Homepod pausing music

I don’t think this is a ‘drop out’ caused by an under run of the buffer. People with high over-the-air bandwidths are reporting this issue and the issue is new and widespread meaning it’s going to relate to firmware or software on the HomePod. It’s also consistently stopping at the start of songs. I think it started from the silent firmware update before iOS 11.4 software update as it affected my HomePod on both iOS 11.3 and 11.4. Oddly it seems to affect playlists but not personal radio or generated radio stations which seem to keep going.

I’ve tried:

* Power cycling HomePod

* Power cycling router

* Power cycling phone

* Resetting router

* Resetting HomePod

* Updating HomePod and phone to iOS 11.4

...and I still can’t play a playlist from start to finish without having to ask Siri to keep going every time it stops!

Happens with Apple Music streaming whether controlling on phone or direct from Siri via HomePod. Not fully tested with Airplay.

The HomePod might be briefly losing it‘s wifi connection . It is very inconsistent though. Happens to me as well.

you can try restarting your wifi router (unplug for about a minute) and / or Reset network settings on your device(s)

I have noticed the same problem after 1 month of purchasing it. I have discovered two fixes that works for me until Apple releases a new software:

- unplug and wait for at least 10 seconds before plugging it back

- turn shuffle on

This does not fix completely the issue but at least it stops from happening temporarily

Good Luck

I’ve used the feedback link to complain about this issue, but haven’t got any response from Apple. So I’m not sure if they even read that. I would suggest calling Apple support directly. They might not be able to give a solution, but you can submit logs/analytics that will be sent to their engineers and will hopefully help them address this issue.

Hi, Milton. I don’t know how much you have contacted the forums or spoken with Apple. A lot of us have had the problem with HomePod pausing; I have spent a lot of time with Apple, and have finally had my issue referred to the “engineers“. So far, I have found that my HomePod works reliably through Siri, and much less so through using AirPlay; that’s with the engineers are apparently working on. For some reason, AirPlay seems to work better through my iPad than through my iPhone.

Bruce Fisher

Hey gang...yes, Lydia (my Apple Senior Advisor) has escalated my three-HomePod Pausing and Stopping case to engineering, too.

Yesterday I did a test and used AirPlay to stream our Amazon Music "smooth jazz" station to one HomePod using my iPad. NO PROBLEM! It has not paused, stopped or done anything but smooth sailing! Played straight for at least six hours until I stopped it at 3 am (we play music in background here at the house for a minimum of 12 to 14 hours per day as we live and work out of the house).

I am wondering now if the problem doesn't have anything to do with AirPlay but lies with Apple's music servers sending signal directly to the HomePods? WE can't even play one of our playlists without it pausing or worse: the song will stop in the middle of the tune and/or after every single song!

We spent over a thousand dollars for these three HomePods and they worked great the first two or three weeks. We took off for a week to our cottage and came back to all this mess! Never thought I would be so disappointed with Apple and a product from them. Don't know what to do if they can't fix this and I can't get my money back?

Everyone: keep contacting an Apple Advisor and send them here to our forum...strength-in-numbers!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Hi all you HomePoders 😉,

well as promised here's my report after having a long chat with Apple.

1) Installed a Partitioned new OS ( 10.13.4 ) on my Mac Mini as asked to do ( I'm a Beta tester so told to do a Partition and install the public version, won't go into much detail here but still .....

2) Added some Music to the 'Test OS' as I call it, and guess what, still get the same issues 😮 Why am I not surprised .

3) Did some tests. a) when I play music which I have purchased through iTunes and use Siri commend to play ( Not via iTunes on my Mac, just told Siri to play some music ), not one problem, no pausing zero , happy days you would think ......... wrong

b) I then 'downloaded' into my iTunes on Test OS ( the one's I purchased through iTunes ), guess what , the music pauses , what !!!!! Most strange. This tells me that its all to do with Airplay .

4) I then did a little test by playing some music and if a track did the little 'pause' I wrote the time down when it happened ( as in, track playing, say, 2 minutes 20 seconds into the track it pauses I would write this down ).

Anyway I play 3 tracks from the same album, first 2 both did the 'pause' on me, strangely the 3rd did not.

So I did the same process again ( taking note from the first time when tracks 'paused', guess what it all random.

The third track this time did pause, so did the other 2 but all at different times compared to the first time ( test ).

5) I reported this all to John ( Apple tech' guy ), he has now escalated my issues to someone above in the engineering department ( what ever that is ). I did also mention that there loads of us who are having the similar issues with their HD's He seem to be a little surprised when i told him that ?

6) It would be helpful if 'we' all stated where we are in the world, makes life a little easier when asked a question , ie; what type of router do I have , well i live in the UK and I have a BT Hub 6, if that helps anyone.

7) I will report back if and when i hear from Apple again .......

Lets just keep our fingers crossed that perhaps one day Apple just might get this fixed

All the best to all of you.

Steve ( UK ) Yep I live in the UK 😉 Who would have thought ...

Hi Steve,

Was the content that you were playing stored locally or in the cloud? Is your Mac mini on a wired or wireless connection? I can see a worst case scenario where your Mac is fetching data from your wireless router only to have to send it back so it can send it on to the HomePod. Three times as much Wi-Fi traffic as direct playback on the HomePod. If Wi-Fi is congested where you are that might just be the difference between flawless playback with no issues and intermittent buffer underrun. Locally stored content might be more reliable, but could still be problematic if the air waves are really busy.

FWIW I ditched an old Netgear wireless modem router just before I got my HomePod as my Mac mini kept losing wireless connectivity with it. I've got something from D-Link but I'm not in front of it for a model number. I've also swtiched to a wired connection for the Mac mini for extra reliability.

tt2 (also in the UK and called Steve)

I had the problem of HomePod stopping, after asking “ Hey Siri play ( )”. For a number of different choices it would play for a few minutes. Go silent. Perhaps come back long later for a short duration. I un plugged both units ( stereo pair ) from electricity and plugged back in and all is well. For further info I note it was working fine before the unplug if music was streamed from apply tv, but was failing on hey Siri , straight to the HomePod. I’m running iOS 12.0 on the homepods. The functionality had previous been fine but I started noticing the problem in October 2018. All experiences in Apple Music. Solved for me by un plugging.

Use Feedback - HomePod - Apple to let Apple know.

tt2

I’ve been working on this same problem for a few days now, but see today that a lot of other people have had it also. I have been on the phone with Apple support several times, and have been in this discussion yesterday as well. I have tried resetting the HomePod, and also doing a “soft reset“ on my iPhone, which I am usually using through airplay. After I reset the HomePod yesterday, it worked pretty well for quite a while, but today, after perhaps an hour and a half of playing, it is happening again.

Does Apple read these discussions, or is there another place to inform Apple of the difficulty?

Not here. This is a user to user support forum. There are some community specialists who may post links to relevant support documents from time to time, but they're not going to get into a conversation. Use Feedback - HomePod - Apple if you haven't already.

tt2

PS: In my extensive dealings with Apple support, they haven’t seemed too interested in what I told them about the experience of the people in the community forums, pointing out that everyone’s equipment, bandwidth, etc. is different. So I would encourage everyone to go through Apple support, so they realize that this is a widespread problem. Also, a lot of people have shared my experience of the thing working well for a couple of weeks and then developing this problem.

Hi everyone,

sounds like that are a lot of us with this 'pausing' type issue when using Airplay.

Well I have a small update, I spoke at length with a Senior Advisor at Apple yesterday , now before i go on I use the latest version of Mac OS Beta, however I don't think for one minute using the Beta version has anything to do with the issue we all seem to be having. Anyway, the Advisor ( John is his name ) has told me to make a small partition on my Mac Mini and install a fresh OS ( I will do this tonight UK time ), transfer some music to iTunes and then see what happens.

John is calling me back on Tuesday.

I will update this thread afterwards , so lets see what happens. I did tell him that there was a lot of others ( you guys and others ) who are having the same problem.

Keep fingers crossed for some sort of development !!

Steve

This is still happening in iOS 11.4 :(

I’ve been to two other people’s houses as well and found the same happens with their HomePods when playing playlists. Hoped this would have been ironed out by now!