HomePod not responding after updating to OS 17.4

Mines also died… 1st Gen now obsolete by Apple… with no remorse or compensation as if this products costs $10 bucks.

If I can’t sort it out I’ll be putting them on fire @4k and post it on social media… Apple is getting me so mad this last days… iPhone, Apple Watch, Apple TV (& controller), Apple Car & Bluetooth have a LOT of errors, malfunctions, etc. This trademark is becoming a waste. Might change everything to Alexa/Amazon/Bose related (also phone).

My stereo pair of OG Homepods became unresponsive after the 17.4 update. I went through the full reset process described by Apple. One reset via the Home app on my iPad. The other did not and I needed to go through the manual process:

Reset HomePod - Apple Support

Both are now working as default output for my Apple TV.

BTW - I suspect that being linked to the Apple TV is this way was a factor in them becoming unresponsive - other OG Homepods updated without issues. I recommend that users remove Homepods as default audio output of an Apple TV before updating them.

My HomePod 1st gen also died after the 17.4 update 😡

Hi.

RE: HomePod 17.4

I have received no error message. But it’s taken longer to finish. I have 3 mini’s. So far it’s been 6 hours. 2 are finished.

All off mine sat in installing status in the home app for a very long time.

I did not unplug, to avoid corrupting …. Just left it alone.

hope this helps

I’m sorry I can’t be of help. The update only came up for me today. I’ve not yet installed it. Will tomorrow. I get nervous installing updates on the OG. I have 4 of them and have been lucky so far. True, they are long out of warranty now. Apple might offer a repair which isn’t worth the cost. There’s a guy called Nic who fixes them and that’s all I can say. Use google. It’s a shame because they are such a good speaker.

Yes my mini 1 was bricked by 17.4 . It was working fine earlier in the day when I was listening to music then in the evening and it kept cutting out saying no internet/ can't connect to Apple Music . Then I noticed it was trying to update via the home app as I was streaming music via my phone to the HomePod.

a few hours later it still hadn’t updated it was just a spinning light so I unplugged it & tried to get it going again to no avail.

I then tried the reset with holding the top of the HomePod and all I got was a red light that was doing nothing.

no chimes or voice to say it’s resetting then it just died.

I’ve tried to get it working since last night and nothing. Apparently your supposed to be able to plug it into a Mac go to finder folder and factory reset as their support page claims.

my Mac can’t find it, My hope is trying tommorrow on windows once my usb c to usb adaptor comes as the pc has no usb c ports.

hopefully windows can recognise it and let me reset with iTunes as there’s no way to even do it via Apple Music app that I can find on my Mac air.

what a carry on so much for it just works and apple is easy. They give you steps and they don’t work and they do not make it easy to be able to restore devices like you could in iTunes.

you would think they dont want you to fix issues , sad that their firmware messed up my device I paid for and conviently its out of warranty.

I never initiated the update either it was doing it without my knowledge.😞

We will see what apple support say if they do my support call tommorrow i have also emailed the retailer so we shall see if it gets resolved as it’s 2.5 years since I got it.

im not buying another speaker after this. The sound quality wasn’t really the greatest on it even in a small kitchen .

I just got a new phone and my MacBook from them recently but this has just made me question buying anything else going forward.

What worked for me is to unpair the stereo pair and pair it again. And also a restart of the Apple TV.

Hard to understand why it was needed but after iOS 17.4 update, it was not possible anymore to play Apple Music via Siri or via the Apple Music app on my iPhone. (With airplay). Asking weather for instance was still working.

We all love the OGs but sadly quite a few users reported they died and this was usually following an update.

Now I’m not sure but I believe the popping sound is one of the first symptoms they’re about to go. I’ve had the popping sounds on mine but managed to fix it and I am hoping this has staved off them dying. I did the following steps immediately upon hearing the first pops. I recommend you do this if the others start popping or exhibiting any other strange behaviour . Save or print these steps (in bold) so you know what to do right away:

• Unplug HomePod for over 24 hrs
• Plug back in

1. Unplug HomePod or unplug the power adapter for HomePod mini, wait 10 seconds, then plug HomePod back in.
2. Wait 10 seconds, then touch and hold your finger to the top of HomePod.
3. The white spinning light will turn red. Keep your finger down. 
4. Siri will say that your HomePod is about to reset. When you hear three beeps, you can lift your finger.

• After you reset HomePod, you can set up HomePod again.

it’s the same hard reset method Apple instructs to do with the difference being you first unplug them for over a day. I honestly fear installing the updates and I don’t think I’ll install iOS 18 when it comes out in September. This might mean they won’t play nice with my other Apple devices that have all been updated to the latest. I’ll see how it goes and might try one first (I have 4 OGs). I don’t want to “update all” at the same time. I go into the home app selecting each one individually and updating the one before proceeding with the others.

Hope this helps. I don’t want you to lose your other ones that still work.

I’ve not installed 17.4 on it yet. I will once it’s released. The only thing you can try is another hard reset. Except this time unplug it for over 24 hours before plugging back in to begin the reset . Plug back in before you begin.

Reset HomePod - Apple Support

Hi Guys,

I read this thread and the issue is very similar of what I experienced lately.

Let me explain.

I have

• 2 HomePod 2nd generation in my living room connected to the AppleTV 4K.
• 1 HomePod mini in my kitchen,
• 1 HomePod 1st generation in my bedroom

All are with the version 17.4 (21L227).

Beginning of May, I had difficulties to ask Siri to play some music on my live-in-room's HomePod. After spending some time with the support, the problem was on the Apple TV. The new Music Conditions were not confirmed, therefor all vocal command for music did not work. But it works well if I played from my Mac or my iPhone, where I agreed with the new conditions.

I had to reset entirely my AppleTV and re-installed it.

Then it works.

Then one week later, I ask Siri to play some music in my kitchen (while I was cooking 😊), and then I asked Siri to transfert the music to my living-room. And not working.

I went to my iPhone (12 Pro, IOS17.4.1) and try to play the music to my living-room's HomePod, and nothing.

I am getting frustrated, because the speakers did not appear on the menu list on airplay. 😡

I unplugged the HomePod mini, reset it and try to set up it again. Not working. I tried 5 times.

But I had an error message about my iCloud Account. It was locked for security 🤯🤬

To avoid the question, I live alone and nobody have access to my account or to my wifi network. I don't share anything thru IOS/iCloud.

So I follow the steps on my iPhone and setup a new password for my iCloud account. And then my mini get set up properly.

But I had to "sign out" my iPhone and my MacbookAir from my iCloud account, and then sign-in back with the new password. And everything works ok.

Summary :

For some reason, since the update on 17.4(21L227), I had big issues. And the big one was with my iCloud account and my password. I don't understand how is that possible, but it is.

And even right now, sometime Home App do not "see" properly what is playing or not.

Today, I tried to transfer my music from my kitchen to my living room, and Siri told me that she can't do it.

And by looking on my iPhone, it did not recognize my HomePods in my living room either.

I had to wait like 3 minutes for my iPhone to "see" them and then be able to play music with a vocal request.

And now, the player appear only iPhone locked screen, which takes also few minutes.

So since the 17.4, my major issues were :

• big latency for the HomeApp to recognize and sync the devices
• big issue about iCould account (get locked by itself)
• No message to let me know that my account get locked.

Apple Support, I opened 3 tickets (in France, because I live in France) about it. I still have a phone meeting on Monday with support level 2. But I definitively believe that the Version 17.4(21L227) is the problem.

Cheers

I only saw that the installation was running automatically and one day later I realised that the HomePod did not respond and touched the display wich also did not respond. Looked at the home app and it was saying HomePod not reachable. Unplugging and plugging in also didn’t help its dead

Mine too. 1st gen. Made a popping sound while I was listening to it after the update and died. When I plugged it back in the volume icons are blinking. No other response. Wish I hadn’t updated. Have a handful of the originals and love them. So bummed they were replaced by lower quality version. I would have continued to purchase originals at a higher price point.

My homepod mini had version 17.4 and only when I asked it for the time it answered the following: I found some results on the internet, I can show them to you if you ask me again from your iPhone, I updated it to 17.5 and it still answers the same thing apparently it's a bug

Yes, one of my two died. I was just about to order the bigger Homepod and I am so relieved that I didn’t if this is all the better the quality control is for Apple’s speakers. **** I went out and bought Harman Kardon Soundsticks 4 which is a 2.1 sound system that comes with a proper subwoofer that pushes out serious bass and two satellite (but wired) speakers that plug into the subwoofer. They are absolutely amazing. I cannot believe the sound they put out. Such clarity, power and you can also hook up to them using an AUX cable as well.

I knew going in that the Homepod Minis were gonna be a small pair of speakers with some creative cone and bass designs to push out louder sound than something so small should be able to, but they’ve both been a pain in my side since about six months after I bought them. I have reviewed and used (and bought) a lot of speakers over the years, and the HK Soundsticks 4 are the first pair to flabbergast me the moment I turned them on. They are far and away better than the Amazon Echo Studio, Amazon Echo 4th version (2 of them + the Amazon Echo Subwoofer) as well as two Sonos 1 with sub. Plus, I only paid $299 for them.

I’m gonna continue to try to repair them my mini’s, as they work well with my apple TV, we’ll see what happens,

[Edited by Moderator]