One of my Homepods not responding to iPhone as music source

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Level 1

71 points

One of my Homepods not responding to iPhone as music source

Hi all... I have 2 Homepods and 2 ATV4's working in my home; a total of 4 sound systems in different rooms. With the ATV4's I have split out the audio so I can use it for music only (output to a conventional stereo set up) or for TV streaming with a screen. I typically use my iPhone/Apple Music as my source for streaming music. When I direct Apple Music from my iPhone to these various speakers, one of the Homepods seems to be "stuck" on a previous music source that was selected at another time. It just won't take up the one that I'm sending to the other 3 at any given moment. MInd you, in the past all 4 would successfully play from the source I would select from the iPhone/Apple Music. So this is a new issue. It appears that my iPhone 12 pro OS is up to date. When I go into the phone's Home app and press/hold the errant Homepod's icon... it shows the "stuck" source. Is there a way to change that either through the Homepod, iPhone or Home app?

To illustrate, let's say I want to stream Miles Davis from Apple Music on the iPhone to all 4 of the house's speaker systems. And let's say I was previously listening to KCSM (a streaming radio station) via Apple Music. That one Homepod won't let go of the KCSM stream and will not play The Miles Davis selection even if I select that Homepod at the iPhone. I'll see the gear spin for a few seconds, but then it stops, the Homepod remains unselected and the "old" source still appears under the Homepod's name... but no Miles ;-( . In fact, no music at all. However, if I go directly to the Homepod and tap the top, it starts playing... but only the "stuck" source, not my current music stream of Miles which is coming from the other 3 speaker sets.

Posted on Oct 15, 2021 12:09 PM

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Answer 1

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Vancouver22

Level 8

36,228 points

Oct 15, 2021 1:00 PM in response to Chametzoo

As far as getting the AirPlay to work better, try using the control Center on your phone and tap the AirPlay icon in the music playback tile to bring up the list of speakers to select from. It might ask you to “Replace” what’s playing on the one it’s stuck on. Agree to replace the song.

Or try temporarily removing the default audio setting from Apple TV in the home app - long press on the Apple TV icon and put it back to TV Speakers.

Otherwise you might need to close the music app on whatever device it was left stuck on.

You can let apple know this needs fixing: https://www.apple.com/feedback/homepod.html

It didn’t used to be like this. I can get around this mess by choosing to play from an old iPad still on iOS 12. Or I use one of my automations I have set to my preferred Apple Music playlists and use “test automation” to get my music going.

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Answer 2

Chametzoo Author

Level 1

71 points

Oct 15, 2021 5:43 PM in response to Vancouver22

Thanks for your response! Yes, sometimes I use the control center way, but it's not helping in this situation. Even when it asks to replace what's playing, I agree, I see the proper stream announced under the Homepod name, but no sound, then a few seconds later it drops the proper stream and reverts to the stuck one. Is there some hard reset I can do to the Homepod that might shake that source out of its memory? This is weird because this set up with 4 speaker systems worked flawlessly for over a year. My iPhone is also telling me that my Homepod firmware is up to date, so there is no updating to do.

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Answer 3

Chametzoo Author

Level 1

71 points

Oct 15, 2021 6:04 PM in response to Chametzoo

I just did an unplug/plug-in reset and it made the Homepod available again. Thanks for your help!

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One of my Homepods not responding to iPhone as music source

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