HomePod Why in the ever loving hell are my HomePod Minis skipping songs?

[ThrawnTHX]

It doesn't matter what the source music is--Apple Music, SiriusXM, my own library--it will all start to play, skip to the next song and maybe play the last 3 seconds of that song, skip again and eventually play a song all the way through before doing it all over again. I do seem to notice that it matters that I'm Air Playing from my iPhone.

If I instead Air Play from my MacBook Pro, it will happily play the song all the way through, then the next song will play silently over Air Play unless I physically hit the skip button. It's completely infuriating. I've read posts on Reddit and Apple's support forums about plenty of folks having the same problem and there's no resolution.

I've tried:

• restarting HomePods
• resetting HomePods
• changing some stuff in the Home app
• restarting my iPhone
• restarting my Mac

Sadly, nothing works. Anyone else with this problem? Any chance someone's solved it? I'm guessing it's some sort of software bug with Air Play but who knows.

 

[snash22]

It doesn't matter what the source music is--Apple Music, SiriusXM, my own library--it will all start to play, skip to the next song and maybe play the last 3 seconds of that song, skip again and eventually play a song all the way through before doing it all over again. I do seem to notice that it matters that I'm Air Playing from my iPhone.

If I instead Air Play from my MacBook Pro, it will happily play the song all the way through, then the next song will play silently over Air Play unless I physically hit the skip button. It's completely infuriating. I've read posts on Reddit and Apple's support forums about plenty of folks having the same problem and there's no resolution.

I've tried:

• restarting HomePods
• resetting HomePods
• changing some stuff in the Home app
• restarting my iPhone
• restarting my Mac

Sadly, nothing works. Anyone else with this problem? Any chance someone's solved it? I'm guessing it's some sort of software bug with Air Play but who knows.

I feel your pain. What router do you have? I am suspecting that some routers play better with HomePods. I have a TP-Link AX55 Pro.

(I have already tried a different router/brand, ensured my wireless channel selection was optimum, messed with MDNS settings, static IPs, tried having only 2.4Ghz turned on, turned band steering off, AP Isolation off, yada yada. Apple has a wireless product that seems extremely finicky when it comes to WiFi.)

Edit - I also tried HomeOS 18.3 beta 2 on them, still working poorly.

 

[ThrawnTHX]

I feel your pain. What router do you have? I am suspecting that some routers play better with HomePods. I have a TP-Link AX55 Pro.

(I have already tried a different router/brand, ensured my wireless channel selection was optimum, messed with MDNS settings, static IPs, tried having only 2.4Ghz turned on, turned band steering off, AP Isolation off, yada yada. Apple has a wireless product that seems extremely finicky when it comes to WiFi.)

Edit - I also tried HomeOS 18.3 beta 2 on them, still working poorly.

Using a Linksys Atlas mesh setup. I've had no issues until approx. a month ago. Nothing has changed on my end.

 

[snash22]

Using a Linksys Atlas mesh setup. I've had no issues until approx. a month ago. Nothing has changed on my end.

Do you recall what iOS version it started at? I was having no issues at 17.x. I’m really hoping it will be fixed in a future version. I’m about ready to buy a new router.

 

[Itinj24]

Do you recall what iOS version it started at? I was having no issues at 17.x. I’m really hoping it will be fixed in a future version. I’m about ready to buy a new router.

I switched from an eero Pro 6 system to a UniFi Dream Wall with eight U6-IW AP’s throughout the house. I know I’m going to jinx myself but my HomePods have been pretty solid since. With UniFi, you can lock a WiFi client to a specific AP, a feature the eero community has been asking for a long time and that eero says can’t be done. I don’t know if you see this on your network but with eero, I had the problem of HomePods auto connecting to an eero leaf on the other side of the house. This caused issues.

I have nine OG’s and eight Minis. Most are stereo paired and default audio to an AppleTV except for two Minis. I can AirPlay to the whole house without a hitch and getting no drops from stereo pairs or the AppleTV’s

Most claims are that when there are HomePod issues, then it’s your network. While I find that somewhat true and hate hearing it, this is still on Apple. HomePods are supposed to be a consumer level plug and play experience. Shouldn’t require a PhD in networking from MIT to figure this out but apparently you do. I still believe Apple dropped the ball on HomePods. Hoping one day they release an option with an ethernet port, like they did with AppleTV.

UniFi is definitely for the networking geek. Admittedly, I am not an expert in that field but wish I was. Looks like a lot of cool features and setting options to play with that I know nothing about

 

[snash22]

I switched from an eero Pro 6 system to a UniFi Dream Wall with eight U6-IW AP’s throughout the house. I know I’m going to jinx myself but my HomePods have been pretty solid since. With UniFi, you can lock a WiFi client to a specific AP, a feature the eero community has been asking for a long time and that eero says can’t be done. I don’t know if you see this on your network but with eero, I had the problem of HomePods auto connecting to an eero leaf on the other side of the house. This caused issues.

I have nine OG’s and eight Minis. Most are stereo paired and default audio to an AppleTV except for two Minis. I can AirPlay to the whole house without a hitch and getting no drops from stereo pairs or the AppleTV’s

Most claims are that when there are HomePod issues, then it’s your network. While I find that somewhat true and hate hearing it, this is still on Apple. HomePods are supposed to be a consumer level plug and play experience. Shouldn’t require a PhD in networking from MIT to figure this out but apparently you do. I still believe Apple dropped the ball on HomePods. Hoping one day they release an option with an ethernet port, like they did with AppleTV.

UniFi is definitely for the networking geek. Admittedly, I am not an expert in that field but wish I was. Looks like a lot of cool features and setting options to play with that I know nothing about

I ordered Ubiquity’s Amplifi Alien. I looked at Dream Machine and Dream Router, but it is such overkill for my simple situation. I’ll order one of them if the Alien doesn’t work next week.

 

[Itinj24]

I ordered Ubiquity’s Amplifi Alien. I looked at Dream Machine and Dream Router, but it is such overkill for my simple situation. I’ll order one of them if the Alien doesn’t work next week.

Heard people are having better experiences with the Alien too.