Volume only controls one HomePod from my stereo pair with Apple TV

Question

Volume only controls one HomePod from my stereo pair with Apple TV

I have two 2nd-gen HomePods from Feb 2023, both up to date, with an Apple TV 4K bought at the same time and also up to date (tvOS 16.6). Have had them working together as a stereo pair and home cinema output with eARC since release with no issues. It's been great up until this morning when suddenly the volume control on the Apple TV remote would only raise or lower the volume on one side, with the other side staying at a fixed volume.

This appears to be an issue that several people encountered on 1st-gen HomePods and on minis but haven't found anything about 2nd-gen HomePods. I have tried everything suggested on all posts I have found, to no avail. This includes ungrouping HomePods, restarting them, unplugging, factory resetting, pairing them again, restarting Apple TV, etc, all many times in various orders. The problem remains. I have succeeded in getting them to function as a proper stereo pair if they are simply an audio output for my Apple Music via iPhone, but as soon as I use them as the Apple TV audio output (with or without eARC), the issue reappears.

I also only have have one WiFi channel (2.4 GHz) and no 5GHz. Apple TV is connected via Ethernet.

I have tried everything short of factory resetting my Apple TV as I don't wish to lose all my data, settings and apps. I have also not tried to Remove Home from the Home app, for the same reasons.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

PS: I must also specify that another weird Apple TV volume issue appeared at the same time and is possibly related - when I change my Apple TV audio output back to TV Speakers, the remote volume buttons act as though they are held pressed in. One quick press on Volume Up will send my TV (2018 LG) volume scrolling all the way to 100 and same down all the way to 0. Cannot be overridden by the TV remote unless I deactivate Volume Control in the Remotes and Devices settings.

Apple TV 4K, tvOS 16

Posted on Aug 26, 2023 10:39 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

LukeTroubleshooting Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 19, 2023 3:39 AM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

Well there we go, tvOS 17 and new Homepod 17 software appear to have solved all the bugs I was experiencing. I hope it’s the same for all of you out there. I understand Apple not wanting to spend time and ressources fixing bugs on a soon-to-be obsolete OS, but was worried the issues would carry over to the new OS. Very glad it’s all back to normal and hopefully the last we’ll see of these issues. Take care all!

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Answer 2

Sep 3, 2023 5:40 PM in response to SRC666

See my update here:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255077557

In brief, I reset the Apple TV and Volume control for stereo homepods came back. So far it has worked for 20 hours 🤨

Other discussions have reported that the issue occurs without an Apple TV in the system so there is definitely an underlying problem.

BTW I also changed the name of the stereo homepods in the Home app as I have had difficulties with Homekit using a previous name for replacement/reset devices.

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Answer 3

Sep 6, 2023 2:42 PM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

The problem reoccurred for me this morning and I think I have found a temporary fix for my system.

Change the Apple TV default audio output to the TV (i.e. not stereo homepods)

Turn the power off for the homepods

Restart the Apple TV

Power up the homepods

Change the Apple TV audio output to the stereo homepods

Start playing some audio and press the mute button on the Siri Remote see check that both homepods are muted

If this doesn't work try resetting the Apple TV.

Also try renaming the stereo homepods in the iOS Home app while they are not the default output

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Answer 4

Sep 20, 2023 12:24 AM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

OS 17 seems to have fixed my system

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Answer 5

Sep 6, 2023 8:53 AM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

Thanks all for sharing your experiences - it seems I’m far from alone here. I spent an hour on the phone with Apple Support this Sunday (really helpful and easy to communicate with by the way) and we tried testing all kinds of solutions. We could get the stereo pair to work correctly without the Apple TV, but as soon as I made it my Home Cinema output for Apple TV, the problem reappeared. In the end, he looked into the issue notes on his end and told me that Apple was aware of the problem, doesn’t have a fix currently, and is hoping to solve it in a future update. When I first got the problem I was sure it was primarily Apple TV related, but after extensive testing and experiencing weird issues after restarting and isolating the setup from the Apple TV I think it’s more due to the HomePod or Homekit software… anyway fingers crossed for a fix soon!

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Answer 6

A07570

Level 1

63 points

Aug 28, 2023 1:56 PM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

I have also seen this, and going through the original setup steps on TV and my LG TV fixed it, though it probably didn’t need all of that. However I don’t ever switch back to my TV speakers.

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Answer 7

Sep 6, 2023 6:08 AM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

Same Problem here. I have 2 ATV's both set up with HomePods as stereo speakers and both setups are doing the same. Tried resetting everything back to factory and starting again which works for a while but the problem returns. It's clearly a software issue. Also noticed that when asking Siri to play music on either setup it now turns on the TV. It's a complete mess!!!! Apple needs to sort this.

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Answer 8

SRC666

Level 1

4 points

Sep 3, 2023 4:25 PM in response to LukeTroubleshooting

Same problem with my Mini pair and gen 2 HomePod pair. I cannot control the volume of the pair with the Apple remote. It's only adjusting one speaker. I've unplugged, re-started, checked the wifi net work etc, etc.

This is very frustrating. This product just does not work consistently. Any help from Apple?????

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