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How to prevent HomePod mini from switching wifi?

It looks like others have had this issue: Stop HomePod from randomly switching WiFi… - Apple Community

However, it says the issue is too old to reply to, so I'm creating a new one.


I have two wifi networks set up, each on their own VLAN, in order to segment traffic for different devices/users. I have a need for this kind of segmented network, so please don't suggest "simplifying" with one network.


I set up my HomePod mini with my phone, as per instructions, it connected to the correct network that I wanted. All was well. But randomly, it sometimes connects to the other network. I suspect this has to do with the fact that I have both sets of network credentials saved on my iPhone, and that perhaps both were copied over to the HomePod when I set it up. This is not the desired behavior however. I expected it to only use the wifi network that it was set up with.


I would like to be able to force the HomePod to only connect to one specific network. Otherwise, when someone in the house goes to play music or make a call it won't connect with their phone, until and unless I go back into the HomePod settings and force it back to the same wifi as my phone.


Any ideas?

HomePod mini, 15

Posted on Jun 2, 2022 8:50 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 19, 2022 3:18 AM

I would imagine from your description that your HomePod and your iPhone share the same Apple ID. It is a known limitation that all devices sharing an Apple ID also share WiFi permissions. There are two ways to limit your HomePod to one WiFi segment.


The first one is to give your HomePod its own Apple ID or an Apple ID that is coupled to a device that is limited to the one WiFi network. That will allow you to limit that Apple ID to that one network while allowing anyone to attach to that HomePod as an individual user.


The other one is to blacklist your HomePod's MAC address in the "undesirable" network's router. If I understand Apple's protocol properly, upon failure to connect to the undesirable router, the HomePod will assume it's dead and connect to the "good" router rather than waiting for the bad router to come back to life.


Good luck.

4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 19, 2022 3:18 AM in response to jpbone

I would imagine from your description that your HomePod and your iPhone share the same Apple ID. It is a known limitation that all devices sharing an Apple ID also share WiFi permissions. There are two ways to limit your HomePod to one WiFi segment.


The first one is to give your HomePod its own Apple ID or an Apple ID that is coupled to a device that is limited to the one WiFi network. That will allow you to limit that Apple ID to that one network while allowing anyone to attach to that HomePod as an individual user.


The other one is to blacklist your HomePod's MAC address in the "undesirable" network's router. If I understand Apple's protocol properly, upon failure to connect to the undesirable router, the HomePod will assume it's dead and connect to the "good" router rather than waiting for the bad router to come back to life.


Good luck.

Jun 18, 2022 2:11 PM in response to turingtest2

Thanks, that does seem to have worked, at least so far. However, that's a little inconvenient because I sometimes have to jump to the other network for troubleshooting.


Do you know if this applies to other users in the house? For example, say another user who is part of the household has the other wifi credentials on their phone as well, will that creep into the HomePod? Or does this only apply to the phone that set it up initially?


How to prevent HomePod mini from switching wifi?

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