HomePod HomePod Issues

[Itinj24]

Can we get a consolidated list of all the issues with the HomePods here. I want to bombard Apple Support with these until they effing ban me. I’ve had it with these overpriced pieces of trash! YMMV of course.

1. Deleting an alarm on the HomePod brings it right back. Must try deleting multiple times.

2. Alarm on/off toggles don’t stick. Must make several toggle attempts.

3. Not recognizing a song in my Apple Music library that is definitely in my Apple Music library. (Hey Siri, play She’s Gone by Hall and Oates- I couldn’t find that song in your Apple Music library but you can ask me to play a radio station…)

4. Not recognizing a room name in my home. (Hey, Siri, turn off the alarm in Colton’s room- I couldn’t find anything with that name in your home)

5. Creating an alarm with a song selection that just makes the alarm buzzer go off anyway.

6. Constant drops from iCloud and asking you to sign back in and still giving a password incorrect error.

7. Future request to control a HomeKit device fails constantly (Hey Siri, turn off the light in 20 minutes- I’m working on that, still trying, this is taking too long or I didn’t hear back from your devices). Works perfectly fine on the iPhone at the same exact location. Creates a disabled automation with a random set of letters and numbers.

8. Don’t get me started on stereo pairs.

I’m sure there are others but these are the most annoying to me.

It’s not my network. Getting high speeds at each HomePod location with a wired backhauled eero Pro 6 system. I’ve rebooted both network and HomePods several times.

 

[B/D]

@Itinj24

Same here on ALL your points. Not my network either (600/600 fiber and solid wifi). I´m so tired at this point, I´m on the verge on throwing them out of the window.

Also for some reason the Apple servers has been slow/having peering issues in my area regarding Apple Music content ONLY. That is to say, everything is blazing fast, including Apple TV+ and downloads from the app store, EXCEPT for Apple Music content... which is having buffering issues and it´s been generally slow to load stuff.

My point is, I dont think the homepod themselves are the problem. Just Apple servers regarding how /Siri/Homekit it´s processed on them.

I HOPE that they are working their asses out for the new architecture on 16.2 ( the final release I presume will be this month, just before Christmas), which according to what I have read in the homekit reddit forums, it´s a HUGE thing that basically changes the entire backend on how the homekit requests are processed on each device, how the homepods process Siri requests and how, for some weird reason, Apple Music requests are processed.

Long story short, the entire thing has been redone. Which is fine by me, it was sorely needed.

You know what also need a complete rewrite? Apple Music in itself, apps included. But that´s another story...

PS: Oh, and the "default audio output" feature is still broken for me and slowly degrades my entire network if I leave the pods for a long while paired with the apple tv after I´m done watching something and I put the apple tv to sleep.

So I currently have to be pairing and unpairing them from the apple tv every day.

Madness. Pure madness.

PS number II: The toggles from hell are ALL OVER the home app. Switch one on, and it will randomly turn it off by itself at some point (or viceversa). It´s like they are not even trying with the software anymore, for god´s sake. And the most infuriating thing is that their hardware is the best it´s ever been.

This is Apple!. They used to be known for their software quality!.

 

[Itinj24]

@Itinj24

Same here on ALL your points. Not my network either (600/600 fiber and solid wifi). I´m so tired at this point, I´m on the verge on throwing them out of the window.

Also for some reason the Apple servers has been slow/having peering issues in my area regarding Apple Music content ONLY. That is to say, everything is blazing fast, including Apple TV+ and downloads from the app store, EXCEPT for Apple Music content... which is having buffering issues and it´s been generally slow to load stuff.

My point is, I dont think the homepod themselves are the problem. Just Apple servers regarding how /Siri/Homekit it´s processed on them.

I HOPE that they are working their asses out for the new architecture on 16.2 ( the final release I presume will be this month, just before Christmas), which according to what I have read in the homekit reddit forums, it´s a HUGE thing that basically changes the entire backend on how the homekit requests are processed on each device, how the homepods process Siri requests and how, for some weird reason, Apple Music requests are processed.

Long story short, the entire thing has been redone. Which is fine by me, it was sorely needed.

You know what also need a complete rewrite? Apple Music in itself, apps included. But that´s another story...

PS: Oh, and the "default audio output" feature is still broken for me and slowly degrades my entire network if I leave the pods for a long while paired with the apple tv after I´m done watching something and I put the apple tv to sleep.

So I currently have to be pairing and unpairing them from the apple tv every day.

Madness. Pure madness.

PS number II: The toggles from hell are ALL OVER the home app. Switch one on, and it will randomly turn it off by itself at some point (or viceversa). It´s like they are not even trying with the software anymore, for god´s sake. And the most infuriating thing is that their hardware is the best it´s ever been.

This is Apple!. They used to be known for their software quality!.

Speaking of toggles, my intercom setup for “anywhere” keeps restoring to no selection on its own.

 

[B/D]

Speaking of toggles, my intercom setup for “anywhere” keeps restoring to no selection on its own.

The toggles in the intercom section of the home app are particularly finicky. It´s crazy.

 

[darthbane2k]

My multiple HomePods crapped out over AirPlay when testing some holiday music to play in multiple rooms. The problems started with ios16 , so I’ve lost my patience now and am going full Sonos from here on.

 

[B/D]

Hey Siri, is going to rain tomorrow?.

"Sorry, I can´t access your photos from here".

Hey Siri, play some jazz.

"There isnt an app for that, I´m sorry".




Hey Siri, play episode 2 of podcast (name of the podcast).

"Welcome to the episode 115 of the podcast (name of the podcast). Tonight we are gonna talk about..."


Sweet Jesus, this is becoming ridiculous.

 

[Itinj24]

Hey Siri, is going to rain tomorrow?.

"Sorry, I can´t access your photos from here".

Hey Siri, play some jazz.

"There isnt an app for that, I´m sorry".




Hey Siri, play episode 2 of podcast (name of the podcast).

"Welcome to the episode 115 of the podcast (name of the podcast). Tonight we are gonna talk about..."


Sweet Jesus, this is becoming ridiculous.

The more time goes by, the less I use the HomePod in the manner I bought them for. Waiting for 16.2 to completely nuke my system and start over from the scratch. This includes factory resetting all my HomePods. Shouldn’t have to be this way.

 

[B/D]

They are almost useless right now (unless you control them from an IOS device, but guess what, that shouldn´t be necessary... WITH A GODDAMN SMART SPEAKER).


Sorry for that. It just... I can´t take it anymore.

 

[Itinj24]

They are almost useless right now (unless you control them from an IOS device, but guess what, that shouldn´t be necessary... WITH A GODDAMN SMART SPEAKER).


Sorry for that. It just... I can´t take it anymore.

Don’t apologize. You have every right to be angry about this.

 

[B/D]

16.2 will be my last chance with them. Either that fixes all this madness, or I sell all the pods and move to Sonos.

These things have been broken since IOS 14.6 (for me). Not to mention the daily threat of a sudden hardware failure.

Worst Apple product I ever had.

 

[B/D]

And this last thing goes for the usual mantra that you can read on reddit and other places (great community, I´m on there as well, but...). No, is not my Wifi. Is not my Network. Is Apple software and their servers.

In fact, my network is way ahead of the requirements of the pods.

 

[Itinj24]

16.2 will be my last chance with them. Either that fixes all this madness, or I sell all the pods and move to Sonos.

These things have been broken since IOS 14.6 (for me). Not to mention the daily threat of a sudden hardware failure.

Worst Apple product I ever had.

I think the madness started with iOS 13 when one of the updates was bricking HomePods. I believe that was iOS 13. Lost track since very update makes them worse and worse. Then we had the overheating issues, the farting issues, Siri becoming dumber and dumber.

It’s supposed to get better with time and every subsequent update.

 

[Itinj24]

And this last thing goes for the usual mantra that you can read on reddit and other places (great community, I´m on there as well, but...). No, is not my Wifi. Is not my Network. Is Apple software and their servers.

In fact, my network is way ahead of the requirements of the pods.

Definitely not network related. I run a speed test on my iPhone right at the same exact place of the problem HomePod, connected to the same eero leaf and the speed is more than sufficient with good ping and jitter. Maybe the Wi-Fi receiver in the HomePod sucks.

 

[Itinj24]

Yeah, I’m on Reddit too. Same HomeKt and HomePod issues being reported there as well. The problem is Apple won’t do a thing unless it’s reported by the major tech media. HomeKit and HomePod users probably represent a small fraction of the total Apple users so the exposure is minimal.

 

[QuietGamer]

FWIW I had inconsistant issues with HK functionality when using EERO 5 PRO, 6 Pro, 6E Pro (X2 wired backhaul). Issues seem to come and go depending on if an EERO update messed with things. Issues seemed to progressively become more frequent after the Ama*** buyout of EERO. After I changed my network to a Synology RT6600AX (X2 wired backhaul) my HK issues have largely disappeared.

My "theory" is after the Ama*** buyout the EERO wants to send data to Ama*** and HK says no. The conflict between the two makes things start acting screwy. Highly scientific I know...

My HK devices are 5 EVE smart plugs, 1 EVE smart strip, HUE w/hub for lighting and EcoBee thermostat. 4 HP Minis, 2 '22 Apl TV 128 Hardwired, 1 '21 Apl TV 64 wireless. As always YMMV.

 

[Itinj24]

FWIW I had inconsistant issues with HK functionality when using EERO 5 PRO, 6 Pro, 6E Pro (X2 wired backhaul). Issues seem to come and go depending on if an EERO update messed with things. Issues seemed to progressively become more frequent after the Ama*** buyout of EERO. After I changed my network to a Synology RT6600AX (X2 wired backhaul) my HK issues have largely disappeared.

My "theory" is after the Ama*** buyout the EERO wants to send data to Ama*** and HK says no. The conflict between the two makes things start acting screwy. Highly scientific I know...

My HK devices are 5 EVE smart plugs, 1 EVE smart strip, HUE w/hub for lighting and EcoBee thermostat. 4 HP Minis, 2 '22 Apl TV 128 Hardwired, 1 '21 Apl TV 64 wireless. As always YMMV.

Interesting. I always felt the eero performance declined after the buyout but it’s more with the HomePods than anything. For example, asking the HomePod to play a song in my library, Siri can’t find it in my library but works fine on my iPhone. Same for turning off a device in x amount of minutes. Don’t think it’s related to the network. FWIW, my HomeKit is stable for the most part. Jut getting the same issues as a lot are reporting with iOS 16 and automation problems.

 

[B/D]

For the record, I dont have any EERO system (or any mesh system, for that matter), and have the same issues with the homepods only.

 

[B/D]

Apple Music lossless still has pretty much the same quirks than when it launched in summer of 2021. Inconsistent gapless playback, skipping of songs, and something very infuriating: a lossless track will sometimes skip ahead a bit (within the same song).

This happens on Mac OS too, so is not the pods. Is the software.

 

[B/D]

@Itinj24


So as @StumpyBloke said, nothing has improved on 16.2. Music (is SLOW and the playback is buggy), homekit, Siri and the home app itself (oh yeah, the toggles from hell are still there) are still borked.

Jesus ****ing Christ. Firmware after firmware after firmware and nothing changes.

For the love of God...

Homekit has been literally broken since at least 15.0. It´s unbelievable.


At this point I think nobody in Cupertino uses Homepods or Homekit.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Afraid so. In my opinion, certainly based on my extensive experience with HomeKit/HomePod/Siri over the last few months, this is yet another abortion of a release. Apple should be thoroughly ashamed and the whole team sacked.

And you are absolutely right, it was iOS 15 that introduced this cluster **** system. It worked very reliably up until that point.

 

[B/D]

Afraid so. In my opinion, certainly based on my extensive experience with HomeKit/HomePod/Siri over the last few months, this is yet another abortion of a release. Apple should be thoroughly ashamed and the whole team sacked

Like I said, nobody in Apple must be using Homekit or Homepods. Its broken, plain and simple.

What it dont understand is why Apple Music is also slow and buggy on the pods (is fast on IOS and Mac for me).

 

[StumpyBloke]

Again, couldn't agree more. There is no way on this earth that they use HomeKit in their own homes. Absolutely no way.

 

[B/D]

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the damn thing (homekit) has never been tested with real, consumer network equipment, but only in a lab environment (optimal conditions). Same with the pods themselves and their flaky Wi-Fi chipset, actually.

 

[Itinj24]

@Itinj24


So as @StumpyBloke said, nothing has improved on 16.2. Music (is SLOW and the playback is buggy), homekit, Siri and the home app itself (oh yeah, the toggles from hell are still there) are still borked.

Jesus ****ing Christ. Firmware after firmware after firmware and nothing changes.

For the love of God...

Homekit has been literally broken since at least 15.0. It´s unbelievable.


At this point I think nobody in Cupertino uses Homepods or Homekit.

The toggles from hell make me want to strangle myself.

 

[Itinj24]

@StumpyBloke @B/D have either of you tried factory resetting the HomePods? I’m sure I read reports that results were improved after that.

That’s my next project. Nuke my whole network and HomeKit and start from scratch. I see no other option. Just have to wait till the middle of January when I get my next week long break from work. I’m gonna need all that time.