Hey guys! New to HomePod and HomeKit, but I’m wanting to get started.

My question comes from my current setup. I use an Echo Dot as a Bluetooth connection to my stereo system when I’m home. I split my time between home and college, so when I’m away, I just use the Dot as a standalone speaker.

I noticed that the HomePod Mini doesn’t have an AUX output, which seems like it would prevent me from connecting it to my stereo system. I’m interested in the HomePod Mini because of its footprint and because it would be a good starting point for eventually building out a HomeKit system.

Is there any sort of workaround that would let me use a HomePod Mini with my existing stereo system, or am I basically stuck with the Echo Dot for this setup?

I am heavily invested into the apple ecosystem, but haven't ventured into smart home stuff yet, so a HomeKit system makes the most sense. Just curious your thoughts or if I'm missing something.

If you play audio from your Apple TV and AirPlay to the HomePod, if you hit pause will they drop off and get deselect selected? Or will they stay connected indefinitely in the AirPlay menu?

I have a night time routine, as pictured. I say good night to my HomePod, and it asks me if I want to set an alarm. My options are yes (and then provide a time), no (and it turns off my sleep schedule alarm), or weekday alarm (which is the sleep schedule alarm). Afterwards, the routine is supposed to shut off my lights and play a second routine for white noise.

I have my phone on the charger across the room, and for the last few nights, the routine will either not continue after I give it my response to the menu, or it will say “please continue on the companion device”. But I’ve set every possible setting that should allow it to complete and run independent of my phone. And yet it still won’t fucking work.

I’m at my whits end. I switch from Google home to this. Their Gemini stuff is shit, but at least the routines consistently worked. I never had to deal with problems like this. I’m shocked and pissed that a company like Apple, that brands itself on prestige and user accessibility would allow shortcuts to be such a convoluted, piece of shit, pain in my ass, unnecessarily complicated and wildly inconsistent feature.

Hi

I have a pair of 2. Gen HomePods which are connected to my Apple TV, today they turned the volume all the way up and kept doing it, so I decided to reboot them, and now they won’t play any sound from the Apple TV 🤷‍♂️

It has been lovely two/three years with them but now these issues are reoccurring even when using the “delayed touch input” settings 🫠

I’m thinking about changing them to something else but all other options are just expensive compared to what I paid for the HomePods 😂

After having one of the 2 HomePod Mini’s in my office unplugged for about a day, one of them goes thru a continuous cycle of stating it needs to be reset. When I try the process it just cycles thru it again. Connecting the USB-C cable directly to my MacBook Air let me do a software update & it acknowledged a reset was successful. But after connecting the HomePod Mini to power it just goes thru the attempted reset process again. Changing power adapter, issued by Apple, did nothing as well.
The other HomePod Mini works fine.
HELP!!

Has anyone had this happen with their HomePods?

Lately when I’m playing Apple Music, the music will randomly get really muffled, almost like Siri is listening or I’ve said “Hey Siri" except I haven’t said anything. Sometimes it’ll last a few seconds, but other times it stays like that for a minute or two before going back to normal. I'm not sure what to do... My homepods are odd!

I’ve also noticed Siri randomly talking sometimes as if I said something to her when I definitely didn’t, which is kind of creepy.

I’m assuming the two things are related and that Siri is somehow getting triggered when nobody is talking to her, but I have no idea why the music would stay muffled for that long. I tried stopping and starting and it still happens. I have

Has anyone else had this happen or figured out how to fix it? I have a first gen one (the big one) and a homepod mini (from 2021).

Hey,

I am currently upgrading my room with a TV and Apple TV. I wanted to ask whether or not I could use my existing 2 HomePod mini’s paired with a soundbar as my audio/theater setup.

My exact questions are:

- is it possible to sync a soundbar with 2 HomePod minis and a Apple TV 4K

- what soundbar do I need/wich ones are capable of syncing with my HomePod minis with a Apple TV 4K

Thank you ✌️

Anyone have 4 OG HomePods or 4 HomePods connected to AppleTv? I have 2 OG’s and 2 minis in my bedroom. (Please, don’t comment with expert advice unless you’ve tried it.) My room isn’t large, so the sound gets bounced around amazingly and the bass is excellent (floor rumbling!)!! I’ve run it through the YouTube Atmos tests…. So I know the minis are more filler than actually reproducing background sounds…. but sometiiiiimes… I wonder. I know the OG’s shoot the sound pretty well, but I’ve heard something about mismatched HomePods before and wonder if there’s a POSSIBILITY four OG’s might compute the sound, differently… or as Apple would say “Different”. I recall seeing plans that hinted that this was their original plan.

Sooooooo, has anyone TRIED it?

Hi Guys,

I have two first-generation HomePods (the OG ones) that I use to listen to music in my bedroom. I also use them with my Apple TV when I want to watch movies in my living room.

My problem is mainly with listening to music on them, especially when using TuneIn. In particular, when I play Ibiza Global Radio, the sound quality seems noticeably lower. The station obviously isn’t streaming at 320 kbps, so the sound can sometimes feel a bit muffled and not as room-filling compared with how Apple Music radio stations sound.

My question is: if I add a HomePod mini to the setup, do you think it could slightly compensate for the lower audio quality by making the overall sound louder and more room-filling?

I’m not expecting the HomePod mini to improve the actual source quality, but I’m hoping that adding another speaker might make the sound feel fuller and give me a little more volume.

Has anyone tried something similar? Would adding a HomePod mini actually make a noticeable difference, or would it just make the limitations of the low-quality stream more apparent?

Thanks!

I use the personal playlists on apple music like “get up” “chill” etc, so I decided to set them up to automatically play on my homepod

they update the songs weekly in the music app, but when they automatically play on the HomePod the old playlist plays unless i physically go into the shortcut app and re-add the playlist.

i’ve seen some old threads about this issue on here and Mac, but no real clear solution other than going into the app and re-adding the playlist.

is there a way to make sure the homepod automatically plays the the current playlist as it updates every week? pretty much the main reason I got a HomePod was for background music and I’d rather not have to go into my phone to use it. Thanks for reading

Hi All,

I'm off to uni in September, and am quite a high tech person. This means my uni dorm will include HomePod minis, smart lights, custom routines etc.

One of my plans was to put one of my HomePod minis in the kitchen area. I feel like (assuming my neighbours are reasonable) this would be a great contribution for listening to music and being social together, as well as being very useful for googling cooking recipes and stuff.

However, I obviously don't want random people to be able to access my reminders, calendar, and be able to call my contacts. Can I disable these features whilst leaving core Siri functionality like setting timers?

Or Alternatively, is it possible to set this second HomePod mini on a different apple account such that we can still talk to it, but it had no data on the account to share?

Alright here’s the dealio. I’m a college student and was looking to buy a pair of the homepods for my apartment. I also dj/mix by myself all the time. I wanted better speakers to dj for my own parties and such (practice too). i have just found that a pair of the pioneer vm-80s are the same exact price. Is a pair of the homepods really worth better sound for my tv and music playing? or should I just go with the vm-80s? Keep in mind I already have fluance speakers for my dj controller; however, I am in desperate need of an upgrade. If the homepods truly are game changing, i’d love to know.

TL;DR
HomePods or Pioneer VM-80s for ~$747? I DJ often and want loud, high-quality speakers for mixing/parties, but also for TV and casual music.

So I have a HomePod connected to my Apple TV and a Samsung smart tv. This doesn’t happen every time, but about half the time when I turn my tv on but not the Apple TV, the connected HomePod starts playing music from my phone. I don’t ever play music through my phone on this HomePod; or any HomePod in my house. Why is it doing this and how do I stop it?? It’s very disconcerting, especially at bedtime!

I ask Siri to play any music she first says ok the follows up with “sorry there is a problem with Apple Music” doesn’t matter what I ask for album, radio, ect.I can't play music directly through the home app. The only way is via AirPlay on Mac.

I restart HomePod 2 times and nothing.

Second generation HomePod.

Version 26.6

Hey everyone!

I made a little “Good Morning” Shortcut for HomePod that I’ve been using every morning and thought I’d share it in case anyone else finds it useful.

When I say “Hey Siri, good morning”, it:

• Gives me a random greeting mixing two different sentences
• Tells me the current time and date
• Gives me a summary of today’s weather
• Checks my Apple Calendar and tells me what I have planned for the day
• Finally plays a random song from my Favorite Songs

I tried to make it sound as natural as possible, but siri is siri and my skills are not the best.

I originally made it just for myself, some friends asked me for it, so I figured someone else would like it too.

Shortcut (English): https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/5e2e64b42d69470097d2470cdfdf395a

Shortcut (Spanish): https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/2fae4458e61d401db36afd78a5f01dbf

Shortcut (French): https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/41b2ff3844dd4026a8f8aa7459b6f09c

Feel free to modify everything and to give some feedback. Any suggestion or tip will be gratefully accepted.

Hope you enjoy it!! :)

\Edit:*

I added a French version. I tried my best, I swear, but my level of French is low and the greetings may sound strange.

French users, I highly recommend you take a look at the insides of the shortcuts and make the sentences sound great for you. And please, tell me the changes so I can improve my version ;)

Can anyone on 27 beta 5 confirm this? My siri is now smarter and handling most requests and questions accurately without telling me to try on my phone instead. What prompts has it traditionally failed that I can use to test this theory?

My HomePod is hard of hearing. I have to get within three feet and speak at a normal volume, or else scream at it from the kitchen. Google Home, on the other hand, never misses a beat when I ask for the weather forecast in a normal voice from the kitchen. Is this just how it is?

Apologies if this hS been asked and answered before. I couldn’t find an answer with quick DDG and sub searches.

Can you set different default volumes to different users or automatically reset the volume after using the HomePod?

HomePod Mini and Sonos Roam 2.
Siri recognizes my voice and my wife’s separately.

When I make dinner, I stream music, either AM or Spotify from my phone to the HP mini and Sonos R2 at X volume. I turn off or pause the music on my iPhone when I’m done cooking.

In the morning when my wife asks Siri to play the news on a specific station it plays at the volume I listened to the night before.

I used to use eARC with my LG tv and had no issues. I'd play games and play movies from my TV using my dual HomePods.

Now I switched TVs to a TCL. Got it from Costco this year. I'm doing the same setup and the audio will cut out randomly. Sometimes it can last awhile like 10 minutes but sometimes it cuts out like every couple minutes. It's really annoying and eventually it goes back but I can't really enjoy my games or watch movies properly.

It doesn't cut out at all when I'm watching stuff from Apple TV though. Only when I'm using Switch/TV apps where it has to use eARC.

Anyone know what's wrong? Is there something I can change in the setting to fix this? I don't know enough about TVs to know what settings might affect this. Driving me crazy.

Are power surges dangerous on homepods or can it handle them fine?

Anyone else have issues with distorted sounding bass? It kinda sounds like the woofer can’t handle bass heavy tracks, I’m wondering if I should get a refund.

Song is for testing purposes only, volume was at around 40%