'Sorry there was a problem with apple music'

Also having this problem with a stereo pair of HomePod Minis and a 2nd gen Apple TV 4K: I’ve not been able to test exactly what causes it to emerge, but it happens every day, so I think it’s probably coming back every time we use the TV. I can always get it working by playing from my iPhone. But the kids don’t have iPhones, and every time they ask for Christmas music I have to listen to a rant about how much better their biological dad’s Alexas are. It’s really not a good look for Apple.

Same problem. Our iPhones, iPads and ATV 4K are all at 15.2. HomePod minis fully updated. I can play Apple Music selections if I open the Music app on the ATV, but if I ask Siri to do the same I get the “Sorry, there was a problem with Apple Music.” I can’t even play my own playlists or specific songs — Siri correctly identifies what I want to play and then continues with the error message.

I’ve tried removing and re-installing my account on the ATV. Rebooted ATV and HomePods. Verified I’m the primary user on the HomePods. No luck.

Siri has no problem playing any music on my iPhone or iPad. So what I initially thought was an Apple Music or account problem seems to be a Siri and/or HomePod problem.

https://feedbackassistant.apple.com/

Restarting the ATV doesn’t fix the problem for me. Darn, I could put up with that kludge for a while at least.

I’m a bit mystified why disconnecting the TV from the ATV would make any difference - the TV is just a display. Has this really solved the problem? Did you make any other changes?

I read prior posts that indicated using your Pod as an output for Apple TV was the culprit and removed it. All works fine now. I tried everything -- all related devices are current, restarted and removed the pod. I am going to go to your link of report of the bug and paste the link to this post. Thanks for sharing it.

Whoa. So, reading your post I tried it. Went into my ATV Settings/Audio Output and changed my default audio output to my TV speakers (my TV doesn’t have any, but the ATV doesn’t know that). Instantly, the Apple Music problem went away. Switched default audio back to my HomePod pair and the problem returned.

Prior to 15.0, HomePod minis could only be used as a temporary audio output. I don’t recall this being an issue with that configuration at that time — but under 15.0+, even that configuration triggers this bug.

This is a pretty embarrassing oversight. Apple QA is normally better than this — although they seem to have missed some really problematic bugs in the new Legacy Person feature. (Sorry for the OT).

This is definitely a problem with AppleTV not releasing the HomePod/mini speakers. I just tested this with my after having this same issue and as soon as I unchecked the HomePod mini in audio output/temporary audio output I was immediately able to get the minis to play a request through Siri. I have TVOS 15.2 and the AppleTV Hi Def but not 4K.

apple better get its head out of their proverbial you know what because this same issue has been going on for a long time and until I read this thread I wasn’t sure what was happening.

As this issue has been bothering me (especially the frustrating I see with kids and wife not being able to use HomePods for Apple Music) and I was also annoyed with having to take the Apple speaker off as primary speakers on ATV and adding it back.

HomePods Mini not part of ATV, works fine without an issue.

I have been trying to isolate the issue to determine the cause.

Something I noticed lately was the HomePod failed to process Apple music requests from my wife and kids who were part of the Home App, however it works fine for since the last update with HomePod set a default speaker for ATV. ( I did have this issue previously but not lately since last update).

ATV - 15.2

HomePod 15.2

So I decided to review the Home app setting for my wife and kids and noticed "Show we on AppleTV" was turned off for wife and kids. I'm guessing when I reset in previously troubleshooting I did not enable them. Enabling to show on AppleTV, they are now able to process music request via HomePod without an issue. I've been testing this for nearly 5 days now and so far seems to work in my case.

Not sure if this is case for some of you but decided to share my findings. Good luck!

I’m on 15.2 for ATV and HomePod as well. Still seeing the issue. Changing default audio output to the TV speakers solves the problem, and the asked-for music plays through the HomePods — even though I don’t have any TV speakers. And the HomePods are thus effectively disconnected from the ATV. So something in the ATV is clogging up the works here.

Which ATV do you have? I’m using an ATV 4K.

I’d love to solve this. I’m not sure what you mean by “Show me on AppleTV”. I’ve found references to it on the web, but can’t seem to find it anywhere.

Ah - thanks for that! I thought it was a more general setting, wasn’t looking under my name in People.

Unfortunately, the problem persists even after enabling that.

I have an old Apple ID that’s sort of vestigial, only use it because it has our Family Apple Music subscription. I’d change it over to my in-use ID but I’m worried about losing the purchased music, even when using Family Sharing (that’s still a bit twitchy). So I’m wondering if I somehow need to open the Home app using that old account (a real pain) and flip that switch as well. Grr.

So are you using a different apple ID ATV vs Home App?

I believe the key to get it working with ATV is set the same user or users in Home App (show me on ATV -ON) and ATV. At least that is how I solved it, till apple fixes ATV holding on homePod.

You can add multiple IDs to Home App, just need to invite them to HomeApp and turn on show on apple TV.

Yes that does appear to be case.

Weird my wife and I are not using iCloud as our primary email for Apple ID (even though we have iCloud account). I'm using hotmail (I used in 2007) for fist iPhone. My wife is using yahoo email for her apple ID.

Is the ID you trying to add part of Family sharing?

Update: From reading, it appears the ID (email) being requested to Home App needs Apple ID

used with their iCloud.

I’m having the same issue and the setting “show me on AppleTV” has been on always (but appreciate the fix suggestion).

My issue started just a few days ago. I have HomePod mini stereo pair and they are my audio for ATV 4K gen 2. I have them all on auto update and they should all be on the very latest. I use Siri to “playlist 80s” virtually every day. Worked excellent for months (I love it) but in the last couple of days, 100% of time I get the “there was a problem with Apple Music”. I did a hard reset of the minis (the old school analog method - unplugged and waited a minute). No change. I’ve been working around it by playing the music on my iPhone then select HomePod minis as the Bluetooth connection. Now the HomePod minis are playing music. Siri responds to turn on lights and the TV just fine, AppleTV is working fine.

im going to investigate more. I very recently added a few apps to ATV (PlutoTV for one) and one just received an update (the interface is different for that app).

This may be an Apple thing but it’s odd posters here are having the same issue at different times. So I’m theorizing an app added to ATV could be causing ATV to incorrectly interact with HomePod minis

I’ve been having this problem too (non stop, started in just the last few days) but I was able to solve mine right now. FYI, my setup is ATV 4K 2gen paired with 2 HomePod mini stereo audio.

Just now asked Siri to play 80s and again got the “problem with Apple Music”. I then had Siri turn on ATV. Once on, using the ATV remote I hit the home button to be on the Home Screen. I then hit the home button twice to bring up all Apps that are open/running. I closed the Tubi and PlutoTV app (swipe up to close). I then had Siri turn off ATV. I waited a minute to confirm ATV was definitely off. I then asked Siri play 80s, success! 80s Music played.

If you’re running Tubi or Pluto, I’d force close these apps, then turn off ATV, then ask Siri to play your music. If the issue is still happening, I’d try repeating the process and force closing any other app that’s running (for me I suspect it was the PlutoTV app, not Tubi).

Hope that helps