homepod won't play playlists

So this appears to be an extremely frustrating, embarrassing, and recurring theme for the HomePod device. My HomePod will not recognize any of my Playlists in Apple Music. I have a Playlist specifically named "Anita's Favorites" for my girlfriend. Every time I ask Siri "Hey Siri, play a playlist......Anita's Favorites," I get the response "I cannot find that Playlist." Every time I ask "Hey Siri, play Anita's Favorites playlist," an Anita Baker user playlist starts playing.

I have tried several times to: rename the playlist, download the songs to my iPhone 7, add/remove the songs from my library, restart my iPhone and HomePod, and it still will not play the playlist. This is absolutely not a user error. The main selling feature of this device is that its in the Apple "ecosystem" and will seamlessly play all your Apple Music Library, playlists and podcasts if you have an active Apple Music account.

How can Apple get this wrong? Playlists are pretty much the heart of any music streaming service. This needs to be addressed with a software/Siri update pronto. Much sooner than stereo pairing, calendar reading and multiple room capability. How about getting a user's playlist to play correctly. I chose HomePod over Google Home Max.....starting to regret my decision if I just have to airplay everything.

I have an interesting thing to add to this group which I've been following hoping someday that my $375 paperweight will work as well as my $39 Alexa dot.

So I went to watch TLJ the other night on my Apple TV and it couldn't play the movie. Sounds unrelated right? So in order to get the movie to play I had to turn off two step encryption (blah blah - sent codes, reboot, send more codes whatever). Then all the sudden my HomePod couldn't respond to "remind me in an hour to return my stupid HomePod" - so I had to turn back on two step encryption on my two iPhones, four iPads, MacBook and MacBook Pro and oh yeah, the stupid AppleTV. Which now worked with two step (DMB reference in the house). Now suddenly after all that my stupid HomePod can actually play playlists!!! For the first time since I got it.

Yes I've been living with dead air. "Hey Siri, play whatever" "Now playing whatever" and silence. Hey Siri, what song is playing? Nothing.

Dying here for a firmware 😉

I've deleted all of the ones that didn't match from iTunes library. All devices have been synced.

Please folks report this to Apple Support, this is also being discussed on other sites so you aren’t alone. The more people report the more likely it is that a fix will be found.

As noted above use Feedback - HomePod - Apple and let them know.

tt2

Hi everyone--

I am experiencing something similar to this. I am an Apple Music subscriber plus I have iTunes Match. For whatever reason my HomePod is not playing the playlists I have created when I try to get them to play by speaking to Siri. If I were to use AirPlay it would work but obviously Siri should be playing the playlists if I request them using my voice. I talked to an Apple technician last night on the phone but he was unable to fix this and referred me to a senior specialist. I think others are experiencing this too. It's frustrating. I did reset my HomePod and everything else is working fine on it. It is just the playlists that I have created that are not playing through my speaking to Siri. Anyone experiencing this and have any thoughts? Thanks.

another possible discovery (not enough data points to be certain): if HomePod/Siri is responding normally to requests for songs and/or playlists, then i run the HomePod from Airplay on my MacBookPro, after that the HomePod/Siri will not play anything; it will verbally repeat the request i make, and clearly gets it right, but then no audio comes out.

In theory Apple don't read these forums for bug reports, though they might be taking a little look given this is a new product. Use Feedback - HomePod - Apple to share your observations more formally.

tt2

That sounds almost exactly my experience... The first time I set it up it worked fine for about 24 hours. Then it wouldn't recognize certain playlists or it would acknowledge the playlist, say it was playing it but nothing was coming out of the speaker. I've rebooted the thing dozens of times over the 3-4 weeks that I've had it. I have all this on video too. I've done everything that everyone has suggested but to no avail. I think the only thing different from your set up is that I do not have a subscription to Apple Music. I only have what music I've imported from my own CDs or music that I have purchased through iTunes. It's a sizable library so I see no need to pay a monthly subscription for music I already own.

-djb

Hmm, works for several playlists that I've tried. I take it you have either Apple Music or iTunes Match?

tt2

Clearly that's not how it is supposed to work. 😟

Might be time to reach out to HomePod - Official Apple Support and see if they have any ideas. Using Feedback - HomePod - Apple is a good idea too.

tt2

OK so I'm having similar issues. I have iTunes Match and Apple Music and tons of playlists I've had forever. Siri recognizes the playlist but doesn't play anything. So I say "Hey Siri, play my Tom2018 playlist" and she says "Playlist Tom2018 now playing" but nothing. If I look from my iPhone it shows the HomePod not playing anything. If I try to play to the HomePod you see the next song for a second and then it returns to not playing. Resetting the HomePod seems a little extreme - I'm hoping there is an update coming soon. BTW - I ask it to play some other playlists and sometimes it works. It's crazy. Apple - listen to these people here - HomePod is NOT stable. Those of us here are the ones that actually bought this thing despite all the bad press. All of us here are long time iTunes users, don't give a crap about Spotify BUT expect our Apple stuff to work. BTW2- my Watch and iPhone still occasionally answer instead of HomePod and start playing music which is really annoying.