HomePods will no longer take Siri requests for Apple Music

Not long ago, my four HomePods stopped responding to Siri requests for music.

I subscribe to iTunes Match/iCloud Music Library and this is working just fine, synchronising music between all my devices instantaneously.

Siri plays music just fine on all my other devices… I can even use Siri to make a request on my iPhone, “Play track x,y,z in the office” and it will start playing from my iCloud Music Library from my iPhone, via AirPlay, to the Office-based HomePod.

But every time I make a request (any music request) directly to the HomePod, I get the “Sorry, I couldn't find x,y,z in your Apple Music Library.

I have reset HomePods. Unpaired and re-paired HomePods, and it makes no difference. All the HomePods are on the latest Software Update (as are my iPhone/iPad).

The sticking point seems to be with the “HomePod Account” settings. When I sign out of this account and attempt to sign back in with the Apple ID that I use for iTunes Match/media purchases, it won't let me. I get an error message that says “Could not complete operation” … and that's that.

I have tried logging in to the same HomePod from different devices, same error. And every other HomePod that I log out of with my Apple Music Apple ID also will not let me log back in, whether I try using the Home.app on iPhone, iPad or macOS.

Ironically I can login to the HomePod using a different Apple ID (the one that I use for iCloud syncing in general) but that has no media associated with it, and maybe not surprisingly I still get the same “I could't find that in your Apple Music Library” response from the HomePod.

It's only the Apple ID that actually plays the music that won't log in to the HomePods!

Very bizarre behaviour and renders my HomePod speakers useless for streaming music.