HomePod Mini Internet Connectivity Issues

Happy to report that Siri is still answering queries this morning on all three Minis. This makes over 12 hours since the update where there has been no problem with the service. Seems like the iOS 14.4 really did the trick.

I just unplugged my blue cave and setup a Gen 2 Eero Pro. So far everything is running smoothly with no “cannot connect” errors.

Dual Band wifi doesn’t work well with the HomePods. Had mine split as well & am using the 5G. Makes a big difference.

Switching off/on the recognise voice switch worked for me. Thanks

update 14.4 fixed all my issues with HomePod mini & HomePods - have total of 5.....all kinds of problems & just waited for Apple to address. All is well now, thank you Apple.

Something new I have noticed since the firmware upgrade..

The DHCP Lease time is 7 Days. Connected 802.11a (5 Ghz)

3 x Home Pod Mini Power cycled at 11.00.am

a continuous ping every 5 seconds to each Home pod mini

11:00am next day pings stopped to all 3 home pod mini

Once they stop working.. If I touch them they say "having trouble connecting to internet" but then 30 seconds later the ping starts working and then they are operational again with out the power cycle.

I have been following this Apple community discussion as I too am having HomePod & HomePod mini connectivity issues. I am a Apple fan, so I have gone to great lengths to resolve myself....thinking it could not be an Apple issue. 1). Purchased WiFi extender & moved it all over home...did NOT help. 2) Have moved router/gateway (ATT Device [ARRIS - BGW210] to a central location in home...did NOT help.3.) Worked with ATT tech support (numerous times), thinking it was a router problem....did not help. 4). Had ATT out to home twice..move router/gateway & increase speed to 45 Mbps...did not help. 5) Purchased 5 WEMO smart switches and installed at each HomePod (have two homepods & three mini’s)...This did help with interim fix- when one unit disconnected I can turn off power to individual unit from Home app, wait 10 seconds then turn back on & wait approximately 30 seconds for HomePod to reboot. (Note: 3 HomePod mini’s disconnect more than the 2 Homepods). Homepods work fine for undetermined time then any one will disconnect. 6) Found this Apple community and have tried almost all fixes you diligent people have suggested....no luck for me. 7) installed all updates & prayed for 14.3 would be the fix.....Nope no change. Come on APPLE!

Two days now and the HomePod mini has been rock solid so I am very much hoping this has been the fix. If I was motivated I would try moving my living room full-size HomePod to my office to see if it has the same issue when the Wi-Fi signal is weak. If not, that would seem to confirm that the networking hardware in the mini is not as good as in the full-sized unit. If it had the same problem, then the issue would seem to be present in all HomePods. But since everything is working, I’m not terribly enthusiastic about moving hardware around. Of course, it is also possible that it was something in the third reinstall that worked correctly and it had nothing to do with the Wi-Fi signal which was just a coincidence.

Hard to say, but given my experience I would encourage users with problems and multiple SSIDs to use the one with the strongest signal. If there is only one SSID then it might be worthwhile moving the HomePod mini next to the router to see if that makes any difference. Also more than one attempt at reinstall might be worthwhile before giving up.

I moved it to my bedroom, which is further away to the router.

Further away is NOT the same as less signal strength which has other variables that come into play but it doesn't sound like you played with the placement before the update so no way to know. I also tried with another router almost next to the unit but had problems. It's not until I switched to the 2nd and stronger of the two SSID's that things starting working. However, as I already wrote, there is no way to tell if it was the change of signal or the reinstallation that fixed things.

In your case, it seemed the update was a fix. No idea what might have been changed.

Sgmerley Sorry about that. I just made the changes an hour ago so I don't know if it worked or not yet. I will try to be more clear in the future. I sped through my writing too quickly.

I cycled the router by unplugging it and let it boot up again. All of the home pods found their way back to the network and all connected properly. Is this a long term fix? I don't know, I just did it within a couple of hours. I do know I added all of the home pods over the last two months and never recycled or rebooted the router. So I tried it.

My router allows different SSID's for the different wifi radios but recommends the same SSID for both speeds. Up until an hour ago, the 2.4 radio and the 5.0 radio had the same SSID, so I changed the SSID on the slower 2.4 radio. If you want the fast SSID the network name is FAST-TKO. If you want the slow SSID, the network name is SLO-TKO. Prior to the change, the device could determine the connect speed and which radio to connect to. Now that I changed it the device has no option to choose from. I am hoping to stop the switching capability of the home pods and maybe have a stable setup. I do not know if this is a solution yet or not, it is too early.

What I was asking everyone was "Has anyone tried either of these approaches and if so how did it go?" I am sure the much more talented people than me have been down this road already.

I was also asking anyone with ATT fiber 1000 if changing the router worked and if so what router was successful. Somewhere in the 14 pages I thought someone made a comment along those lines and I was thinking maybe it worked. I don't know.

To those that suggest restarting the home pods, unplugging the home pods, removing and setting them up again, checking if the software needs updated, or any other HOME setting, I have done all of that so many times. I am convinced this is an infrastructure issue.

Thank you for engaging. Sorry for my prior lack of eloquence.

You can try that but based on my experience and I think everybody else here it won't work. It seems to be a router issues so you need to either change your router, use a powerline adapter, or wait for a fix. But go ahead if it makes you happy :-)

The HomePod mini has connection problems if you have a regular and a 5G connection on your router. In the past week after I bought it, the HomePod switches to the non-5 g network after being idle for a while. Tried dropping to a single network and that seemed to be better but still dropped. Need a way to hand code an internet connection into the Hompod. Return back to Alexa, even though I do not trust Amazon. I have multiple Macs, iPhones, iPads and Apple TV's in my house and am a CTO in a company. Worst Apple product , sorry to say.

Hi Nick.

Sounds like a different issue that’s been described in this thread.

For all of us the trouble has been after our Minis were successfully set up. The Mini would work for a little while and then when you asked Siri for something she would complain she didn’t have a connection to the internet. The only way to “fix” the problem was to reboot your router and/or Mini. It seems this may have been fixed in iOS 14.4.

If I’m not mistaken it sounds like you have a different issue - you cannot set up your Mini on your home network. If that’s right, it might be best to start a new topic or look for one that’s more similar to what you are experiencing. I quickly looked and found this:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252363320

There isn’t a lot to it but maybe it will contain something helpful. Otherwise, you might consider starting a new thread. :)

Good luck!

He said always check for updates for the router and the homepod.

Same here. Ditched my Blue Cave for an Eero and have had no issues since.