I had high hopes for the HomePod but after struggling with them for almost a year now I'm just tired of dealing with problems. They are constantly cutting out, refusing to control my home kit lights (when all my other devices work fine 100% of the time), airplay streaming with spotify doesn't work well, and they are just generally unreliable. Seems like it might be related to the stereo setup but I'm just disappointed. For a device that's supposed to just melt away and work seamlessly it just doesn't. I've already dealt with support for hours on end and I'm about to just ask for a refund or some other compensation.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
HomePod HomePods are generally an unreliable mess
- Thread starter cap7ainclu7ch
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have 4 homepods and have never had issues with any of them.
I have 2 HomePods been perfect for me and have been using HomeKit lights with them perfectly
I partially agree with the OP, but I don't sub to Apple Music which is HPod's reason for being or use Homekit. If I play my stored music from iTunes it works best. IMO using wifi interface and Siri control is a drawback to the great sounding speakers (I do stereo). For the bargain price I paid it's ok, but at retail price, I'd skip it.
I'd think after a year Apple would really improve and fix it, but for Apple music streaming I guess it works good enough in their eyes. I'd love a passive wired version.
I'd think after a year Apple would really improve and fix it, but for Apple music streaming I guess it works good enough in their eyes. I'd love a passive wired version.
I have two in a stereo pair. No problems at all. Very nice sound.
4 Homepods around the house, two of them paired up in a stereo config. Not a problem at all. Sorry your experience has not been the same.
Why didn’t you return it if you didn’t like it?
[doublepost=1543598743][/doublepost]I agree with what most have posted here. I now have 4 and all work perfectly with HomeKit and playing music. Occasionally Siri will have an issue hearing me but that seems to be a theme with the Echos I also have in other areas.
Both my homepods work perfectly with HomeKit. Siri doesn't always respond as well as Alexa but generally it’s all good
OP: It's your network integrity more than likely. After ditched all my crappy NetGear, Linksys, and etc crap and redoing my entire network with Unifi equipment, all those petty and marginal performance issues went away. Apps that worked sometimes, devices that did and didn't sync all now work just fine. If you aren't tech savvy, perhaps consider getting someone to help you. Most of the time the network is the problem.
They do seem to vary with the issues they have. However I have 2 in a stereo pair and have no issues, even with airplay.
I have one HomePod and don’t use it much but that’s me not it as I’m just not listening to music much right now. It does get used to control lights though and it’s generally fine with that; when it does fail, it’s my network which is always dropping out.
She doesn't always understand me but most of that is likely my fault. Overall the HomePod has been problem free and I couldn't disagree with the original poster more. I have 9 plugs and several lights HomePod is very responsive when I remember what I call them. Again that is more on me than the HomePod or Siri. I really like having 2 pair and being able to play both sets at the same time which brings music through-out my home.
I have a stereo pair and 3 singles in different rooms. They all seem to work fine walking from room to room and controlling lights, room scenes from any given one. I really enjoy being able to say "Hey Siri, play everywhere" and have all the HP's playing the same Christmas (or whatever) music. Over Thanksgiving, with a houseful of guests, it was really nice to be able to ask Siri turn on (Hue) lights in a particular upstairs guest room, as the guest was going up the stairway. It was equally nice to be able to have Siri turn off the lights in rooms where they were left on when someone went out for several hours.
Love the sound of mine but mostly use it to AirPlay music from my phone or imac because using Siri is just terrible. Most crucially HomePod seems to forget my Apple account so needs to be signed in from the Home app. Then, within minutes it forgets again. Like the OP said, a mess.
Sorry for not returning earlier haha. Not sure why I have so many issues with mine compared to most people. Ive tried so many solutions and have literally rebuild my network 3 times from the ground up now with different wireless settings to try to fix the problem. I've reset them countless times and have updated them, etc...I've also found a few reddit posts that describe people having the same problems I have regarding the phillips bulbs and home kit support. Same deal, works fine with every iOS device but the HomePods.
Not sure what to do at this point. Guess I'll call support again and see what they say. I wanted to love these things but I just have too many issues for something that should "just work". Makes me wish I invested in a better TV setup and just use my ATV for music streaming as well.
Also currently they won't EVEN PLAY MUSIC. I can airplay to them fine, but if I ask them to play music directly it will play for a few seconds and then stop (and then randomly start blasting music minutes or hours later). Literally unusable. So I went from airplay and home kit not working to direct apple music streaming failing. This is the kind of inconsistency and half-baked software I'm dealing with.
All devices are on a 2.4ghz network within 20 feet of a powerful modern router with all the setting optimized. All other devices on the network perform flawlessly. I'm decent when it comes to technology and troubleshooting but these things just WON'T work properly, and even the problems themselves aren't consistent. Reminds me of the terrible experience iOS11 was on release.
Edit:
link to Apple community thread on the music pausing issue:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8338707?page=6
Not sure what to do at this point. Guess I'll call support again and see what they say. I wanted to love these things but I just have too many issues for something that should "just work". Makes me wish I invested in a better TV setup and just use my ATV for music streaming as well.
Also currently they won't EVEN PLAY MUSIC. I can airplay to them fine, but if I ask them to play music directly it will play for a few seconds and then stop (and then randomly start blasting music minutes or hours later). Literally unusable. So I went from airplay and home kit not working to direct apple music streaming failing. This is the kind of inconsistency and half-baked software I'm dealing with.
All devices are on a 2.4ghz network within 20 feet of a powerful modern router with all the setting optimized. All other devices on the network perform flawlessly. I'm decent when it comes to technology and troubleshooting but these things just WON'T work properly, and even the problems themselves aren't consistent. Reminds me of the terrible experience iOS11 was on release.
Edit:
link to Apple community thread on the music pausing issue:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8338707?page=6
Last edited:
I just signed up here simply so I could say how terrible the HomePod is. It constantly drops the music. All I want it to do is play music. We subscribe to Apple Music. We have good WiFi. It just constantly drops the signal and interrupts the music. It can’t do the one thing I want it to do. I’ve had it three days. Back to the Apple store tomorrow
My pair have trouble switching sources, say from Beats1 radio to my Mac iTunes acct. I have to keep clicking AIrplay options on the Mac over and over. Sometimes closing iTunes seems to allow Homepod to see iTunes. I also get frequent notices to log into my iTunes acct when I am already logged in.
I get screen notices about my Apple Music acct and I am not a subscriber. Sometimes to get Beats 1 to play, I have to get my phone and open the Home app and choose play, works half the time. One time I came into the room early morning and the speakers were blasting. I had not intentionally turned them on. So much for voice control. It's glitchy. Not satisfying or seamless at all. Homepod operation feels out of control much of the time. As I said before, I do love the sound. give me a wired version with remote control...
I get screen notices about my Apple Music acct and I am not a subscriber. Sometimes to get Beats 1 to play, I have to get my phone and open the Home app and choose play, works half the time. One time I came into the room early morning and the speakers were blasting. I had not intentionally turned them on. So much for voice control. It's glitchy. Not satisfying or seamless at all. Homepod operation feels out of control much of the time. As I said before, I do love the sound. give me a wired version with remote control...
I don't doubt that you are having issues, but it sure sounds like an internet problem to me. You've swapped out all the networking stuff, so that is the only common denominator. I've been streaming slacker before with it playing in the background and it's stop playing, but that is something that the slacker app does even when playing without being connected to HomePod. However, in terms of asking my HomePod to play music I've simply not experience it pausing. We did a few month ago have a tornado that causes our internet to be crappy for about 3 days and it would stop playing, but my Apple TV would stop playing DirecTV now as well, so I knew it was the internet. It eventually resolved itself and no more issues with either one.
Hope you get it figured out!
As displayed by quite a few posters in this thread the HomePod generally does not have these issues. There is either a hardware issue with the HomePod in which case bringing it back for a new one would fix it most likely or there is an issue with your home network.