iPhone loses the ability to play any music after turning on Apple TV.

This problem is much more involved than I say in the title. It involves 6 different HomePods, my iPhone and my Apple TV.


  1. I Use my iPhone to play a playlist.
  2. I use AirPlay to play on 2 HomePod groups and 1 HomePod/Apple TV group, totaling 6 different HomePods.
  3. When playing from my iPhone, I turn on my Apple TV.
  4. Now instead of playing only through the HomePods that are at my TV it plays to all 6 HomePods.
  5. I don't try to fix this.
  6. Then, after 1 hour, I turn off my TV.
  7. Now, my iPhone cannot play at all, to it's own speaker or any HomePods
  8. I kill all apps on my iPhone, including "Music", this doesn't help;
  9. After 10 minutes the iPhone starts to play again normally, first on its own speaker then after setting up AirPlay, the 6 HomePods.


It is hard to predict the behavior of AIrPlay. I never want my TV to play to more than my TV's speakers(two HomePods). Note: This is not a new problem. This has been going on for a long time. I don't often stream from my iPhone. Note: I only watch TV through my Apple TV devices. Two of the HomePods are the newer version the other 4, which are the two non-AppleTV groups, are older. Everything is on the latest, non-beta, OS versions as of this writing. The Apple TV involved is the Latest Hardware. The iPhone is the 17 Pro running iOS 26.1. (Regardless, this problem predates the 17 Pro as well as macOS/iOS/TVOS 26.)


Another situation is when my iPhone becomes detached from Play control on the HomePods while a HomePod or many HomePods are still playing.


My goal is being able to predict what AirPlay does in different situations.

iPhone 17 Pro

Posted on Dec 3, 2025 5:00 PM

Reply
6 replies

Dec 3, 2025 5:57 PM in response to MrHoffman

Certainly, WiFi wouldn't explain why I can't play music on my iPhone Speaker. I keep my entire library downloaded to my iPhone. Perhaps turning off wifi could help the problem when that occurs.


I would like to know how it is supposed to work. That is, why can I add HomePods from my iPhone and have them play through my Apple TV without adding them as an Audio Output source. No one ever said to play HBO MAX on your Apple TV to all your HomePods, first play music through your iPhone to all your HomePods.


Generally WiFi problems are when things don't work. Not when all your HomePods are playing what is on your Apple TV for no reason.

iPhone loses the ability to play any music after turning on Apple TV.

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