HomePod Stereo pair audio sync issue has returned

[Matt T]

I have a stereo pair of HomePod minis. I bought them in early 2021 not long after they were first released, so they were running v14 of the HomePod OS and initially worked very well. Then in the late v14 or early v15 update cycle (late 2021 or early 2022, approximately) a bug was introduced which caused two major audio playback issues:

1. Music playback would gradually get out of sync between the pair, so after about an hour or so of playback one speaker would be 0.5-1s behind the other. Pausing and resuming playback would fix the issue but it would return after another hour or so.
2. When listening to an album or playlist, when one song ends and the next begins, about 1-2 seconds of the middle of the next track would play before the track began playing from the start.

I also noticed a general performance regression together with these bugs. For example when I first got the HomePod minis playback controls would reliably apprear automatically on my iPhone's lock screen, but this became less reliable over time and stopped altogether sometime after these bugs first began.

These bugs were finally fixed with the release of v17.0 and I also noticed an improvement in their performance and playback control reliability - but today I installed v17.4 and the first bug (music playback out of sync) has returned. I suspect I'll notice the second bug again soon but I haven't had enough time with them since the update to notice it yet.

I have reset them both and set them up again, which made no difference. I have opened multiple support cases with Apple which went nowhere. This is infuriating because presumably a problem was found and fixed but has now returned. I don't know what to expect from this post because this is a software bug, it can't be fixed with anything other than a software update, so a doubt there is any advice anybody can offer to help. But surely there must be a way to contact somebody on the HomePod dev team to report this? Or are we forever screaming into the void when it comes to these things?

 

[Itinj24]

These things have been buggy nightmares for years, including the full sized ones. People will adamantly swear that it’s your WiFi, even though they were operating fine before an update and everything else on the network is working fine. That said, have you tried rebooting your router?

If all else fails, I supposed a Masters in network engineering from MIT wouldn’t hurt.

Anyways, I feel your pain. Worst product ever put out by Apple.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Because Airplay is dog **** for anything other than short bursts. Cool in theory but would never want display or audio to utilize it because it will have sync issues or disconnect overtime guaranteed.

 

[iSuzan]

Are you using 2,4 ghz and 5 ghz with one SSID?

I had the problem a few times that my WLAN restarted and then one of the HP was then connected to the 5 ghz band the other to the 2,4 ghz band. And that caused all kinds of trouble. Especially they were not in sync.
Check if your Homepods are all in the same ghz band.

 

[Itinj24]

Are you using 2,4 ghz and 5 ghz with one SSID?

I had the problem a few times that my WLAN restarted and then one of the HP was then connected to the 5 ghz band the other to the 2,4 ghz band. And that caused all kinds of trouble. Especially they were not in sync.
Check if your Homepods are all in the same ghz band.

Coming from eero, I’m in the middle of installing a UniFi system in my house with a bunch of hardwired AP’s and it lets you lock clients to a specific AP. Gonna see if it works. Installing specific AP’s close to the HomePods and locking them to it. Mind you I’m spending all this time and money just to try to get HomePods to work properly. Eero was sufficient for everything but the HomePods lol.

 

[Tmm66]

Coming from eero, I’m in the middle of installing a UniFi system in my house with a bunch of hardwired AP’s and it lets you lock clients to a specific AP. Gonna see if it works. Installing specific AP’s close to the HomePods and locking them to it. Mind you I’m spending all this time and money just to try to get HomePods to work properly. Eero was sufficient for everything but the HomePods lol.

Looking for insight -

iOT added the the home (while adding HomePod minis

Entire cluster circle of homepods is a audio fail -

Any notes ?

Symptom
Audio drops out , audio gets out of sync,
Restarting HomePods mini or classics - no changes -

Network has home hub (cameras and IOT smart devices 30 -+) the farther IOT engaged the worse homepods act up.

 

[Itinj24]

Looking for insight -

iOT added the the home (while adding HomePod minis

Entire cluster circle of homepods is a audio fail -

Any notes ?

Symptom
Audio drops out , audio gets out of sync,
Restarting HomePods mini or classics - no changes -

Network has home hub (cameras and IOT smart devices 30 -+) the farther IOT engaged the worse homepods act up.

First off, what are you using for your networking/WiFi gear?

I have 19 HomePods in total, mix of OGs and Minis, some solo some in stereo pairs and mostly all but a couple connected to an AppleTV. They’re sprinkled throughout a 4,500 sq/ft house with 5 split type levels. I’ve not encountered a single issue with the UniFi system, other than the occasional stupidity from Siri which is to be expected. Airplay2 to all of them is smooth and in sync. No dropouts. As mentioned previously, with UniFi, I’m able to lock any WiFi client to any access point in the house. With eero, not possible and I noticed some HomePods would connect to an eero node on the other side of the house. I have 150+ HomeKit devices, 80 something of which are in WiFi. I got nowhere near this level of performance with eero.

 

[Tmm66]

First off, what are you using for your networking/WiFi gear?

I have 19 HomePods in total, mix of OGs and Minis, some solo some in stereo pairs and mostly all but a couple connected to an AppleTV. They’re sprinkled throughout a 4,500 sq/ft house with 5 split type levels. I’ve not encountered a single issue with the UniFi system, other than the occasional stupidity from Siri which is to be expected. Airplay2 to all of them is smooth and in sync. No dropouts. As mentioned previously, with UniFi, I’m able to lock any WiFi client to any access point in the house. With eero, not possible and I noticed some HomePods would connect to an eero node on the other side of the house. I have 150+ HomeKit devices, 80 something of which are in WiFi. I got nowhere near this level of performance with eero.

Thanks for the reply -

Router Orbi Rbr 20 Mesh system -
Up and down speeds are good 600down 20up local 2.4 / 5g combo

Do you see the mismatch audio as a hompod or network dropouts issue?
HomePods are the ONLY item with symptoms - but cameras sometimes fail to catch events (may be a separate issue)?

To move to a new networking scenario it would need to be compelling -As in segmentation - of IOT from other data rich devices with Content-

 

[Itinj24]

Thanks for the reply -

Router Orbi Rbr 20 Mesh system -
Up and down speeds are good 600down 20up local 2.4 / 5g combo

Do you see the mismatch audio as a hompod or network dropouts issue?
HomePods are the ONLY item with symptoms - but cameras sometimes fail to catch events (may be a separate issue)?

To move to a new networking scenario it would need to be compelling -As in segmentation - of IOT from other data rich devices with Content-

Are you getting those speeds everywhere, especially where the HomePods are? Also, are the Orbi nodes hardwired or running off of WiFi and lastly, where are the HomePods in relation to the Orbi node they’re connected to? If the HomePod is connected to an Orbi on the other side of your home, I suspect it will give you issues. I ran into those issues with eero.

UniFi is a networking geek’s dream. Yes, you can segment IOT from personal devices.