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rools_

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2023
1
1
Mexico
Hi!

Ever since updating to version 17.0 I'm having issues with my HomePod Mini stereo pair. Music seems to be playing OK, but suddenly one of them stops playing and I can't get it to work unless I reboot both Minis. Unfortunately, this has become a daily issue, and there are even some days when I have to do it twice.

Am I the only one with this issue? Any workaround suggested?

Thanks!
 
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abatabia

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2023
424
5,553
New Jersey
All week I am having issues with all my homepods, especially my homepod minis. Stero pairs not working, error messages about not being on the same network even though I SEE them on the same network, and airplay not working at all.

Hoping the upcoming 17.1 update fixes this.
 
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adamlbiscuit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2008
611
1,481
South Yorkshire, UK
I've been having these issues for the past couple of months. Sadly, 17.1 did not fix it, and tonight the HomePod mini finally broke me.

I've got seven of them, five of them are now factory reset and boxed up ready to be sold / given away. The remaining two will be singles purely for voice commands - one upstairs, and one downstairs. Otherwise I'm done torturing myself out of some misguided loyalty for Apple - as far as the HomePod is concerned at least :p
 

abatabia

macrumors 6502
Jul 27, 2023
424
5,553
New Jersey
I've been having these issues for the past couple of months. Sadly, 17.1 did not fix it, and tonight the HomePod mini finally broke me.

I've got seven of them, five of them are now factory reset and boxed up ready to be sold / given away. The remaining two will be singles purely for voice commands - one upstairs, and one downstairs. Otherwise I'm done torturing myself out of some misguided loyalty for Apple - as far as the HomePod is concerned at least :p
I feel the exact same way. Been having tons of issues for some time, but they've gotten far worse with each new software update tbh.

For the past week, my minis simply will not answer personal requests at all. I keep getting "trouble with the connection, make sure your iPhone is on the same network error. My iPhone is always on the same network. Stereo pairs don't play as pairs, and airplay only partially works.

Apple support is useless. Everything they tried just does not work. Resetting the minis, rebooting everything, resetting network settings on iPhone, NOTHING works at all. Airplay is half down, they don't answer requests and support is literally baffled. They keep blaming my wifi, meanwhile, my Google Nest speakers and hubs, and my Echo speakers and hubs all work flawlessly. How can it be wifi when nothing else is affected? I call rubbish on that suggestion.

Homekit has been awful for years, and that seems to have only gotten worse instead of better. My smart home devices left homekit for google home years ago and it's been a far better experience.

I have a second-generation pair that mostly works with my Apple TV in my media room and that will remain in service.

Like you, I've had enough and won't waste another minute trying to fix a flawed system.

When even the apple senior techs don't see that it HAS to be awful homekit/homepod firmware, I'm out.
 

Itinj24

Contributor
Nov 8, 2017
4,591
2,632
New York
I feel the exact same way. Been having tons of issues for some time, but they've gotten far worse with each new software update tbh.

For the past week, my minis simply will not answer personal requests at all. I keep getting "trouble with the connection, make sure your iPhone is on the same network error. My iPhone is always on the same network. Stereo pairs don't play as pairs, and airplay only partially works.

Apple support is useless. Everything they tried just does not work. Resetting the minis, rebooting everything, resetting network settings on iPhone, NOTHING works at all. Airplay is half down, they don't answer requests and support is literally baffled. They keep blaming my wifi, meanwhile, my Google Nest speakers and hubs, and my Echo speakers and hubs all work flawlessly. How can it be wifi when nothing else is affected? I call rubbish on that suggestion.

Homekit has been awful for years, and that seems to have only gotten worse instead of better. My smart home devices left homekit for google home years ago and it's been a far better experience.

I have a second-generation pair that mostly works with my Apple TV in my media room and that will remain in service.

Like you, I've had enough and won't waste another minute trying to fix a flawed system.

When even the apple senior techs don't see that it HAS to be awful homekit/homepod firmware, I'm out.
Sadly, Apple doesn’t seem to care about fixing bugs unless the major tech media outlets post about them. If we had MKBHD, 9to5 Mac, MacRumors, AppleInsider, etc… report about how crappy the HomePods are, things would get done.
 

Samichang

macrumors newbie
Sep 27, 2017
17
14
I’m having the same issues with my HomePods (2nd gen) on 17.1.1. One of them would just suddenly stop working while listening to music. I also managed to get two songs playing at the same time.
 

klspahr

macrumors regular
Oct 30, 2013
113
190
Central PA
Apple support is totally useless, I love the way they act like they never heard of the issue you’re calling about. Restart, re-install, and they are out of ideas. It is really sad.

I have two homes each with three homedud minis. I can’t let them update automatically when I’m away because one or more of them will lock up and it is really difficult to get them operational again. Plus I’m 1200 miles away.

After every update I have nothing but problems with them. I won’t bore you with the myriad of issues I have been dealing with after the last update.

But I am done updating them!

I’m ready to put them on eBay. I’m done with the endless frustration the homeduds cause, I just want to stream some simple tunes. I don’t care to constantly troubleshoot this poorly implemented product.

Anybody have a suggestion on what would be a good replacement?

Anything from google or Amazon is out.

Maybe killing the apple car was a great idea, imagine if it had the reliability of the homedud, we’d all be dead in no time.
 
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waw74

macrumors 601
May 27, 2008
4,787
1,018
Anybody have a suggestion on what would be a good replacement?

Sonos,

  • connects to pretty much all of the streaming services. you can even mix and match services in playlists.
  • Has a player in every speaker that streams from the Internet, So no need to get airplay involved if you don't want to.
  • Since the player is in the speaker, all of their apps are just a remote control. And anyone on the network can control. So anyone with the sonos app on android, iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Windows can control the music no matter which of them started it.
  • Better TV audio. (most also apply to spatial audio)
    • The ability to add surround speakers
    • The ability to add a sub. (or 2 if you want)
    • Closer to atmos, speakers are more spread out and fire in more directions.
    • when using a sound bar, direct HDMI connection makes it more reliable. Also makes it easier to get TV audio coming from anything other an appleTV.
  • battery powered models if that fits your needs.
  • Bluetooth, some models will allow you to share that bluetooth audio with every other speaker in your system. others will only play bluetooth on that one speaker.
 
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