HomePod Mini Internet Connectivity Issues

Td1906 wrote:

Hi,

I can’t use this solution because I live in France and « recognize my voice » is not activated.

I just can change the language of homepod to activate « recognize my voice » but i don’t know how to come back in french language

Multiiser and recognize my voice is, currently, only available when HomePod is configured for English.

See Use multiuser on HomePod - Apple Support for details.

tt2

Same here in Germany. I replaced two AmazonEcho speakers by HomePod mini and was happy to receive them right before Christmas. Now I will have to return them as they don’t support Spotify and have connection problems all the time. I tried to fix this by using different router settings but without result. Spend hours to fix these issues...

"they don’t support Spotify"

Not exactly true. You don't get the same level of functionality as with Apple Music but you certainly can use Spotify:

https://www.the-ambient.com/how-to/streaming-spotify-apple-homepod-siri-airplay-commands-345

"have connection problems"

It's hard to try and help with these if you don't specify exactly what kind of problems you were having and what you tried to do to fix it.

"and it doesn't work! Period! "

I understand that you are angry as anybody would when their product isn't working as intended but to say that it "doesn't work period." is not really true. It's working for me, after some issues, and I would assume for the millions of other people irrespective of the undoubtedly minority of people who are having problems, as annoying as those problems are.

So, I would like to try and help but it's hard if you don't specify exactly what is wrong other than you can't access your calendar. Also helpful would be to know specifically what you did try to fix it.

“unfortunate that Apple hasn’t done more to look into this, maybe it’s because it’s only $100.”

I am completely invested in the Apple ecosystem and have been for years. One of the reasons I have done so is that it has been my experience that everything will end up working if not always right away. I have a Mac Mini, iPhone 12, IPad Mini, full size and mini Homepods, and the Powerbeats Pro. At the moment, every single piece is working perfectly without any bugs at all. I find that to be remarkable and I don’t believe the same could be said of any other ecosystem on the market. Yes, there have been some issues over the years but all were resolved. Therefore, I consider it highly unlikely that Apple has abandoned a subset of their customers because the HomePod mini is “only $100.” I know how frustrating it is when something doesn’t work as intended but if you have to make some accommodation while Apple resolves the issue is it really so terrible?

Apple France support told me today that they have still worked with their ingeniors on this issue for homepod and HomePod mini and they are sure that the problem come from our router’s parameters (all brand)...

i’m afraid that our brand router support don’t be able to find the solution of this issue.

Same what the Apple guy told me here in Germany. But he said that Apple is aware of the problem and that they are working in Germany together with Telekom on this problem. So let’s be optimistic that they will deliver a worldwide solution for sure.

Is it true that this is a small number of people and the issue is router based? If it is then changing the router is a simple fix and I would love to have these pods works as planned. They are good when acting properly.

Same issue here. Homepod mini looses connection after a while. When I ask Siri something, she just states "one moment", "on it" and then tells me, that it takes too long or that she doesnt have internet connection. The normal HomePod works flawless.

Im located in Switzerland and use the latest Swisscom Router...

I am REALLY not keen to replace a perfectly working and new (and expensive!) Swisscom Router just to make a 100 dollar smart speaker work. Apple has to come up with another solution.

Thank you. Do you think it could also solve the problem when I assign a permanent IP Adress to my homepod mini through the router settings?

I could definitely wait for Apple to solve the problem, but I am really not shure they will. I called Apple Support today and it looked like they had no idea... so that uncertainty is frustrating.

I would have my peace if I would know that Apple is working on this and will be able to solve it (an official announcement from apple would be nice...).

my plan was to equip the whole house with Homepod Minis - well definitely not going to do that now.

plus I get the feeling since I installed the mini my homepod also shows some issues from time to time.

"Do you think it could also solve the problem when I assign a permanent IP Adress to my homepod mini through the router settings?"

No

"Apple Support today and it looked like they had no idea... "

I wouldn't pay too much attention to that.

"I would have my peace if I would know that Apple is working on this and will be able to solve it (an official announcement from apple would be nice...)"

Multiple sources including reliable tech magazines have reported a fix is on the way. "official announcements" are not all that common until a fix is implemented.

I have said this before but it is my experience that Apple fixes all relatively common issues. It would be very uncharacteristic for them not to fix this one since it has been publicly reported in multiple venues.

( I know this issue is annoying but a word of advice, unasked for I realize, which is that one shouldn't lose peace of mind over something as trivial as a HomePod that doesn't answer Siri requests. If you, your family and your loved ones are healthy, that should be enough. My take anyway. Be well.)

Hi.

To add another detail which just happened, when I open the Control Center, I tap on AirPlay icons and there’s only my iPhone device but when I go in Apple Music, I tap on AirPlay icon too and the Homepod appear... it’s very strange to see it in Apple Music and not in the AirPlay Control center... and when I select the HomePod with some music playing, it works and when I come back in the Control Center, the Homepod is come back...

Well I guess I also talked to Germany Support and not Switzerland Support and the guy wasnt aware of the problem. Plus there is no point in just exchange with some companies building routers if they dont exchange with the one company I (and others) have the router from.

but anyway, I try to be patient and hope Apple will fix this for ALL routers. After all, sgmerley is right a 100%. Sometimes one need to take a step back and look at what kind of first world problems we are talking about here...

Vancouver22, I would be curious to know why it does work for certain setups. Like I said with this Linksys Velop setup it's working like a charm so far. Granted it's only been a week. And even when I did split my bands before the 5GHz one still became problematic. The minis just do not play nicely with some routers, it's weird. Definitely something that NEEDS to be fixed.

I am having the same issue. I bought a pair of HomePod Minis, and both of them will play music when directly transfered from the iPhone, but any voice commands to Siri are only met with a message that she cannot connect to the internet. Both HomePod Minis are doing this, and no other electronics in the house have any WiFi issues at all. It is very frustrating to have spent $200 for these devices--plus I bought a subscription to Apple Music!--only to have a key feature of the product not work. I hope that engineers are working on a software fix for this ASAP, or replacement products for its customers if the issue is hardware-based. As a lifelong Apple user and customer, I expect more from this company.