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HomePod HomePod becoming useless!

C

clg82

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 17, 2010
385
229
Southern California
I have three homepods in my home, all of which I feel are starting to degrade in functionality over time. Has anyone else noticed this? When I first bought them and started using them in my home they were fantastic. Haven't changed anything within my network infrastructure to affect them. We all know Siri is miserable, but it seems lately she can't even do something as easy as set an alarm anymore. There seems to be some degradation in the microphones and it can't hear me as well. I even removed it from the home app, removed it from my account, restarted all of them and it doesn't seem to be getting better. Anyone else feel like there's are starting to become useless? My 10+ year old Echo Dot responds and does things more efficiently then these HomePods. I'm an Apple fanboy and this is starting to become frustrating.
 
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Without question, there are more and more posts similar to yours with people referring to the same kind of issues.

And I concur with all of them. The whole ecosystem regarding Siri, HomeKit, HomePods is just garbage… complete and utter useless garbage in my experience.

I don’t know what Apple are playing at, but like you and many others I’ve had enough. We pay top whack for really good hardware for every single bit of it to be let down by the ********* software the world’s ever known. I should add, that for me this has all got substantially worse since the original release of 15 software across-the-board. I had very few issues under 14.

Unfortunately I can’t help you with your issues, but you aren’t alone with them.
 
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Alexa and google both see to suffer from this too. L one how we hear Siri will improve and it always does just the opposite. tell Siri the same thing every day but it never gets more accurate.
 
This is "normal" behavior for Siri on HomePod. Many people on Reddit are experiencing similar issues. I myself have noticed that I'll ask it to turn off a light, and the light turns immediately off, but Siri remains on, and then says "hmm this is taking too long" or "on it"

She fails to set timers when asked, so I just use my Apple Watch instead. HomePod is a great AirPlay speaker, and HomePod mini is a decent speaker and good thread border router, but Siri sucks on both of them.
 
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ouimetnick said:
This is "normal" behavior for Siri on HomePod. Many people on Reddit are experiencing similar issues. I myself have noticed that I'll ask it to turn off a light, and the light turns immediately off, but Siri remains on, and then says "hmm this is taking too long" or "on it"
Click to expand...

Philips hue lights/scenes by any chance?
 
i was in staples a week ago saw this tiny box that had HomePod mini labeled outside, I asked the nearby salesperson named Cersei if they could unveil the speaker. the head was a bit small. the chord and legs were a bit small, but no woofer. No tweeter. No base . Just a tiny pink ball. I didn't try to hide my disappointment. "That's not a speaker" I told the Salesperson. "That's just a baby box." And Cersei said, "cant play this for you," And she pinched the little HomePod so hard, I thought she might pull it off. Until her manager Oberyn made her stop.
"It doesn't matter," Cersei told me. "Everyone says  will off this soon.

I hope they are right. this should not have lived this long.
 
MBAir2010 said:
i was in staples a week ago saw this tiny box that had HomePod mini labeled outside, I asked the nearby salesperson named Cersei if they could unveil the speaker. the head was a bit small. the chord and legs were a bit small, but no woofer. No tweeter. No base . Just a tiny pink ball. I didn't try to hide my disappointment. "That's not a speaker" I told the Salesperson. "That's just a baby box." And Cersei said, "cant play this for you," And she pinched the little HomePod so hard, I thought she might pull it off. Until her manager Oberyn made her stop.
"It doesn't matter," Cersei told me. "Everyone says  will off this soon.

I hope they are right. this should not have lived this long.
Click to expand...
Hardware wise, I don’t see an issue with the Mini. It wasn’t made to replace a full home stereo system that’ll rock your neighbors to their core. It’s a combination smart speaker and AirPlay shelf speaker for causal listening. I use them to sprinkle in areas where a full sound system is overkill. My bathroom, the young kids’ rooms, my garage, the guest room, etc. I think it serves its purpose well. For $99 ($89 with my Veteran’s discount), that can be accomplished without breaking the bank.

That said, software wise, the HomePods have been nothing but a frustrating nightmare. If Apple can correct that, then they won’t be so terrible. This goes for the OG HomePods too, which sound incredible for the package they come in.

I’m curious who “everyone” is that says it will be canceled. I’m pretty sure they’re selling well. Apple isn’t canceling anything that’s making them money. It’s only been a little over a year.
 
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Itinj24 said:
That said, software wise, the HomePods have been nothing but a frustrating nightmare
Click to expand...
apple never perfected software, even in 1990 we had problems with simple tasks.
Ｂｏｓｅ　is mundane as well, but produces a great sound.

if them apples made this in 2012, i would have saved that and would be using the speaker today.
 
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MBAir2010 said:
apple never perfected software, even in 1990 we had problems with simple tasks.
Ｂｏｓｅ　is mundane as well, but produces a great sound.

if them apples made this in 2012, i would have saved that and would be using the speaker today.
Click to expand...
I can imagine. No clue where they got the slogan “it just works” from because that couldn’t be any further from the truth lol. When everything works in perfect harmony, as advertised, the Apple eco system is unmatched but that’s rare. I was 12 in 1990. Didn’t have much experience with tech back then and we always had a PC. I was more interested in PC gaming at that age but nice to see Apple carrying on the legacy lol.
 
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The “everything works” was for plug and play which ran platforms and programs that did not need a patch, scuzzis, periphales ummm peripherals or additionally installed software to work as windows dos did.
then windows 95 was released.
 
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Itinj24 said:
Hardware wise, I don’t see an issue with the Mini. It wasn’t made to replace a full home stereo system that’ll rock your neighbors to their core. It’s a combination smart speaker and AirPlay shelf speaker for causal listening. I use them to sprinkle in areas where a full sound system is overkill. My bathroom, the young kids’ rooms, my garage, the guest room, etc. I think it serves its purpose well. For $99 ($89 with my Veteran’s discount), that can be accomplished without breaking the bank.

That said, software wise, the HomePods have been nothing but a frustrating nightmare. If Apple can correct that, then they won’t be so terrible. This goes for the OG HomePods too, which sound incredible for the package they come in.

I’m curious who “everyone” is that says it will be canceled. I’m pretty sure they’re selling well. Apple isn’t canceling anything that’s making them money. It’s only been a little over a year.
Click to expand...
Recent data has shown that whilst Apple remain behind Amazon and google in market share, their market share has significantly increased since they started selling the mini. I’d say the mini is selling reasonably well.

www.imore.com

Apple nearly doubled its market share with the HomePod mini

According to new data from Strategy Analytics, Apple increased its market share to over 10% of the smart speaker market.
www.imore.com www.imore.com
 
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MBAir2010 said:
i was in staples a week ago saw this tiny box that had HomePod mini labeled outside, I asked the nearby salesperson named Cersei if they could unveil the speaker. the head was a bit small. the chord and legs were a bit small, but no woofer. No tweeter. No base . Just a tiny pink ball. I didn't try to hide my disappointment. "That's not a speaker" I told the Salesperson. "That's just a baby box." And Cersei said, "cant play this for you," And she pinched the little HomePod so hard, I thought she might pull it off. Until her manager Oberyn made her stop.
"It doesn't matter," Cersei told me. "Everyone says  will off this soon.

I hope they are right. this should not have lived this long.
Click to expand...
Wow. Never seen the homepod compared with baby Tyrion before. ?
 
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Shanghaichica said:
Recent data has shown that whilst Apple remain behind Amazon and google in market share, their market share has significantly increased since they started selling the mini. I’d say the mini is selling reasonably well.

www.imore.com

Apple nearly doubled its market share with the HomePod mini

According to new data from Strategy Analytics, Apple increased its market share to over 10% of the smart speaker market.
www.imore.com www.imore.com
Click to expand...
Absolutely. I’d be shocked if they discontinued it anytime soon.
 
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