HomePod HomePods and Multi Room Music.... Ropey as.... Where to start here?

[stocklen]

This thread is tricky to keep focused - theres just so many problems.
There are other threads of course discussing various aspects of this not working.

I am so surprised at Apple here. HomeKit and multi room music has been awful for a long time, but with each new 'update' it seems to get worse, not better.

So, my setup: Wifi is Eero Pro 6E - no issues with coverage, quality of signal etc etc etc. I have 6 HomePod minis, and 2 new HomePods. 4 are zoned in 'upstairs', and 4 downstairs along with a Sonos sound bar. I am also one of the (un)lucky few who (successfully?) upgraded to the new architecture at 16.2 in the 5 minutes it was available.

Issue 1: Multi Room Music is like pulling teeth. It's usually far more successful just using Airplay on the phone to select additional speakers as more often than not it works even though theres a bit of a delay.... HOWEVER asking Siri to do the same thing is incredibly frustrating with a whole host of responses of 'on it' or whatever that means it just doesnt work.
Yesterday it was full-on not working. I read somewhere that there is some weird arbitrary limit of 6 HomePods for multi room to function correctly (what the actual F??) so decided to limit the speakers to 5 when playing multi room to see if things settled down. This morning when I asked siri to play X, it did so on those last used 5 with no fuss..... is there anything in this 6 limit? I find that hard to believe.

Issue 2: Noticed with my brand new stereo paired HomePods.... but also noticed on a stereo pair of minis.... one speaker will be silent.. choppy, start and stop... - almost as if the new HomePods are faulty. I mean, in that return window im almost tempted to send them back IF they are faulty - dodgy wifi etc etc.

issue 3: Handoff - That magical experience that you see on youtube and in Apple videos - just doesnt work half the time. The HomePods can be playing music and I hold the phone nearby as per.... and sometimes it pops up with handoff sometimes not - I feel like im going mad here not perhaps understanding situations when handoff should or shouldn't work....

Issue 4: Hey Siri in a room where there are HomePods, and my iPhone (i.e. ALL the time) - the iPhone AND the HomePods both take the request. This is especially annoying at night when the iPhone is wirelessly charging and of course locked - it still wakes and answers the same query that the HomePod is also answering.


So, here we are - I could list more problems - and I dont really want to ditch the HomePods and HomeKit - I sincerely need it to work - but if apple are even vaguely serious about gaining traction in the smart home.. some significant changes are necessary.
I spend my time being tolerant of the faults and expecting the next 'point' update to magically fix things but having waited for 16.0, then .1, then .2, then .3 every time things just show no sign of improving.
I would call apple support for help but theres no way they can troubleshoot or resolve things over the phone - I'll just be asked to reset HomePods and re-add etc. Out of interest with my new HomePods I reset, re-added twice yesterday to resolve the stuttering pair that wouldnt play - and it made no difference yesterday. Maybe its siri, maybe apple music, maybe a temporary server-side issue thats causing these spectacular fails....

But does anyone have an practical explanations, experiences, or advice for any of this?

 

[pup]

One thing that helped my setup greatly was setting my mesh network to bridge mode. In normal mode, your mesh network creates a subnet and both airplay and homekit seem to have trouble dealing with that. Bridge mode on your Eero will just pass everything through to your primary router.

 

[StumpyBloke]

I can't offer any fixes for your myriad issues, but I echo everything you say. I have all of those and more. I have said it before and I will continue saying it whether people like it or not, Siri and HomeKit are total and utter crap. The teams responsible should be sacked.

I genuinely believe they will never get it working because Apple don't really give a crap about it. And no one will ever convince me that the Apple execs use either of these services because you can guarantee if they did they wouldn't be in this **** show state!

 

[pup]

HomeKit *on its own* has been solidly dependable for me for some time now. Siri is more or less hit and miss, but I don’t really use it. Airplay worked (after the above fix) but was frustrating and I’m a happier man without having to deal with it. Adding a HomePod made it all go to hell.

 

[stocklen]

I can't offer any fixes for your myriad issues, but I echo everything you say. I have all of those and more. I have said it before and I will continue saying it whether people like it or not, Siri and HomeKit are total and utter crap. The teams responsible should be sacked.

I genuinely believe they will never get it working because Apple don't really give a crap about it. And no one will ever convince me that the Apple execs use either of these services because you can guarantee if they did they wouldn't be in this **** show state!

Its interesting you say that.

I dont disagree.

Im very very surprised at Apple, as their strengths usually lie with their software - although in recent years its really gone downhill.

What surprises me the most, is that although there are elements of HomeKit that Apple arent used to dealing with... i.e. interoperability of other deices outside their remit (a bit like Windows always has had to deal with) - things like HomePods and muti room music are still 100% in their control and it doesnt feel like a great deal of testing goes into these things before release.

A lot of these problems are widespread, and easily repeatable - certainly not obscure at all. If there IS a limit to HomePods in the house before the system falls apart then Apple should make it abundantly clear that buying more than a certain number is not advisable (can you imagine that).

One thing that helped my setup greatly was setting my mesh network to bridge mode. In normal mode, your mesh network creates a subnet and both airplay and homekit seem to have trouble dealing with that. Bridge mode on your Eero will just pass everything through to your primary router.

I appreciate the solution, and maybe it will help matters - but I have to use eero as my router mostly by choice but im not willing to basically throw away all of Eero's benefits for this by putting it into bridge mode - and also eero and other mesh networks are more or less the norm in a lot of homes nowadays so if the mesh network is the problem here then Apple need to get it sorted ASAP.

 

[stocklen]

As if by magic....

16.3.1 out today.

HomePods all updated - yet to test and see if things have improved..... although I have been through this hope many times with each update!

 

[cashville2400]

I too have been having issue #2. One of my HomePod minis will start out and then go quiet while watching or listening. If I completely kill all apps on my AppleTV, Mac, and iPhone 14 PM and restart it. Both speakers will work. I recently purchased a HomePod2 and kept my 2 minis and all 3 speakers work but about 30 minutes in the same one cuts out again. I really wonder if this is more of a wifi connection issue? Not long ago I had to reset my LIFX bulb in the same area of the room.

 

[Five_Oh]

HomeKit *on its own* has been solidly dependable for me for some time now. Siri is more or less hit and miss, but I don’t really use it. Airplay worked (after the above fix) but was frustrating and I’m a happier man without having to deal with it. Adding a HomePod made it all go to hell.

Generally agree about HomeKit reliability. However, every once in awhile it does something...unexplainable. Last week, an automation that has been completely reliable for two years suddenly stopped working correctly. I began troubleshooting it and found the sensor was ok, the automation programming had not changed, so it should still be working.

I turned the automation OFF. You guessed it, works now. With the automation disabled.

Guess I have to use it forever now? Dunno, but it's weird.

 

[stocklen]

I am trying some experimentation this week.
Keeping in mind this magical and mysterious limit of 6 speakers for multi-room.... (which im yet to be convinced of)..

I have this week deliberately minimised my multi room and limited the playback to 6 of my 9 possible speakers (8 homepods and 1 sonos airplay 2 system). This is in conjunction with 15.3.1 coming out - so hoped this would fix things.

So, Ive been very careful with it this week - and as of this morning I used it to play a radio station from Tunein every morning - and once Id set the 6 speakers, all I did was say 'hey siri play radio X'... and it started up quickly with minimum fuss and just played on the last 6 speakers I used. Every day fine. Ive not seen this stability for awhile.... though Ive not really 'fiddled' with things either.

Today, a friend came over who is mulling over getting HomePod minis for his appleTV and wanted to hear the sound. I was able to play tv and movies audio from my iMac to my stereo pair of mins with no fuss... and sounded good with no issues..

BUT...
BUT.... IT ALL FELL APART from then. Of course it did when demonstrating to someone .....

I got cocky. I tried to ask Siri to 'play music everywhere' and of course - not all speakers worked. I asked siri to 'add the hall and kitchen' and although it reported back they had been added.. the Kitchen remained silent.
I left the house in a mess. The system playing weird stuff randomly with some working some not.

So, I have to go back... get the radio working on the 6 speakers... and basically not stray from that path because 6 working speakers are better than 8 not working ones....

Why, Apple..... why... why is this so hard to get right when it's basically ALL your hardware and software working together - this was always your strength in the past - but your reputation is getting very badly damaged with HomeKit and Siri just being rubbish.

 

[pup]

I’m using pure Sonos now, but I know that I can play to at least 8 rooms/12 devices using airplay - mostly Sonos, but could do it with 2 AppleTVs and an AirPort Express in the mix. No HomePods - never had a good experience with the one I had. Caveat: I never had much luck asking Siri to play to multiple rooms reliably, but certainly I could use the airplay interface and have them all work.

 

[perezr10]

I love multi-room music but I‘ll admit that it IS buggy. You almost have to choose between using your HomePods for music or as Apple TV speakers. Because for me, the problems usually arise with the HomePods that are paired with an Apple TV. There seems to be a stickiness kind of like the way AirPods will stick to a certain device when you want to switch.

I’ve experimented with unpairing all 9 of my HomePods from any Apple TV’s and using them ONLY for music. The success rate goes up to 85-95% that the music plays where I want. If I use 2 pairs (4 HomePods) as Apple TV extensions, those HomePods do what I want maybe 50-70% of the time.

I think if someone bought HomePods just for music in various rooms and never pairs any of them with an Apple TV they’d be fairly happy. But even that isn’t perfect all of the time.

 

[savagewatts]

I have four OG Homepods and four minis. I never have a big issue with music playing in all rooms. Sometimes it takes a few seconds for certain HomePods to kick in but within 10-15 seconds they are all playing in sync at the worst of times. Maybe it’s your Wifi. I have a mesh network from Plume and it works great.

 

[stocklen]

Another update.

So ive tentatively added HomePod minis 7 and 8 to the mix.

Again, staying well clear of SIRI as that tends to be the source of a few glitches.... but as HomePods start playing on the last used combination... which for me is all 8 HomePods...

For a couple of days all 8 start playing when I ask Siri to play some music (I dont make it complicated for SIRI).

However, I am still noticing on stereo pairs that one of the speakers can go quiet for periods - the experience is not good.

 

[stocklen]

another month another update....

so here we are at 16.4. Expectations high again.

But, just been playing multi room music and a stereo pair of minis again for the occasional track are cutting out on one speaker for a portion of the song.

Some songs OK some not.

Sigh.

Whatever the issue its not fixed still.

 

[StumpyBloke]

another month another update....

so here we are at 16.4. Expectations high again.

But, just been playing multi room music and a stereo pair of minis again for the occasional track are cutting out on one speaker for a portion of the song.

Some songs OK some not.

Sigh.

Whatever the issue its not fixed still.

Same for me. Apple are the epitome of . They can't even get the god-damned basics right anymore!!

 

[stocklen]

Same for me. Apple are the epitome of . They can't even get the god-damned basics right anymore!!

It beginning to feel now likes its never going to work.

They've had plenty of opportunities to make it better - the Homepods have been out for years spanning multiple OS releases - and iOS16 has now been through 4 iterations and many more smaller updates and still its not working.

Originally, I had to decide whether I went HomePod mini or Sonos for my multiroom solution and now im beginning to wonder if I should cut my losses and replace it all with Sonos.

Sonos is not without its faults - the app is horrible and when it doesnt work its horrendous - however I suspect their multiroom is a lot more reliable and stereo pairs dont crackle and cut out......

Maybe im pushing my luck with having 8 homepods in the house but I dont see how that should be a problem.

I have given up hope now that iOS 16.xxx is going to see an improvement.
Even with the 'new home architecture' which was the promised land..... it still has made not a bit of difference.

 

[stocklen]

So sad to report that literally nothing has changed with 16.4.

Tried multi room music and yet again random speakers are not playing and stereo pairs are stuttering and crackling and cutting out.

Literally no improvement.

maybe one day they will fix things but that day is not today :-(


Its interesting.... I find that if I use the iPhone to play music and then use the airplay option to choose the speakers I want.... it almost always works and you get the music you want playing in the locations you want.

However, when you attempt to use Siri to control the homepods it falls apart.

I find that using Siri some rooms remain silent and you end up having to manually say 'hey siri add the kitchen' etc until you eventually have all the speakers you want playing music.


Disappointing that the experience is so ropey and more so that its just never getting addressed.

 

[perezr10]

I also have found 16.4 to not be any better. I have 9 HomePods and using Siri to dictate which rooms to play is maybe 60% successful.

For anyone reading this thread, if you’re unaware of how to manually choose specifically where to play your music, you can always use the Home App.

Just start playing music on any of your desired HomePods. Then open the Home App and you can pick and choose which other HomePods to add/subtract from the mix.

 

[stocklen]

I also have found 16.4 to not be any better. I have 9 HomePods and using Siri to dictate which rooms to play is maybe 60% successful.

For anyone reading this thread, if you’re unaware of how to manually choose specifically where to play your music, you can always use the Home App.

Just start playing music on any of your desired HomePods. Then open the Home App and you can pick and choose which other HomePods to add/subtract from the mix.

View attachment 2180623 View attachment 2180622

As has been mentioned... someone somewhere talked about Apple's secret yet arbitrary "limit" of homepods - and that number is 6.
I questioned this (some tech YouTuber) but apparently several people with issues were told that they should limit the number of homepods to 6 and it wouldnt work with more (though this was several iterations of software ago and you'd have thought that they would long have fixed this by now).

Now, this is astonishing really as Apple obviously dont want to limit you to spending unlimited amounts of money with them and actively advertise Homepods as being a multi room solution including intercom functionality etc...
But even apple engineers dealing with customers issues have apparently admitted this.

So, @perezr10 , you and I both seem to have blown this limit. Mine is 8, yours is 9.... and we are both having the same issues.

I did attempt an experiment where I deliberately excluded one room's stereo pair to see if this made a difference and it didnt really.

I find that the system is stable when you dont mess with it - multiple changes of rooms etc - so "play music everywhere' and then from then on just 'play music' and it should just default to the last set of speakers - and it seems to remain OK until such time as you dare to change things 'play music upstairs' and then it falls apart. A good way to re-stablise the system is as I said earlier just use the app and select the rooms - from that point 'play music' generally is stable.
That said, the homepods stereo pairs still just crackle and stutter.

I think I will go back to excluding a pair, and running 6 homepods for a week or so and see if I get some more long term stability. It would be good to know if this '6 limit' was real or not but one way to find out.

The system certainly doesnt work as advertised though.

And I suspect that people such as you and I in the grand scheme of things are probably more unusual in that most maybe wouldnt have more than 6 anyway.

 

[stocklen]

Sadly I feel the need to moan again!

recently, the homepods and multi room music were working OK ish.... behaving themselves. I had successfully got music playing "everywhere" and then the next time I asked for music I didnt have to append "everywhere" to the command as it remembers that last time I was playing everywhere.

HOWEVER - as a side note, if you say play music everywhere it includes my SONOS speaker..... however next time you ask for music it still plays everywhere EXCEPT for the SONOS - strange but manageable.

Anyway, after my period of stabily and being lulled into a false sense of security... I decided to have another go at using the alarms.

In my bedroom I have a stereo pair of Homepods... and also an Amazon Echo Show 5. The Echo show is a throwback to when I was an all-Alexa house before I made the switch to homepods - but I retained the Show5 as a decent bedside clock. The Show5 has an alarm that wakes me to a specific radio station. This works flawlessly.
When I first got the homepods in the bedroom, I immediately disabled the Echo Show alarm and set the homepods to do the same thing - however they were super unreliable and I reluctantly had to revert to the Show as my alarm.
Anyway...
This week I decided to re-instate the radio alarm from the Homepods. Literally from day 1 this has fowled up the entire system from which I am still attempting to recover. Believe it or not... the alarm didnt work on Day 1 - although it resorted to a chime instead of the radio station I had chosen - at least it woke me up. From that moment I could no longer get anything working multi room. Today Im still having trouble when I ask for music 'everywhere' and it simply ignores my study HomePod pair and when I ask it to add them, it says it has but doesn't. Even the oh so reliable backup of using the app on the phone and selecting the study doesnt work any more.

i give up. This system either works or it doesnt. If it has a secret 'maximum supported homepods' restriction then Apple need to be upfront about this instead of just encouraging people to buy more and more when they wont work as advertised.

So, the perennial question... anyone on iOS17 beta noticed any improvements?? I live in hope that one day they will get this working.