Newsroom Update

Updates to the Home experience elevate entertainment and bring more convenience. Learn more >

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

homepod won't play playlists

Its the oddest thing. New homepod simply cannot recognize any playlist names. I can "hey siri play Havana" it it plays fine, but "hey siri play playlist dance" "Cannot find playlist Dance in your music."

Works fine without homepod just on the iPhone X.


Tried changing the playlist names and same results


Tried "hey siri, playlists" replies "which playlist?" say a playlist and " i cannot find playlist X in your music"


Apple support esclated to tier 3 and they dont know either,


Anyone else? My brother is not having this issue.

Posted on Feb 11, 2018 2:53 PM

Reply

Similar questions

96 replies

Mar 12, 2018 1:23 PM in response to John0001

Hey all, so I was having same problem with Siri on HomePod not recognizing playlists wether they have 1 name or 2. I have Apple Music and iCloud music library is on. As some of you posted here, I erased HomePod from Home app, disconnected it, waited about 10 seconds then plugged it back in. Held down the top until it turned red and a sound rang to reset. Then I setup as new and now it recognizes all playlists. Thanks everyone!

Mar 13, 2018 9:05 AM in response to John0001

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.

Mar 13, 2018 11:06 AM in response to Gdp718

It's already been addressed by me, a month ago. I was in touch with one of their customer service people who called me every other day to update me for a while. I even sent their engineers a video of what was happening. I used to manufacture things myself. I know that things happen but whenever we encountered a problem like this it would mean that engineers were working the weekend or weekends or overnight or nights until it was resolved and if it still couldn't be resolved, we had to swallow our pride and announce a recall of some sort and everything would be put on hold untill our engineers figured it out and traveled clear across the country to reinstall their equipment at our expense. The real problem here is there is NO communication about resolve of the problem. I haven't talked to that customer service person for two weeks now (feb 28) when he told me "they have everything that they need and these things take time, let's give it a week." I can only assume now that this means they can't figure it out or don't much care to figure it out or it's a much bigger problem than it seems and they are having trouble coming to terms with that. I own a 350.00 speaker that streams Pandora. (That's good I guess...)

Mar 13, 2018 12:15 PM in response to turingtest2

Lol still the same answer every time. Unless you have one of these that aren't working you wouldn't understand. Everyone has done all of these things multiple times. The result: it works perfectly!!...(for just about 24 hours then it's back to its non-working state. I know it sounds weird and doesn't even make any kind of sense at all, but resetting...signing in and out...unplugging...plugging back in...renaming all of your music...summoning the music gods...pouring water on it...putting it in the oven...all of this is a complete waste of time. 😉

Mar 13, 2018 6:09 PM in response to mark7198

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

Mar 14, 2018 10:14 AM in response to turingtest2

So here is a fair reply to my second attempt to fix this situation. First off, thank you everyone for your previous input.


I followed tt2's recommendation and signed out of my apple ID account and signed back in. I then created a new playlist and titled it "Anita." I then went for a walk and asked Siri on my iPhone 7 to play a playlist....Anita. It worked on my iPhone.


I returned home and asked the HomePod "Hey Siri, play a playlist......Anita." And it worked.


Now that this appears to be functioning, I am pleased with the look, sound and design of the homepod. So long as it plays my apple music (as it's intended) I won't have any complaints.


Thanks again all!

Mar 19, 2018 7:40 PM in response to John0001

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 😉

homepod won't play playlists

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.