HomePod Why is airplay on HomePods so bad!?

[Rychiar]

Like seriously I use my 5 HomePods daily and I’m usually telling them what to play from my phone and selecting where to play and I’d say 80% of the time one, or multiple HomePods never start playing , lock up entirely, or lately, play music out of sync with the others. It gets so annoying that these devices don’t just work. Even the new HomePod full size with it’s newer processor has issues with this

 

[Rnd-chars]

I have 2 OGs as a pair and 3 minis connected through a Synology RT6600ax and haven’t had any issues playing from multiple MacBooks Pro, iPhones or iPads Pro. Assuming this isn’t a widespread issue, I wonder if your setup is running into network issues (eg congestion, interference, mesh access point switching, etc).

 

[Rychiar]

everything else runs pretty good on my Eero network. all my smart home stuff works great these days. but the HomePods are just touch a lot of the times with playing well together

 

[doingitlive]

everything else runs pretty good on my Eero network. all my smart home stuff works great these days. but the HomePods are just touch a lot of the times with playing well together

I had an Eero setup and had the same issue’s with my HomePods and Sonos speakers. After changing to Netgear Orbi 6E mesh I not longer have these issues…

 

[JosepPont]

Hello, do you connect the homepods to the 5G wifi or the 2,4? Thanks in advance!

 

[Rychiar]

Hello, do you connect the homepods to the 5G wifi or the 2,4? Thanks in advance!

I’m not sure. The bands are merged. I figured most of this stuff defaulted to 2.4z

 

[JosepPont]

Thanks!

 

[Itinj24]

I’m not sure. The bands are merged. I figured most of this stuff defaulted to 2.4z

You can check in the eero app. If you tap on the device, it will say in the “Connection Type” line which band it’s connected to. If you have an eero not too far away, it’s likely on the 5GHz.

 

[Rychiar]

You can check in the eero app. If you tap on the device, it will say in the “Connection Type” line which band it’s connected to. If you have an eero not too far away, it’s likely on the 5GHz.

They all say 5ghz, and they re all very close to the router

 

[anthony13]

I have similar issues so you're not alone. I often have to reboot my entire set up and have even had to rebuild my apple 'home' from scratch once. I have everything connected to the 5G band, and 'forgot' the 2.5 network, and that solved ALOT of problems, but not all.

 

[Madame Defarge]

Like seriously I use my 5 HomePods daily and I’m usually telling them what to play from my phone and selecting where to play and I’d say 80% of the time one, or multiple HomePods never start playing , lock up entirely, or lately, play music out of sync with the others. It gets so annoying that these devices don’t just work. Even the new HomePod full size with it’s newer processor has issues with this

I'm having similar problems. Lately, my HomePod 2 won't play the music I've chosen on my iPhone. I hope it near the pod and nothing happens. Or, if I tell it what to play, it chooses something else. It's totally annoying to pay $300 for something that used to work well but in a few months is now completely unreliable.

 

[missingar]

Like seriously I use my 5 HomePods daily and I’m usually telling them what to play from my phone and selecting where to play and I’d say 80% of the time one, or multiple HomePods never start playing , lock up entirely, or lately, play music out of sync with the others. It gets so annoying that these devices don’t just work. Even the new HomePod full size with it’s newer processor has issues with this

Glad it isn't just me. I have 5 homepods (4 mini and 1 original homepod) and I have a terrible time getting them all to play at once and and to keep playing once I do. I use an Asus Lyra mesh wifi system.

 

[dotme]

Wired backhauls work wonders with AirPlay. I know it's not always feasible, but if it is, I highly recommend it.

 

[Rychiar]

Wired backhauls work wonders with AirPlay. I know it's not always feasible, but if it is, I highly recommend it.

What needs to be wired? Can’t do much with the homepods. Everything else is hardwired

 

[Itinj24]

What needs to be wired? Can’t do much with the homepods. Everything else is hardwired

I believe dotme is referring to your mesh network. I can attest to this too. I have a five node eero Pro 6 network all wired via ethernet and my HomeKit/AirPlay setup has never run more smooth. If your mesh network is using wireless means to communicate with each node, it can cause a lot of interference which I experienced. Bit the bullet and had a contractor run Cat6a to every room in my house and it’s been a night and day difference.

 

[Rychiar]

I believe dotme is referring to your mesh network. I can attest to this too. I have a five node eero Pro 6 network all wired via ethernet and my HomeKit/AirPlay setup has never run more smooth. If your mesh network is using wireless means to communicate with each node, it can cause a lot of interference which I experienced. Bit the bullet and had a contractor run Cat6a to every room in my house and it’s been a night and day difference.

Ah okay yeah only one of my eeros is wired . The one in the basement is wireless… I could prob just get rid of it. It’s not really necessary but I thought it would help extend things

 

[Itinj24]

Ah okay yeah only one of my eeros is wired . The one in the basement is wireless… I could prob just get rid of it. It’s not really necessary but I thought it would help extend things

Yeah, try just removing it from power first to see what happens. It may make things better.

Before I hardwired all my eeros, my networks ran better with 3 than with 5. After hardwiring, 5 eeros are solid.