homepod makes loud pop and disconnects from AirPlay after upgrading to iOS 15

Same here. I have three HomePods and during this fall they all "pop" at least a couple of times every day, a sound much like a gunshot and then the speakers restarts. Why, oh why?

And also, I think the overall connectivity is worse since OS 15. I have to ask Siri three, four times to get all speakers play the same thing.

I have the exact same issue and hopefully the info below will help for clarification of a potential hardware issue your HomePod.

With the popping sound and then the HomePod disconnecting and resetting itself after 2-3 minutes it is best to check on the iPhone, the HomePod been set up with, for a possible hardware issue.

Using your iPhone you can do this by:

1.Going into the Home App, selecting the HomePod that makes the popping sound by pressing your finger onto its icon and it will open the settings for this HomePod.

2.Scroll to the bottom and on the right there will be a grey cog icon (the HomePod's settings) and tap on this.

3.Another menu will pop up with all the various settings for the HomePod but you need to scroll down to Analytics and Improvements and tap on this menu.

4.There will be another menu that reads Analytics Data and you need to tap on this. This menu will then show lines of text of what the HomePod does when running in the background. You need to look at a line that starts panic-full (you should see the date(s) of when the popping occurs and there will be a time recorded which will match up to when the popping sound and disconnect happens.

My HomePod has just done 2 separate popping noises and then reconnected to my iPhone. In my Analytics Data is shows the following:

panic-full-2021-11-18-121115

panic-full-2021-11-18-121434

Those figures that read 121115 or 121434 means time recorded of 12:11pm (and 15 seconds) or 12:14pm (and 34 seconds) which is approximately 3 minutes between each popping noise, disconnect and then reconnection.

No amount of resetting/unpairing with the HomeApp will change this. Sadly, it is a hardware issue and the only way forward is to replace the HomePod if it's still in warranty/covered under consumer law that applies to the country it's been bought from or pay for an out of warranty replacement as long as the HomePod is in stock. If it doubt always seek advice at an Apple Store or call/chat with Apple Support. They are there to help...

Took one of my HomePod Stereo pair into Apple Australia (Doncaster) today after ~5 months of the loud feedback/popping noise about every couple of weeks (more on one than the other).

Given its an original it’s nearly 4 years old - so Apples response is it not repairable - its a replacement at my cost. I stated that I had a reasonable expectation that the product that cost about AU$500 should work more than 4 years.

Had a discussion about reasonable expectation of the product to function under Australian Consumer Law - but the store staff they cannot help and to talk to customer support.

I cannot help feeling that a design issue in the HomePod is not being acknowledged and the consumer is being forced to navigate multiple levels of apple bureaucracy in order to receive a fair outcome (I’d be very interested in seeing if anyone did get a HomePod swap repair for the loud popping/reset issue after navigating apple support for an outer of apple warranty HomePod).

yes, this is no harware issue. the last days i played around with my hompods and i loged out for my apple music account and used airplay only from my iphone/mac this solfed the problem for me. the homepods don't get as warm as before.

I've just read on a Reddit forum about the same issue. Someone posted that Apple told them that they're aware of the issue and working on a fix in iOS 15.2 Fingers crossed cos it's happening non-stop for me, it's so annoying!

After speaking with Apple support on multiple occasions, they had me take both of my devices into an Apple store so they could “run tests “. The Apple technician asked me to take my HomePods out of my bag, he looked at them for about point five seconds, told me that they were still fortunately under warranty, and that they would replace both devices. I asked, what if they were not under warranty? He said well, then he would be fully financially responsible for any replacement.

They did not run any tests, as I figured they would not, but elected to just replace them. So, yay free replacement, but very silly as it is clearly a software issue. Also, quite a waste of time….

It is unsettling to think that I purchased these relatively recently and, had they not been under warranty, they would have a “you’re on your own” approach.

Hope their software update solves the issue. I’ve had 1 too many mini heart attacks since this has begun, lol.

Happened again tonight while we were in the room - I dived into Analytics and did find a ‘panic-full’ entry at exactly the time the loud pop occurred.

Come on Apple - you’ll be seeing all my ‘panic-fulls’ being reported (as I’ve left on reporting analytics to apple)

How about looking at the volume of ‘panic-fulls’ across the HomePod owner community - and then some proactive reach-out to HomePod customers experiencing these ?

Where is the software fix or service program ??

Hmm. I live in Stockholm, where Apple never released HomePod or HomePod Mini (because of Siri, which works fine in iPhone, iPad and Apple TV) so I am guessing I am screwed, if it turns out to be a hardware issue (which I don't think it is).

Exact same set of problems as everyone else. My thoughts are when they updated the software to run Spatial Audio / Dolby Atmos / Lossless 24-bit/192kHz the older processors can't keep up. The processors are overclocking (the top of the HomePod will get quite hot) and the overheating will trip the unit to send that 'panic' log response and a power cycle will cause the arc in the speaker making it pop. All to prevent it from overheating and starting a fire. Fine, but I say then don't update them for Spatial/Dolby/Lossless.

That may seem like the case; however mine was doing that and was not set to lossless. I had changed it from lossless because the speakers would simply go silent after several songs. The popping sound was happening for me on Dolby Atmos. I will say that I “upgraded” to an eero mesh network yesterday from the AirPort Extremes (previously had 3 networked), and I have not heard a single pop since then (fingers crossed). I also have not experienced the dropping out of a speaker in the stereo pair. I now run them on an eero pro 6 mesh network. And, surprisingly, all the speakers recognized the changed network and ask me if I wanted them to join the new one… which they did flawlessly. Again, fingers crossed… but so far, so good… with only a few glitches.

Mine are doing the same thing. Have two HomePods (non minis) paired in my office and they are both doing it. This is not a hardware issue due to wear and tear. It is a hardware issue due to the software on them. I imagine they are not going to do much since they are legacy products. Unfortunate for us.

Had my pair on Apple TV default speaker (ARC / eARC) for c 10 days now - no popping / panic logs whatsoever

Interesting thing is, I have 4 HomePods in the same room, and the pair I’m talking about were the troublesome pair at the rear of the room

However the front pair, which were the previous TV default ones beside the TV, have never popped, and these have never popped or panic logged since taking them off the default either (c 10 days ago)

Hence me swapping the Apple TV default pair (from front pair to rear pair) to see if there was any consistency / correlation

Both pairs were built in 2018 and within six months of each other, and are all 15.1.1)

I will swap over again (from default rear to default front) to see if the popping / panic logs reappear

This may well then tell me if it’s hardware - but perhaps it might not - we may have to see what 15.2 brings…

If Apple remains mute still over this matter, class action might be the solution there. We paid a lot of money for these wether they are produced or not. Needless to update the firmware to get spatial audio if nothing is done against this « popgate » that appeared with iOS 15. My salary is different from Mr. Cook’s and I cannot buy such items as if I was buying bubble gum. You say you care for your clients, that we are you soul. Your move Apple.

Recently bought HomePod OG , which I assume was warehouse 'leftover' , and was impressed with how it sounds but after few days (updated to 15.1.1 in meantime) the nightmare begun. Very frequent AirPlay disconnects and very loud popping sound followed by HomePod reboot. Fairly disappointed from the purchase. My two other HomePod Minis are much more stable in terms of connection stability and do not exhibit popping noise crashes :( Doesn't have much hope that Apple will fix this with software update, seeing more and more HomePod OG issues arising with a time.