5 beta! Apple are absolutely useless and without question getting worse! Even the most basic functions no longer work reliably in any way shape or form. They are a disgrace.

 

[Traverse]

iOS 16.4 made it so no HomePods will connect to Apple Music. I’ve reset them and setup as new, signed out and back in, etc. every single one of them say “something is up with Apple Music.”

 

[splifingate]

I have one HomePod Mini, to which I upgraded to the new Matter system upon release.

No discernible difference then, as now (after 16.4.x update), for anything.

I do not use AAPL Music, nor do I ask Siri much of anything (anymore: "Let me look-that-up on the Web for you"-twice-shy (and all that)).

Everything is functioning exactly the same, now, on 16.4 as it was on 16.3

Two complete dis-connects over the past three months I can directly attribute to semi-erroneous Ubiquity issues (a 'Restart' of each NanoHD AP enabled me to fully re-connect all my AAPL devices, and their associated Thread/Matter gizmos).

That being said:

I can send anything streaming (music/audiobooks) by-way of AirPlay controls, or tapping the iPhone to the HomePod Mini (as expected).

I was not expecting Greatness, and that's what I got

[edit: had another Homepod/Hub dis-connect last night, rectified by the same methods]

 

[Alicia1]

iOS 16.4 made it so no HomePods will connect to Apple Music. I’ve reset them and setup as new, signed out and back in, etc. every single one of them say “something is up with Apple Music.”

I am getting this as well

 

[stocklen]

there are many other threads addressing this....

but its terrible, terrible software and very surprising coming from a company such as Apple that once used to pride itself on its software.

What's the issue? Too many things to list but the entire HomePod / multi room music thing is so ropey it can be at times unusable.

I could give many examples of things that dont work in my home.. and I have 8 Homepods - and the experience is very very unreliable.

With every release of software, and the new architecture etc I have hope that it will improve but it never does.

This is marketed as a Siri driven multi room audio experience yet it is Siri that seemingly lets things down. Im not talking about Siri's capabilities as such... as it doesnt have a particularly onerous job to perform - just ask for a track or artist etc and play the music..... however in my experience when you start to introduce zones i.e. "play music upstairs..... play music everywhere.... add the kitchen...." then it falls apart.

Its a shame as Sonos is the obvious competition here and they seem to have a flawless experience when doing multiroom music but their app isnt great and when it goes wrong it REALLY goes wrong and is hard to sort.

One lesson I have learned is that the whole experience tends to be a bit better and more reliable if you dont use siri to address the homepods at all, and you use your iPhone/ipad to select the music AND to select the various speakers/rooms you want to include - im my experience this usually works when Siri via the homepods just falls into a heap.

Apple MUST address this and they have to get it working flawlessly. At the moment too many people are having sub par experiences with their devices and I for one advocate putting the brakes on yearly iOS updates in order to get everything working properly before they keep trying to add new features that just make the whole thing worse.