HomePod HomePod stops playing music from iTunes Windows

[phpmaven]

I have a really annoying issue when using my HomePod as a speaker from iTunes. It will just stop playing sound at random. When you into the place where you select the speakers to playback on, the HomePod will have a line through the checkbox. If I deselect it and click it again it will start playing sound again. If I stop the track and play again, it will start playing again.

Sometimes it will stop and then start up again at random. Has anyone else experienced this?

Again, I'm talking about using the HomePod as a second speaker from iTunes. I like to play music from iTunes through my PC sound system as well as the HomePod.

Thanks,

Mark

 

[waw74]

try rebooting your router, and any other network gear

the broadcast messages that airplay uses tend to confuse them sometimes.

 

[phpmaven]

try rebooting your router, and any other network gear

the broadcast messages that airplay uses tend to confuse them sometimes.

Sadly, that didn't fix the problem. What's weird is even if I do nothing it will stop working part way through a track but when the next track starts it will resume playing sound and then stop again part way through the next track. Rinse and repeat.

 

[H3ll3r]

I have the exact same problem! Playing audio through iTunes for Windows, on both the PC and Homepod: after a few seconds / minutes, the Homepod will stop playing, with the strange (-) checkbox sign besides; rechecking the checkbox resumes playback, until the next occurrence...

Were you able to find out what the issue might be?

 

[boltjames]

I have a really annoying issue when using my HomePod as a speaker from iTunes. It will just stop playing sound at random. When you into the place where you select the speakers to playback on, the HomePod will have a line through the checkbox. If I deselect it and click it again it will start playing sound again. If I stop the track and play again, it will start playing again.

Sometimes it will stop and then start up again at random. Has anyone else experienced this?

Again, I'm talking about using the HomePod as a second speaker from iTunes. I like to play music from iTunes through my PC sound system as well as the HomePod.

Thanks,

Mark

I had the same problem and then bit the bullet and joined Apple Music, not a single issue since then. Any reason you are resisting?

 

[dotme]

I have the exact same problem! Playing audio through iTunes for Windows, on both the PC and Homepod: after a few seconds / minutes, the Homepod will stop playing, with the strange (-) checkbox sign besides; rechecking the checkbox resumes playback, until the next occurrence...

Were you able to find out what the issue might be?

In my experience, the most common cause of this issue is WiFi congestion. When you Airplay to a HomePod, there's a fair bit of network chatter that takes place to synchronize playback with other Airplay targets, or in this case, your PC speakers, and that chatter is ongoing to keep them in sync. Any communication issue and the Airplay target can drop, with a "-" in the spot where a checkbox usually is in iTunes.

 

[phpmaven]

I had the same problem and then bit the bullet and joined Apple Music, not a single issue since then. Any reason you are resisting?

Well I have Apple Music I just like controlling my music from my computer because I’m a developer and I sit at my computer all day long. Of course I could just ask my homepod to play whatever, but don’t have a whole lot of control that way. I like to be able to browse and discover new music etc.… Even if it is on windows.

 

[boltjames]

Well I have Apple Music I just like controlling my music from my computer because I’m a developer and I sit at my computer all day long. Of course I could just ask my homepod to play whatever, but don’t have a whole lot of control that way. I like to be able to browse and discover new music etc.… Even if it is on windows.

I think you just answered your own question.

If you're coding over wi-fi and streaming Apple Music to that same notebook over wi-fi and in turn streaming from that notebook back out to the HomePod over wi-fi, that's a lot of bandwidth. I use Windows too, and iTunes for Windows is buggy, lags, and has had connectivity problems for me for a decade.

I use Apple TV as my hub, never a hiccup or a disconnect, it's got a 5.1 system wired to it and then AirPlay's over to 3 HomePod's in different rooms of the house. The only thing I use iTunes for Windows for is to a) upload my 1000's of rarities/boots/imports to Apple Music's cloud and b) stream my iPhone Home Movies to Apple TV. Other than that, I don't use it at all.

 

[pup]

Is your computer connected to your network via ethernet or wifi? If you're on ethernet, then make sure that your wifi router is in bridge mode rather than creating a subnet. Bonjour doesn't work well over subnets and so iTunes can lose the connection to the speaker. If that's your problem, then you'll definitely see better reliability, though iTunes and HomePods seem to have a tenuous relationship in general, so it can still be frustrating to keep the HomePod playing, or tell it to stop playing, or keep it in sync, or... My experience is that HomePods do seem to work better playing from iOS devices. But at the end of the day, you're playing to a buggy speaker from a buggy app over a buggy protocol.

 

[Inmate 0801]

I have had this same issue. 28 seconds into a track the sound stops followed by the "-" symbol next to the speaker in the list of connected devices. The sound comes back about 8 seconds from the end of the track and goes into the next song just to repeat the same. This does not happen 100% of the time but it is very common and the timing is always the same. You'll see in the attached picture all other Airplay devices are humming along. Only the office speaker has the "-" which is my Homepod. Much like phpmaven described, if I click on the minus the sound comes back only to go back out 28 seconds into another song.

I have no bandwidth issues (Link rate is 866 Mbps to the Homepod). I've reset the homepod multiple times, restarted router, computer, etc. I've even flashed the bios on the off chance that something weird was going on there. The issue persisted. I've talked to apple in store and on the phone. They act baffled like it's never once been reported but never went so far as to offer a replacement or repair.

I decided to try a brand new Homepod. It was on version 11.2.5 out of the box. After set up, I did not update it. Guess what...it played perfectly for over an hour. Unfortunately, it would not stay connected to the network when it was idle. I had to unplug it then plug it back in to get it to reconnect. I decided to update to 13.3.1 in hopes of correcting the connectivity issue and everything working fine with playback.

Two tracks into playing on 13.3.1 the infamous 28 second "-" symbol returned. The issue is with 13.3.1 (or a prior release).

My setup is iTunes streaming from PC to multiple Airplay compatible devices with an Orbi mesh network. Music is a mix of my own library as well as Apple Music. The music type playing has no bearing on the issue. I've recreated both ways. The only common factor is 13.3.1.

It's also important to note that I can play from my phone to the speaker with no issue. The problem here is that the speaker "takes over" the playlist. A bit after starting to play I can no longer skip or control from iTunes on my phone. I have to open the Home app to control the playback. This is with hand off to Homepod disabled. This is one issue I've not wasted time troubleshooting but thought I'd mention it.

Sorry for the long post but thought I'd share since others seem to be experiencing this same issue. Hope this helps someone and that the issue gets corrected in a future update.

 

[Luke Young]

Did you guys find out why?
Mine is also doing it from Itunes to Homepod, playing through pc speakers and homepod

 

[pup]

Did you guys find out why?

Like I said...

you're playing to a buggy speaker from a buggy app over a buggy protocol.

iTunes and HomePod seem to have a fairly fragile relationship. My ultimate solution was Sonos but I've found that iTunes --> AppleTV and iTunes --> Airport Express are both reliable over ethernet.

 

[boltjames]

Did you guys find out why?
Mine is also doing it from Itunes to Homepod, playing through pc speakers and homepod

pup said it best.

Time for you to upgrade your Wi-Fi, get an Apple Music subscription, and leave the world of iTunes and Airplay behind.

 

[shaddix]

Hey guys, this is happening because of a bug in iTunes. Apple adjusted the timeout for the TCP connection for the control functions on port 7000 for homepod and apple tv. iTunes is supposed to send a message every 30 seconds to keep that connection alive but sometimes it fails to do so. That's why you'll see the issue happen on the 30 second, 60 second, 90 second mark. You can work around it by changing the volume by a single pixel every 25 seconds.

Not really a bug I suppose, rather they updated homepod and appletv but failed to update iTunes airplay stack to account for the change.

See the last couple of posts here: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251214360?&page=4

 

[pup]

Interesting. I don't doubt that's true, but it's odd that I don't and have never encountered the same problem on AppleTV, even though I could never get my HomePod to play continuously. Getting the Apple TV to display the current song without flickering though...

 

[BerwynDead]

Some progress has been made on this issue. I wrote a small app that seems to work around the AirPlay TCP connectivity issues between Windows iTunes, HomePods & Apple TVs. Initial tests have been very positive. Shoot me a note at bryan dot kinkel at geee mail if you want to help test this out. Thanks!

 

[jlg89]

I'm seeing this behavior on my M1 Mac, in the Music app v1.2.1.40, on macOS 12.1. Streaming from the app to multiple AirPlay devices in my home, including an Apple TV 4k. My laptop and the Apple TV are hard-wired via GigE, so there's no WiFi or bandwidth issue. At the beginning of each song, the ATV plays for about 30s and then stops. This fits exactly with the issue mentioned by shaddix above, and the following AppleScript implements on macOS the same basic fix as BerwynDead's app for Windows.

on run
    repeat
    tell application "Music"
    set sound volume to (sound volume + 1)
    delay 2
    set sound volume to (sound volume - 1)
    end tell
    delay 25
    end repeat
end run

 

[jlg89]

Here's a better AppleScript. Save it as a "stay open" application, and run it whenever you're streaming from iTunes on the same machine as the script.

on run

end run

on idle
  tell application "Music"
    set sound volume to (sound volume + 1)
    delay 2
    set sound volume to (sound volume - 1)
  end tell
  return 25
end idle

on quit
  continue quit
end quit