HomePod Authentication issues in Home App

Hello all:

Perhaps someone could shed some light on this issue. Recently I had to change my Apple ID password. When that happened all of my HomePods (in 5 different" Homes" )were asking for the new password and they did not respond as HomeHubs for obvious reasons while waiting for the updated password.

I did click on Enter Password on the HomePod configuration on Home app and it would say Authenticating for about a minute and then the message would appear that the password was incorrect. There is no way to manually enter the password on configurations in the Home app.

The solution was to remove the HomePod from the Home and reset it to factory settings and reconfigure. It worked and now the HomePod is back as a HomeHub and everything seems to be working again. Nevertheless, before I do the same on the other "Homes" and Pods (as some of the homes are complicated and I know I will have to set everything up again) , is there another way of doing this? Am I missing something here?

Last item I changed the password, the HomePod accepted the new password with no problems. Albeit, this was with iOS 17 (maybe 18) if I recall correctly. Running 26 on all devices now.

TIA