HomePod Turn off or change music on Homepod Mini.

[romanof]

First off, let me say that I do not subscribe to Apple music, but, when I accidentally touch the top control on the Homepod Mini, it blares some cacophonous noise that I think is someone being waterboarded, although apparently Apple, by mistake, calls it music.

In the home app, I do not see any option to turn off the music, or change to something else, like the tiny music library on my phone. Or even change what is playing, wherever it is coming from. It has one option - Apple Music.

If the control is touched, rather than pressed to bring up the intercom feature, it instantly start playing, waking everyone in the house. Got to be a way to turn off that feature or change it to something softer.

Anybody?
Thanks.

 

[romanof]

Very strange. I start music on my phone, do all the clicking to make it play on the new Pod mini, and it transfers and plays just fine. Then, I stop the music with a touch on the top of the pod, go away for a while to do something else, then touch the pod again and it now starts playing the same clamorous junk from somewhere, rather than from my iPhone. And what it plays I certainly have not downloaded, listened to, or even want to be played within a thousand feet of my ears. Where on earth is it coming from?
Obviously, more testing is required.

Oh, and I have turned off every Apple product in the house just to make sure that one of them is not feeding the Pod. Nope.

 

[Nigel Goodman]

Well that would be Beats 1 I should think. It also certainly makes me jump whenever that happens after a HomePod reset for example.

I'm not sure how long it takes but when the iPhone stops airplaying to a HomePod, HomePod soon forgets about the iPhone and therefore reverts to whatever HomePod was playing prior to the airplay from the iPhone. Sorry, that's a bit convoluted - hope you can understand!

So whenever HomePod has forgotten about the iPhone and you touch the top it will play anything it was doing previously, in your case the "cacophonous noise" (of Beats 1 (probably)).

Do you have iTunes Match? because if so tell Siri on the HomePod to play something and that will then replace the other stuff.

 

[chabig]

In the home app, I do not see any option to turn off the music, or change to something else, like the tiny music library on my phone.

HomePod doesn't know about or play music from your phone. Likewise, the Home app is not a music source. You can, however, play music on your phone and send the output to the HomePod. And when HomePod is playing, you can pause and unpause it from the Home app.

 

[romanof]

Ok. Thanks everyone.
I have never played with music on a phone or pod or such. I have a full hifi setup of component gear fed by (now) a Mac Mini. And I am a classical guy with hundreds of GB in my Kodi library, so new music or such that you get off of streaming sites is of no interest. The HomePod minis are strictly for use as an intercom, and they work extremely well for that. Far better than any wireless junk that I have had before.

I would prefer a checkbox that says, "Never play music" but Apple is almost certainly not going to enable that, since they want everyone to stream their nois... music.

After some hacking I have pretty well figured out how the music integrates into the Apple stuff, except for exactly where the unwanted stream is coming. For now I have just showed everyone how to quickly tap off the stream if it is hit accidentally.

But. Even with it automatically playing from somewhere (Beats, huh?) there must be a way to select what is played. I doubt that anyone into today's music would just accept songs at random. But, as I said, since I have no subscription to anything, there is nowhere to go to select.

Got to be a selection point somewhere. Or not?

 

[chabig]

there must be a way to select what is played

There is. You use Siri on HomePod. Say "Hey Siri" and then make your music request.

 

[romanof]

There is. You use Siri on HomePod. Say "Hey Siri" and then make your music request.

Even with no subscription?

 

[chabig]

Even with no subscription?

Oh. I forgot you had no subscription. That's an interesting question now. Since the HomePod has no library of its own, I don't think it can control any music. Apple probably makes its default radio station (Beats 1?) free, and you probably can't do anything about that.

But if you don't tap the top of the HomePod it won't play music. So don't tap the top of the HomePod. Practice using Siri on the HomePod to send intercom messages. Or...if you really want to use touch, the gesture for Siri is touch and hold.

 

[waw74]

I would prefer a checkbox that says, "Never play music" but Apple is almost certainly not going to enable that, since they want everyone to stream their nois... music.

same here,
have a HomePod, Bought it when I had several airplay-1 speakers around the house, now all sonos excecpt for the HomePod, I never play music on it, although do have an apple music subscription

use it mainly for homekit control.

This conversation happens at least a couple times a week
"hey siri turn off the lights"
"there's nothing playing on this HomePod"


or other music related responses, I think if she doesn't understand you, she tries to make it about music.


the "Nothing playing" is my second most annoying repsone
the first is "who is speaking." There's no one else in my house expect for the cat, and Siri will still ask me that every so often.

 

[Madchemic39]

same here,
have a HomePod, Bought it when I had several airplay-1 speakers around the house, now all sonos excecpt for the HomePod, I never play music on it, although do have an apple music subscription

use it mainly for homekit control.

This conversation happens at least a couple times a week
"hey siri turn off the lights"
"there's nothing playing on this HomePod"


or other music related responses, I think if she doesn't understand you, she tries to make it about music.


the "Nothing playing" is my second most annoying repsone
the first is "who is speaking." There's no one else in my house expect for the cat, and Siri will still ask me that every so often.

Have you re-trained Siri?

 

[romanof]

Oh. I forgot you had no subscription. That's an interesting question now. Since the HomePod has no library of its own, I don't think it can control any music. Apple probably makes its default radio station (Beats 1?) free, and you probably can't do anything about that.

But if you don't tap the top of the HomePod it won't play music. So don't tap the top of the HomePod. Practice using Siri on the HomePod to send intercom messages. Or...if you really want to use touch, the gesture for Siri is touch and hold.

Well, you finally get used to it. The only problem now is that when someone reaches for a glass of water on the nightstand in the middle of the night, suddenly they are treated to a clamorous chant that issues through the whole house if they accidentally brush the top.