Experiencing audio issues after HomePodOS 18 update.

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Level 1

21 points

Experiencing audio issues after HomePodOS 18 update.

I’ve updated my HomePods (both large and mini). After updating to the latest HomePodOS 18, my large HomePods, 1st & 2nd generation, will play normally for a little bit, then one of the 4 starts making crackling noises. I pause the audio, restart audio and it plays for a little bit, then a different HomePod starts with the crackling noises. Sometimes they get stuck in a “loop” and sounds like an echo. Again, pausing the playback stops it for a bit but it ultimately returns. I have tried removing them from the home app and resetting each HomePod, then reconnecting them. Still doesn’t resolve it. I am playing audio and video through Apple TV, and yes, the AppleTV OS is up to date as well. I have unplugged both Apple TV and HomePods, waited a few minutes, then plugged them back in, and that still doesn’t not resolve the issue. Any suggestions?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

HomePod

Posted on Oct 9, 2024 4:39 PM

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Answer 1

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AppSmack

Level 1

68 points

Oct 27, 2024 1:41 AM in response to PJDFH

Hi,

Have the same issue (HomePod 2nd Gen distorted sound after 2 d… - Apple Community) and in contact with the support about this. Searching through the community I find a lot of such reported issues in the last weeks.

I just encourage you to open a case at Apple, so that they are getting pressure to fix this. Looks like that for most of the people it started with iOS18, but I'm pretty sure, that I already had experienced this with the last iOS 17 version.

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Answer 2

PJDFH Author

Level 1

21 points

Oct 29, 2024 12:01 PM in response to AppSmack

Hi!

I got a hold of an Apple Support tech and he was very helpful and empathetic to my situation. He also confirmed that there were quite a few instances of this issue happening. My tech had called me last night after I had sent a few videos of the HomePods issue. Unfortunately I was not able to record the distorted sounds, but I was able to capture the audio echoing among the HomePods. I really wanted to share the distortion sounds, but that didn’t occur last night. The tech advised that the OS 18.1 had been released yesterday for the iPhone, AppleTV, iPad and HomePod and that I should update the device that I used to set up the HomePods (in my case it was my phone) first, then AppleTV, then the HomePods. I did that last night around 10 pm and since the update, I haven’t had issues yet. Fingers crossed that the OS 18.1 update addressed this issue with HomePod. I’m going to keep playing audio all day through my HomePods to see if it resolved.

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Answer 3

Dec 2, 2024 12:27 PM in response to PJDFH

My HomePod mini pair has been having trouble playing back music since version 18, and it didn't get fixed with 18.1. When playing a playlist in shuffle mode it apparently plays it correctly for a while. But after some random number of songs, sometimes it just starts a song from the middle for a few seconds, and then restarts the song from the beginning. Some other times it doesn't play a song, stays silent for a while, and then just plays the next song. And other times, it starts playing a song, and it suddenly stops and remains silent for a while. These issues I remember happened with some update in version 17, but it got fixed eventually with another update. Everything worked mostly well until version 18 came in. Updated to 18.1, and the problem persists.

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Answer 4

Dec 2, 2024 8:05 PM in response to AppSmack

yes, it happened in iOS 17 and gets more often in iOS 18. and iOS 18.1 did not fixed it as it still happened till today.

was thinking the minis for friend's birthday in September; but give up eventually as dont know how to explain the stopped, jammed and volume disappeared during the playing.

it happen 5 mins ago with my mini as i need to stop the working to fix the jammed music. its annoying.

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