HomePod Popping Noise

This has not helped me a single bit. As a matter of fact, I never experienced the popping noises until I upgraded my OG HomePods to 15.0 - 15.2. I was initially using an AirPort Extreme Network. I had intermittent reliability issues with the HomePods... for example, a speaker would drop out, they all wouldn't play (I have 6 OG HomePods paired in different rooms, and then I have 6 Mini's in placed singularly in other rooms). The support technician at Apple suggested an eero pro mesh network as the AirPort Extreme was older technology. After I installed my eero pro 6 mesh network things seemed to be working well for about two weeks. Then, I updated to iOS 15 and things became extremely buggy. Only one paired OG speaker would play, HomeKit would say all the speakers were playing but when I'd check multiples would not be playing, the music would start and then just go silent, Siri would say she couldn't connect to Apple Music, etc. Then, I began to hear a popping noise coming from the OG HomePod's intermittently... and the HomePod would just restart itself and begin playing again. Recently, (just in the last two weeks, I've observed that some of the HomePod's are popping when they aren't even on/playing). I do not have "Lossless" ticked to be on because I noticed that my HomePods would play about three songs and then everything would just go silent. So I turned that option off. I do have the "Sound Check" turn on and "Dolby Atmos."

It would be extremely odd that ALL the OG HomePods would "break" at the same time. This makes me think this is a software issue that was introduced with iOS 15. I also have some concerns this may be HomeKit related... as that app seems quite buggy... lags in updating the screen to show HomePods playing, suddenly saying one HomePod is "paused," etc.

There seems to be two different "pops" -- one that has been reported since before iOS 15 going all the way back to 2019, and those of us who have just begun experiencing them with the introduction of iOS 15.

As for me, I have found that while I have better speeds overall with a mesh network over my previous AirPort Extreme, changing to a mesh network did little to resolve the unreliability of these speakers and their numerous bugs. As a matter of fact, I'm wondering if the popping noises might not be related to having a mesh network--again I never heard a pop of any kind on my AirPort Extreme setup. I'd be very interested in seeing data on how many people experience the popping noise on the OG HomePods are on a mesh setup versus those who are not. Just anecdotally, most people whom I have observed reporting this issue are on mesh setups, and many are on eero setups. But the problem has definitely gotten WAY WORSE with iOS 15. And, I for one, would like for Apple to simple correct the bugs before introducing new features that no one is asking for... especially when the basic product can't seem to function reliably as advertised.

Continued from my previous post

- The OTAUpdates are listed as follows for the left HomePod:

- Oct 29, 2021

- Nov 6

- Dec 12

- Then twice on Dec 30 (yeah twice???)

The "panic-full" started on Dec 30 and then.. .. 

- 3 times on Jan 4

- 13 times on Jan 5

- 6 times on Jan 7

- 2 times on Jan 8

- 14 times on Jan 9

- Once on Jan 10

- 3 times on Jan 11

- Once on Jan 12

- Once on Jan 13

- Once on Jan 14

- Twice on Jan 15

- Once on Jan 16

- Four times on Jan 17

- Once on Jan 18

- Five times on Jan 20

- Twice on Jan 21

- Once on Jan 22

- Twice on Jan 23 (today) for a total of 66 to date! Something is certainly wrong here

Since HomePod's never turn off, they just sleep, I believe the issue occurs in their sleep as well. Mine are located in a room at the far end of our house, we don't go in that room till later in the evening and until then the door is closed so we would not hear anything until we open the door and go in. I believe the panics happen whether the HomePod is actively being listened to or not but don't know if they make the loud pop if they are sleeping when it happens.

So then I took a look at the right HomePod because that too has produced the loud pops, though not as often as the left one. I bought both HomePods at the Apple Store on the same day and they are both the same Product Number yet for some reason it only listed three OTAUpdates whereas the left HomePod listed five which includes the two that were on the same day:

- Oct 29, 2021

- Nov 5

- Dec 12

 The first panic-full on the Right HomePod was listed on Dec 27 and there are a total of 13 listed as opposed to 66 on the left HomePod.

- Both HomePods are at OS 15.2

- My Apple TV was not on so I turned it on and checked its OS and it is at 15.2 (19K53)

- My iPhone 13 Mini is running iOS 15.2.1

To me it sure looks like the last HomePod OS update started these random loud pops followed by the HomePod going silent for 20 or so seconds. I hope this info helps Apple solve this issue because these large HomePods are so very nice to listen to and I'd like it solved before the speakers blow in mine.

I think what's important here is the correlation between the OS15 install and the start of the kernel panics and the popping noise. Some people have their devices set for auto OS upgrade and some do it manually so the start of the "pops" will vary but I would like to know if any have experienced them before OS15 was loaded into their HomePods. I realize there are/will be other causes for kernel panics but in my case, the first one I saw coincided with the date of OS15 being installed and that coincided with us hearing the pops. The first analytic data listed on my phone for one of my HomePod's is Oct 7, 2021 - they stay for 90 days from the way I read it.. .. "analytics-90Day-2021-10-07". Not sure about the full panic entries.

This is really encouraging news and hopefully not preliminary because I decided not to update to 15.3, instead I updated my two routers as I saw there were firmware updates available. Then I removed the HomePod's from the Home app and factory reset them both and then factory reset my Apple TV, deleted and re-downloaded the Home app. I did it all :-0. I then spent the better part of the afternoon on Tuesday setting everything back up from scratch. Today marks the third day of listening to them since I did that.

I did not enable the stereo pair, I left them as two separate HomePods, I did not enable Reduce Bass and did not enable Siri. Since Tuesday I've used them to listen to movies via Apple TV and via the Spectrum app on Apple TV and played my music library through them from my phone and did not experience any popping and have not seen any panics listed in the Analytics for either of them.

However, I have been using them since March 2021 and they did not panic or pop until the end of Dec when they were updated to 15.x. So, the way I look at it is the jury is still out and will be watching this thread closely before I update to 15.3

Keep the news coming!

15.3 has been nearly perfect (is anything 100%?) but a huge quality update. The popping is so far 100% gone.

I agree about the router issue. I “upgraded” to the euro’s and actually think they are a downgrade compared to my Airport (which I still use in my network but not as the main hub). The eeros have had a variety of dropout issues. Last year during the lockdowns and kids home from work/school we had tons of connectivity issues.

But I am so pleased with how my HP’s are working now and how well I can tell Siri to play music in multiple rooms. Now if we can only make Siri smarter….

The 15.3 update has just been made available. Fingers crossed this solves the popping problems! I'm downloading it to all my HomePods now.

I dread writing this, but since the 15.3 update my HomePods have stopped popping and have not mysteriously stopped playing. Lets hope its a real fix and I’m not just getting lucky today.

Two in a stereo pair, plus two minis in other rooms that I often run simultaneously.

Reduce Bass is NOT turned on.

Siri is ON.

Since update the HomePods have been playing for about 6 hours. Before update the HP’s would go out all the time.

Bought two OG HomePods in March 2021 at my local Apple Store, set them up as a stereo pair and only use them to listen to my Apple TV. Siri is turned off, Reduce Base is turned off and my Apple TV is connected to my network vie Ethernet and the router is only 10 feet from my HomePods. I have a very basic system in this regard. I have two WiFi routers where the second one (of the same brand) is Ethernet connected to the first and used as an Access Point (AI Mesh mode), it is this router that feeds the Apple TV via Ethernet. I have no known WiFi or Ethernet issues in my house.

While I have found the Home app to be buggy right from the start (March 2021 for me) it has become worse to the point of being very frustrating to use. I only use it for the HomePods. I've reset the total system (Apple TV, both HomePods, my network and deleted and re-downloaded the Home app, twice.

TV OS15 was announced during WWDC 2021and released in the fall. In thinking through my issues, both my HomePods started their very loud popping sounds in the past couple of months, this seems to coincide with the OS15 update. The bugginess of the Home app also became much worse when the HomePod popping started.

When my HomePods pop, the light on the top of them flashes but since they don't both pop at the same time and they are a bit away from where I sit, I cannot tell if they reboot with each pop or not. Will have to test for that. The popping seems random and they each take their turn at doing it. Scares the crap out of everyone in the room, it's very loud and my thoughts are that the woofers are at risk when this happens. Each pop is just a fraction of a second, I don't get the second or two "farting" sound others have reported on YouTube.

These are my observations. I need a couple more OG HomePod type speakers and was going to buy two more (used) till this started happening. I don't want to end up with four dead HomePods though :-0

Unplug the affected HomePods for over 24 hrs, Plug back in & Reset them by Pressing the top method:

Reset HomePod - Apple Support

Then set them up again