HomePod HomePod noticeably slower after iOS 15

[Squuiid]

Its very strange. I wonder if its something related with something they changed in the homekit code for IOS 15.

I´ve run homemade tests against homepods on 14.6, and its puzzling. Homekit works perfectly and consistently on the homepods with 14.6, which tells me is not a serverside issue, its software related. On the Homepods with 15.0 or higher, its a disaster.

The interesting thing is that the erratic behavior seems to affect to several brands of accessories, so there are not compatibility issues with one specific manufacturer.

What you’re all forgetting is that if you action a request from an iPhone and not the HomePod then it all works fine.
Either Siri on the iPhone or a Shortcut on the iPhone or a Scene from the iPhone and it’s instant.
This is very much a HomePod issue.

Please do try this and report back.

 

[B/D]

What you’re all forgetting is that if you action a request from an iPhone and not the HomePod then it all works fine.
Either Siri on the iPhone or a Shortcut on the iPhone or a Scene from the iPhone and it’s instant.
This is very much a HomePod issue.

Please do try this and report back.

Sorry, I meant a change in the homekit code for the fork of tvOS 15 that the homepods run. A typo. I was talking about the homepods specifically, not IOS 15 in general.

You are right, Homekit runs perfectly fine in other Apple devices.

 

[StumpyBloke]

@StumpyBloke. Have you been able to test the 15.4 beta?

I have indeed, and guess what…

 

[StumpyBloke]

What you’re all forgetting is that if you action a request from an iPhone and not the HomePod then it all works fine.

Most of the time.

 

[B/D]

I have indeed, and guess what…

Interesting. This is what a fellow redditor told me today:

I installed the 15.3 gm before the public release and it auto updated to 15.4. I was actually wonder why the hell siri started working. Instant answers and replies after months of slow responses with homekit.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Interesting. This is what a fellow redditor told me today:

I installed the 15.3 gm before the public release and it auto updated to 15.4. I was actually wonder why the hell siri started working. Instant answers and replies after months of slow responses with homekit.

Pretty much just the same as before for me. Most things regarding HomeKit still get the same on it, just a sec et cetera responses. Whether it be Philips Hue scenes or just light control. But, it’s no worse!

Time will tell I guess whether the SOMA blinds are any more reliable and I will keep this thread up-to-date with my experience.

 

[B/D]

Pretty much just the same as before for me. Most things regarding HomeKit still get the same on it, just a sec et cetera responses. Whether it be Philips Hue scenes or just light control. But. It’s no worse!


Time will tell I guess whether the SOMA blinds are any more reliable and I will keep this thread up-to-date with my experience.

Please do. Same here. Homekit is still broken for me with 15.3 (final version).

Apple Music desktop, by the way, its completely broken as of right now. Albums added to the library from the AM are randomly split, and any metadata changes are reverted back after a few hours automatically, which renders Icloud Music Library unusable.

According to Apple (I have a case open with them about this), its a server side issue that affects Catalina, Big Sur, and Monterey.

Their software QC is an utter joke this days. Don't get me wrong, I am deep into the Apple ecosystem and love their products.

But come on...

 

[Squuiid]

Pretty much just the same as before for me. Most things regarding HomeKit still get the same on it, just a sec et cetera responses. Whether it be Philips Hue scenes or just light control. But, it’s no worse!

Time will tell I guess whether the SOMA blinds are any more reliable and I will keep this thread up-to-date with my experience.

Ha! The one thing Siri does NOT hesitate to do for me over the HomePods is raise or lower my 4 SOMA blinds. It does this without hesitation fortunately. Always has throughout the entirety of 15.x.

Anything IKEA though, forget it. Hmm, need a little more time... blah blah.
Actually Philips Hue, like a rock, as with the blinds.

 

[christianji]

It is back to normal! Can’t believe it is back! No more wait a second, I’m on it… it is almost as quick as it has been with iOS 14. Let’s see if it remains!

 

[StumpyBloke]

It is back to normal! Can’t believe it is back! No more wait a second, I’m on it… it is almost as quick as it has been with iOS 14. Let’s see if it remains!

Really glad you are having better luck.

It’s still the usual sack of **** for me.

 

[Squuiid]

It is back to normal! Can’t believe it is back! No more wait a second, I’m on it… it is almost as quick as it has been with iOS 14. Let’s see if it remains!

Wow, you're right! I think they've just done some server side work in addition to 15.3.
Everything works perfectly as of today, even my IKEA devices.
It has been more or less 4 months since things have worked this well in HomeKit via a HomePod for me.
Finally!

 

[christianji]

Really glad you are having better luck.

It’s still the usual sack of **** for me.

We have had some "special" issues here in Germany with the release of OS15. User recognition became available for german language. HomePod and HomeKit have been made useless with that release, Siri was special-dumb, shortcuts were out of order, no personal request were working. It really was almost germany-wide and I just wanted to throw my HomePod out of the window.
Apple then fixed this after a few weeks on server side, there was no update required. But the "I'm on it...", "a second" unfortunately remained.
Now some magic happened and it is gone... Can't believe how fast it is now. Maybe they slowly roll out the server-side fix?

 

[christianji]

even my IKEA devices.

Yeah they suffered the most. But now it really seems to be fixed. And there has NOT been an update for the IKEA stuff.

 

[Squuiid]

Ugh. Scratch that. Just got a "On it, working on that, hmm I didn't hear back" from my IKEA lights scene. Sometimes it works, other times not.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Ugh. Scratch that. Just got a "On it, working on that, hmm I didn't hear back" from my IKEA lights scene. Sometimes it works, other times not.

Yep, I knew people posting that it was all working would report back saying it was no longer working as hoped.

This is what happens, very occasionally it’s absolutely flawless but the rest of the time it’s the usual garbage that Apple now throw out on a regular basis.

 

[christianji]

Yep, I knew people posting that it was all working would report back saying it was no longer working as hoped.

This is what happens, very occasionally it’s absolutely flawless but the rest of the time it’s the usual garbage that Apple now throw out on a regular basis.

Ahh don't take my hopes! For me it's the first time since the 15 disaster that the HomePod is usable for homekit commands.

 

[B/D]

Yep, I knew people posting that it was all working would report back saying it was no longer working as hoped.

This is what happens, very occasionally it’s absolutely flawless but the rest of the time it’s the usual garbage that Apple now throw out on a regular basis.

Which is to me is a good thing. Yeah, I know. Old B/D has gone crazy. But bear with me. Its a good thing because if its runs flawlessly for a short while and then its back to being crap from time to time that indicates its a server side issue with Siri and the homepods, not a software issue. So it can be fixed any time, remotely, without any user intervention.

 

[StumpyBloke]

I don’t know if it is true, but if Siri is going back to Apple servers for HomeKit stuff that is ludicrous. There is absolutely no need for the commands to leave our homes.

 

[B/D]

I don’t know if it is true, but if Siri is going back to Apple servers for HomeKit stuff that is ludicrous. There is absolutely no need for the commands to leave our homes.

It is definitely going back. I think the on device Siri processing requires an A12 chip or higher in IOS devices, but I suppose, given that the homepods are speakers which much less to do, that some form of it could be implemented on Apple smart speakers.


Completely agree with you.

 

[B/D]

I cant believe it, I just can´t.

I just completely solved the muddy sound and the Siri/Homekit issues of my Homepods.


Been testing for several hours now, seems solid as as rock.

Disable both the analytics and the improve dictation toggles of ALL the homepods in your house.

If you have an Apple TV (or several) logged to the same account, go to the privacy tab of the Apple TV settings (Settings/General/Privacy) and disable share analytics with developers and improve dictation there.

This last part also solved a longstanding issue for me with the apple tv since tvOS 15.0 where some content would start ultra pixelated and you had to restarted it several times until it finally showed it up in maximum quality (my apple tv 4K is hardwired).

Thats it.

Boom.

Blazing fast homekit.

Blazing fast Siri responses, in general.

But the weirdest thing ever, the sound is cleaner, crispier, the bass is not muddy anymore. What the hell?.

Nevertheless, I´m happy. Give it a try and let me know.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Just done that on mine but still the same sack of **** unfortunately. This applies to my Philips Hue scenes, contact sensors, SOMA Smart blinds et cetera

I never had the muddy audio issues though so can’t replicate that anyway.

Glad it seems to have resolved it for you. Out of interest, what HomeKit devices are you testing which are now responding immediately which didn’t before?

 

[B/D]

Just done that on mine but still the same sack of **** unfortunately. This applies to my Philips Hue scenes, contact sensors, SOMA Smart blinds et cetera

I never had the muddy audio issues though so can’t replicate that anyway.

Glad it seems to have resolved it for you. Out of interest, what HomeKit devices are you testing which are now responding immediately which didn’t before?

If you have an Apple TV in the same network, turn off the toggles there too.

Smart lights mainly. Philips Hue, I believe (I would have to ask my wife ?).

Keep in mind that Siri was doing really crazy things with Homepods. Not only being slow setting scenes or no responding, but doing other things all together. For example, I if asked it to set "movie night", she would tell me the weather.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Yup did my ATV. I’m still getting: on it, just a sec, your devices are not responding (even though they do) as always.

I’ve also noticed with the latest development betas that I can no longer set my curtains via Siri on any device to a percentage open or closed. So for example, I will say Close Bedroom Curtains 50% but they will close all the way. However I’m hoping this is just a development beta bug because it’s happening on every device. I can control them properly via the home app though. And God knows why dictation which I’m using for this post added capital letters to the Close Bedroom Curtains 50% command just like it there. Jesus Christ Siri is ****.

 

[B/D]

Yup did my ATV. I’m still getting: on it, just a sec, your devices are not responding (even though they do) as always.

I’ve also noticed with the latest development betas that I can no longer set my curtains via Siri on any device to a percentage open or closed. So for example, I will say Close Bedroom Curtains 50% but they will close all the way. However I’m hoping this is just a development beta bug because it’s happening on every device. I can control them properly via the home app though. And God knows why dictation which I’m using for this post added capital letters to the Close Bedroom Curtains 50% command just like it there. Jesus Christ Siri is ****.

Damn it.

I swear to God I asked Siri once to close the curtains and she answered telling me the population of Turkey.

True story.

 

[christianji]

I cant believe it, I just can´t.

...

Blazing fast homekit.

Blazing fast Siri responses, in general.

But the weirdest thing ever, the sound is cleaner, crispier, the bass is not muddy anymore. What the hell?.

Nevertheless, I´m happy. Give it a try and let me know.

Gone through your suggested settings. Can not find a difference to before, but in my case it improved magically by itself a few days ago. What I observe is that setting scenes has not improved that much (Siri often complains or comments), but controlling devices directly is quick in 90% of attempts I'd say.