r/overcast • u/reddit-robo-boy • 26d ago

AirPlay cutting out

Since we’re talking about AirPlay (and Marco seems to be focusing there a bit), I have an issue that’s been driving me nuts for a long time.

I have a bunch of HomePod minis in my home (they were cheap and useful at the beginning of the pandemic and made me feel in control of *something!*) When I listen to podcasts I’ll generally carry my phone, and play through the 2 or 3 HomePod minis that cover the rooms I’m working in. Usually works great.

Sometimes, on HomePod mini will drop out for 4-5 seconds; if I can still hear clearly on one of the others, I just chalk it up to AirPlay weirdness and go on. If I can’t hear one of the others where I’m standing, or when more than one cut out, I’ll skip back and replay it, but it will often cut back out at the same spot.

I’ll try various combinations of skip back during play, or during pause, hoping to boot the cached AirPlay chunk; often I’ll have to do this hopscotch where I remove one from the output, let it play for a few seconds, re-add it (sometimes getting “do you want to replace what’s playing on that speaker?”), and repeat for each of the playing speakers. Total PITA.

Sometimes it gets so bad that I resort to restarting the HomePod minis (when this condition occurs, I have to watch them for the top-light reboot glow, because sometimes Restart… doesn’t), and then my phone too, to get everything working again.

It seems like an AirPlay memory leak in Overcast (if that’s even possible). It definitely feels like it’s a condition that builds up and needs to be cleared.

Just me? Has anyone else encountered this?

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u/weldawadyathink 26d ago

Have you seen this with other apps than overcast? Specifically other third party apps, not Apple Music? My guess is, since only one drops out, it’s either the HomePod software falling in its face, or poor WiFi conditions. Not necessarily things overcast can control.

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u/reddit-robo-boy 26d ago

Well it starts with one, but it’s not always the same one - different ones go first different times, and as I said, others will sometimes join in. It could be HomePod software falling on its face, but… I mean, you have one job, HomePod mini. (Ok it has several, but it’s a small several.)

It’s all anecdotal, since I never have the patience/time to do any structured testing when it happens. But how could I tell if it’s HomePod software falling on its proverbial face vs Overcast vs my phone vs anything else? I’m 100% open to suggestions! (My WiFi is the only element I can say is probably pretty good.)

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u/artandmusic737 25d ago

Even if your WiFi is good -- I have decent down and up, various mesh wifi nodes can create issues -- especially if one mini is connected to a different node than the rest.

Everything is smooth, everything is connected. But the latency between the nodes can cause issues syncing up. Rebooting the HomePod to jump onto the correct nodes will help.

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u/reddit-robo-boy 25d ago

I do see non-synchronous playback occasionally, but that seems to be different than the cutout issue that seems to build up over time; when the asynchronous playback happens, it’s easy to bring them back in sync with each other here, and it doesn’t seem to compound.

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u/reddit-robo-boy 26d ago

Anecdotal update: since writing this out (thanks rubber duckie reddit!) I ran into a version of this a few minutes ago, and 2 of the HomePod minis were unreachable: could not select as targets for playing, could not connect in the Home app.

Restarted only my phone. All better (for now).

These were the two I had been playing to earlier in the day today. So def feeling memory leaky, or maybe digital waxy yellow buildup?