Some HomePod Owners Still Plagued With Setup Issues

[T-R-S]

I am an advanced user and I have found devices on the Apple Home App very buggy, while each of these dives work perfect with their own app it always seems to be flakey on the Apple Home App, maybe this is help bring attention that Apple needs to do serious work on Home App...

 

[xterratop]

I had the worst time getting mine to work but I was persistent and when the first tech support person wasn't able to figure it out, she handed the call to their senior lead who resolved it. I had the luxury to prove my point to him that it wasn't my Homepod that was the issue because I had the same problems with both Homepods and the same error codes. The issue was the two factor authentication was on. He had me turn it off, reset the Homepod, reboot my iPhone just in case, and it finally connected. I went through the setup process for the Homepod, heard a chime, then Siri started her introduction. We tested every feature from there and it worked fine. Then we setup the second Homepod and that worked fine too.

Like any tech support department, they have to report these workarounds into their database so that their entire team knows what to do when they have people face these same issues. I was fortunate having a good sense of IT processes and how things work based on previous job experience. But if your tech support person can't figure it out, tell them to send the call to their senior staff member- the more experienced ones that know their stuff. Best of luck to everyone having Homepod issues. Mine were resolved.

 

[Wilburx3]

its not I repeat the homepod having issues, its the stupid HomeKit, mines been broken with that error loading so weeks and apple can't fix it and cos my home app doesn't work I get that error on the homepod using my girlfriends Apple ID works fine so my iCloud has corrupted HomeKit and no way to reset it even apple can't so its useless I have left the page for 3 hours and no reset button shows so I have to return my homepod and go for sonos one, iOS 9 had a homekit reset button and iOS 10 and 11 they have removed it so its server side with your Apple ID its so annoying

Have this same problem with my wife's Home app. Been working on it with Apple Support for three weeks now and still not solved.

 

[dan9700]

Have this same problem with my wife's Home app. Been working on it with Apple Support for three weeks now and still not solved.

I know its a joke i spoke to apple again today and said look ive had the homepod for nearly a week and still cant use it its not fair and this has been 2 weeks with apple they have taken a log file and everything

 

[farewelwilliams]

Yes 100% of course I do.
But I'm not unrealistic.


If I go down to PC World today and buy a mouse, I'd expect it to work with and have drivers for Windows 10, Windows 8 (2012), and hopefully perhaps even windows 7 (2009) and that's going back many many years.

I'd not be stupid and expect it to work on Windows 95 or 98.

So as for Apple Products. Yes 100% I'd not expect a HomePod to work with an iPhone 1.
But it's ONLY a speaker to link and send music to. It's not 2018 cutting edge AI with a new form of interface/protocol.

I would fully expect something from Apple today, with at least work with versions of iOS from a few iPhone models ago.

mouse and smart speakers are entirely different things. one has existed for over a few decades and is critical to the function of a desktop operating system, the other is a relatively new and is an optional accessory.

Homepod has new features that rely on iOS 11's API. iOS 9 and iOS 10 devices may not even be able to support the new APIs like Airplay 2

 

[Lilok]

No issues with any of my HomePods.

Interesting...

 

[apolloa]

I’m glad to see you have consistency in your grammatical butchery of the English language...

Hmm not sure how??... perhaps if your such a grammer police expert you should explain?

 

[Fassteddie]

All these errors....

You’re holding it wrong people!

 

[passedpast]

I dropped my HomePod off at Fedex today after many complete breakdowns. Essentially she's a pretty speaker who sounds and looks great but sure is stupid. Siri lags even when asking her what the time is! She also did not want to play with my Apple TV --a problem with Airplay. I worked with apple support for two days on different occasions/episodes and they couldn't solve my issues. So back it goes to Apple and I'll reset my original Amazon Echo where it was bumped a few days ago by stupid Siri...

 

[willnpc]

AirPods was a home run. HomePod, not so much...

Homerun? i agree with you about the homepod but i think they look ridiculous, and there are models out there for cheaper that beat airpods in tests.., and they don't look ridiculous.. Ive only seen one pair out in the wild and people were making fun of him in the gym...But to each his own

 

[dannyyankou]

Homerun? i agree with you about the homepod but i think they look ridiculous, and there are models out there for cheaper that beat airpods in tests.., and they don't look ridiculous.. Ive only seen one pair out in the wild and people were making fun of him in the gym...But to each his own

Opposite situation here. I’m seeing a few pairs per week in public. Maybe it’s a regional thing, I don’t know.

 

[willnpc]

This overpriced, over hyped product is a total DUD and is worthy for select apple heritage fans and fanatics only.
Trade publication and consumer magazine reviews aside it has limitations, difficult setup for many (read in many blogs not just Mac Rumors), marginal sound quality (powerful yes but that does not constitute quality sound), beautiful yes but so what if the overall functionality is weak (Siri Flaws, Home and connection obstacles etc). I could go on but whats the point as Apple fans will purchase and love it however many if not most clear thinking people will roll their eyes and move on to another better suited choice. Final analysis: Possible but not guaranteed win for the Apple stockholders/board members and lets not forget being held hostage to upgrade to the latest iOS build (lags and all) and last it could very easily be considered "indentured slavery" to the Apple Ecosystem.
As an Apple loyalist and enthusiast I very much wanted to buy and love this product but it just does not cut it especially at the offered price point.

Very well said

 

[Norwegian_Imposter]

I want to buy one, but if I cannot set it up on my university's network (enterprise) then there's no point.

Might be an issue. Get it and try and if not return it?

 

[DeeEss]

The Apple Home Pod is a great disappointment.

Average sounding audio quality and not nearly loud enough.

Sending it back - another Apple failure.

 

[EDiTOR9]

...
Sounds to me like you may have an internal home networking issue? Does Siri work quickly from your phone over Wifi?

Yes, it does. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Shirasaki]

HomePod also requires both two-factor authentication and iCloud Keychain to be turned on.

There is no chance for me to use 2FA ever. 2FA is plague. It’s Cancer of my iOS ecosystem.
My only hope is HomeKit does not force 2FA. If so, I need to find alternatives.

We need a disagree button.

I miss that one too. There used to be one but gone later on.
[doublepost=1518935481][/doublepost]

This raises another question about HomePod I hadn't thought about before. Normally one buys a speaker and uses it until it blows outs. Used properly speakers can last decades. They don't really wear out unless they are misused. But HomePod requires software. We've seen how Harmony has intentionally bricked remotes because they don't want to support them. I have an old 802.11n Airport Express that is no longer supported by Apple even though it works fine. I wanted to turn it into an Airplay receiver but I couldn't with current Apple software. Thankfully some soul made a workaround so I could configure it and not have to toss it in the landfill.

So what about HomePod in this regard. Apple usually doesn't support products after 7 years. This otherwise perfectly good speaker will go in the trash in 7 years. Seems wasteful. I mean if it had an external "in" jack even if Apple did want to support wireless after 7 years it could be used as a standard speaker. But as designed it can't.

What’s more ironic is Apple touts itself as an environmentally friendly Corp. . Being environmentally friendly means products should last as long as possible to reduce the landfill. Guess Apple does not have environment in mind anymore.

 

[applezulu]

There is no chance for me to use 2FA ever. 2FA is plague. It’s Cancer of my iOS ecosystem.
My only hope is HomeKit does not force 2FA. If so, I need to find alternatives.

I miss that one too. There used to be one but gone later on.
[doublepost=1518935481][/doublepost]
What’s more ironic is Apple touts itself as an environmentally friendly Corp. . Being environmentally friendly means products should last as long as possible to reduce the landfill. Guess Apple does not have environment in mind anymore.

If you look at the “ifixit” tear down video, although they fuss about it being difficult to take the HomePod all the way apart, it actually looks pretty easy to get to and extract the board with the processor from the bottom of the unit. They also note that the thing is stoutly constructed, and so probably not likely to break down any time soon. Seems that if some future updates down the road require more powerful computational hardware, it wouldn’t be that difficult to have that part swapped out for the upgrade. Chances are, however, that OS updates for the HomePod are not even going to require hardware updates at anything near the refresh rate of iPhones. HomePod speakers, microphones, sensors, etc, are already pretty much what they’ll need to be for the foreseeable future. Siri upgrades mostly happen out there in the cloud somewhere, so those improvements can continue apace with no need to replace hardware. So ultimately, I don’t think HomePods are conceived as short lived disposable items that will pose an environmental concern.

 

[sofila]

Hmm not sure how??... perhaps if your such a grammer police expert you should explain?

It's -> its, I guess

 

[maflynn]

I guess I'm fortunate that the setup of mine was seamless and problem free. Too bad that so many others had issue

 

[apolloa]

It's -> its, I guess

Possibly I guess??

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/it's
[doublepost=1519151368][/doublepost]On a side note I was in the Apple store at the weekend and every 5 seconds the staff were blaring music out, it was nearly drowning out the noisy crowds in the store! It is a small thing I’ll give it that, sounded alright but but haes to tell in the store.

I thought the iMac Pro looked cool, which is a worry haha!

 

[boberonicus]

My Homepod is working fine and I like the sound quality. But I have a small problem. My iPhone and my Homepod are often in the same room together. If I tell my iPhone, "Hey Siri, call my wife on Facetime" the Homepod will respond that it's unable to do this. Thoughts, other than "disable Hey Siri" would be appreciated.

 

[boberonicus]

Found a reasonable workaround here, which is to "raise" the iPhone first. Just seems like the protocol could be a bit smarter. The two devices communicate with each other over Bluetooth, so if device "B" hears a request and decides that only device "A" has the capability, a hand-off should occur.

 

[bferrell]

Mine works fine for music, but keeps saying Homekit devices are unreachable. If i unplug the homepod and force my AppleTv to be the Homekit hub everything works fine. Annoying.