HomePod How can I update HomePod mini software on my iMac?

[ssledoux]

Trying to hook up my second HomePod mini and it’s been configuring for hours. I’ve reset, removed from my account, etc. multiple times. I made sure everything else is on current software. No luck.

The software for this homepod mini is showing 15.4. Can I update it another way and then set it up? Or should I just return it and try again?

 

[Apple_Robert]

Anytime you want to update your HomePods to the latest OS, connect it to your Mac, find it in Finder, and tap on update.

 

[ssledoux]

Anytime you want to update your HomePods to the latest OS, connect it to your Mac, find it in Finder, and tap on update.

Okay thanks! I plugged it in earlier but I could locate it in finder. Guess I wasn’t looking well enough.

Do I do that before or after I set it up? I don’t know if I should reset it and start all over or what.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Okay thanks! I plugged it in earlier but I could locate it in finder. Guess I wasn’t looking well enough.

Do I do that before or after I set it up? I don’t know if I should reset it and start all over or what.

Reset it while it is connected to the Mac. It will update the software as well.

 

[ssledoux]

Rest it while it is connected to the Mac. It will update the software as well.

Okay thanks

 

[ssledoux]

Rest it while it is connected to the Mac. It will update the software as well.

Well, that's not working. I plugged it in and it's flashing a yellow light instead of letting me hold it and do the reset.

I'm about to throw it through a window. ;-p

 

[Apple_Robert]

Well, that's not working. I plugged it in and it's flashing a yellow light instead of letting me hold it and do the reset.

I'm about to throw it through a window. ;-p

If you want to press your finger on the top to reset, plug it into an outlet and when it is done, plug back into the Mac to do the update. That will make it easier for you.

 

[waw74]

if there's an Apple Store close, you may want to set up an appointment. Or if not, call support, and see if they'll swap it. If not, just return and get a new one.

While rare, occasionally a dud does make it though.

the flashing yellow (orange), means it's either connected to a computer, or the power supply you're using isn't powerful enough.

Identify status lights on HomePod - Apple Support

Learn what the different status lights on the top of HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod mini mean.

support.apple.com

 

[ssledoux]

if there's an Apple Store close, you may want to set up an appointment. Or if not, call support, and see if they'll swap it. If not, just return and get a new one.

While rare, occasionally a dud does make it though.

the flashing yellow (orange), means it's either connected to a computer, or the power supply you're using isn't powerful enough.

Identify status lights on HomePod - Apple Support

Learn what the different status lights on the top of HomePod (2nd generation) and HomePod mini mean.

support.apple.com

Okay I got it updated then plugged it in and got it set up. I have them working as a pair (my two minis), so when I do Apple TV, I'm hearing sound from both.

However, in my home list, I'm showing HomePod, and it shows two speakers, but they aren't separate in my list. Before I could see them as HomePod L and HomePod R. Once this finished I only saw HomePod R and both speakers show up under that. I changed it to just HomePod til I could get it figured out.

So any idea how in the world I do that?

 

[ssledoux]

I know these are a bit large, but this is what I see on my screens. Why can't I get them to show as two separate minis?

 

[ssledoux]

And also, when I play music from my phone, it shows up as ATV, but it plays on my speakers.

I’m so technologically challenged. 😩

Okay I think it was doing that because Apple TV was on. I turned it off and now HomePod comes up, and when I click that it plays on both speakers.

I just thought I’d have each speaker in the list so if I played music from my phone or asked Siri a question it would go to just one speaker.

 

[haralds]

HomePods are managed from your Home App from either iPhone or Mac.
When paired as you have, they show up as one HomePod. You can look at their settings and see them as two "speakers."
If they, in turn, are captured or paired with your AppleTV, they will not show up as HomePods in AirPlay. You need to target your ATV to play through them.

 

[waw74]

When you make them a stereo pair, they essentially become one device. So airplay will go to both, Same for music played from the music app. It will break down the stereo channels, so each HomePod only gets the left or right channel.

When using Hey Siri, she will respond from one or the other, I'm not sure if it will always be the same one, or if it may change depending on which one hears you better. You can also tap the top to talk to siri on a specific one. But if you ask siri to play music, it will come out of both, no matter which one hears you.

If you want to send different music to each, you don't want them in a stereo pair. In that case each one will play mono, but you can have them in different rooms, and you can choose if you want them both to play the same music in sync with each other, or something different on each one.

stereo pairs are designed to be a semi-permanent setup. It's easy to undo, but it's time consuming and not something you want to do as part of your daily routine.
room grouping can be changed as often you want.

you can add multiple singles or stereo pairs around the house as you want. You can also mix and match full size and minis as you want, But for a stereo pair, then those 2 must be the same kind.



Another layer in the is appleTV default audio out.
There are 2 ways to get audio from the aTV to your HPs, airplay and default audio

airplay sends only stereo. and tends to turn itself off when it feels like it, shouldn't happen mid-show, but might happen between shows, and almost surly will happen when you turn the aTV off. It's easy to access from the control center to re-enable though.

With default audio, if you've got full size HPs you will get ATMOS*, with the minis you still get just stereo. This setting should maintain itself until you disable it, including over power cycles. Also when setup this way, the aTV and HPs become one device, similar to the way the 2 HPs do when you put them in stereo mode. The big downside to this, is when you want to airplay to the homepods, your actual television will more than likely turn on.
Another plus to default audio. If you've got a 2nd gen aTV 4k or newer, and your TV has an ARC port. You can send audio from apps or the tuner on your TV and any other devices connected to the TV (cable box, DVD player, etc) to the homepods.

*debatable how much true atmos you can get with only 2 speaker locations.

 

[ssledoux]

When you make them a stereo pair, they essentially become one device. So airplay will go to both, Same for music played from the music app. It will break down the stereo channels, so each HomePod only gets the left or right channel.

When using Hey Siri, she will respond from one or the other, I'm not sure if it will always be the same one, or if it may change depending on which one hears you better. You can also tap the top to talk to siri on a specific one. But if you ask siri to play music, it will come out of both, no matter which one hears you.

If you want to send different music to each, you don't want them in a stereo pair. In that case each one will play mono, but you can have them in different rooms, and you can choose if you want them both to play the same music in sync with each other, or something different on each one.

stereo pairs are designed to be a semi-permanent setup. It's easy to undo, but it's time consuming and not something you want to do as part of your daily routine.
room grouping can be changed as often you want.

you can add multiple singles or stereo pairs around the house as you want. You can also mix and match full size and minis as you want, But for a stereo pair, then those 2 must be the same kind.



Another layer in the is appleTV default audio out.
There are 2 ways to get audio from the aTV to your HPs, airplay and default audio

airplay sends only stereo. and tends to turn itself off when it feels like it, shouldn't happen mid-show, but might happen between shows, and almost surly will happen when you turn the aTV off. It's easy to access from the control center to re-enable though.

With default audio, if you've got full size HPs you will get ATMOS*, with the minis you still get just stereo. This setting should maintain itself until you disable it, including over power cycles. Also when setup this way, the aTV and HPs become one device, similar to the way the 2 HPs do when you put them in stereo mode. The big downside to this, is when you want to airplay to the homepods, your actual television will more than likely turn on.
Another plus to default audio. If you've got a 2nd gen aTV 4k or newer, and your TV has an ARC port. You can send audio from apps or the tuner on your TV and any other devices connected to the TV (cable box, DVD player, etc) to the homepods.

*debatable how much true atmos you can get with only 2 speaker locations.

Thanks for the information. That makes sense. I was half-wondering if that was the case. So if ATV is on, since I have them paired with it, I just need to press ATV to play anything, but if ATV is off, I click the speaker and it’ll just play through both (which is totally fine - just wanted to be sure I didn’t have something messed up).

I may add a speaker in another room later, but I’d not link that to anything so that I could play to it directly.

 

[Timpetus]

Yes, it's assumed that when you make them a stereo pair you'll always want to play things on both homepods at once. I have an ATV and homepod mini stereo pair in the living room, and two other standalone homepod minis in other rooms of our house. It's really nice being able to set something to play on all of them while doing chores, so I can hear it wherever I go in the house.

The process of setting up the stereo pair was a bit weird for me, too, and I did end up having to reset one of the two I'd paired together before it really worked like it should. Now it's flawless, and has been for a long time. It was nice to replace our old sound bar, they take up a lot less space and actually sound better, too!

 

[ssledoux]

Yes, it's assumed that when you make them a stereo pair you'll always want to play things on both homepods at once. I have an ATV and homepod mini stereo pair in the living room, and two other standalone homepod minis in other rooms of our house. It's really nice being able to set something to play on all of them while doing chores, so I can hear it wherever I go in the house.

The process of setting up the stereo pair was a bit weird for me, too, and I did end up having to reset one of the two I'd paired together before it really worked like it should. Now it's flawless, and has been for a long time. It was nice to replace our old sound bar, they take up a lot less space and actually sound better, too!

Once I got the software updated on this one (finally connected to my iMac after it was configuring for hours), it all went together pretty quickly.

So if I do more for the bedrooms, can I set them to play as standalone, or will they have to be connected to the others?

And yeah for me it’s so much better than a soundbar because I can turn the volume down when my husband is asleep and have it playing right near me versus coming from the other side of the room.

 

[Timpetus]

Once I got the software updated on this one (finally connected to my iMac after it was configuring for hours), it all went together pretty quickly.

So if I do more for the bedrooms, can I set them to play as standalone, or will they have to be connected to the others?

And yeah for me it’s so much better than a soundbar because I can turn the volume down when my husband is asleep and have it playing right near me versus coming from the other side of the room.

If I want to play on all of them at once, I have to select them one at a time in the airplay target menu on my phone or Mac. By default, it'll play on just the one you select. You can also use handoff to start playing on your phone, then bring it close to the homepod and it'll transfer there. I do wish I could add an option to the airplay target list that just says "all homepods" or "whole house" to simplify playing on every homepod we own, but I guess the issue there is it's negotiating a new airplay connection with each one. If you do too many, it can get a bit laggy...

 

[waw74]

So if I do more for the bedrooms, can I set them to play as standalone, or will they have to be connected to the others?

you can do either.

you can have the same music playing in the living and bedroom, OR you can do music in the living room and a podcast or different music in the bedroom.

you can also use siri for airplay, if something is playing on the HomePod, you can ask siri to "play this everywhere" or "add this to the bedroom" or "move this this to the bedroom." She also understands things like "play the Beatles in the living room and bedroom" if you have multiple rooms and don't want them all.

You can also set up homekit scenes to play music, it does require Apple Music though. So if there's an Apple Music playlist you usually use as background music while you work, you could make a scene called "work music" that would start that playlist, and you can set which rooms and what volume. then just say "hey siri, work music" and she'd do it for you. For music, you must have Apple Music, but there are ambient sounds like white noise, forest, or ocean waves that you can use without a subscription. So your goodnight scene could start white noise on the bedroom HomePod at a low volume in addition to turning off any homekit lights you have.

 

[ssledoux]

you can do either.

you can have the same music playing in the living and bedroom, OR you can do music in the living room and a podcast or different music in the bedroom.

you can also use siri for airplay, if something is playing on the HomePod, you can ask siri to "play this everywhere" or "add this to the bedroom" or "move this this to the bedroom." She also understands things like "play the Beatles in the living room and bedroom" if you have multiple rooms and don't want them all.

You can also set up homekit scenes to play music, it does require Apple Music though. So if there's an Apple Music playlist you usually use as background music while you work, you could make a scene called "work music" that would start that playlist, and you can set which rooms and what volume. then just say "hey siri, work music" and she'd do it for you. For music, you must have Apple Music, but there are ambient sounds like white noise, forest, or ocean waves that you can use without a subscription. So your goodnight scene could start white noise on the bedroom HomePod at a low volume in addition to turning off any homekit lights you have.

That’s awesome! I do have Apple Music, so I should be able to set up some of that. It might be a month or two before I get another, but I’m definitely planning to get one for my room, and likely one for upstairs.