HomePod Users Complain of Sudden Failures, Could Be Linked to 14.6 and 15 Updates

[Nicole1980]

I have no complaints with them. That is what is lost on you.

I don't even have a problem with your argument -- but judging people for their purchases is just stupid and shortsighted. I could go off on you for thousands fo words on having kids in this world.....but again, I'm a sentient being -- I have empathy for less intelligent beings.

The extra irony here I think is that if I were to guess .. on various other things where opinion comes into play big time, politics-the environment-abortion rights ... you name it - I wouldn’t be surprised if you and I agreed on most or all of them

 

[albebaubles]

The extra irony here I think is that if I were to guess .. on various other things where opinion comes into play big time, politics-the environment-abortion rights ... you name it - I wouldn’t be surprised if you and I agreed on most or all of them

I suspect that is true. Point is everyone thinks everyone else is a 'dork' in some way - its nearly impossible to understand all the various ways people live their lives....yeah, lot of iPods -- not a dork. Excessive? perhaps, but so it owning any vehicle over xxx or houses with square footage about xxx.

 

[Nicole1980]

I suspect that is true. Point is everyone thinks everyone else is a 'dork' in some way - its nearly impossible to understand all the various ways people live their lives....yeah, lot of iPods -- not a dork. Excessive? perhaps, but so it owning any vehicle over xxx or houses with square footage about xxx.

And it’s not about judging all people by their purchases, but in some cases it’s comical, and warrants a little ribbing. The dork who buys 19 HomePods is asking for it. Just like the 300 pound rich lady who spends $500 a month getting her hair done but can’t be bothered to go to a gym .
I mean, if you’re saying no one can call out stupid when they see it, then life would be a lot less interesting.

 

[WaterOz]

Well... this escalated quickly.

 

[Nicole1980]

Well... this escalated quickly.

Nah ablebaubles and I are cool. We just are expressing ourselves. All good healthy open dialog!

 

[FriendlyMackle]

Just through Facebook marketplace, but I've had next to no interest in them there. Thought maybe they'd sell because there are hardly any even for sale on marketplace, but no go. Granted, I've focussed more on the shipping end on there rather than local. I may try changing that up and see.

Dumb ebay... I have to sell them for at least $405 plus shipping on Ebay to even break even on my cost on them (and that's me making 0. Dumb). Should've looked up fees before I purchased to sell; I was thinking if I sold them for $425 that I'd end up making at least $50. Not so much. Oh well, expensive lesson. Eventually I'll get them sold.

And also... sorry to hijack the convo on the forums about my selling woes!

All that to say - from my experience with just 1 of them, it looks like if you can just set up the problematic ones as standalone units (even on 14.6) they seem to work just fine. Stereo pair and/or connect it to a new Apple TV... not so much. At least in my case study of 1, which is not a scientific case study by any means.

My advice would be to hold on to them until they become difficult to obtain again, which they will (after all, no more HomePods are being manufactured). I'm still so unhappy that they discontinued the product, I love my 2 HomePods.Then once they've become hard to find again in a few months, sell them and hopefully you'll be able to earn something on your investment.

And, after starting reading this thread earlier this past week, I checked mine and of course they're already 'upgraded' to 14.6...so there's nothing I can do really to stop any potential problems, other than not use them (and I don't want to unpair them). Though, someone's advice earlier in the thread to deselect all 'Siri' and on-HomePod activities in the settings may prove useful. So far, mine are still working, though they are a stereo pair, I really only use them to AirPlay stream from either my iPhone or iPad(s). Which, I learned on reddit, may be another thing that helps keep them functional - only using them via AirPlay. Basically, keeping all intensive processor activity OFF of the HomePod.

 

[B/D]

Nah ablebaubles and I are cool. We just are expressing ourselves. All good healthy open dialog!

I hope we are cool as well. Or shall I bring 19 guns to our duel?.

 

[B/D]

the 19 homepods were not for the guy alone, but for his whole family. I think thats an important point.

 

[Eric Idle]

Lol ok. Why on earth would I make that up? But whaaaaaaatevvvvver pal.

The internet is full of incoherent posts.

 

[DMG35]

The internet is full of incoherent posts.

Gotcha. Thank you for your excellent posts.

 

[hippyeverafter]

Mine is the exact same, always the left one that decides to break down and the restart fixes it! phew !

Ditto, My left HomePod Mini stopped responding this morning, tried a restart but eventually reset both and as it is a relatively easy process does not take long. Modern Apple technology EH! ( Not just confined to Apple I must say ).

 

[ValentinStRoch]

Since my two HomePods updated automatically to 14.6 the automations that I have set up for them to turn on and off when arrive and leave have stopped functioning. Asking Siri to play the radio station that I play daily on them says that it can't be found, although I can play it fine on my iPhone 11 Plus and M1 MacBook Pro.

Airplaying anything from the Music app on my M1 MacBook Pro (running Big Sur) works only for a a few moments and then stops although the Music app still thinks that it is playing because the square Stop icon appears, and the Homepods +/- indicates remain illuminated. I feel like this may be an issue with the Music app running Big Sur on M1 MacBook Pro. The app frequently can't find find items that in my Apple Music library, and searching Apple Music (not my library) frequently returns errors.

 

[Topfry]

I dunno if anyone feels the same, but the whole HomePod experience has become a massive disappointment. I naturally buy things with an expectation of eventual failure, but I would hope I could get 5-10 years from a static device Like a speaker, if not only because of a perception of trust in Apple as a brand, and I suppose it’s still possible that might happen. But there are a lot of red flags recently. The device itself has been superlative; really pleased with its performance to date, and I happily bought in to the streaming experience, but the discontinuation of OG homepods after only a couple of years was a blow. I wasnt happy with the a8 at the time of release, and although it’s not confirmed as the culprit, I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s behind all these recent logic board failures due to the extra data being pushed through an ageing processor. My own stereo pair have been running warm recently, like a lot of others, and that hasn’t happened before, so they are basically off until there’s an update (since we are basically left out in the cold if they fail). I would not be happy if a £600 investment in any product lasted two years, and that period seems to be relatively common for hp failures. I guess in the bigger picture, it’s not a big deal, but I think Apple needs to address this, for me at least it’s corrosive to the Apple brand.

 

[Eric Idle]

I dunno if anyone feels the same, but the whole HomePod experience has become a massive disappointment. I naturally buy things with an expectation of eventual failure, but I would hope I could get 5-10 years from a static device Like a speaker, if not only because of a perception of trust in Apple as a brand, and I suppose it’s still possible that might happen. But there are a lot of red flags recently. The device itself has been superlative; really pleased with its performance to date, and I happily bought in to the streaming experience, but the discontinuation of OG homepods after only a couple of years was a blow. I wasnt happy with the a8 at the time of release, and although it’s not confirmed as the culprit, I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s behind all these recent logic board failures due to the extra data being pushed through an ageing processor. My own stereo pair have been running warm recently, like a lot of others, and that hasn’t happened before, so they are basically off until there’s an update (since we are basically left out in the cold if they fail). I would not be happy if a £600 investment in any product lasted two years, and that period seems to be relatively common for hp failures. I guess in the bigger picture, it’s not a big deal, but I think Apple needs to address this, for me at least it’s corrosive to the Apple brand.

I agree. My 12 inch Macbook died on me after 3 years (not repairable) and my last iMac died on me also at 3 years. My Macs before that lasted 9 and 10 years. Apple quality has really done down hard and has really lessoned my appreciation for the brand.

 

[cjbryce]

I dunno if anyone feels the same, but the whole HomePod experience has become a massive disappointment. I naturally buy things with an expectation of eventual failure, but I would hope I could get 5-10 years from a static device Like a speaker, if not only because of a perception of trust in Apple as a brand, and I suppose it’s still possible that might happen. But there are a lot of red flags recently. The device itself has been superlative; really pleased with its performance to date, and I happily bought in to the streaming experience, but the discontinuation of OG homepods after only a couple of years was a blow. I wasnt happy with the a8 at the time of release, and although it’s not confirmed as the culprit, I’m beginning to wonder whether it’s behind all these recent logic board failures due to the extra data being pushed through an ageing processor. My own stereo pair have been running warm recently, like a lot of others, and that hasn’t happened before, so they are basically off until there’s an update (since we are basically left out in the cold if they fail). I would not be happy if a £600 investment in any product lasted two years, and that period seems to be relatively common for hp failures. I guess in the bigger picture, it’s not a big deal, but I think Apple needs to address this, for me at least it’s corrosive to the Apple brand.

I fully agree. Apple may well have a problem with OG HomePod, and unless they deal with it effectively then in the UK and Europe, where we seem to have stronger consumer protection laws than the US, they could well end up having to buy back the entire stock.

Here in the UK, the Sale of Goods act affords consumers “reasonable lifetime” from goods - which varies from item to item but is not prescribed - so there’s a good chance that for an item like HomePod a court would take the view that three years was inadequate lifetime.

 

[Topfry]

I fully agree. Apple may well have a problem with OG HomePod, and unless they deal with it effectively then in the UK and Europe, where we seem to have stronger consumer protection laws than the US, they could well end up having to buy back the entire stock.

Here in the UK, the Sale of Goods act affords consumers “reasonable lifetime” from goods - which varies from item to item but is not prescribed - so there’s a good chance that for an item like HomePod a court would take the view that three years was inadequate lifetime.

And definitely Im bearing that in mind, (and wouldnt think twice about small claims court). Its also not just the hardware side, but the lack of commitment which has been suprising. Yes, theyll support it ( to a fine point) but focussing on the mini as an audio market offering, is not the same as the original pitch for quality streaming first, assistant second. Surely its pulling the rug away from apple music, too?!?
I think the eol of og homepods was abrupt and poor judgement.
(I was planning on an iphone and replacing my imac come september, but honestly im a bit hmm atm…
Especially where you have apple lawyers threatening to pull out of the uk as leverage)

 

[MacRumorUser78]

https://www.tomsguide.com/news/ios13-bricks-apple-homepod That's iOS 13. Found the article searching to see if the problem has been fixed or if it's just bad luck. AFAIK the problem seems worse for 15 beta and stereo pairs. But I didn't find any follow-ups.

 

[boswald]

Hello everybody.

Just found this: disabling intercom and "tap to use Siri" is enough to cool down your Homepod.


Experimenting, I have found this. No need to disable Siri itself, just these two things. Worked with my original homepods stereo pair, and with my single mini in the kitchen. All of them were alarmingly hot today (to the touch), and this setting change brought them to normal in about a couple of minutes.

I’ve had Siri and Intercom disabled since day one, and I noticed mine weren’t getting hot with 14.6. I still unplugged them, but that’s an interesting theory.

 

[boswald]

I fully agree. Apple may well have a problem with OG HomePod, and unless they deal with it effectively then in the UK and Europe, where we seem to have stronger consumer protection laws than the US, they could well end up having to buy back the entire stock.

Here in the UK, the Sale of Goods act affords consumers “reasonable lifetime” from goods - which varies from item to item but is not prescribed - so there’s a good chance that for an item like HomePod a court would take the view that three years was inadequate lifetime.

As an American, I envy Europe’s stance on this (and many other things).

 

[9512tacoma]

I’ve had Siri and Intercom disabled since day one, and I noticed mine weren’t getting hot with 14.6. I still unplugged them, but that’s an interesting theory.

I can say turning off intercom made mine a little cooler but turning off Siri made then cool on 14.6. I disconnected the link to my Apple TV 4K also. I will wait for the next update to turn all that back on

 

[pumasalad]

i have 6 HomePods and 1 HomePod Mini. All of them failed with the upgrade to 14.7 from 14.6. They will play music, but they won't communicate with each other nor will they communicate with the Home app on the iPad, iPhone or the mac. The stereo pairs won't even communicate with each other, which means I'm stuck listening to what it will do over one speaker at a time, and I can't control it visually like I usually do from my iPad. sucks. I reset them all to factory this morning, and they are now all complaining that Peer to Peer networking isnt set up in my house. Mind you, I've been using these 6 homepods in this house for years. Several of them are the original batch of pre-order homepods before they were even shipping. The only change that broke everything was when they upgraded from 14.6 to 14.7. I'm at a loss of what to do now.

 

[Blowback]

i have 6 HomePods and 1 HomePod Mini. All of them failed with the upgrade to 14.7 from 14.6. They will play music, but they won't communicate with each other nor will they communicate with the Home app on the iPad, iPhone or the mac. The stereo pairs won't even communicate with each other, which means I'm stuck listening to what it will do over one speaker at a time, and I can't control it visually like I usually do from my iPad. sucks. I reset them all to factory this morning, and they are now all complaining that Peer to Peer networking isnt set up in my house. Mind you, I've been using these 6 homepods in this house for years. Several of them are the original batch of pre-order homepods before they were even shipping. The only change that broke everything was when they upgraded from 14.6 to 14.7. I'm at a loss of what to do now.

Wow. Sorry to hear this....will continue to keep my two originals unplugged. Please post any follow-up or solutions you may come up with...This whole HPod issue reminds me of the DolbyAtmos/Lossless 15sec and then stop playing issue: Apple does not seem to have acknowledged either! Please keep us all posted.

Off Topic for those with the 15 sec. / music cut-off issue; here is what I posted on the Apple Forums earlier today:

Wow. What a coincidence! Been having the same issue (always with Shazam downloads) and got off of the phone yesterday with two Apple techs and went to the park today and my problem appears to be solved! I also noticed that my problem seemed to occur in my car a lot but then noticed that when I 'disconnected' my iPhone from my cars stereo ...the problem went away. At the park my settings were:


Dolby Atmos: Automatic

Audio Quality: Lossless Audio 'ON'

Wi-Fi Streaming: Lossless....>ALAC up to 24bit/48 kHz

Downloads: Lossless .......> ALAC up to 24 bit/48 kHz

Also....under Music....'Allow Music to Access'......> Cellular Data 'OFF' ('ON' , when it worked once/twice before , was on of my gripes...who wants to have to use data to play music).

And: AirPods Pro.....> 'Spatial' set to 'On'

Hopes this helps. Also found out from the techs that some songs, downloaded from Shazam or otherwise, might not play because Apple Music has lost/never had rights or the artist pulled the song.....so , just because Shazam says it has downloaded a song doesn't mean it'll play!!? ! When this happens you may get a dialog box stating : 'Cannot Open...This content is not authorized' . If you get a 'Connect to Wi-Fi or Cellular to Play Music' dialog it means you haven't used Apple Music for that Song or Playlist in a while and simple have to re-download. Preferably using your home Wi-Fi. This was a gripe of mine with AM years ago but one of the technicians told me it's been 'fixed' provide you have 'Synch Library ' on in Music settings. Time will tell on this but I've gone back to putting a monthly reminder on my calendar to 'Dnld. Apple Music'.

Hope this helps as many as possible.

 

[bigsnake49]

One of my Homepods is bricked, running 14.6. The other one is running 14.7. I have no idea how one was updated and the other one was not. Where can I see whether they were set to update automatically? The one that was updated to 14.7 is having problems with Airplay but will play music on its own. WTF Apple!!! What an unmitigated disaster!

 

[Topfry]

One of my Homepods is bricked, running 14.6. The other one is running 14.7. I have no idea how one was updated and the other one was not. Where can I see whether they were set to update automatically? The one that was updated to 14.7 is having problems with Airplay but will play music on its own. WTF Apple!!! What an unmitigated disaster!

Ikr - sorry to hear about your hp - mine both still off until this is fixed. Have updated, reset completely twice and re-paired and still heat issues after 10 minutes of use. Theres frequent issues with the home app too. I have turned off control centre home control, siri and intercom which has mitigated somewhat, but still running uncomfortably warm…
I hope this gets fixed soon.

 

[bigsnake49]

Ikr - sorry to hear about your hp - mine both still off until this is fixed. Have updated, reset completely twice and re-paired and still heat issues after 10 minutes of use. Theres frequent issues with the home app too. I have turned off control centre home control, siri and intercom which has mitigated somewhat, but still running uncomfortably warm…
I hope this gets fixed soon.

Thanks, I have left feedback with Apple. I also let them know that I am due for an update of my Air and my iPhone but will hold off to see how they handle this. Don't make me go to the dark side, Apple.

They really need to cleanup the whole Home app, control center home app, Air Play because it is a total freaking mess. The most perplexing piece of the Apple ecosystem ever.