I just unpacked the HomePod and connected it through AirPlay on my iPhone 7 plus. The music stream cuts out intermediately for a few seconds every few minutes. I am connected to the internet with an Airport Extreme. I have searched and see that this is a problem with AirPlay in general. Any solutions for the HomePod?
HomePod, iOS 11.2.5
The “airplay cuts out and stutters” fix is to turn off WMM in your router settings. Do that and restart your router gateway (then double check that it’s indeed off again) and your airplay issues should be magically fixed. WMM is on by default and is supposed to prioritize voice and streaming content but it has never worked well with airplay. However, when you turn it off your WiFi network speed will be slower, but not enough to make a noticeable difference (to me at least). I think it caps at 54mbps? It’s a trade off - but it’s the only way to prevent the maligned airplay issues.
Maybe when airplay2 comes out, there will be a better fix but for now this is all I have found to work.
I have had the exact same issue with my HomePod and iPhone 7+ (updated to latest version). I have read in other AirPlay-related support pages that changing the wifi to non-5ghz can help alleviate the issue; however, I'm still experiencing the cut out. Pretty frustrated at this point as the HomePod is obviously brand new.
This issue with Airplay generally points to network instability - either due to poor signal/interference or potentially due to limited bandwidth, potentially if other users/devices are hogging wifi and/or internet bandwidth.
I tried connecting both my phone and HomePod to 5 GHz WiFi connections and it helped, but still was present.
I too have this issue with an iPhone X running 11.2.5. And my Apple TV 4K dropped the connection to it this morning also (OS up to date but I'm not home to find the number).
AirPlay with HomePod cuts out intermittently.
