HomePod HomePod Not playing playlist

[Duncan-UK]

Both pairs of HomePods are working now anyway, but really I shouldn't have had to delete them from my home app and re-install them, which itself takes hours after they are supposedly "ready" to actually be in a state where they can access my playlists - whatever happened to "it just works"

I still think that the voice control is incredibly poor, given the hype, and just doesn't follow how "real people" would communicate. I end up venting my frustration at it which of course provokes a passive aggressive response

There's still so much to be done to make the navigation user friendly, I realise I could control the music from my phone but voice control is quite seductive, it just doesn't live up to the promise at the moment. It also sometimes chooses an odd version of tracks, eg playing live versions as opposed to studio ones of tracks. Presumably I could re-edit the names of the live tracks, but this is a bit of a chore.

Re the wifi point - we are only talking about AAC data - hardly a crushing bandwidth so even relatively old wifi kit should be able to cope. Certainly my wifi works well enough to stream HD video to a firestick in the kitchen/conservatory where one set of HomePods is based. Maybe I'm holding it wrong?

 

[boltjames]

I'm picturing a man sitting behind his desk, Apple merchandise artfully displayed behind him (price tags attached), a mesh router gleaming under a spotlight to his left, while his children shuffle in one by one in after a long day at the mines to pay daddy his $2.50 for their share of his music subscription.

Picture a man suddenly working from home, down at the pool, sunglasses on, Bloody Mary in one hand, sunscreen in the other, lying in a zero gravity lounge chair, turning his head ever so slightly to left and speaking in a clear voice "Hey Siri, play happy music for a sunny day". In an instant, HomePod's 6 microphones have captured the request, sent it to the blazing MESH network, up to the cloud, and back down again. And within a fraction of a second, it's "Here Comes The Sun" and the like for the next 12 hours in bookshelf-speaker caliber sound quality.

And in a moment of downtime, he picks up his iPhone, rotates his Ray Ban's from his eyes, visits MacRumors, reads the latest whiny tales of woe from those with old Apple tech and old Apple problems, and just smiles as the opening notes of "You Are The Sunshine Of My Life" begin to play.

 

[daop]

I have two HomePods and since Xmas 2019 that both will not play any playlist. I have contacted costumer support many times, reseted many times, sent the analytics and after all the software updates still they won't work!!!

 

[Squuiid]

Assuming Apple release another beta tomorrow I'll be updating my HomePods to it to see if it makes any difference. Not holding my breath.

 

[boltjames]

I have two HomePods and since Xmas 2019 that both will not play any playlist. I have contacted costumer support many times, reseted many times, sent the analytics and after all the software updates still they won't work!!!

Are you using Apple Music or iTunes Match?

 

[inkahauts]

I have two HomePods and since Xmas 2019 that both will not play any playlist. I have contacted costumer support many times, reseted many times, sent the analytics and after all the software updates still they won't work!!!

Have you ever changed your Apple ID email address?

 

[inkahauts]

Its absolutely hilarious to read the above explanation of the price per month. Completely delusional.

I reset the downstairs HomePods and eventually it deigned to acknowledge my music.

Some of us college-educated well to do's have a robust ethernet infrastructure in the house with airport expresses at strategic points giving us a good wifi signal anywhere in the house...

Might I venture to add that most Siri problems are caused by it being a dreadfully primitive interface, completely unable to process anything other than an incredibly rigid syntax or understand a clear English voice

I also find it cringing that you have to say "Hey Siri" to access it rather than being able to nominate your own trigger phrase.

No Englishman would ever use the expression "Hey" without dying inside of rightful embarassment!

I wonder if he prints a receipt for his kids every month for the 2.50 they pay him...

I find Siri understands a lot more than Alexa does in terms of just normal conversation of what you want. Hey Siri doesn’t bother me personally and being so different than what you normally say is probably a good thing....

The only problems I find with older WiFi is generally coverage issues. It might be a fun experiment to buy a new high end router and see if that changes anything that you... one you could easily return.

 

[boltjames]

I wonder if he prints a receipt for his kids every month for the 2.50 they pay him...

No need. They toss me the gift cards their aunts and uncles give them, covers years at a time.

$50 ÷ $2.50 = 20 months

 

[pup]

You take your childrens' gift cards? Whoa.

 

[Duncan-UK]

I'd love the ability to have a different way to address Siri - part of me dies inside every time I say "Hey" its so toe-curlingly cringy.

Maybe I can adopt a camp voice and say "I couldn't be more excited... to hear Dark Side of the Moon..."

Or at least be able to address it as "Orac" - that really would be great!

 

[boltjames]

You take your childrens' gift cards? Whoa.

At the time, they were begging me for an Apple Music subscription and I was resisting. They put their money where their mouths were. And as a result I pay $2.50 a month for 65 million songs and have discovered that music can be fun again.

 

[raindogg]

I have Apple Music free for 6 months. I'm testing it out now to see if I want to switch from Spotify, but these kind of things drive me crazy. I never have or had an issue with Spotify, I'm already 5 issues in with Apple Music.
Play List doubles (with a 1 or 2 after it)
Playlist covers not showing up everywhere.
Siri doesn't know how to play my playlist.
Songs are grayed out in the playlist, I have to delete and re-add from Apple Music

Okay, 4 issues but it's only been a day.

 

[kkclstuff]

the REAL issue, that seems to be overlooked, is the fact that we must pay a fee (either via Apple Music or Match) to get the use of Siri on our premium priced devices.

 

[Howard Brazee]

There are so many ways SIRI for the HomePod could be great. Think of going to sleep with each song getting a bit quieter, and the opposite happening in the morning.

I never figured out how to use Apple Music to control volume on one song everytime I hear it, or to really get a handle on the kind of music I want to listen to today.

All that said, I wish I had bought a second one before Apple stopped selling them.

 

[kkclstuff]

yes, I'd love to set alarms too on the HomePod mini but you only get that feature (among others) if you use a subscription. (another example of hardware being hobbled by a subscription.)

 

[boltjames]

the REAL issue, that seems to be overlooked, is the fact that we must pay a fee (either via Apple Music or Match) to get the use of Siri on our premium priced devices.

I once bought a premium priced BMW and after a week it stopped working because I must pay a fee to get fuel.

 

[kkclstuff]

nope

its like getting a BMW only to find out once you get home I need a subscription to use the speedometer

 

[AL2TEACH]

I'm still trying to get HomePods to play from a playlist. guess it's back to YouTube.

 

[Squuiid]

I'm still trying to get HomePods to play from a playlist. guess it's back to YouTube.

Try Deezer. I’d honestly never heard of them, yet I’ve now subscribed to their Family Hi-Fi plan.
Lossless and works perfectly with HomePod using Siri.
They’re the only ones other than Apple Music to do so.

 

[appleii.c]

Reviving an old thread, but hopefully someone can help.

I have a Homepod Mini, Apple one subscription, family plan. I set up homepod mini under my account and I’m able to play my own playlists through homepod “Hey siri, shuffle my dinner playlist”, and works fine. Homepod/Siri however wont play my sons playlists. It does recognize his voice “Hey Siri, who am I?” And it answers correctly. But when he says “Hey Siri, play my ABC playlist” it wont recognize any of his playlists. It will occasionally say “Apple music cant play that” or just play some random playlist… but none of the ones he’s created.

I’ve tried resetting homepod, removing and adding him as a family member… no luck. Anyone have success with this?

 

[iDave]

I've been struggling with the same problems, having recently bought HomePod minis and signed up for iTunes Match.

There's really only one thing I've figured out. If rules for a smart playlist include "playlist is" that smart playlist will not work on devices other than the Mac. In other words -- Match all of the following rules: Playlist is Choice Cuts; and Last Played is not in the last 15 days -- will not work. Smart playlist criteria cannot include other playlists.

But that's all I've figured out after experimenting for hours and hours. Siri is very unpredictable with the HomePod mini. I bought three of them and I'm very disappointed. I've been using lots of Apple gear since the late 80s but I wouldn't recommend the HomePod / Home Kit system to anybody! It needs lots of work.

 

[appleii.c]

OK, I actually got this working. I had noticed that under his playlists, my name was showing up. He had to log out of of his iTunes (on both iPad and iPhone) and log him back in. Not sure if it was this alone, of if I also had to remove and re-add to family. But i believe it had something to do when we first set up his phone, might have initially logged in with MY account. But at least it's all working now.

Not sure if this might help others, but check to see if the playlists are assigned to the correct person on all devices.

 

[trainwrecka]

I've been struggling with the same problems, having recently bought HomePod minis and signed up for iTunes Match.

There's really only one thing I've figured out. If rules for a smart playlist include "playlist is" that smart playlist will not work on devices other than the Mac. In other words -- Match all of the following rules: Playlist is Choice Cuts; and Last Played is not in the last 15 days -- will not work. Smart playlist criteria cannot include other playlists.

But that's all I've figured out after experimenting for hours and hours. Siri is very unpredictable with the HomePod mini. I bought three of them and I'm very disappointed. I've been using lots of Apple gear since the late 80s but I wouldn't recommend the HomePod / Home Kit system to anybody! It needs lots of work.

I just got one and only have iTunes Match. All I can get it to do is play artist or song, no playlist. Keeps saying it can’t be found in Apple Music.

what am I missing?

 

[iDave]

I just got one and only have iTunes Match. All I can get it to do is play artist or song, no playlist. Keeps saying it can’t be found in Apple Music.

what am I missing?

On my Mac I named a few smart playlists "one" "two" and "three" then edited rules for each. Then I go to File -- Library -- Update iCloud Library. After waiting for the update to finish, I can ask Siri to play my first playlist, my second playlist or my third playlist. It doesn't always work if I ask Siri to play my playlist one, two or three. Weird but true. Note that using the word "my" before "playlist" is helpful.

Just today I discovered that HomePod mini actually does update the play counts and last-played statistics on my Mac but it takes a couple days for it to happen. That's great because one of the playlist rules I often use is "last-played is not in the last xx days." That way I don't hear the same songs too often.

 

[trainwrecka]

…"last-played is not in the last xx days." That way I don't hear the same songs too often.

Possibly the best tip I have ever gotten for iTunes. Thank you.