homepod won't play playlists

I had the same issue. Turns out I had an unusual problem where Siri on HomePod couldn't find my playlists. The fix was to reset the HomePod. I deleted the HomePod from the Home app. Then I had to unplug the HomePod, wait 5 seconds then plug it back in, then press and hold the top til I got a reset message. Then I set the HomePod up like it was new. Now Siri can play my playlists.

This worked for me (without having to reset my HomePod):

In the Home app, go to the Details page for your HomePod. Tap on your email address, where it says Account. Sign Out, then sign back in.

My HomePod was not connecting to my HomeKit properly, so I reset it. After resetting, my HomePod kept saying that it couldn’t find my playlist I wanted to play (was working and playing that same playlist before resetting). Not wanting to go through the whole reset process, I tried signing out and back in of my account on my HomePod, through the Home app. After, both HomeKit and Playlists were working properly again! Hope this helps!!!

You need Apple Music or iTunes Match to be able to get Siri on the HomePod to play your own playlists and anything other than Tunes purchases. If you don't have either then you can AirPlay what you want from an iOS device or a Mac.

tt2

John0001 wrote:

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I just need iTunes Music Purchases to work. If i ask to play a specific song, it works, just not a playlist.

Apple don't sell playlists, they sell songs and albums. To be able to use Siri on HomePod to call up a playlist by name you must have an active iCloud Music Library, which in turn is a feature of Apple Music and/or iTunes Match.

tt2

To be able to use Siri on HomePod to call up a playlist by name you must have an active iCloud Music Library, which in turn is a feature of Apple Music and/or iTunes Match. If you don't want to use either of those services then you can use AirPay from an iOS device, Mac, or iTunes.

tt2

I recently enabled Apple Music and tried to merge the existing content on my iPhone with an existing iTunes Match library. It was a mess. I deleted all of the new additions so I could start over and am now nearly through selectively adding media and it is going much better. I don't want to risk merging the whole of my regular library into the service, but more importantly I don't have an all you can eat cell service so I want everything that is in my iCloud library downloaded to the device so I can play without using data. For HomePod use I can access anything else at random without adding it to my iCloud Music Library.

Back to the requirement for iCloud Music to play playlists using Siri on HomePod. It may not say so explicitly in Use Siri to play music or podcasts on your HomePod - Apple Support but if you only have purchased content in your iTunes library then all that the iTunes Store knows about your library is what you've previously purchased, and that is then all that Siri on the HomePod can know. You need iCloud Music Library to upload playlist information and non-store purchases to your account. That same page also fails to make it clear that iTunes for Windows can be used to AirPlay to HomePod, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it can.

tt2

I got it to work now. I reset the Homepod, and I went to the iMac and set up homesharing and all other settings I thought would be important and it now works. Guess it is just my lack of familiarity with iTunes that was the problem. This discussion helped though thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Yes, monthly based on subscription choice. $4.99 to $19.99 (I think) USD.

As for the playlists, when you add them in iTunes, please select all the songs and right click and "add songs to apple music library" and wait until they're uploaded and matched. Most songs created, even playlists from Apple do not always match correctly. This additional step solved my version of the same problem.

Yes, that is important and I believe is the answer to my problems. Whichever device is paired to the HomePod (can only be an IOS Device) must have the iCloud Music Library turned on in settings. When I synced the iPad with my iMac, iTunes asked if I wanted to turn on my iCloud Music Library on the iPad and I said yes of course and the playlists synced. What is strange to me is I don't believe I have ever turned off the library on any of my devices. Why and how did the library settings on the iPad get turned off? It took a while for all playlists to show up. Since then, some playlists play, while other do not, and I believe it is just a matter of time before all are recognized and play sound For example. the HomePod, says it is playing on some of the playlists but no sound. I guess I just have to be patient and wait a while longer.

As mentioned.....

I setup my HomePod with my iPhone which does NOT have iCloud music library turned on.

I update my iCloud music library and playlists through my iMac.....I can add a new playlist then update iCloud music library as shown below and it's there almost immediately when I request it through the HomePod.

If you have a lot of music added or changes it may take some time.

PS -

I don't like having my iPhone iCloud music library turned on as I have a copy of all my music on it already.......if I turned it on, then I would be playing music from iCloud Music Library when on cellular connection, which I don't want.

I"m curious. Do all of your playlists have single word names? The two examples you give, "Dance" and "Havana" could easily (I'm thinking) be a source of confusion to an AI device--is that a song or a playlist?.

I've not tried all of my playlists, but have generally been impressed with how Siri DOES recognize mine, but they all, so far at any rate, have names that are two or more words, "Standards Collection" for example. Or one called "Scintillating Standards" which contains jazz recordings that come primarily from recordings I've taken from streaming services...i.e., that aren't available as commercial recordings, yet they've been recognized and played by HomePod.

HomePod isn't quite ready for prime time.

Here's what I've found: If the name of my playlist is a single word like "Favorites" instead of "All My Favorites" AND you say "Hey Siri, play playlist Favorites," it sometimes works. However, if my playlist is two or more words OR if I say "Hey Siri, play Favorites playlist," instead of "...playlist Favorites" then it doesn't work.

I know that HomePod hears all my words when there are multiple words in the playlist name because she says "I couldn't find 'All My Favorites' in your music," but she doesn't seem to recognize it as a playlist at all.

Ya gotta do better, Apple. Alexa is eating your lunch!

JimNie wrote:

The IOS device used to pair the HomePod is the device where playlists come from therefore syncing ALL devices with iTunes is essential

Hmm, surely HomePod is picking up your purchase history and iCloud Music Library directly from Apple? Those having trouble getting playlists to play should make sure that they're listed in iTunes without an ineligible for cloud symbol and that all tracks have been successfully matched or uploaded.

tt2

I use this smart playlist to show up any items in my library that aren't reaching iCloud properly. Unfortunately it can't show items that have an iCloud status of Waiting, and I find I need to use Edit Rules > OK to persuade it to update sometimes. Waiting tracks can be found in the Songs view sorted by iCloud Status.

tt2