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HomePod OG Homepods popping epidemic
- Thread starter andreyush
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Yes, there is a new thread about this on reddit almost daily now. Its crazy. It seems it has been reported to Apple and this specific type of popping (there are other kinds) is software related, not hardware.
A new RC version of IOS 15.1 have just been released right now. Perhaps another is available for audioOS as well, to solve the popping issue on the Homepods.
A new RC version of IOS 15.1 have just been released right now. Perhaps another is available for audioOS as well, to solve the popping issue on the Homepods.
I really hope the recent complaints are due to software, but I doubt it. I have 9 OGs, all on the latest OS, none of them are popping. If it is software, I can't explain why I'm not experiencing the same trouble when all of mine are up to date.
I suspect in most cases, it's hardware and more may start failing as they age. We may be seeing complaints rise as units hit the 2-3 year mark, that's all.
So far, I've lost one out of my nine OGs to hardware failure (Popping), but that was many months ago and I bought AppleCare on all of them so the failed unit was replaced free of charge. I think they had a production run of about a year so if there was a fundamental hardware flaw and it went undetected the entire time, any replacements sent out are likely to also have the same potential for failure.
Given that, I think I'll be buying Sonos for my whole house audio if I lose more OGs once the AC+ coverage ends.
I suspect in most cases, it's hardware and more may start failing as they age. We may be seeing complaints rise as units hit the 2-3 year mark, that's all.
So far, I've lost one out of my nine OGs to hardware failure (Popping), but that was many months ago and I bought AppleCare on all of them so the failed unit was replaced free of charge. I think they had a production run of about a year so if there was a fundamental hardware flaw and it went undetected the entire time, any replacements sent out are likely to also have the same potential for failure.
Given that, I think I'll be buying Sonos for my whole house audio if I lose more OGs once the AC+ coverage ends.
Man this is so sad. Homepod is one of my favourite Apple products ever. But I don’t want to waste £280 for a product that will die in max 3 years.
Apple wants to remove the OG HomePods from existence and breaking them slowly, one by one via each software updates. Can’t do too many at once or it will look too obvious.
That’s my take. No I don’t have proof. Just a conspiracy theory lol.
That’s my take. No I don’t have proof. Just a conspiracy theory lol.
Huge if true.
Jokes aside I m curious if there was just a bad batch or it will happen to every homepod.
A guy on reddit said that from 19 homepods 7 failed. Scary.
I bought 2 original HomePods in 2020. Just after the 12 month warranty ran out, one of them started popping. I called Apple and they said sorry out of warranty. Since then the popping has progressed to a full volume roaring sound, like a car engine with no muffler. Again, Apple told me would be up to $300 to send in for repair.
Really sucks on an expensive device like this.
Really sucks on an expensive device like this.
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They only had one or two "batches" to begin with. From what I've seen here and on reddit, the serial numbers show production from late 2017 to mid 2018. Some produced by Foxconn, but the initial batch produced by Inventec. Having disassembled both units, the boards appear to be the same, so I'm sure it's all Rev. A (no mid production engineering changes)
I've got 5 in use right now, and they've been in use since May 2020. I have 4 in storage (3 brand new, sealed, and 1 replacement unit that I plugged in to update and verify it worked)
Currently 5 of my in use units are running audioOS 15, and I don't have any popping noises. I'm sure I'll be back in 2-3 years with at least 1 failed unit though.
The popping noise I'm hearing about (no pun intended) seems louder than the slight pop/click I heard and diagnosed in my YouTube video called "HomePod Popping Noise Diagnosis.
I'd love for it to be a software issue, but I doubt it. I would hope Apple offers an extended service program, but it's gonna need to cover units for more than 3 years from date of purchase. Try 5-7 years from date of purchase. Even with that in place, unless Timmy boy orders another production run of original HomePods with revised hardware (unlikely) the replacement units will fail as well. Perhaps they'll just offer a refund?
Yep. I bought two the day of the discontinuation announcement. One from Apple and one from Best Buy. Both had a 2018 date on them and both were the last ones in stock at the respective stores.
VERY frustrating. I already lost one of the originals just very slightly after a year so they wanted me to pay to buy a new one! And that price was MORE than i originally got it for since i got all my large ones from best buy for 199 (and some with additional gift cards!
now i get popping at times on at the other ones.
now i get popping at times on at the other ones.
Took one of my HomePod Stereo pair into Apple Australia (Doncaster) today after ~5 months of the loud feedback/popping noise about every couple of weeks (more on one than the other).
Given its an original it’s nearly 4 years old - so Apples response is it not repairable - its a replacement at my cost. I stated that I had a reasonable expectation that the product that cost about AU$500 should work more than 4 years.
Had a discussion about reasonable expectation of the product to function under Australian Consumer Law - but the store staff they cannot help and to talk to customer support.
I cannot help feeling that a design issue in the HomePod is not being acknowledged and the consumer is being forced to navigate multiple levels of apple bureaucracy in order to receive a fair outcome (I’d be very interested in seeing if anyone did get a HomePod swap repair for the loud popping/reset issue after navigating apple support for an outer of apple warranty HomePod).
Come on apple - step up and take responsibility , the original homepod has a design issue that causes premature failure - its reasonable to assume the product which sits still on a surface with minimal user interaction should last 5 years + !! If you dont design for that - I’ll stop buying your products now ….
Given its an original it’s nearly 4 years old - so Apples response is it not repairable - its a replacement at my cost. I stated that I had a reasonable expectation that the product that cost about AU$500 should work more than 4 years.
Had a discussion about reasonable expectation of the product to function under Australian Consumer Law - but the store staff they cannot help and to talk to customer support.
I cannot help feeling that a design issue in the HomePod is not being acknowledged and the consumer is being forced to navigate multiple levels of apple bureaucracy in order to receive a fair outcome (I’d be very interested in seeing if anyone did get a HomePod swap repair for the loud popping/reset issue after navigating apple support for an outer of apple warranty HomePod).
Come on apple - step up and take responsibility , the original homepod has a design issue that causes premature failure - its reasonable to assume the product which sits still on a surface with minimal user interaction should last 5 years + !! If you dont design for that - I’ll stop buying your products now ….
I just unplugged two of my HomePods that were having this issue. One brought in 2018 the other in 2020. I have moved my Sonos Roam and Move in place of the two HomePods. Now my music doesn't randomly stop or Pop anymore. I'm hoping is a software issue and will be fixed so that I can use my hompeods again. I'm thinking about getting a mini and just using that for voice control and let the Sonos take care of the music. Which make me sad as an apple fan.
Just bought a Sonos Five this morning at WorstBuy. Much nicer and less bright/brittle sounding than the regular HomePod. I'm thinking of getting another Sonos Five for a stereo pair, and selling several original HomePods. I'll keep a few original ones around since they are still great speakers, but they will remain unplugged when not actually in use since Apple can't design a speaker properly.
Seems like an ideal solution is go go all out with Sonos, and get a few HomePod Minis for HomeKit and Siri. Apple has proven with HomePod that reliability and long lasting aren't their strengths. I'm convinced that the original HomePods were (unintentionally) designed to fail after a few years. Various weak spots. Randomly bricking with boot loops and flashing volume lights or random popping noises. Just because someone's launch day HomePod hasn't failed YET, I'm sure it will fail sooner than later. It will be interesting to see if the HomePod mini suffers from hardware issues in a few years as well.
Seems like an ideal solution is go go all out with Sonos, and get a few HomePod Minis for HomeKit and Siri. Apple has proven with HomePod that reliability and long lasting aren't their strengths. I'm convinced that the original HomePods were (unintentionally) designed to fail after a few years. Various weak spots. Randomly bricking with boot loops and flashing volume lights or random popping noises. Just because someone's launch day HomePod hasn't failed YET, I'm sure it will fail sooner than later. It will be interesting to see if the HomePod mini suffers from hardware issues in a few years as well.
I totally agree ! You literally took the words out of my mouth. I listed to a Sonos Five as well and the sound is amazing. I'm definitely going all Sonos from here on out. Hoping that Sonos brings Siri onto their speakers since I will still have a HomePod mini in the house. Only way I would go back to a bigger HomePod is if they have a display like the Echo Show.
I bought my HomePods in 2020 to use as dumb AirPlay speakers well before I thought of getting into smart home stuff. The Sonos Five doesn’t have any smart capabilities, but I think the Sonos One has Alexa and Google assistant. If Sonos did integrate Siri into their devices, it wouldn’t be stand alone, you’d still need a HomePod mini.
My ecoBee thermostats got a software update that brought Siri, but the Siri request is routed through a HomePod mini (won’t work with an Apple TV or original HomePod from what I’ve read apparently.. silly) I’m not sure Sonos would add Siri support unless it was standalone and supported on the actual Sonos device.
Apple can argue about the user privacy angle, and that allowing Siri processing to be done on non apple hardware could be a security issue, but after their CSAM disaster, I’m not sure I really take what they say about privacy as genuine, but they still do seem to care more than google and Amazon about privacy. ?♂️
just happened to one of mine. am running 15.1.1 on both. we were listening to some acoustic music in the kitchen & bedroom at around 30% volume. the kitchen one popped loudly enough that i could hear it from the hallway. my girlfriend then mentioned it had previously happened on the bedroom one too.
we've only had them around a year and a half and in all honesty don't use them too often. fortunately we have a two year warranty. given the breadth of the problem, it does sound like a design flaw, which at this stage apple must surely be aware of. hoping for an airpods pro or butterfly keyboard-style replacement program, probably in vain after its discontinuation.
it's a great shame as i absolutely love the way these speakers sound. i also have a mini coming for christmas. this makes me think twice about it: i might return it, and go with sonos. i did have a couple of sonos ones before, which were very good but i adored the homepod for its bass, which could plumb depths the sonos couldn't.
really disappointing!
we've only had them around a year and a half and in all honesty don't use them too often. fortunately we have a two year warranty. given the breadth of the problem, it does sound like a design flaw, which at this stage apple must surely be aware of. hoping for an airpods pro or butterfly keyboard-style replacement program, probably in vain after its discontinuation.
it's a great shame as i absolutely love the way these speakers sound. i also have a mini coming for christmas. this makes me think twice about it: i might return it, and go with sonos. i did have a couple of sonos ones before, which were very good but i adored the homepod for its bass, which could plumb depths the sonos couldn't.
really disappointing!
The Sonos One will put the HomePod mini to shame. The Sonos Five will put the regular HomePod to shame. Unfortunately the Sonos options are more expensive.
My view point on the HomePod mini is it's a cheap $99 smart speaker. If it starts popping after 3 years, that's $0.10/day, plus the power brick is handy for charging other USB-C devices anyway.
True, although the OG Homepod could sound quite a bit better than it does with a more neutral tuning/sound signature. It has the hardware to sound almost reference like, but its sounds merely decent because its "beats inspired" sound tuning (although there have been improvements in this regard since launch, there is still a long way to go).
Volume wise, though, the Sonos Five will always be superior.
I have the issue on my HomePod, but have been able to live with it by disabling Hey Siri. When Hey Siri is disabled, it only happens when I play music on the device, there's the initial pop on music start. And there's a pop around 30 mins after last play. I image the issue is within the hardware microphone, that is turned completely off with Hey Siri turned off, but is turned on (still without reacting to commands), when the HomePod is awakened to play music.
If this issue did not exist, I would be scouring the internet to purchase all of them as I love the product very much. Such a shame.
If this issue did not exist, I would be scouring the internet to purchase all of them as I love the product very much. Such a shame.