HomePods shown as stereo pair, but each playing mono.

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Level 1

9 points

HomePods shown as stereo pair, but each playing mono.

Hi folks — I just bought a second HomePod to use the new stereo feature. I'm suffering from a variation on the stereo issues I've seen in the community. After seeing up per instructions, the music is coming out of both Pods, but it's not in stereo, just "double mono"— the same sounds from both. I'm using iPhone 7 and I've confirmed that all three devices are using iOS 11.4. I'm playing music I know is recorded in stereo. The HomePods appear as a stereo pair in the Home app on my iPhone, but don't operate in stereo sound. Tried various recordings. Tried Apple Music streaming. Tried music downloaded to my iPhone. Tried resetting both pods. Tried initiating playback through Remote control for HomePod, not using AirPlay, per turingtest2. Has this happened to anyone else? If so, how did you resolve it? Thanks for your help.

HomePod, iOS 11.4, iPhone 7 with new battery

Posted on Jun 9, 2018 5:14 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

ODoyleRulz

Level 1

34 points

Jun 10, 2018 2:38 AM in response to ErcScotti

I was having the same issue and I solved it by simply deleting the "Home" profile from the Home app and basically setting up both Homepods as new and setting them up as stereo pair from the get go. Just note that it may take a minute or two for both the homepods to figure out their placement in your room and start playing music in stereo.

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Answer 2

tonyko88

Level 1

51 points

Jun 10, 2018 7:11 PM in response to ErcScotti

Delete your home data or reset your accessories

Moving to a new home and want to set up and control your new home with your accessories? You can remove your home and manually reset your accessories.

To delete your Home data:

Open Home and tap the Home tab.
Tap .
Scroll to the bottom and tap Remove Home. Then tap Delete to confirm.
You might need to reset each of your accessories. To reset your accessory, look for a button on the accessory, check its manual, or contact the manufacturer.

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Answer 3

ryanykh

Level 1

50 points

Jun 9, 2018 5:22 PM in response to ErcScotti

You can read the instructions here. You might have missed out a step resulting into the trouble you are having.

https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT208807

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Answer 4

ErcScotti Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 10, 2018 6:49 PM in response to ODoyleRulz

Thanks ODoyleRulz, I hadn't tried this, but after trying it three times it didn't work. And least I think I did what you suggested. (I'm barely familiar with the Home app, the HomePod is the only thing I'm using it for.) I didn't see a way to simply delete the "Home" profile from the Home app, directly. Looks like"Edit" just lets me move things, right? But I can go into the details of the paired HP. So after ungrouping the HomePods, I tapped "Remove Accessory" for each of them, and they disappeared from the home app. And since that's all I had it in, the Home App no longer appeared in the Control center. Then I set them up again, was prompted at the second one to Create a Stereo Pair, so I chose that and the visual then switch to showing two HPs as it set that up. Then it said "Done." But the results are the same: dual mono.

Thanks anyway, and let me know if I missed something.

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Answer 5

ErcScotti Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 23, 2018 12:54 PM in response to ODoyleRulz

Thanks for replying ODoyleRulz, and sorry all for the delay getting back to you. all. Sadly, I've done all of this (Home app versus Airplay, resetting, rebooting etc., multiple times now, and it's still the same story: The HPs are shown as a stereo pair, but each is still playing mono. To vent my frustration I used the my two mono HPs to play Steve Martin's old bit about moving from mono to stereo to quadraphonic to dodecaphonic to milliphonic to —ahem — "googlephonic." But by all means, if anyone else has any ideas please let me know. Thanks.

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Answer 6

ErcScotti Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 9, 2018 6:17 PM in response to ryanykh

Yep ryanykh, saw those before, already tried, but it didn't help. Thanks.

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Answer 7

ErcScotti Author

Level 1

9 points

Jun 11, 2018 9:13 AM in response to tonyko88

tonyko88, thanks for clarifying what I assume ODoyleRulz was trying to tell me. Unfortunately it didn't work. Then I tried that a second time after resetting both HPs, but still no change.

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Answer 8

Jun 11, 2018 10:42 PM in response to ErcScotti

Hey Scotti, the steps that Tonnyko88 mentioned is exactly what I was talking about.

I should mention that even after setting up my Homepods as new, I was still having issues like lag, sound would keep playing even after I paused the video when watching movies on AppleTv, or one of the homepod's kept getting disconnected randomly and stuff like that. I was not satisfied at all. So I basically just rebooted my router, gave it few minutes to cool down and after that I have zero issues and my homepods are finally working in stereo. So give that a shot.

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HomePods shown as stereo pair, but each playing mono.

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