Homepod suddenly can't access my Apple Music library.

Just wanna add - as per today - all issues resolved by itself. Thank you Apple. I knew it, it's from your end.

Its working fine now.

Taking all the requests also...

Might be some backend cloud issue!

Took them 4 days to fix it 😔

I am seeing the same issue, but only on one of our three homepod minis.

The one in question belongs to my daughter so was originally setup with her own limited ID that shares our AppleOne subscription. It worked fine to start with but the following day it gave up and just tell us 'There is a problem with Apple Music'.

I have tried turning off voice recognition etc, and then reset it and configured it only with my ID. However this makes no difference. Everything is up to date and the settings are identical as my other two minis so i am at a loss.

Note: No Apple TV to get in the way here.

I have also been battling this on my HomePod for a couple weeks. After a number of calls with Apple Support, the answer is that this feature was removed in the software update to HomePod with iOS 14. The only way that Siri will shuffle your own library of music is for you to pay Apple for Apple Music, even if you do not want Apple Music. I have my own extensive music library and enjoyed having Siri shuffle it and play back on HomePod. I do have a iTunes match subscription, but greedy Apple has now taken away functionality, trying to force users to pay monthly subscriptions. My suggestion is the leave Apple feedback on the removal of this functionality. They are already getting subscription money from me with iTunes Match, but if this doesn't get fixed, I will be discontinuing that as well.

Yes, been down these roads as well. Phone, iPad, etc. will shuffle my library with a simple request. It is only HomePod that has this issue. Took me well over a week and multiple calls and time on the phone with Support to find this out. Apple has decided to removed this capability from HomePod for whatever reason.

Is your HomePod paired with an AppleTV? I was having a similar issue, not specifically with shuffling, but HomePod wouldn’t play any songs I asked. Siri would always say, “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music “. Eventually I realized that the AppleTV I have that HomePod paired with was signed into my wife’s account, and she doesn’t have an Apple Music subscription. Switched ATV to my account and it started working again. Worth a try I’d say.

I have had a few calls with a few senior support folks. The last person I spoke with was Holly. Very knowledgeable and helpful. After installing a couple diagnostic tools, on my phone and HomePod, the diagnostic logs were analyzed by Apple Engineering and I then was told that randomly playing music shuffled from my library (iTunes Match, not Apple Music) is not supported. Interesting part is that it worked fine prior to the iOS 14 update. It works fine on an iPad or on my iPhone, but HomePod will not do it. There are some less than desirable work arounds, and any specific artist, song, album, or playlist will work. As there was no real answer to this, that prompted me to write a letter to Tim Cook. While I did not get a direct response from him, an Executive admin called me back to discuss, then when and had some internal meetings. I received another call about a week later, and was told the specific issue was identified and it is on the backlog to resolve. There is no specific time frame to do this, but it at least sounds like they may ultimately fix it. If you happen to have a HomePod that isn't updated to iOS 14 or higher, then my suggestion is don't update it until this is fixed. Something worked just fine and someone decided it was perfectly fine to remove that functionality. If you are willing to pay for Apple Music (I am not), then you can ask Siri to play some music and you will get a shuffled stream of music. Pretty much defeats one of the features that worked perfectly fine with iTunes Match.

This started happening to my HomePod pair too once they were set to the default audio option for my Apple TV. Really hoping they can fix this in an update since the main use of a HomePod is to play music using voice commands and now it can't even do that.

christian145 wrote:

Homepod 14.3 iTunes Match here, and cant play any music at all. If I say Hey Siri, play this or that song Siri always tell me that she could not find this song on Apple Music. I dont have an Apple Music subscription. I dont need it. I want to buy music not rent it.

Try turning off the recognize my voice feature. When enabled this seems to block iTunes Match users from access to their iCloud Music Libraries.

tt2

The iTunes Match and your own library issue still exists even in the 14.3 update. Apple is aware of the issue and has stated that they will work on it. This all started with HomePods when the firmware was updated to 14.0. I have two HomePods. One is 14.3 and the other is 13.x. As long as the one with older firmware is the controlling HomePod (I use them paired for stereo), then if you ask Siri to play music, it all works fine. When the other with firmware 14 or higher is the primary HomePod, you will get the "sorry, there is a problem with Apple Music" issue. I don't have an Apple Music subscription, nor do I intend to. Until they resolve this issue, I will keep the one HomePod at whatever version of 13 it is. With 14 and above, I have no issues asking for specific albums, artists, songs, from my library (iTunes Match). Specific requests or even specific playlist requests work fine, but I want to it to just play random music without having to request something specific.

I've had the same problem. This is only my personal experience, but here's what worked for me....

I opened the Home app on my iPhone. Hard/long press the HomePod speaker to open the settings. Choose any item from the Apple Music library. This will make it play on the HomePod. After that, the HomePod works normally. (i.e. I don't have to go back to the Home app. I can just say "hey Siri, play Alien fart noises.") It works just fine.