HomePod 2nd Gen randomly plays Apple Music at night

Any music-related automations configured in the Home app?

Yep, exact same issue here. Pair of 2nd generation HomePods and AppleTV, recently started blaring out music, unprompted, in the middle of the night when we were asleep - it's terrifying, so have had to unplug them.

I've worked through the various troubleshooting steps and workarounds, and concluded - backed up by a quick google - that the 2nd generation HomePods seem to have a quality issue with failing touch panels. (Out of interest: does the touch panel on yours still respond to touch normally? Ours don't, not since this issue occurred).

Mine are 2 years old now so Apple Support have told me they're out of warranty, so they can't offer any help (these HomePods just have to be thrown in the bin now and I have to buy new ones). Yes, that's the same Apple that talks a lot about designing "products that last".

If yours is still in warranty I'd recommend you have Apple replace them, but if you do find an alternative solution please update us - I'd be very grateful!

So far it looks like you have implemented the changes I would have suggested you try. Disabling all my automations seems to be working for mine. What I also did but have no idea if it’s of any use is to check in home app home settings- hubs and bridges to see what it’s using as a Hub. Mine had been changed to a flaky OG HomePod I most certainly never chose as my preferred hub. I switched it to my bedroom Apple TV.

I do suspect it’s somehow related to HomeKit and possibly using them as default audio.

see if what you did works over the next few days

In the meantime the only way to let Apple know on the hopes they fix it for the next software Update

is here——>Feedback - HomePod - Apple

Mine are not responding to touch like they did. I’m considering a factory reset as a last resort. Right now though I have no music automations to wake me up in the am because I disabled them all, which seems to help in stopping them coming on unprompted.

I accidentally left ours plugged in last night and we were woken again by random unprompted music blaring from them at 4am.

Split half troubleshooting (to eliminate eg automations or hub or default audio as cause, not to mention only one of our pair has unresponsive touch panel) indicates this is just a product that can fail prematurely.

Most likely cause seems to be the touch sensor panel used, which degrade over time (though for me the problem started the same day as the 26.5 update, which could be coincidence, but…).

I’d love to know if anyone has a 2nd generation HomePod that’s 3 years or more old and is still functioning fine, without touch or random music issues

That is, do all of them suffer these issues eventually, or is it just a batch of them?

some site made a guide of things one can try

https://forums.appleinsider.com/discussion/244490

zero automations on mine, set as s stereo pair connected to my apple TV in the living room. started this morning out of the blue. disabled everything but there pods completely and reset multiple times... keeps doing it. I never use the touch panel so not sure how it goes bad not being used. I used them strictly for sound from the Apple TV to replace the complicated home theater system that my wife hated. They have been gong off all day periodically while I am working upstairs in my home office. The volume is on full every time, regardless of what I set the volume to.

[Edited by Moderator]

Over the past several weeks (likely since updating the software to 26.5), my HomePod 2nd Gen has been randomly playing music at night, changing or stopping music being played during the day, and randomly lowering its volume level (fortunately, I haven't experienced increases to max volume). I've tried all solutions suggested, including removing and resetting my HomePod, changing settings for Siri and handoffs, etc. While my HomePod will play as expected for a few hours after a full reset, the mysterious changes to music playback and volume levels start again without any human interaction on a connected device or via Siri commands. My HomePod is now unplugged and no better than a doorstop.

HELP APPLE...either your hardware is not built to last more than 3 years or a software bug/glitch has been introduced that needs to be addressed ASAP.

apple do not read and write here

these forums are user helping other users like yourself, it's sort of going to a

physical apple store and asking other customers their advice

to me It's pretty clear that it's a periodic hardware defect that active the touch interface even if not touched and only a hardware replacement will ever fix it 100%

but

You can provide them with feedback using

Product Feedback - Apple

Or reach out to their official support channels

Get Support (apple.com)

And or

Contact - Official Apple Support

And or

Contact - How to Contact Us - Apple

Or

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple

An update: I called Apple again, and this time the person I spoke to was empathic and helpful, and arranged for my out-of-warranty faulty HomePod to be sent in for service/replacement as a one-off exception. Today I received a replacement HomePod so now everything is working OK.

I have limited confidence that the touch issue won't eventually affect the replacement, or my other HomePod which so far still works OK, but for now I'm happy with the resolution.

I'd recommend anyone with this issue to be polite but persistent, and hopefully Apple will do the right thing.

Mine is doing the same thing. I turned off repeat and increased touch time and repeat time to the max and it still did it. Had it happen several times in a few days so slowly started changing things. It really is ridiculous that apple won't take responsibility for the issue. I have turned off all the touch, siri and related stuff so it can't be responding to anything. I don't use automations on the home pods.

I do however think it might be Mac or Apple tv related. If you have a mac and there is the music app sat in the background I think some event is triggering it to start the music on a home pod. Mine was even playing music I do not even have. There is a 3 month free apple music offer that is being pushed on me at the moment so I do wonder if that has something to do with the weird behaviour. Last offending song was one that was part way through that I had been playing but had paused from the Mac. Something is unpausing it but not on all homepods, just one and it's always the same one.

I have reset the offending home pod and quit the music app which is often just sitting in the background on the Mac.

It does feel like something has taken control of the homepod somehow.

If you update the HomePod to 27.2. You can try a new setting included in that software . It appears to be working on my gen 2 big HomePod. If you can’t find this setting, you’ll need to also update whatever device you’re using for the Home App to 27.2.