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performa_6400

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
230
384
I bought one HomePod Mini when they were first available. It seemed to work great so I bought 3 more and replaced our old Echo dots.

About 6+ months ago, the HomePods started randomly disconnecting. About half the time they'd work and the other half I'd get "I'm having trouble connecting to the internet." This is still ongoing after software updates, HomePod restarts and removing/re-adding devices, and router resets.

Today I upgraded them to 15.2 hoping it'd help. And now some HomePods aren't getting location services. Again this after resets and re-adding devices.

I've read that they need a modern router, however all our other devices, Apple or not, work flawlessly. I'm on an AT&T Fiber connection. Do I really need to buy an expensive router just to get 4 HomePod Minis to work properly?
 

Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,591
2,632
New York
I bought one HomePod Mini when they were first available. It seemed to work great so I bought 3 more and replaced our old Echo dots.

About 6+ months ago, the HomePods started randomly disconnecting. About half the time they'd work and the other half I'd get "I'm having trouble connecting to the internet." This is still ongoing after software updates, HomePod restarts and removing/re-adding devices, and router resets.

Today I upgraded them to 15.2 hoping it'd help. And now some HomePods aren't getting location services. Again this after resets and re-adding devices.

I've read that they need a modern router, however all our other devices, Apple or not, work flawlessly. I'm on an AT&T Fiber connection. Do I really need to buy an expensive router just to get 4 HomePod Minis to work properly?
I just finalized updating all my HomePods to 15.2. When they all finished there was a splash screen on the Home app that asks if you want to enable location services for the HomePods.

Location services is now a universal toggle instead of a toggle within each HomePod’s settings. Go to Home Settings and scroll all the way to the bottom. You should see the toggle there.
 

performa_6400

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
230
384
Have you checked the "Signal Strength" of your devices at your router?
They're between 2-3 bars out of 5 on 5GHz. Is this not enough for a sufficient connection?

I just finalized updating all my HomePods to 15.2. When they all finished there was a splash screen on the Home app that asks if you want to enable location services for the HomePods.

Location services is now a universal toggle instead of a toggle within each HomePod’s settings. Go to Home Settings and scroll all the way to the bottom. You should see the toggle there.
The universal toggle isn't there, but it is on all individual HomePods. Toggling those did nothing. I just removed my entire home, made sure my software was up to date and re-added a single homepod to a single room. No improvement. There's probably some bug around displaying the universal toggle.

The HomePod Minis have been a buggy frustrating mess for me. Worst experience with an Apple product I've ever had.

I don't know if I should try buying a better router, keep waiting for software updates, or go with my wife's strong suggestion and switch back to the echo dots.
 

Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,591
2,632
New York
They're between 2-3 bars out of 5 on 5GHz. Is this not enough for a sufficient connection?


The universal toggle isn't there, but it is on all individual HomePods. Toggling those did nothing. I just removed my entire home, made sure my software was up to date and re-added a single homepod to a single room. No improvement. There's probably some bug around displaying the universal toggle.

The HomePod Minis have been a buggy frustrating mess for me. Worst experience with an Apple product I've ever had.

I don't know if I should try buying a better router, keep waiting for software updates, or go with my wife's strong suggestion and switch back to the echo dots.
Apple software has been a mess lately all around, not just for HomePods. Has me ripping hair out of my head on a daily basis, especially HomeKit and Home devices. Anyways, this is what I observed after updating all my HomePods so not sure who has the bug, you or me lol. Any individual HomePod setting page does not have this toggle anymore for me, out of 13 total HomePods (mix of mini and OG and stereo pairs)… (From the main Home settings page):

1639605081748.png
 

performa_6400

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
230
384
Egg on my face, everything was running 15.2 except for my phone.
Issue is solved for now.
 

performa_6400

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 10, 2020
230
384
Not really your fault though - they should work properly even if you don't update your phone, or Apple should not let you update them unless you update your iPhone first. I had the same exact problem.
Agreed. Very poor UX.
 

Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,591
2,632
New York
Egg on my face, everything was running 15.2 except for my phone.
Issue is solved for now.
Apple software still blows lol.

What’s really ridiculous is I bought a couple HomePod Minis last week and I couldn’t get them set up because my phone was on 15.1.1 and the HomePods shipped with 14.X. Had to research and finally find that they have to be connected to a Mac via USB-C to update before they could perform initial set up. This is nowhere in Apple’s documentation that I could find. Reddit was my savior. Absolutely mind boggling.
 
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ungoogled

macrumors newbie
Apr 1, 2021
8
17
I've had similar issues with my HomePod Minis not being able to connect to the internet. Turning off QoS at the router appears to have fixed it. Not sure why.
 
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