Why Won’t Siri Play Music From My Library That I Ask it to Play?

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Level 1

17 points

Why Won’t Siri Play Music From My Library That I Ask it to Play?

I’m having major problems dealing with Siri on my HomePod Minis. Stupid me I thought it was gong to be a simple thing to get it to play MY music. You know music that I own, that’s in my music library. HA! Fat chance!

Every time that I ask Siri to play an artist or song or even a playlist from my library it doesn't work. “Hey Siri play The Joker”. Then it will say “Now playing the Joker by Steve Miller......Sorry but there was a problem with Apple Music”. “Hey Siri play Band on the Run”. “Now playing Band on the Run by Paul McCartney & Wings......Sorry there was a problem with Apple Music”.

I’m getting the feeling that she really can’t. First off I don’t subscribe to Apple Music that’s problem #1. Why are you looking for music there? I have a music library that has thousands of songs. Why aren’t you using that to look for & play songs? I’ll even specify at times “Hey Siri play this or that or songs from my music library. Sorry there was a problem with Apple Music”.

”Arrggghh!!” REALLY? SERIOUSLY? WTH? Apple Music is the only source you go to look for & play music? My own personal library that I have on my devices fo year s doesn’t mean squat? Maybe it’s me but shouldn’t it you know “ASK?!” Where do you want me to play songs off of/from?”

So much for Siri reproving itself as a viable assistant within the new HomePod Mini’s where it had a chance to prove it had some worth to someone. Why will you NOT play anything from my library no matter how I phrase the command or how much I ask? You wonder why Siri is much maligned among all the different assistants. Can anybody PLEASE help & give me a answer as to why this is happening & what a possible solution might be?

Even this so called “Handoff” feature doesn’t do squat 3/4 of the time”. When In play something from my iPhone I can place the thing **** right on top of the dumb HomePod Mini’s & Handoff STILL won’t work a ****. Yes I know how to play my music through the Minis the other way which does work, but that’s not the issue, When I want & need Handoff to work, it doesn’t & that was huge selling point of the HomePod Minis & it doesn’t do it nearly as correctly as it should. Anybody else? Great now I have Siri speakers where Siri chooses not to work. Ideas people. Give answers please. Thank you all.

HomePod mini, 14

Posted on Dec 10, 2020 2:27 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

turingtest2

Level 10

278,257 points

Dec 15, 2020 9:19 AM in response to Cerberus44

Siri on HomePod has access to your unhidden purchase history with the iTunes Store, or your iCloud Music Library if you have a subscription to Apple Music or iTunes Match. (It can be a bit flakey with Match, may help to turn off recognize my voice). Assuming you don't want a subscription you can use AirPlay to play your music through HomePod. See Use AirPlay to stream audio - Apple Support.

Handoff may work better with iOS 14.3. For music it may also rely on content being available through Apple Music. I'm not in a position to test.

tt2

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Answer 2

Cerberus44 Author

Level 1

17 points

Dec 15, 2020 8:11 AM in response to SnickZ.

Congratulations Snick, you did absolutely NOTHING to help me or remedy the situation I just outlined. Just love it when people tell me steps that follow that are nothing like what is actually present in real time. The steps you outlined don’t even exist anymore but something tells me you should know that. There is NO way to “remove” or “delete” anything other than an on/off toggle button that exists in the “Media” category.

There is NO “set default music service” where there is a list where you can choose to tell your device what to play either. Just for the record I toggled off “Apple Music” & you know what? It’s STILL giving me that “There was a problem with Apple Music” every time I request a song from my library. So back to the drawing board for you. Why in the heck should I have to even specify for my own device to play music off of it? Or the HomePod for that matter? All you succeeded in doing is just sending me around in circles to where I ended up where I began, Thanks but no thanks.

You have any more enlightened suggestions? You know ones that actually WORK? Sigh.....SMH..

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Answer 3

SnickZ.

Community Specialist

Dec 15, 2020 5:15 AM in response to Cerberus44

Hi there Cerberus44,

We understand you're experiencing an issue with playing music from your library on your new HomePod mini, and we'd like to see if we can assist.

Get started by reviewing this page: Play audio using Siri on HomePod

Specifically, the "Add a music service to HomePod" and "Set a default music service on HomePod" sections may help.

This page can help with the Handoff issue: Play audio on HomePod using an iOS or iPadOS device

Cheers!

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Why Won’t Siri Play Music From My Library That I Ask it to Play?

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