HomePod Mini not pairing as stereo

Hello Yanno,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! We understand you are experiencing an issue with setting up your HomePods as a stereo pair. We are happy to help with this issue.

To start, we want to make sure that the HomePods are being set up properly as a stereo pair. Take a look at the steps listed in the HomePod user guide that goes over how to set up the HomePods for stereo use:

Set up HomePod stereo pairing

If the issue persists, there are a few more things we would like to go over:

We want to make sure that the source device being linked to your HomePods is up to date on its software version. So as an example, if you are using your iPhone as the source device, we want to make sure that it has the most current iOS version by going to Settings > General > Software Update.

Make sure that the HomePods have unique names and aren't named the same. For example, make sure both are not named "Living room HomePod".

Try swapping the left and right channels of the stereo pair once they are set up.

Try restarting the source device and the HomePods.

Try assigning the HomePods to a new room in the Home app and setting them up as a new pair.

If you continue to experience these issues after going over the above steps, please reach out to Apple Support directly so we can investigate the issue further: Get Support

We hope this information helps.

Best Regards.

Your router works in dual band mode? If yes, it may be the cause. You can set a 2.4 ghz wi-fi excluding 5ghz, than reset homepod's , connect your iphone/ipad to 2.4 ghz wi-fi and setup homepod's again.

I’m having the same issue. Have to keep ungrouping the devices, removing the device and repair them again but the problem still persist after a few hours. It’s wasting me a lot of time to keep doing that.

I'm having the same issue.

Asking Siri to play something always results in only one of them playing, and occasionally the other will chime in maybe like 5 minutes later.

I've also had issues where one will just drop out for up to a minute when using them as speakers for the Apple TV or using AirPlay from my phone. It's pretty annoying.

At least I'm not the only one. But honestly, I wonder if it's an issue with the Minis and if it would be better to just return them and get a regular HomePod for its superior sound quality... even if it means losing stereo.

Unfortunately you're not the only one. I purchased three sets of Home Pod Mini's for use in three of our rooms and none of them have successfully paired with one another. In fact, in two of the rooms we have only been able to even get one of the Home Pod Mini's to even sync up/set up. The other gives us the dreaded (and all too common when flipping through the message boards) "Wifi unable to connect" messaging. We've updated every device, renamed the home pods, restarted them, restored them using our computers, still nothing.

It appears Apple still has a lot of bugs to work out on their end. I'm a huge Apple fan, but we're returning all six of them and sticking with Sonos for the time being.

Hey Yano!

So I was having the exact same issue, but unfortunately what fixed it for me was buying a whole new router.

We had an old Linksys mesh router (not sure how old, probably a few years) and I bought a Google Nest Mesh system over the Holidays... and now it works fine.

I think the issue in router, not in homepod. Replacing them with the original homepod won't help