HomePod timers not working after 15.4

Greetings, blevenstein.

It’s best to isolate the issue so you can find a resolution. To start, work through the following steps to ensure that Hey Siri is setup as expected:

“Set up "Hey Siri" to help Siri recognize your voiceGo to Settings.Tap Siri & Search.Turn off Listen for "Hey Siri," then turn it back on.When the Set Up "Hey Siri" screen appears, tap Continue.Say each command that you see on your screen.Tap Done.” If "Hey Siri" isn't working on your iPhone or iPad 

If the issue continues, work through these steps: If HomePod mini or HomePod isn't responding

We hope this helps! 

Sincerely.

I'm seeing similar, except I can tie it down specifically to the 'mini'. I have three original HomePods (one standalone, one stereo pair) and 5 HomePod Minis (three standalone and one stereo pair). All are on iOS 15.4.

If I ask an original HomePod to set a timer, no problem. It does it straight away.

If I ask any of my minis to set a timer I get '<pause>One sec... <pause> Still on it... <pause> Sorry, that was taking too long'.

No number of soft or hard resets is fixing it and I'm not having any issues with my watch, phone or iPad.

All of the other Siri requests I've made seem to be working (though I had to reboot one as when I asked it for the outside temperature it said it didn't know where I was).

This feels like a software issue specific to the minis to me, I've stopped just short of doing a full factory reset and re-install of one as we really shouldn't have to be doing this every time there's an update (I've already done it several times since buying these things).

Well, to save anybody else from wasting their time - I factory reset one of my minis last night and then re-added it to the network. It still refuses to do timers.

Every new release seems to break something that should have been obvious to the testers, and it's not just the HomePods either. QA has really gone to pot at Apple in recent years.

And this morning I discovered something else that doesn't work. I woke up early and said 'Hey Siri, cancel my 8 AM alarm' and I got the same response as I do when trying to set timers. I had to go to the Home app and turn it off manually.

I had the same problem, but only with one of my HomePod minis. What Jess19 suggested did not work to fix my problem. However, I went into the Home app and removed that HomePod mini as an accessory. I then added it back, and set it up again. That solved my problem; that HomePod mini now does timers.

The issue isn't with Siri; I can make other Siri requests such as asking for sports scores, the weather, etc. without any issue. It's only anything related to a timer that HomePod has issues with. This is on every HomePod mini I own.

I've also rebooted, reset and re-added to my home and nothing helps.

I have been having this problem intermittently. I have done rebooting, hard power reset (unplugging from the electrical outlet), removing the device from my Home and then reattaching it. Yesterday, the time function began working again. I think the problem is in the server at Apple, that services/controls the timer function. I have had another function, determining its geographic location, disappear and return spontaneously. The firmware on the HomePods updates automatically, so it is possible that this is all the result of causing and then fixing bugs in the firmware. There is an old programmer's saying, "for every bug you fix, you create two more." While this all is frustrating, it is probable nothing you have done wrong.

Probably worth adding that since I did resets on them all I keep getting a message on my iPhone saying that AirPlay can't connect to them. Only the Minis!

Just tried that... but it didn't work for me.

I’ve tried everything, but mine simply won’t set a timer. It’ll happily play my favourite music, tell me the weather, turn on my lights… but timers… NO way!