HomePod HomePod impossible to hard reset?

[Internet Enzyme]

I'm in a strange spot right now. I moved recently and brought my two HomePods with me. I deleted my old Home in the Home app and created a new one. For my first HomePod, I could factory reset just like how all of the online guides tell you to: unplug, wait, plug back in, wait, hold your finger on the top until it turns red and beeps three times, and then finish the onboarding process. What's strange is, is that my second HomePod will just not do this.

I can follow those same steps, and all that happens when I hold my finger on the top surface is that Siri will just keep on listening. The red light will never come. What's even weirder is that I can still AirPlay to this HomePod, even though it is nowhere in the Home app. And when I AirPlay to it, it has its old name from the previous Home. So I'm in this predicament where one of my HomePods is fully functional but is completely unconfigurable and invisible everywhere other than the AirPlay interface. Any suggestions? I have no idea what I can do.

 

[AL2TEACH]

... Any suggestions? I have no idea what I can do.

have you tried using the home app with the HomePod and resetting that way?

 

[Internet Enzyme]

have you tried using the home app with the HomePod and resetting that way?

yeah, i wish i could do that, but the homepod literally isn’t in the home app. None of the rooms. It just isnt there. I’m taking it into the apple store on saturday.

 

[dotme]

Odd that it won't reset with a long press. To complete the removal, did you delete it from your list of iCloud devices? Maybe once it's out of there too, it won't have any choice but to set up as new.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

Odd that it won't reset with a long press. To complete the removal, did you delete it from your list of iCloud devices? Maybe once it's out of there too, it won't have any choice but to set up as new.

I removed it from my iCloud account a fee days ago, and all that occurs now is, when I ask it for a homekit request, it greets me with an error.

 

[waw74]

try rebooting your router / wifi
you can also try unplugging all of your HomePods and appleTVs, and then plugging them back in (so they're all off at the same time, including your router).

homekit and airplay do a lot of things in the background with mDNS, and sometimes routers get a bit confused with that.

Apple has renamed mDNS as Bonjour, but it's the same basic thing.
mDNS is how things advertise what they can do on your network. It's how airplay things show up on all your devices, It's also used by file sharing, the remote app, initial homekit discovery, finding printers on your network and a lot more.
basically every so often devices will send out a packet that says "hey, I'm a HomePod, and I can airplay, my IP is ____, and my name is _____" Devices will typically send out multiple packets, one for each thing they can do, HomePods will advertise that they can airplay, be used as a homehub, be controlled by the remote app

for the other HomePods and appleTVs, they have a function called sleep proxy, where they'll take over those broadcasts when a device goes to sleep. This is used for things like accessing file sharing when your Mac is asleep. When you Mac goes to sleep, a sleep proxy device can take over the broadcasts that say your Mac can share files, if a computer makes a request for files, they'll go to the sleep proxy device which will send a packet to wake up the Mac so it can handle the request.

 

[Internet Enzyme]

try rebooting your router / wifi
you can also try unplugging all of your HomePods and appleTVs, and then plugging them back in (so they're all off at the same time, including your router).

homekit and airplay do a lot of things in the background with mDNS, and sometimes routers get a bit confused with that.

Apple has renamed mDNS as Bonjour, but it's the same basic thing.
mDNS is how things advertise what they can do on your network. It's how airplay things show up on all your devices, It's also used by file sharing, the remote app, initial homekit discovery, finding printers on your network and a lot more.
basically every so often devices will send out a packet that says "hey, I'm a HomePod, and I can airplay, my IP is ____, and my name is _____" Devices will typically send out multiple packets, one for each thing they can do, HomePods will advertise that they can airplay, be used as a homehub, be controlled by the remote app

for the other HomePods and appleTVs, they have a function called sleep proxy, where they'll take over those broadcasts when a device goes to sleep. This is used for things like accessing file sharing when your Mac is asleep. When you Mac goes to sleep, a sleep proxy device can take over the broadcasts that say your Mac can share files, if a computer makes a request for files, they'll go to the sleep proxy device which will send a packet to wake up the Mac so it can handle the request.

I appreciate your explainer on bonjour, but I can never know if any of it was relevant because for some reason, yesterday I was able to get it to hard reset the way I had been trying forever. I have no clue why it worked this time, as I did it the same exact way numerous times before. At least everything's working as expected now—even if it is disconcerting that there appears to have been no easily reproducible technical fault with the unit or my setup at large.

 

[AL2TEACH]

I appreciate your explainer on bonjour, but I can never know if any of it was relevant because for some reason, yesterday I was able to get it to hard reset the way I had been trying forever. I have no clue why it worked this time, as I did it the same exact way numerous times before. At least everything's working as expected now—even if it is disconcerting that there appears to have been no easily reproducible technical fault with the unit or my setup at large.

glad you got it working again.