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macOS iTunes app + Airplay2 HomePods : it is not working

I've seen many reactions to this subject. But the result is always the same: there are numerous issues when playing music from your Mac (macOS Mojave) to your HomePods. My Mac is wired connected to the network, and my HomePods are on the Wifi. But I checked: I put my Mac also on (the same) Wifi, and the result is always the same: it takes numerous attempts to connect to a HomePod pair and play Airplay2 stereo music. Over and over, either the HomePods are "not ready", "not available" or what have you. I rebooted Mac, rebooted HomePods, ask HomePods to play Beats1, then connect Mac, etc. - you name it. The conclusion is that the connection is very buggy: most often it doesn't work. -- This is in sharp contrast to iOS devices. My iPhoneX with iOS 12.2 has nob issues whatsoever. Hence my conclusion: Apple is purposely creating issues on macOS, so people don't use HomePods from their Macs. I think this is unfortunate, and would please appeal with Apple to improve iTunes.app, so it works as flawlessly as it does on iOS. Thank you so much.

HomePod, iOS 12

Posted on May 3, 2019 2:19 AM

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Posted on May 15, 2019 9:36 AM

So, a few days ago Apple released the Mojave 10.14.5 update. This includes support for "Airplay 2 for devices", and "devices" seems to mean LG Televisions. And behold! Suddenly the iTunes.app on macOS starts working almost flawlessly. Now it almost always connects to my HomePods. I'm sorry, but I cannot conclude that opening Airplay 2 for other brands, made Apple implement a more robust re-work of their Airplay 2 protocol...


But hey, I am not complaining, and I am very happy that many months after the Airplay 2 introduction with multiple stereo speaker support, since this update it finally does work as advertised.


It just took a long time and some partnerships to do it...


Conclusion: solved! :) :)

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May 15, 2019 9:36 AM in response to turingtest2

So, a few days ago Apple released the Mojave 10.14.5 update. This includes support for "Airplay 2 for devices", and "devices" seems to mean LG Televisions. And behold! Suddenly the iTunes.app on macOS starts working almost flawlessly. Now it almost always connects to my HomePods. I'm sorry, but I cannot conclude that opening Airplay 2 for other brands, made Apple implement a more robust re-work of their Airplay 2 protocol...


But hey, I am not complaining, and I am very happy that many months after the Airplay 2 introduction with multiple stereo speaker support, since this update it finally does work as advertised.


It just took a long time and some partnerships to do it...


Conclusion: solved! :) :)

May 3, 2019 2:48 AM in response to Condios

As an added input, I did some testing with several iOS devices (all 12.2). So, I have an old iPad mini, that is not being slowed down by Apple. And guess what: all my other iOS devices can flawlessly connect to the HomePods pair, except for this one. I see it 'trying' (the circular 'wait' thingy), but it took THREE successive attempts before it would connect. Eventually it connected. Needless to say, speed is of importance when connecting devices with HomePods. Speed, Apple is not throttling...

May 4, 2019 1:30 AM in response to turingtest2

Hi,

Thank you for your answer, and I appreciate it.

However, this should not be necessary if Apple created a good product.

Telling their customers to cripple the network for its devices is not very nice :) :)

Also, if this were the case, then why does it work flawlessly on iOS devices, but often not on macOS iTunes.app?

So, really, I do appreciate, but I feel this is not the right direction.

Many thanks, though, much appreciate the effort.

BR,


Diederik

macOS iTunes app + Airplay2 HomePods : it is not working

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