Apple Releases HomePod Software 15.5.1 With Fix for Bug That Could Cause Music to Stop Playing

[B/D]

Like another user above, mine coincidentally or not also had to do with playing a certain white noise track from Apple Music’s library. It would never play past 5-15 secs, and now it’s just fine. Prior to some recent update I hadn’t been getting the issue though.

Ah, the issue playing Apple sounds/noises, glad to see it fixed.

 

[B/D]

This is not a minor update in my book. It can be considered one because no new features have been added, but boy oh boy, talk about polishing an operating system.

My Homepods are basically perfect now. Everything is fantastic performance wise. Been testing for hours now. No popping/static noises with lossless tracks (been suffering this since lossless was released for the homepods with 15.1), no skipping of songs within an album/playlist, no glitches, anything.

Music playback is perfect (as it should be). But is not only that. Everything is so much faster. So much. Siri responses. Homekit interaction. Even music playback itself.

Let me explain.

There is no play/pause delay anymore (I dont use Airplay, just play Apple Music natively on the homepods using Siri or remote controlling them from IOS or Mac OS, which is not Airplay). Music takes less time to load and actually start playing now. If I ask Siri to go to the next song, she´ll do it faster now. Gapless playback is completely seamless, no glitches whatsoever. No pauses/waiting time in between lossless tracks anymore.

Even sound quality has improved, to the point that I have turned off "reduce bass", now (I had it enabled since IOS 15 came out). There is more separation now between the bass and the mids, and more detail as well.

Seriously, I cant believe that Apple has put themselves together when it comes to the homepod OS, finally.

PS: Pairing with the Apple TV (updated to 15.5.1 as well), is so much faster too. When selecting as the default audio output I have to wait barely nothing for the homepods to be operative as such. Before, I had to wait quite a few seconds.

 

[macos9rules]

Still the same. I find it highly unlikely that both speakers start doing this concurrent with the previous update That it would be a speaker failure. I also updated appletv at same time as HomePods. Restarted everything. same thing if I cast diectly to HomePods with my iPhone with apple music.

Mine also started doing this after an update. HomePod was making a crackling noise and then no sound. I heard from someone working on the HomePod team at Cupertino that it was a fairly common problem.

 

[I7guy]

I can’t tell the difference yet. But I had trouble installing this update.

 

[srbNYC]

New issue: I have media (Apple Music Radio) start in the morning, playing in my home audio via AirPlay, and it's just started to stop playing after 30–60 minutes. Fun.

Trying a restart....