Does anyone else experience your AirPods taking away the music playing on your HomePod? My wife or myself will either be getting our AirPods on or off /out of the case or back into the case and the music on our HomePod will stop every time. Annoying. (But relative to other problems this is nothing. )
I expect that the AirPods are connecting to your iPhone (or your wife’s) and overriding the AirPlay connection that was sending music to the HomePods. The same would happen with any AirPlay or Bluetooth speaker playing music from your iPhone when you break out your AirPods for another purpose.
In other words, it sounds as if you’ve started playing Music on your iPhone, then via “Transfer to HomePod”, or manually setting up an AirPlay connection, started playing it on the HomePod(s). Instead, try setting the iPhones aside and telling the HomePod to play your music selection directly… Since the HomePod is a “smart speaker”, it can execute the Apple Music app (or Pandora) locally and play music without any help from your iPhone (although you’ll still be able to pause, skip and adjust volume from your iPhone acting as a sort of AirPlay remote control). Another benefit to this approach is that your iPhone’s battery won’t drain so fast while having to stream music to the HomePod via AirPlay over WiFi.
If your preferred music source isn’t available as a native HomePod music service, you can initiate the music stream from a Mac or an iPad instead of an iPhone that you might want to use privately with your AirPods.
I expect that the AirPods are connecting to your iPhone (or your wife’s) and overriding the AirPlay connection that was sending music to the HomePods. The same would happen with any AirPlay or Bluetooth speaker playing music from your iPhone when you break out your AirPods for another purpose.
In other words, it sounds as if you’ve started playing Music on your iPhone, then via “Transfer to HomePod”, or manually setting up an AirPlay connection, started playing it on the HomePod(s). Instead, try setting the iPhones aside and telling the HomePod to play your music selection directly… Since the HomePod is a “smart speaker”, it can execute the Apple Music app (or Pandora) locally and play music without any help from your iPhone (although you’ll still be able to pause, skip and adjust volume from your iPhone acting as a sort of AirPlay remote control). Another benefit to this approach is that your iPhone’s battery won’t drain so fast while having to stream music to the HomePod via AirPlay over WiFi.
If your preferred music source isn’t available as a native HomePod music service, you can initiate the music stream from a Mac or an iPad instead of an iPhone that you might want to use privately with your AirPods.
chipchrisman wrote:
Thank you for that well thought out response and that makes sense. One additional thought: Let's say I'm on my AirPods (on my Mac on a Zoom call in the basement. Meanwhile, my wife is upstairs nearer to the HomePod listening to music from her phone through the HomePod. She knows when I'm done with my call because when I put the AirPods into their case, the music stops. It's a glitch that could use a software update, I think. What do you think?
Are your AirPods also associated with or paired with your wife's iPhone (or her Apple ID)? I haven't looked closely at the behavior, but it seems that I've seen my iPhone's Bluetooth activity stop/pause when another connected bluetooth device is disconnected.
I sometimes listen to an audiobook on my iPhone via Bluetooth to my car stereo... before shutting off the ignition, I'll put in my AirPods and they, to use your term, "steal" the stream from my car stereo. When I then shutdown the car, the audiobook stream to my AirPods pauses as the (inactive) Bluetooth connection with the car stereo disconnects.
So, I expect that your wife's iPhone was streaming to the HomePods via AirPlay over WiFi when your connected-but-unused AirPods disconnect. I'll bet you a dollar that's what's making the HomePods pause when your AirPods go into their case (and disconnect from her iPhone).
To "fix" this behavior, tell her iPhone & her Apple ID to forget about your AirPods.
Thank you for that well thought out response and that makes sense. One additional thought: Let's say I'm on my AirPods (on my Mac on a Zoom call in the basement. Meanwhile, my wife is upstairs nearer to the HomePod listening to music from her phone through the HomePod. She knows when I'm done with my call because when I put the AirPods into their case, the music stops. It's a glitch that could use a software update, I think. What do you think?
You are right! I encouraged my wife to give my Airpods a try to see if she would like a pair. She “forgot” them on her device and all seems well! Thank you
AirPods Stealing music from HomePod
