HomePod won't play music

I have been having one-to-one support from Apple to try to resolve this for nearly 3 weeks now. It seems that if you want to keep your original music files and are not prepared to replace them with Apple's own server versions, iTunes Match will not work with HomePod. Apple support have tried but given up - they now tell me that this is a 'feature' of the product - rather than the profound limitation it is. Along the way I have had to set up test accounts, backup and delete my entire library of around 70,000 songs and lost some lossless files along the way in place of Apple's lower res versions. I've had HomePod refuse to acknowledge any verbal requests at one point. I've spent about 5 hours on the phone with apple - basically the marketing promise that it works with iCloud library is false. It's a very expensive dumb speaker at this point and apple's marketing is a lie. This is painful for me to say as an Apple fanboy of 30 years' standing with a mac saturated home....

I appreciate those of you who have spent time with Apple to try to figure this out. I am still amazed that I have not seen this failure of the system described in any major blog. I have tried to point this out to a few Apple centric blogs but no one seems to care. My experience is that when the music stops and/or skips tracks it will only play "uploaded" tracks (requiring a reset to the HomePod to kick start things) and skip "matched" tracks. I did not go the iTunes Match route - I went the Apple Music route with my library.

I had a similar issue a few times, where I said "Hey Siri, please play Guardians of the Galaxy Soundtrack" and she says "okay, here's Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 Soundtrack" and then...it goes silent. I then ask her what's playing and she says nothing. I've tried that three times. The second time, it did the same thing. The third time, it played. A bug?

I have rock-solid business-grade Internet, a latest edition Airport Extreme, and an Apple Music Family Plan trial subscription I just started today.

I’ve tried all the suggestions. Literally HomePod won’t see my Apple Music or iTunes library. She can airplay both and even Spotify but she won’t get the music from iTunes or Apple Music on her own. Help!

I’ve done the username reboot, I’ve hard reset her, I’ve removed her from the home app and repaired. What other options are there?

Try Remote control for HomePod, not using AirPlay to see if that at least gets the HomePod playing your content directly. Are you using the same Apple ID for both iCloud and for iTunes & App Stores?

tt2

From Set up and use HomePod - Apple Support:

On the iOS device that you use to set up HomePod, make sure that you signed in to iCloud with your Apple ID and turned on iCloud Keychain. You also need to have two-factor authentication set up for your Apple ID.

It might help to turn iCloud Keychain off and on again and/or disable and enable 2FA.

Are you using the device anywhere outside of the US, UK or Australia where it has been officially launched?

tt2

Well, you need an internet connection and songs that are stored on one of Apple's cloud services (like music purchased from the iTunes store or matched by iTunes or from Apple's for-pay streaming music service). There is no way to stream or even request the songs from your other iOS or Mac OS devices unless you "push" that content from the other device and use the HomePod as a simple wireless speaker.

Or, at least that seems to be the case.

I'm pretty disappointed with HomePod. It worked fine at home but now that I have brought it into my office, it's not working. Siri thinks I'm playing from Airplay (she tells me what's playing, and my phone shows the music as playing with the track time incrementing) but I get silence. Siri responds to questions etc. so there isn't a fundamental network issue.

I've tried removing from the Home app and re-adding but it didn't help.

Seems like Apple product quality just seems to keep getting worse.....

I found this:

Disable Hey Siri

Don’t worry, you will be able to turn her back on really soon. To turn off Hey Siri using your voice, just say, “Hey Siri, turn disable Hey Siri.”

Or you can go into the Home app and visit the Details screen of the HomePod, and switch the toggle for Listen for Hey Siri to off.

After a few minutes, you can switch it back on.

I have had Apple support working with me for over two weeks on this. They are trying really hard. I've not got it working but had to delete my whole library of music (I have backup) and then resynchronise with itunes match in the cloud. Homepod working perfectly now but my itunes library is now screwed. Have had most of my lossless files replaces with 256kbps AAC versions which is deeply annoying. And about 90% of my tracks on my desktop won't play at all because of broken file links. So that's tonight's call to try to resolve. It seems that it is a 'feature' of Homepod that you basically have to use Apple's versions of your music not your own version - even if Apple's are of a much lower quality. This 'feature' is certainly not what's advertised of included in any of the info with the product and I think is more of a serious detriment. Hoping there is a workaround for this that they can offer me tonight but I've also had to replace all the lossless files on my phone with AAC too. I'm not happy and on the verge of sending it back.

I had the same problem. The HomePod would respond in the affirmative that it would play the song I requested and would even call out the the artist, but then nothing would play only silence and the (+/-) volume buttons would go dim. I tried requesting the same song over and over, to no avail. I tried signing out of my AppleID account using the Home App, but that did not help. Finally I unplugged the HomePod and plugged it back in, all of a sudden the songs I requested started to play.

I've had this issue with iTunes Match and the HomePod since day one. It was only after I signed up for Apple Music (the free trial anyway) that my HomePod started working the way it should. Apple advertised that the HomePod worked with iTunes Match... but apparently it doesn't. If I would have known that iTunes Match wouldn't work with the HomePod, I wouldn't have purchased it.

When my Apple Music trial is over, I feel like I will have no choice but to sign up and pay the service just so my HomePod will continue to work the way it should.

This doesn't feel right, does it?

100% there with you. It is not compatible with iTunes match as I understand the service. It will not tolerate having your own version of files - which defeats the object of iTunes match which is supposed to be the benefit of your own files as you want them with the cloud there to give you access to your music on the go. I'm going to ask for a refund as the product does not work as advertised.

I’ve tried everything on this thread and still can’t play Apple Music...only things in my iCloud library previously purchased will play. Other requests acknowledged and met with silence.

It seems to intermittently work for a short while if I keep my phone on airplane mode. Factory resetting the phone did not help.

Is anyone else experiencing this issue with 11.3.1?