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Tarheel5

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Feb 16, 2019
8
4
I am looking at purchasing a apple HomePod on, marketplace bought originally in 2019 anything to know about this? Can it still be updated with software updates, I have a mini love it want to pair the home pod with Apple TV and more sound
 
The original HomePod does of course still get updated with each software update that is issued by Apple, if that is your question.
Would this be worth $180.00 any concerns with shelf life or buy a brand new one
 
Would this be worth $180.00 any concerns with shelf life or buy a brand new one
will you actually hear the homePod you want to buy?
that is risky because you won't know the history of the HomePod if that was dropped, left out in the rain or even bricked like they were in the past.
you can get 2 HomePod minis for the almost the same price.
 
I wouldn't worry about shelf life. There have been other discussions here where someone purchased a new HomePod and then noticed that it had been manufactured a year or two earlier. Seems that Apple may have made more than what was needed to satisfy demand, so there are (or may be) still unsold HomePods that have been waiting for a happy home for a year or two at this point.

A couple of years is not significant for this kind of product, sitting in its original packaging on a shelf someplace. It will be fine.
 
Hardware wise, the full sized HomePod has remained unchanged since its release and still gets every update as already mentioned. Therefore, one bought a few years ago would be identical to one bought today. It also sounds substantially better than the mini. I wouldn’t buy one out of warranty though. I know this forum represents a very small percentage of the HomePod owners out there but there are some horrible stories on here.
 
$180 is too high for a HomePod that has been used - I would not buy unless in original, unopened packaging.

Nor would I buy a new one at $299 for that matter. I own nine of them, lost my first one this weekend (hardware failure) after about 18 months in service.
 
I bought a few minis just recently, scattered in a few key areas for Siri to control lighting, etc.. Today, by surprise, my wife said how nice it would be to have a big one on the lower level for music where we have our exercise bike and where she often reads. Since I'm never one to turn down an invitation to buy more gadgets, I went to Best Buy and purchased a new, original-size HomePod. I'm not sure when it was manufactured, but it had HomePod OS version 11.something still on it when I updated to 14.4. So clearly it had been sitting on a shelf for quite some time.

Sounds great and she's happy with it.
 
HomePod and HomePod mini are really apples and oranges in a sense, because the sound quality is just completely different. If you want the HomePod to provide a hub and Siri contact point, then the mini is fine. If you want it mainly to listen to music, then the HomePod is well worth the extra cost.
 
one of my dec 2019 homepods died today 🤬

74 days out of warranty. Who knew you needed apple care on a speaker! They wanted 279 to replace it. I bought it for 199. I can buy a new one with full year warranty for 269 through apple mulitary store.

gonna take the bricked one out and shoot it up at the range. Moving around full size ones to put back my stereo pair/home theater in the office where it died and put a mini for 89 with apple care in the bedroom now.

I’ve had WiFi issues for months with another pair. I like thear pods when they work but by god are they testy!
 
one of my dec 2019 homepods died today 🤬

74 days out of warranty. Who knew you needed apple care on a speaker! They wanted 279 to replace it. I bought it for 199. I can buy a new one with full year warranty for 269 through apple mulitary store.

gonna take the bricked one out and shoot it up at the range. Moving around full size ones to put back my stereo pair/home theater in the office where it died and put a mini for 89 with apple care in the bedroom now.

I’ve had WiFi issues for months with another pair. I like thear pods when they work but by god are they testy!
Sorry to hear this. I did get AppleCare with my HomePods and my replacement arrived Friday. Shipping the bad one back this morning. It started popping loudly and lost bass output. The popping sounded like someone was hammering nails in the room it was in - about once per second. I've got a few months of AppleCare left on the others, and then maybe my credit card warranty will take over, but it's a little worrying.

If they really don't last, I may try the Sonos One SL in some spots. I realized after buying my HomePods that I really don't need many of them to be Siri-capable and multiple HomeKit Hubs hasn't really been a joy in terms of HomeKit stability for me. I will say Apple was good to work with on the swap, it's just a bit concerning that the lifespan on some HomePods doesn't seem all that great.
 
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one of my dec 2019 homepods died today 🤬

74 days out of warranty. Who knew you needed apple care on a speaker! They wanted 279 to replace it. I bought it for 199. I can buy a new one with full year warranty for 269 through apple mulitary store.

gonna take the bricked one out and shoot it up at the range. Moving around full size ones to put back my stereo pair/home theater in the office where it died and put a mini for 89 with apple care in the bedroom now.

I’ve had WiFi issues for months with another pair. I like thear pods when they work but by god are they testy!
thanks for this post, i will not buy a HomePod now since they dont work forever like my Bose stereos will.
 
one of my dec 2019 homepods died today 🤬

74 days out of warranty. Who knew you needed apple care on a speaker! They wanted 279 to replace it. I bought it for 199. I can buy a new one with full year warranty for 269 through apple mulitary store.

gonna take the bricked one out and shoot it up at the range. Moving around full size ones to put back my stereo pair/home theater in the office where it died and put a mini for 89 with apple care in the bedroom now.

I’ve had WiFi issues for months with another pair. I like thear pods when they work but by god are they testy!
If you haven’t already shot it, put it up on eBay. Non working units go for $70-$120. If you DO buy another (unlikely) wait until the 1 year warranty is close to expiring and then bring it to an Apple Store and buy AppleCare+ for $39. One of the used HomePods I bought was under the 1 year warranty until 2-28-21. I scheduled a Genius Bar appointment for 2-26-21 and paid $39 for AC+. It’s covered till 2-28-23 now.

I expect it to stop working in May 2023. 😳
 
thanks for this post, i will not buy a HomePod now since they dont work forever like my Bose stereos will.
I think you're making a very broad generalization. People don't tend to come on and post "hey, my two year old HomePod is still working." So you're getting a very one-sided look at HomePod ownership.
The vast, vast majority of units are still in service.
And people have said the same thing about Bose, too, FYI.
 
I think you're making a very broad generalization. People don't tend to come on and post "hey, my two year old HomePod is still working." So you're getting a very one-sided look at HomePod ownership.
The vast, vast majority of units are still in service.
And people have said the same thing about Bose, too, FYI.

Right but there's an alarming number of dead homepod stories for what is a glorified speaker. How many dead Alexa, Cortana, or Google stories have you heard? I haven't heard a single one. I've heard a lot of dead homepod stories though.
 
Right but there's an alarming number of dead homepod stories for what is a glorified speaker. How many dead Alexa, Cortana, or Google stories have you heard? I haven't heard a single one. I've heard a lot of dead homepod stories though.
Haven't heard a single report... where? Here on MacRumors? Or other sites? Have you looked at Reddit or the Amazon forums? There's a lot of reports of dead and/or malfunctioning Alexas. I can't speak to Google's or Amazon's replacement policies, but to say that Apple's have a higher failure rate based on anecdotal evidence is disingenuous at best.
 
Haven't heard a single report... where? Here on MacRumors? Or other sites? Have you looked at Reddit or the Amazon forums? There's a lot of reports of dead and/or malfunctioning Alexas. I can't speak to Google's or Amazon's replacement policies, but to say that Apple's have a higher failure rate based on anecdotal evidence is disingenuous at best.
It’s also one thing for a $80 Alexa or cheap google device to fail. It’s another for what was $350 (now $300) stationary object that isn’t subject to being moved or liquid spills to just fail.

Imagine if my computer monitor failed after 3 years of use or a router fails after 3 years. Shouldn’t happen. I also haven’t seen much on any Amazon or google related subreddits about those devices failing or self bricking.
 
Mine has the clicking sound. I have already tried resetting it. If it dies, I will not replace it.

It was on sale for $199 with I bought it.
 
Mine has the clicking sound. I have already tried resetting it. If it dies, I will not replace it.

It was on sale for $199 with I bought it.
An occasional click/pop noise like in this video I made? If so, one could take the good logic board from yours and put it in a good unit with a faulty logic board and make 1 good unit (that’s what I’ve done and handful of times.)
 
I think you're making a very broad generalization. People don't tend to come on and post "hey, my two year old HomePod is still working." So you're getting a very one-sided look at HomePod ownership.
The vast, vast majority of units are still in service.
And people have said the same thing about Bose, too, FYI.
Agreed. I don’t think it’s a risk to buy a used HomePod at all. I have two from March of 2018 that I use all the time.

But if someone is concerned from the typical Macrumors hysteria, I think you’re better off getting one close to the launch date. The few stories that I’ve heard about HomePods dying were a few weeks/months out of warranty. I think if one makes it to 3 years old, it’ll last forever. Or buy a new one, presumably if there is a bad component, it would’ve been swapped by now.
 
Agreed. I don’t think it’s a risk to buy a used HomePod at all. I have two from March of 2018 that I use all the time.

But if someone is concerned from the typical Macrumors hysteria, I think you’re better off getting one close to the launch date. The few stories that I’ve heard about HomePods dying were a few weeks/months out of warranty. I think if one makes it to 3 years old, it’ll last forever. Or buy a new one, presumably if there is a bad component, it would’ve been swapped by now.
The stories that I see on Reddit several times a week are usually HomePods purchased close to launch and are 3 years old now. The question is will we see an increase in reports of failure of more launch date HomePods?

As far as I know, Apple only had one initial order of these. A bunch from Inventec and a bunch from Foxconn. Both units seem to fail. Everyone that has bought a HomePod recently that has posted to the HomePod subreddit reports an early 2018 manufacture date. I’m pretty sure everything is new old stock at this point. Maybe the supply of space grey HomePods is depleted and that’s why it’s listen as unavailable (in the U.S). Unless they plan to introduce a new model or discontinue it, I’d imagine Apple will order some more from Foxconn or Inventec (who ever gives them the best pricing.
 
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