HomePod Can you prevent HomePod from accessing my music library directly?

[Tozovac]

I want to enable my HomePod mini to not be able to play something from my music collection when someone taps the device when I'm away from home. But I can't figure out how yet.

I'm experimenting, including unselecting the Home app in Preferences for iCloud in OSX. But then I don't want to lose the ability to cast audio to the HomePod mini from any one of my iPhone, iPads, or MBA. So we'll see if it works.

Can anyone recommend how to gain "full control" of the HomePod mini to allow me to adjust settings to limit its access to my music library? Or am I trying to make the HomePod mini do something against its design intent?

I hate when a device doesn't act as expected, when it's not easy/obvious to make it do what I want it to do, when it's difficult to verify if it can do what I want it to d, and when I have to go to the internet to "discover" how to make it do what I want (Microsoft Windows typically, and too often Apple post-Steve).

 

[hg.wells]

This is a standard feature of the HomePod, what is the issue you are trying to get round if someone plays music whilst you are out of the house?

Is there something that is specifically frustrating that you want to stop happening?

 

[Tozovac]

This is a standard feature of the HomePod, what is the issue you are trying to get round if someone plays music whilst you are out of the house?

Is there something that is specifically frustrating that you want to stop happening?

Two reasons, 1) because I have younger and older people at home who, if they touch the top of it and it starts to play music, they'll have no idea how to turn it off and they'll wind up calling me. Yes I've tried teaching some of them, yes some are too young to teach, no I don't want to constantly move the HomePod mini out of reach. 2) I have various Books on tape with an unfortunate amount of language I don't want to be streaming aloud around the children.

For a company like Apple that's so conscientious about "privacy" matters, this "open connection" to my music library seems like a glaring hole.

I did unselect/disconnect/unlink my Apple ID from the AirPod in the settings and that didn't do the trick to "silence" the HomePod mini until I wanted it to be used as a speaker. Now when you tap the top of the HomePod mini, random music plays. Very frustrating. I simply wanted a speaker that would have rock-solid pairing and better control than with a standard bluetooth speaker (like AirPods) but it looks like the HomePod mini won't work out for me well here.

 

[hg.wells]

Two reasons, 1) because I have younger and older people at home who, if they touch the top of it and it starts to play music, they'll have no idea how to turn it off and they'll wind up calling me. Yes I've tried teaching some of them, yes some are too young to teach, no I don't want to constantly move the HomePod mini out of reach. 2) I have various Books on tape with an unfortunate amount of language I don't want to be streaming aloud around the children.

For a company like Apple that's so conscientious about "privacy" matters, this "open connection" to my music library seems like a glaring hole.

I did unselect/disconnect/unlink my Apple ID from the AirPod in the settings and that didn't do the trick to "silence" the HomePod mini until I wanted it to be used as a speaker. Now when you tap the top of the HomePod mini, random music plays. Very frustrating. I simply wanted a speaker that would have rock-solid pairing and better control than with a standard bluetooth speaker (like AirPods) but it looks like the HomePod mini won't work out for me well here.

Ok that makes perfect sense, thanks for the clarification.

Unfortunately not, the only way round this I can see is removing Apple Music from the HomePod and using it as an Airplay speaker only.

 

[Tozovac]

Ok that makes perfect sense, thanks for the clarification.

Unfortunately not, the only way round this I can see is removing Apple Music from the HomePod and using it as an Airplay speaker only.

Perfect! I'd like to do that. But what I've done so far did not do that.

I went into the "Primary User" setting within the Gear icon of the HomePod mini in the Home app on my iPhone and first checked "HomePod Account" (which unselected my iCloud account immediately above) and then I signed out of the HomePod Account at the bottom (now my Apple ID is not signed in), and when I tap on the HomePod mini, I get awful music playing.

Frustrating that I can't get my Apple product to do what I expect it to do without an hour or two of googling and MR'ing over the past week.

 

[hg.wells]

In the Home App settings, rather than the HomePod options, you should see people listed in the home. Select your account and under “Media” you should see Apple Music listed.

Tap on that and uncheck this option:

 

[Tozovac]

I found a workaround!! I mean, solution!

https://www.reddit.com/r/HomePod/comments/m9ugst

I increased the time needed to activate things up to 1.0 second.

The trade-off is now I have to wait 1 second before being able to change the volume but that's Ok.

What a wonky solution, but it seems to be the best I've found.

This workaround, which does work now that I tried it, feels similar Apple's shoehorning various "return to less-minimalism" settings within "Accessibility settings," like bolder font, less contrast, button shapes, etc... or how Big Sur & Monterey handle the "less contrast" feature by making your OS look like Windows 95... In other words, you'll get certain key interface options only via inelegant workarounds.

 

[Tozovac]

In the Home App settings, rather than the HomePod options, you should see people listed in the home. Select your account and under “Media” you should see Apple Music listed.

Tap on that and uncheck this option:

View attachment 1974549

Nice, I'll try that next, may be a solution instead of my workaround. Thanks!

 

[hg.wells]

Nice, I'll try that next, may be a solution instead of my workaround. Thanks!

Oh that’s a great workaround, never played with that option!

Best of luck, hopefully you can work out a solution that works well for you ?