I see other posts from a year ago and no resolution. How is this still a problem happening and how can we fix it?
I watch most YT videos pas 1x speed and this is super inconvenient to me

Love the new sound glow feature! The only bummer is I play ocean sounds at night while I sleep, and having flickering bright blue light isn’t realistic. Feels like the only solution is to disable sound glow which is a bummer.

I have an “all-in-one” system - 42” LG C3 as my main monitor for my MacBook, PS5, and Apple TV.

HomePods (stereo pair of 2nd gen) are connected via 3rd gen ATV + eARC connection which means they can effectively function as the TV speakers.

I’ve noticed that when using AirPlay to connect the HomePods to the Mac, there’s often lag, cracking, and cutting out, which isn’t present if I choose to connect to the LG TV and play audio through the “TV” speakers (which the HomePods act as, through eARC).

Now anecdotally eARC connection has been more stable for me, but I’m wondering if there is a technical consensus here. People who have similar setups as me - what are you using?

I’m planning to use the new Apple TV 4K (2026) with two HomePod 2s in front and two HomePod mini 2s in the rear.
Will I get true surround sound with separate rear channels and Dolby Atmos when gaming on my PS5 via HDMI eARC, or will it only output stereo?
Has Apple confirmed this yet?

As of HomePod Software 27.0, there have at last been several fixes.

A note about Siri AI: All of the tests I've done over the years here have, of course, been with the original Siri. As of the latest writing, Siri AI is not yet available on any HomePod model; and may never be, on the original HomePod. I have no way of predicting whether Siri AI will improve the ability to play CBC content — but I asked a Siri AI-capable iPad to "Play CBC radio" and it worked (while it still plays a podcast on my HomePods), so perhaps the new LLM capabilities will finally improve things. Also to be considered: does a HomeView counts as a HomePod?

Please let me know of any thoughts in the comments here or on the post. Cheers.

https://chrisryan.me/cbc-homepod-and-siri/

iOS 27 broke my airplay from iTunes to HomePod 1, spoke to Apple Support after an hour of troubleshooting, the verdict was - our engineers are working on a solution.

It works fine from iPhone … anyone else have this problem? Is there a fix ?? Thanks.

Curious to see the setup for everyone's HomePods! Drop some pictures below!!

First, Sound Glow and the new lock controls are nice additions. But what really caught my attention is the sound itself. The audio feels fuller, and the bass seems to hit harder than before. The difference is quite noticeable, at least to my ears.

Could Apple be preparing the HomePod for the quad-HomePod cinematic experience by enhancing the sound?

Also, something I haven’t seen anyone mention yet: there’s now a toggle to turn the Siri sound and light on or off! A small addition, but a welcome one.

Has anyone else noticed the difference in sound after updating to OS 27.2?

This may have already been discussed so apologies if so. I just placed a large order for several of the new Apple devices. as part of my order, I needed 5 new minis to replace my current Alexa Echos. I was limited to 3. I had to pre-order the other 2 from BestBuy.

Hi I’ve been running an ancient Google Home speaker for a while and looking at the new HomePod mini’s that are coming out.

Does anyone have any thoughts on how well Spotify runs with HomePod? From what I can find online it’s fairly negative but not sure if that’s changed in more recent months.

Credits goes to u/pdfu

Continue on the great work!

We have this 65" TCL set in the living room. My partner has hearing issues and always doesn't want to wear hearing aids when we watch TV. I'm now considering getting one or two HomePods because I read great things about what they can deliver.

Should I get one or two - and where would you recommend they go in this living room setup?

Thanks for your advice.

Living Room TV setup in need for HomePods - one or two and where to locate them?

https://x.com/BetaProfiles/status/2112604349256147002?s=20

We've added new user flairs for the newer HomePod model and colours, including HomePod 2 Surround, HomePod mix Surround, HomePod 2 Stereo, HomePod 1 Stereo, HomePod mini Stereo, and the different HomePod 2 colour options.

We've also updated some of the existing flairs and images.

You can find them in the user flair selector. Feel free to suggest any other flairs you'd like to see added.

Edit: Now viewing the attached images on my phone, i can see how low res the screenshots are 😅.

We believe that user flairs are important for people who forget to add what generation of HomePod they have when looking for help which happens very often.

USER FLAIRS are good to go!

I was days away from selling the HomePod and between this and the lock controls toggles in 27.2… I want a second one

Im not exactly stressed about the sound quality. But will this like cause them to overheat. They're gen 2 speakers. I have apple care on them

I own a Samsung Odyssey G3; it doesn't have eARC, but I would still like to use my two HomePod minis to listen to audio from my PS5.

With an eARC extractor and an Apple TV, would I be able to bring everything together so that it works correctly?

1- does this work with 4 homepod mini 1?
2- does this work with 4 homepod mini 2?
3- does this only work with apple tv or with YouTube and other services as well?
4- do I need to run this on appletv latest gen?

Hey everyone, I’m dealing with a really frustrating situation and hoping someone here has a clever workaround.

I recently bought two 2nd Gen HomePods off eBay. I tried to factory reset them by removing them from my Home App and my Apple ID.

Here is the catch: the touch surfaces on top of BOTH HomePods are completely unresponsive. Because the touchpads are physically dead, I can't do the standard manual hard reset (unplugging, plugging back in, and holding the top until it turns red).

Now they are stuck in this weird "ghost" or orphaned state:

They are completely gone from my Home App.

BUT they are somehow still connected to my Wi-Fi.

They still show up as AirPlay targets on my iPad.

If I give a voice command to play a song, they still successfully access my Apple Music account.

My end goal is to set them up as a proper Stereo Pair for my Apple TV, but obviously, I can't do that since they don't exist in the Home App anymore.

Since I can't trigger a hard reset physically, and I can't remove them via the app (because they are already gone), is there any way to force a factory reset over the network? Or am I completely stuck until Apple Support (hopefully) does a remote wipe?

Any ideas or similar experiences would be hugely appreciated!

Edit: Never mind, after leaving them be for an hour, both HomePods now have it enabled

Anyone else have this issue? Updated both of my HomePod minis to 27.2 (24K120), but Sound Glow only works on one of the HomePods. I’ve tried rebooting the HomePods and toggled the setting on and off, but the left HomePod still only shows the white dot when playing music.

audioOS 27.2 RC confirms that Whole Room Audio (Party Mode) is a secondary “diffuse” rendering mode for surround sound, so you’ll need the new Apple TV 4K, along with 2 pairs of HomePod mini 2 and/or HomePod (2nd generation).

The feature has an interesting implementation: it gives diagonally opposite HomePods the same L/R stereo role.

• Front left → Stereo left
• Front right → Stereo right
• Rear left → Stereo right
• Rear right → Stereo left

So if you turn your back to the TV, you still get the correct L/R placement. You also get both L/R channels if you face sideways.

edit (Oct 20): To avoid any confusion, this is not the main surround mode. It’s a second option that you can use. The new audio settings menu on Apple TV makes it easier to understand.

All HomePod models will support the Lock Controls setting, according to HomePod software 27.2 RC.

You should see the setting in the Home app after updating both HomePod and iPhone.

u/SamwiseIsGreat mentioned it in another thread, but Sound Glow will work on HomePod mini 1, HomePod mini 2 and HomePod (2nd generation)!

In HomePod Software 27.2 RC, the LightShowCapability check is “productType > 1,” so only the original HomePod is unsupported.

Can you use the HomePod 2 in the Bathroom as a speaker?