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HomePod Mini Is Now 2,000 Days Old
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I got two for living room surround sound. We won’t set them as default audio, we let sound play through tv and then have one on each side of the couch. Turned off Siri and it works great lmao occasional use for music while cleaning, but I’d rather use my AirPods Pro tbh so I can move to other rooms.
I literally never ask it to play specific tracks because it's so horrible at it. Even if it's the right track it might be some weird version or something. I start all music playback from my phone, except for streaming radio stations, which in my experience works quite well.
SFjohn
macrumors 68030
Why do you want to talk to your speaker? I certainly don’t & have that function disabled on ours. 🤷
There is the _possibility_ that the technical issues you describe are due to environmental factors. Wireless devices often have to work very hard to fight through signal noise and interference from nearby devices. We take that for granted way too much. What is the `mini` connecting to? A quality router, or a cheap / unmaintained one provided by her ISP? Has she tried to connect the `mini` to a different router to see if the connection is more stable? Are other wireless devices kept a reasonable distance away from the `mini`?
You'd think that if the `mini` was at fault for being a poorly-designed device, there'd be far more complaints, recalls, and software updates to address the issues, so the problems may be caused by other factors.
boswald
macrumors 68030
She's connecting it to a Nest Wifi Pro from Google. The network connection is "only" 400Mbps, but everything else is in sleep mode or off. I guess it's possible there's interference, but I think it's the apps she's using. I have 2 HomePods (originals) that used to have disconnection problems too, but they went away after I updated to 26.4. I'll have to check hers to see if the update will fix hers. Also, it could be the location too. It's in the back corner of a bedroom, on a nightstand. As far as I know, the HomePod hasn't been dropped.
MacsRgr8
macrumors G3
I had used a stereo pair of HomePod minis for about a year or so at our cabin, and got rid of them because same of reason as what your girlfriend siad, and went back to “dumb” speakers attached to the TV which has an AppleTV connected to it. This works perfectly all the time.
turbineseaplane
macrumors Penryn
Amazing how well "a wire" works, isn't it?
I wish the tech world (and Apple) could stop pretending that wireless is always better / best.
To this day, when I want a great phone call / video chat experience, I still use old wired EarPods.
Nothing wireless competes with the connection and low latency it offers.
boswald
macrumors 68030
As sick as I am of cables, I have to agree.
With a WiFi router, there are two connections — the inside network (LAN) and the outside connection (WAN). The outside connection is likely not a factor unless other devices on the internal network are experiencing connection issues.
The Nest Pro is a mesh device, so coverage can be improved by adding additional "Point" devices into the mesh, so that's another possible solution to consider.
Powerbooky
macrumors demi-god
Anyone complaining about HomePod mini's disconnecting randomly... a big part of the cause is the bad wifi modem's or basestations out there. Horrible antenna's and even worse handling for multicast network traffic. The other part is the Apple's stupid choice of the S5 chip that only supports 802.11n (wifi 4) in single channel mode (20MHz). Apple claims that 802.11n is more stable for the HomePod is BS. They only wanted to empty the shelves with leftover S5 chips.
Don't get me wrong, I have 8 HomePod mini's working with just one base station. It feeds all eight in my house, spread over two floors (home office and 4 bedrooms). After some testing I configured the wifi to Apple's specifications to make it work: DTIM=3, beacon interval=100ms, 5GHz band only. All our Mac's and other high bandwidth stuff are exclusively on 5GHz on a channel that has the lowest interference by neighbours - took my a while to measure that in all corners of the house.
The 2.4GHz band is only usable with a lowered RTS/CTS threshold (1500) and slightly lower beacon interval (70-90ms). There's just too much interference to keep (distant) devices connected with default wifi parameters. It is only usable for relatively low bandwidth IoT devices, including HomeKit camera's. Useless for HomePod.
I really hope that Apple made the new model HomePod and HomePod mini with support for at least 802.11ax (wifi6) - this protocol is way more reliable for streaming in harsh wifi environments than the old 802.11n
Don't get me wrong, I have 8 HomePod mini's working with just one base station. It feeds all eight in my house, spread over two floors (home office and 4 bedrooms). After some testing I configured the wifi to Apple's specifications to make it work: DTIM=3, beacon interval=100ms, 5GHz band only. All our Mac's and other high bandwidth stuff are exclusively on 5GHz on a channel that has the lowest interference by neighbours - took my a while to measure that in all corners of the house.
The 2.4GHz band is only usable with a lowered RTS/CTS threshold (1500) and slightly lower beacon interval (70-90ms). There's just too much interference to keep (distant) devices connected with default wifi parameters. It is only usable for relatively low bandwidth IoT devices, including HomeKit camera's. Useless for HomePod.
I really hope that Apple made the new model HomePod and HomePod mini with support for at least 802.11ax (wifi6) - this protocol is way more reliable for streaming in harsh wifi environments than the old 802.11n
jbachandouris
macrumors 603
My HomePod 2 is in the living room right next to the router. My mini is in the kitchen on the other side of the house. Random music playing at medium volume on the HP2. 3am. Pretty sure it’s not interference. No pets.
No issues with the mini.
No issues with the mini.
watchmainspring
macrumors 65816
This is my concern with the rumoured new Home related products. Apple just doesn’t update them enough.
SBlue1
macrumors 68020
More bass. An EQ would be great. Left/right balance if you have a pair would be also nice. The ability to set them up as rear speakers for a 4.1 system. More colors.
ProbablyDylan
macrumors 68040
lowendlinux
macrumors 603
All my home pod minis still work great, I'm not sure what a new generation of WiFi speaker would bring with it.
mansplains
macrumors 68000
Gengar
macrumors 65816
I have 3 HomePod minis and 2 of the standard HomePods and they work well, especially for music and alarms. The only issue I'd say is definitely Siri. Maybe it's best they delay until they fix that because they're great sounding speakers (compared to Amazon's Echo devices), but Siri is terrible to the point where I sometimes just AirPlay music from my iPhone or iPad.
I have two HomePod minis on opposite ends of the house. One of them sits right underneath an Airport Extreme, near my AppleTV 4k and Dumb(ed down) TV set. I had the two minis before I got a Sonus Roam for the kitchen. In my living room, a trusty 2012 Airport Express extends the network audio to an analog receiver. The AirPlay life of the two minis has been so erratic and stable that I could write a book about it. I can confirm the good and the bad experiences reported in this thread so far.
The first thing i did in my AirPlay life with the two minis was to turn off Siri. That I did on day 2. The new Siri(Ge)mini will not change that. Actually, after Friday‘s article on the holdup of the new AppleTV, I expected the headline of this one to read
The weirdest failure scenario during the 50% days is when my iPad mini connects to the Airplay speakers, shows the volume sliders, but no sound is playing. When I use the same source on my iPad Pro in the same room, there is no problem. I have to power off the iPad mini to get it to airplay again. Both iPads run identical iOS 18 versions.
I realize that the minis‘ as well as the Roam‘s (less often though) Airplay performance could be due to interference issues. Regardless, I would only consider a new HomePod mini if it were untethered, bluetooth enabled, and had clearly visible volume buttons.
The first thing i did in my AirPlay life with the two minis was to turn off Siri. That I did on day 2. The new Siri(Ge)mini will not change that. Actually, after Friday‘s article on the holdup of the new AppleTV, I expected the headline of this one to read
New HomePod Mini Waiting for Siri: Here's What's Coming When It Launches
Focussing on the positive, I can confirm there are 7-10 day periods when the minis and the Roam work 100% of the time. Then 2-3 days follow when it‘s 50% or less, sometimes not affecting the Roam. This is why I got an analog receiver/wired speakers when I upgraded the sound system for my AppleTV.The weirdest failure scenario during the 50% days is when my iPad mini connects to the Airplay speakers, shows the volume sliders, but no sound is playing. When I use the same source on my iPad Pro in the same room, there is no problem. I have to power off the iPad mini to get it to airplay again. Both iPads run identical iOS 18 versions.
I realize that the minis‘ as well as the Roam‘s (less often though) Airplay performance could be due to interference issues. Regardless, I would only consider a new HomePod mini if it were untethered, bluetooth enabled, and had clearly visible volume buttons.
That is great! Curious to know if your Siri experience with the Minis matches their AirPlay performance.
If you're asking if the Mini can stream requested music or answer questions via Siri commands, the answer is yes. Just like the larger HomePods.
Supposedly they already built a new one, undoubtedly with an outdated chip to save money (Apple is hurting for cash, can’t blame them 🙄), and that chip is getting less future proof with each week that passes.