RTE Radio One Ireland Not Streaming through Apple Music on Mac or Siri on Homepod

Copy of my email

Good morning TuneIn,

I notified your company of this problem one month and two days ago and no resolution was reached.

I am now cancelling my Apple Music subscription today and citing this as the reason why.

Very disappointing service.

Regards

Just received our Home Pod yesterday and this issue is very frustrating… I just want to listen to RTE radio 1 while having my morning coffee

Has there been any indication when the issue will be resolved?

Yes, that is exactly the problem. RTÉ Radio does not respond to Siri. On behalf of my disabled brother, who can only use voice commands, I've been in contact with RTÉ support. RTÉ has been responsive, but their suggestions just don't work. It's if they have been unaware that there has been a problem with Siri for a long time. Sadly, we're not getting anywhere. Does anyone know what the problem actually is?

I wouldn’t be surprised if the problem lies with TuneIn, as that’s where Siri plays the radio stations from. The RTE stations haven’t been working on TuneIn for a while. Just a suspicion but not sure what to do about it

I just wrote to TuneIn on Twitter and got this reply. Finger crossed!

Hello Stiabhna,

Thank you for contacting us regarding this problem. This is a known issue that our Developers are aware of. We're working to resolve the problem and hope to have it fixed in an upcoming release.

I apologize for the inconvenience and we appreciate your support of TuneIn!

I agree. TuneIn seems to be the main problem, not RTÉ. Siri has not recognised RTE stations for months now so Apple has to take some of the blame. The new RTE app does not allow streaming as yet, making that app less than useful to get around this problem. I hope somebody is paying attention to these comments.

Hello again,

I had a great response from TuneIn, about twenty emails… it’s an RTÉ issue at the heart of it.

TuneIn were extremely apologetic.

Unfortunately for Apple, I cancelled my Apple Music sub over this, as I needed voice control for radio with a small baby at the time. Now, the child is bigger and it’s not necessary any more but reading about the lady whose brother needs it, it’s important this is fixed. Apple, can you make contact with RTÉ and give them guidance to rectify this?

A chairde, thanks for getting this conversation active again. Let's hope the players with the power start to cooperate with each other and fix the issue. Surely they must all be aware. what a Christmas present it would be for my brother!

I think the problem is definitely due to RTE rather than TuneIn, as I also have a Sonos One speaker with Google assistant. When I ask it to play RTE Radio One, for example, it does and confirms that it is "playing RTE Radio One from TuneIn".

Time to get on social media methinks...

This problem persists with all RTE stations (radio 2, Lyric etc). Very bad customer service from Apple. A good reason to buy Google or Alexa instead. I have a Google unit as well and it works perfectly with these stations.

Same with me. All other stations work perfectly. It's definitely RTÉ's problem as all their radio stations work perfectly on my brother's Alexa. Such a shame because I like Homepod. It was convenient to have all my lights, plugs, Apple TV and smart speakers in one app rather than having to have a bunch of apps.

Exact-same issue here. Fact is, the issue does not lie with Apple. I've got 4 HomePod mini strewn throughout the house, several iOS and MacOS devices, all on same Apple ID account( incl. the obligatory Apple Music subscription.) Got in touch with RTE tech support weeks ago, who maintained the issue lies with TuneIn not streaming RTE services as before the issue had occurred. I was supposed to be contacted once the issue was resolved. Obviously, I haven't heard back since. Throughly annoying not being able to listen to Lyric FM and other RTE stations. Sunshine Radio, FM104, 98FM etc. meaning all non-RTE station play just fine. Only RTE doesn't seem to know what to do next. I simply cannot fathom as to why this issue seems unsolvable. Those of you out there on social media should publicise this issue through all media channels available to you.

I opened a ticket with Apple using the Feedback Assistant on Sept. 15th 2022.

I updated it today. No responses to it, ever.

According to the notes, I'm the only one that reported such an issue.

The evidence I had then, and still have, strongly suggests this is the result of a change Apple made between IOS 15.x and IOS 16.x.

I have an old iPhone running iOS 15.x and I have a MacBook Pro that does not support the latest macOS (and so runs an older version of Apple Music).

On each of these devices, Apple Music will play all RTE Radio stations.

On the iPhone (iOS 15), TuneIn Radio (currently 24.8.1) will play all RTE Radio stations.

The same was true for an iPad before it was upgraded to IOS16.x.

To the contrary, Apple Music and TuneIn Radio (24.8.1) on IOS 16.x will not play any RTE Radio station.

There was a version of TuneIn that did work on IOS 16 for a short time but that was upgraded soon after IOS16 was released after which TuneIn no longer worked.

As far as I can tell, any IOS16.x device (my Homepod Mini is impacted) will not play RTE Radio but IOS 15.x devices will continue to do so. No idea why only RTE is impacted but I'd like Apple to explain.

I have the same problem. Very disappointed as I invested in 3 HomePod Minis so I could listen to RTE in any room at any time. Now I find it takes about 5 minutes and several attempts to hand off RTÉ from the new phone App. And even then it can suddenly drop out. I even bought a new phone and changed to fiber BB in order to make it work but none of that has helped.

I have the same issue and your analysis sounds correct.

Other apps like the RadioPlayer app work flawlessly as does the RTE app, but then you have have it running on a device and airplay to the HomePod, which is not convenient at all.