After updating software in my iMac and other Apple devices, and using the paired stereo HomePods more, I'm not particularly happy with controlling the music that flows to each device in my home.
I have three HomePods now, two paired in Stereo in one room, and single HomePods in two other rooms.
In iTunes, control of the music going to each speaker is not intuitive. Formerly, I could simply begin playing a track in my iTunes library and select which speakers would receive the music - all of the HomePods, or only one or two.
Now, I can only do that if I don't use the two speakers that are paired in stereo. If I select the stereo pair, then the iTunes won't give me the ability to also select speakers in other rooms.
The Music App on my iPhone does have this ability, but it is much more difficult to select which music to be played. I prefer to use iTunes since that is where I have all of my music library organized, and it provides other information such as how many plays I have accumulated for each individual track. This information also does not seem to be updating properly.
If I am playing music from iTunes on my computer, and I select the paired stereo speakers, it also over-rides the track that I've selected to play using iTunes, and returns to whatever I was previously playing on those speakers via Apple Music. Over-riding that causes a delay of sometimes many seconds for the music to be loaded, which suggests to me that the music is now being flowed from Apple Music and not directly from my computer iTunes library. The iTunes playback is sometimes interrupted and the music selection switches to something else in my iTunes library without my taking any action to change what is being played. This has happened multiple times.
Using the Music app on my iPhone is not necessarily any better and if I'm working at my computer with iTunes open then why should I need to even involve the iPhone to control what I'm listening to?
Bottom line, I cannot simply select an album or music track on my iTunes and play it to my stereo paired HomePods reliably. It repeatedly loses the music and randomly switches to some other music in my library, without any rhyme or reason.
It is all very confusing and since the new software update I'm very frustrated. It should be straightforward for me to select what I'd like to play from my own iTunes music library, and select which speakers will receive the music (including the paired HomePods), and it is not.
I have three HomePods now, two paired in Stereo in one room, and single HomePods in two other rooms.
In iTunes, control of the music going to each speaker is not intuitive. Formerly, I could simply begin playing a track in my iTunes library and select which speakers would receive the music - all of the HomePods, or only one or two.
Now, I can only do that if I don't use the two speakers that are paired in stereo. If I select the stereo pair, then the iTunes won't give me the ability to also select speakers in other rooms.
The Music App on my iPhone does have this ability, but it is much more difficult to select which music to be played. I prefer to use iTunes since that is where I have all of my music library organized, and it provides other information such as how many plays I have accumulated for each individual track. This information also does not seem to be updating properly.
If I am playing music from iTunes on my computer, and I select the paired stereo speakers, it also over-rides the track that I've selected to play using iTunes, and returns to whatever I was previously playing on those speakers via Apple Music. Over-riding that causes a delay of sometimes many seconds for the music to be loaded, which suggests to me that the music is now being flowed from Apple Music and not directly from my computer iTunes library. The iTunes playback is sometimes interrupted and the music selection switches to something else in my iTunes library without my taking any action to change what is being played. This has happened multiple times.
Using the Music app on my iPhone is not necessarily any better and if I'm working at my computer with iTunes open then why should I need to even involve the iPhone to control what I'm listening to?
Bottom line, I cannot simply select an album or music track on my iTunes and play it to my stereo paired HomePods reliably. It repeatedly loses the music and randomly switches to some other music in my library, without any rhyme or reason.
It is all very confusing and since the new software update I'm very frustrated. It should be straightforward for me to select what I'd like to play from my own iTunes music library, and select which speakers will receive the music (including the paired HomePods), and it is not.
, fix it!
