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HomePod stereo pair - one dropping out frequently

I have two HomePods which are set up as a stereo pair. One will stop playing at times, and will either come back after a minute or two, or might need reset to play again. It doesn’t seem to make any difference where the source sound is coming from, e.g. Apple Music, Apple TV or another device like an iPad, the issue happens fairly regularly when the HomePods are in use. It is not always the same HomePod which stops playing.


I have tried resetting, unpairing and setting up again, restoring to factory settings and setting up from the start and the problem persists. I have a BT Internet Hub (BT Halo 1) providing my internet and wifi.


Any ideas for troubleshooting would be great to hear. Thanks!

Posted on Oct 31, 2021 8:36 AM

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Posted on Nov 21, 2021 5:10 AM

It is quite interesting to see that the Apple recommended solution to this problem points a finger at the wireless connection. My HomePods are both located very close to my router and network analysis shows that both are connected to the router with excellent signal strength when the problem manifests itself.


This is a widely reported problem but has yet to be formally acknowledged as a bug by Apple. Very disappointing.

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Nov 21, 2021 5:10 AM in response to gvwilliaa1

It is quite interesting to see that the Apple recommended solution to this problem points a finger at the wireless connection. My HomePods are both located very close to my router and network analysis shows that both are connected to the router with excellent signal strength when the problem manifests itself.


This is a widely reported problem but has yet to be formally acknowledged as a bug by Apple. Very disappointing.

Nov 21, 2021 1:43 AM in response to kcflautista

I have been having the same issue since I bought a second HomePod and created a stereo pair. The first HomePod worked flawlessly. Since creating a stereo pair. Have repeatedly had dropouts from one channel, mainly the non “dominant” one that speaks when you activate Siri. I have reset, assigned a fixed IP, removed and added the devices but the problem persists. It is the same if I use Airplay with Apple Music or Spotify. When the speaker drops out it can still be ‘pinged’ from Home settings identifying the left and right speaker.


Not sure if this is a related issue but I sometimes notice that a track I haven’t played is shown when I open the Home app to control the speaker, and if I tap the top of the non dominant speaker it will play a random track that cannot be stopped using Hey Siri!


I have been using Apple products for many years but have recently started to question the benefit of paying a premium for products that have a many software related issues.



Nov 7, 2021 8:42 AM in response to kcflautista

Having tried the suggestions above, the issue persists. It seems to be the “dominant” HomePod (the one which talks to you when you “hey Siri”) of the stereo pair which works well, the other is the one dropping out. I have switched the dominant HomePod and the issue then switches over to the secondary one. This leads me to believe it isn’t to do with interference or proximity to the Wi-Fi router.


I will have a look at how to assign static IP addresses. Any other ideas are most welcome.

Oct 31, 2021 4:14 PM in response to kcflautista

Sounds like a wifi problem. Can you move the troublesome Homepod nearer to your wifi router to test this possibility? Also there might be interference from another electrical device.

Some time ago I resolved a similar problem by assigning static IP addresses to my stereo Homepods via my router settings - this may be another thing to try. Also some "smart connect" routers seem to confuse Homepods. Try disabling this feature.

Nov 24, 2021 7:58 AM in response to kcflautista

The only way that I have been able to fix the dropping out is to disable the 5Ghz channel on my router, forcing everything to connect at 2.4Ghz. Since doing this I have not suffered a single dropout. When the HomePods were connected over the 5Ghz channel I suffered dropouts after 30 minutes at most (no dropouts at all when used as single speakers). It has now been 3 days without a dropout.


Not an ideal solution due to the reduction in connection speed but at least it is working. At some point I will create a separate SSID for the 2.4Ghz & 5Ghz channels and connect the HomePods to the 2.4Ghz channel but everything else to the faster channel and see if that still works.

HomePod stereo pair - one dropping out frequently

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