tvOS 14.5 - Homepod Audio sync issues

Not sure if you reset the Apple TV or HomePods or both?

The HomePods may have updated also, if you had them enabled to automatically update. If not, then update the HomePods to 14.5 as well. If it’s still not working restart or reset HomePods Reset HomePod - Apple Support

• Update the software on the iOS device you set up HomePods with
• Try restarting them first.

A Reset or removal will require setting them up again

You can choose to do a hard Reset by pressing the top or via the home app- long press on HomePod icon, scroll to gear icon, scroll, to bottom - Remove.

To Restart them, from the Home App in HomePod settings - choose Reset - then Restart

I had exactly the same issue. Restarting and resetting the homepod and after calibrating the audio numerous times, it didn't fix the issue unfortunately. The workaround I did which worked is as follows:

1. Turn off both Dynamic Range and Frame Rate under Settings->Video & Audio->Match Content
2. Do the calibration again under Wireless Audio Sync
3. Turn on both Dynamic range and frame rate under Match Content

I noticed there's still a very slight delay between TV speaker and homepod when I play youtube videos and music but when I play Netflix and Apple TV contents, they are well perfectly synced. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the advise Vancouver22 - however after factory resetting and then re-setting up two Homepods and ATV 4K there is no change to the problem. This was an awesome feature, allowing me to enjoy peaceful relaxing music throughout my whole unit - when it works!

In the process of resetting everything, I also noted that I lost the ability to control the volume of the ATV output. I use my iPhone to airplay to two HomePods and an ATV - after reset the ATV played full volume (my TV is connected to a pair of KRK monitors - so the neighbours got an earful). After restarting Apple Music on the iPhone the volume control re-appeared. This one feature is why I have Homepods, ATV and an Apple Music subscription - when it works its brilliant.

If it's not fixed soon, I will eBay the Homepods and Apple Music subscription and switch to Sonos and Spotify :(

Ok I think I have a solution for you people - at least these steps seem to work for me:

Setup - two Homepods and one Apple TV connected to LGTV with optical connection to two KRK monitors. All in different rooms (configured with Home app on iPhone iOS14.5)

After upgrading all devices to 14.5 - Homepods were out of sync with ATV/KRK - I hav previously factory reset all devices and couldn't get SYNC working as it was before 14.5 upgrade!!!!!

So, this is my recollection of the steps to getSYNC working - good luck, I hope this works for you

I moved the Homepods next to the ATV, and used Home app to configure Homepods into the same room (living room) and also configured as "paired".

Then I set the ATV to use the Homepods as audio out (ATV Settings - Video & Audio - Default Audio Output - Select - Homepods

Played some ATV through them and while a show was playing, next step,

From iPhone I played music and directed the music to the Airplay - in my case the "Living Room" (which was Homepods-Pair) and then added the ATV speakers to the airplay list and F-me it played in sync.

Then I un-paired the Homepods - still all in sync

Then moved the Homepods back to different rooms and I can airplay to all three devices IN SYNC - F-yeh

It sounds awesome again with ODESZA filling the place with music IN SYNC

Reboot the wifi router as well. If this is one app doing it that might be the culprit. Although if you reset the Apple TV you would have installed the latest versions of other apps.

Any time this happened with mine, I would force quit the app & Restart Apple TV. Or even restart the show from the beginning. There are some shows that appear to be doing this when they’re not, if they are dubbed versions. Their mouths aren’t moving in sync with the sound.

Been having this exact same problem with my AppleTV 4K and two homepods. I've reset my AppleTV and two homepods and it still won't sync. Recalibration does nothing.

Frustrating indeed. Everything was just fine before the 14.5 update and now it's a shambles.

Same here, I have a HomePod mini and Apple TV 4K, all on 14.5, and the audio is just out of sync. Using the Wireless Sync tool doesn’t help, and even seems to increase the delay between HomePod and TV. The lag seems to be a few ms, just enough to be annoying and create an echo.

Yep came here looking for a solution to the same problem - it was working perfectly until I foolishly updated the tv and now it’s unusable which is a shame because it sounded fantastic with all speakers in sync - virtually 3 dimensional 😕 I wonder if they’ll release a bug fix for it because nothing I’ve tried seems to work - it seems as though a number of people are having similar problems

I have the same problem when trying to sync my Sonos speakers. The problem is that apple took out the option to calibrate all formats for 24hz. It was on there for TVos 14.4 and have no idea why they took it out. Most movies/shows are 24hz format and will always be out of sync until we can calibrate under that again. Please fix this apple!

I have the same issue although I'm using bose smart speakers within my audio environment. Just recognized when switching off/reset audio sync within the apple tv 4k setting (don't run a new setup!) sync is much better when using airplay but still not 100% perfect.

Yes, brutal sync issues with 14.5. When playing some mp4 videos on my ATV that sit on my MacBook Air (Silicon) the audio slowly gets ahead of the video and continues to drift further ahead (I'm on a 1GB line). In five minutes it gets about 5 seconds off. If I pause and immediately play it is resynced. And starts drifting again. It NEVER did this in any earlier OS. If I convert the file to a massive mov it will properly play. I reset everything from scratch. Even more frustrating is that it is only some of my mp4s, not all, although they all have identical compression and format (as far as I know). The "bad" ones are consistently bad, good ones always good. Really hope 14.5.1 fixes this. Starting to regret buying a pair of HomePods when they first came out to go with my ATV. :(

PS. There are zero problems when using apps such as Netflix, Amazon, ATV+ directly on my ATV.

Hi. here in France with atv 4K 2 homepods and 2 mini (in other room). I have the same issue here but the french customer service seems to discover it.

dont know what to do :

A downgrade in a apple store ?

get the new atv? In that case Apple should take back my old one !

[Edited by Moderator]

absolutely! i do have a massive echo after running the audio sync via AirPlay on my aTV 4k (TV speakers) and two Bose Smartspeakers. Desaster! As mentioned it is even better without sync but still not acceptable! Apple has to fix thata ASAP!

Figured a solution. Turn on av sync AND bypass on tv settings (I have LG 65inch 4K). My set-up is optical out from tv to external front 3.1 Bose speakers. I use HomePods for 3D surround effect. Also with Apple TV 4K do NOT use audio sync calibration just reset this. Bingo everything as it was and beautiful sound in every app I’ve tried (Netflix, youtubetv, etc). I hope this helps with 14.5 update.