HomePod Mini Internet Connectivity Issues

Apple is working on the issue. It is a Siri problem, which is specific for the home pod mini. Some routers don’t allow a renewed connection attempt by Siri and then we loose the internet connection. Apple is trying very hard to solve this security issue. That is what they told me here in Germany. The guy said maybe already at the end of the month they will publish the solution.

That is VERY interesting and fits with my experience. When I changed from a Wi-Fi SSID coming from my router to an SSID coming from a powerline extender it worked. So again, until they issue a fix I would encourage people to try an extender if they have one.

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.

Yes, i saw on my Netgear router support that i’m not the only one to have this issue with the Netgear Nighthawk AX4 - RAX40- AX3000, and someone find a temporary fix. He explain that the issue come from the last update about security, and if you roll back update and instal the previous one, it works.

I think it same for other brand of router. I hope too that Apple will deliver a worldwide update.

I am beginning to think it is some sort of multicast or MDNS issue. I now have seperate SSID for 5Ghz and 2.4Ghz. I have noticed now my apple watch has issues (it connects at 2.4Ghz) the MDNS and multicast may not be being sent correctly by the WLAN controller on the two SSID and LAN even thought they are bridged interfaces. on the Cisco WLC I have broadcast forwarding on and Multicast Forwarding on. (the Bonjour GW is off)

As per the rest of the thread I'm having much the same issue with the homepod mini (HPM) staying connected. another asus blue cave owner here.

I have the my blue cave broadcast separate SSID's for 2.4 and 5 ghz and have the HPM connect to the 2.4 ghz channel. DHCP lease is set to 24 hours but I gave the HPM a static IP - I'm also reluctant to change lease time since we mostly work from home and don't need any disconnects during the day from calls, secure vpn etc. I suppose I could set those work devices to static?

I'm lucky if the HPM will stick to its connection for much more than 8 hours, I'm certainly not getting 24 hours. I haven't timed it from a clean power on state but it seems to be somewhere ~7 to 9 hours before it begins fumbling over itself again. Fantastic little device when it is working but it's nuisance when it glitches out. My best other alternative at this point is to add a cheap smart plug and program it to power cycle automatically at least once per day.

On an entirely separate note, do any of you guys experience your HPM's just randomly deciding to play music when it's glitching out?

My Home Pod Mini was playing music for some reason as well and I couldn't get it to stop. It was in a stereo pair and the other mini was playing something different. My HPM's keep dropping the internet and only sporadically stay connected in a stereo pair. I have 2 large Home Pods and 4 mini's and find them all to be a royal pain to deal with. I unplug them, I reboot them, I reinstall them, but mostly now I just ignore them. I would buy a new router if I knew which one solved the issue, but I am not sure that would do any good.

@gbmole - the Blue Cave is the problem. No settings adjustment will help. Using a different router will almost certainly solve the problem, as this thread indicates. It is a small number of people actually experiencing this issue, as most routers work fine with the HomePods & Mini.

Note: one should NEVER need to make adjustments to a wifi router beyond setting your SSID and password. Anything else is a recipe for trouble nearly 100% of the time (I work in networking).

My hunch is that the router is screwing up mDNS, also known as Bonjour. No router settings will fix that.

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.

As mentioned previously, I had this problem with my Blue Cave and spent a few days working with Apple Support looking into the problem. I replaced the Blue Cave with a Portal router that I had lying around and the problem went away. I then replace the Portal with a new TP-Link Archer C2300 and it has performed flawlessly since it was installed. I have it set up with the Same SSID for 2.4 and 5 GHz and it works seamlessly with all 23 devices that connect to it.

For what it's worth, the issue does not seem to be 2.4 vs 5 GHz. While working with Apple I had the issue with both connections. Both the Portal and the Archer support single SSID mode and neither has presented any trouble with the Home Pod Min. This router change also resolved a similar problem with a Mac Mini that would lose its connection periodically and not automatically rejoin the network until it was done manually.

I haven’t commented in awhile on this but keep getting emails about new posts. I also replaced my Asus Blue Cave, with an Eero 6 system and my connectivity issues with the minis went away. They work pretty much as expected all the time now. I would say it’s ridiculous to have to spend money replacing perfectly fine networking equipment just to get hundred dollar smart speakers to work but I’m also pretty invested in the eco system and Covid seemed like a good time to upgrade the WiFi anyway.

I have a Pace 5268 ATT designated router and ATT Fiber 1000 internet service. I have experienced all of the issues stated in this blog. Here are the two things I just tried and if anyone has tried these, please please do tell me your experience.

I have not cycled my router since connecting all of the Home Pods (2 Fat and 4 mini), so I unplugged the router for a couple of minutes and cycled it. All of the home pods seemed to connect.

My router was configured with the same name for the 2.4 and 5.0 radios so I renamed the 2.4 and gave it a different password. The router yelled at me for this but allowed it. ATT documentation says: Although the default approach should meet your needs, you have the ability to rename your network radios by accessing the gateway settings on your computer.

I am thinking one of the home pods might be on a different radio than the other running at different speeds. I don't know if that is possible but I am trying it.

If anyone has ATT Fiber let me know if a router upgrade is needed or a bridge router is needed. I doubt I need signal boosting.

Anyone else, let me know if having the same name on both wifi radios might be an issue.

To the guy that suggests turn on and off voice recognition, yes tried it many times.

A very big thank you to everyone on this blog. This is a wonderful group of people and very helpful.

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.

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.