When I'm not losing a stereo pair, which happens ALL THE TIME, Siri won't even "play some music" and instead says "Sorry, there's a problem with Apple Music." No, the problem is with Apple. Home Pods are completely unreliable. I have a current EERO wifi network, gigabit fiber optic by Frontier, multiple Home Pod Minis and OG Home Pods and have to re-set them all the time. I am about to give up.
That obviously should not be happening. Is you Wifi network set up with the 2.4 Ghz band? If it is, change it to the 5Ghz only band on your router and shut off auto-Join to the 2.4Ghz network and connect to the 5Ghz network. The 2.4Ghz band cannot handle more than a couple of devices before inference start dropping connections.
Even with a dual band router that can offer a connection on both bands, what will happen is that your phone will connect at the 2.4 Ghz band first if you are coming home. Once connected, to a band, they will not switch to another. The reason this happens is that the 2.4 Ghz travels a greater distance at a slower speed, while the 5 Ghz travels a shorter distance at a faster speed. When arriving home it will detect the 2.4 Ghz signal first since you are coming from farther away.
There is no reason why your HomePods should not be working reliably. I have had my OG's since they first came out as a stereo pair and have never had to reset them.
That obviously should not be happening. Is you Wifi network set up with the 2.4 Ghz band? If it is, change it to the 5Ghz only band on your router and shut off auto-Join to the 2.4Ghz network and connect to the 5Ghz network. The 2.4Ghz band cannot handle more than a couple of devices before inference start dropping connections.
Even with a dual band router that can offer a connection on both bands, what will happen is that your phone will connect at the 2.4 Ghz band first if you are coming home. Once connected, to a band, they will not switch to another. The reason this happens is that the 2.4 Ghz travels a greater distance at a slower speed, while the 5 Ghz travels a shorter distance at a faster speed. When arriving home it will detect the 2.4 Ghz signal first since you are coming from farther away.
There is no reason why your HomePods should not be working reliably. I have had my OG's since they first came out as a stereo pair and have never had to reset them.
Apparently the ability to not shut off the 2.4Ghz band on the Eero has been a topic of discussion for quite a while. Here is the topic in the Eero Community page. It was especially noted in situations like yours where you have a fast fiber network that allows devices to connect at the slower 2.4Ghz network speed. There does not seem to be a way to force the HomePod, or any other client Wifi device, to connect at the 5Ghz speed and it is handled by the router.
I did see some mention of an Advanced setting on the Eero called Band Steering that would "steer" the device to connect to the 5Ghz band, but don't know if it is available on the model you have or if it even works. I found it here:
https://support.eero.com/hc/en-us/articles/207613326-What-advanced-features-does-eero-support
Thanks Mac Jim ID, for the hints. Unfortunately, the Eero system has no way to disable either the 2.4 or 5 ghz bands, so if that is the solution I am truly f*cked. I installed Frontier gigabit fiber, and a total of 5 Eeros, with one acting as the router. Come to think of it, when I had a Google wifi network I don't recall any such issues. I wonder if there is any way to tell my HomePods to only use the 5 ghz band?
Sorry there's a problem with Apple Music
