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HomePod stuck on ‘Configuring’

Spend a few hours today and yesterday trying to set up a HomePod. We’ve already got 4 throughout the house that work fine, including one other I set up yesterday as well without issues. For some reason, this one keeps getting stuck on ‘Configuring’, which prevents me from using it fully.


I’ve already tried several things I found online:

  1. Restarting and Resetting it
  2. Adding it after switching off all other devices (Apple TVs, HomePods) that are logged in on my Apple ID (except the device I’m the HomePod with)
  3. Setting it up with my iPad instead of my iPhone
  4. Creating a new home and adding it there


The only thing that does work is if I create a new home on my wife’s phone and add it there. It spends just a minute ‘Configuring’ and then works as expected. This is using her Apple ID. This was also the only way to update the OS (it came with 11.2.5 and is now on 14.2 using this method). But once I remove the HomePod from my wife’s fake home and try adding it back to our actual home (this has to be done under my Apple ID, as only the owner of the Apple Home can add HomePods), it again gets stuck on Configuring.


So the HomePod hardware and software are OK, our network is OK, other hubs aren’t interfering - it’s something in my Apple account maybe? As I live in a country where the HomePod hasn’t launched, I probably won’t be able to get Apple Support to help. You guys have any tips of what else I could try?

HomePod, 14

Posted on Nov 15, 2020 9:19 AM

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Posted on Dec 29, 2020 1:50 PM

Okay, here is how I fixed mine.


First, I went into the Home app and removed the HomePod from my account.


Next, I unplugged the HomePod for a minute; while plugging it back in, I held my finger atop the middle of the top of the HomePod; shortly afterward, I received the notice that the HomePod was going to reset to factory settings, which was my desire. DO NOT REMOVE OUR FINGER UNTIL YOU HEAR THREE BEEPS OR YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN.


After it reset, I put my phone near the rebooting HomePod... I added it back, and this time, it identified that it had an update, and installed it without issue.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 29, 2020 1:50 PM in response to jeroenfromamsterdam

Okay, here is how I fixed mine.


First, I went into the Home app and removed the HomePod from my account.


Next, I unplugged the HomePod for a minute; while plugging it back in, I held my finger atop the middle of the top of the HomePod; shortly afterward, I received the notice that the HomePod was going to reset to factory settings, which was my desire. DO NOT REMOVE OUR FINGER UNTIL YOU HEAR THREE BEEPS OR YOU WILL HAVE TO DO THIS AGAIN.


After it reset, I put my phone near the rebooting HomePod... I added it back, and this time, it identified that it had an update, and installed it without issue.

Nov 19, 2020 1:24 AM in response to alecc131

Yes I use HomeBridge too - have 3 bridges, 2x Pi and 1x in a Synology Docker. What I’ll do is shut them all down, and try adding the HomePod again while no HomeBridge is running. Maybe I should also reboot my router after shutting down HomeBridge, as in the past there were issues in how routers handle mDNS for HomeBridge. Will report back with my findings.

Nov 20, 2020 12:15 AM in response to jeroenfromamsterdam

I don't know what happened, but when I checked in this morning, my HomePod figured it out and completed configuring. I can access all of its settings.


Will try to pair it to another HomePod later today to form a stereo pair and set it as output for Apple TV but I'm not expecting any issues with that now.


Strangely enough we got a couple of messages on various computers about HomeKit and iCloud yesterday and today so maybe Apple changed something on the cloud side of things that helped sort it out.

HomePod stuck on ‘Configuring’

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