HomePod Music Stops on HomePod Minis Since 16.2 Update

[robt5017]

I have 5 HomePods Minis in my house. Ever since updating them to 16.2 (along with upgrading the HomeKit architecture), I've had nothing but issues with music just stopping on my HomePods. A few songs will play, maybe 4 or 5, but then it just stops.

I have Apple Music, I'm not AirPlaying from my iPhone (although I've tested that as well, and it still stops), I've restarted AND factory reset my HomePods, but the problem persists. I can see that every time this happens, a JetsamEvent gets created indicating a crash has occurred. When reviewing the JetsamEvent, I can see that the largest process is "mediaserverd", but the reason is "none".

Is anyone else experiencing a similar issue? The core functionality of my HomePods is broken and defeats the purpose of having them.

 

[mikejd1]

Yes. It’s just a pure ****** experience. Everything related to airplay and HomeKit.

 

[waw74]

it might not help, but try rebooting your router also

 

[mikejd1]

it might not help, but try rebooting your router also

If I had a nickel for every time I did this…

 

[Apple_Robert]

It has been an ongoing problem that was finally fixed in iOS 15 (latter release) and iOS 16 reintroduced the problem again. There is also more more gapless playback.

 

[Madmischief]

Yup now getting more weird errors with both my full size HomePods for the past week … they can’t find albums on Apple Music, random stutters and slow to respond to commands!

£600+ for these - so annoying!

 

[robt5017]

Update: This problem is definitely a bug in 16.2 and there’s no way to fix it other than waiting for the next update. I’ve confirmed this by updating one of my HomePod Minis to 16.3 beta when it became available, and it fixed the problem. I then updated my remaining 5 HomePod Minis to 16.3 beta and they all work correctly now.

It’s user discretion to update to a beta, but since the 16.2 bug had essentially rendered my HomePods useless, I had nothing to lose.