5 of the biggest problems with Apple HomePods, according to owners

The HomePod was Apple’s latest attempt to enter the speaker market. After the failure of the iPod Hi-Fi in the early 2000s, the company tried again in 2018 with the original HomePod. This rounded speaker looked like the “trash” 2013 Mac Pro, but with beautiful mesh on the sides and a touchscreen that let you summon Siri or control the song. However, what could have been Apple’s takeover in the speaker market became a problem not only for the company but also for owners, who began to experience poor audio quality, dirty or damaged mesh, and unreliable Siri.

Even though Apple still sells the HomePod and HomePod mini, these devices have recently become more expensive due to the company’s price hikes, and they still have many of the issues users are complaining about. In the case of the HomePod mini, despite some new colors, this device hasn’t been updated since its original release in 2020; As for the HomePod 2, it fixes some of the problems of the original model, but does not improve the audio experience or Siri.

Although new models are expected to launch soon with the revamped Siri experience introduced in iOS 27, it’s still unclear whether Apple will address some of the other concerns users have had with current HomePod models for over eight years.

No technology product lasts forever and every device can have some sort of error. It’s normal. However, if you look at a few subreddits, you’ll get a staggering number of users reporting that their HomePod just died. Sometimes they can die overnight; sometimes a faulty update destroys them, and that’s it, the end of their life. The big problem, however, is that Apple rarely does anything about a HomePod that stops working. In one of the Reddit threads, a user wrote: “I took my 4 year old HomePod to an Apple Store, and the rep said there was nothing they could do because it’s an outdated model.” The problem, of course, is that the HomePod is dead.

Another user wrote: “My HomePod died overnight. No warning signs, no issues. I checked and replaced the fuse. Nothing. I can’t even think of how to troubleshoot due to the lack of input options.” While some HomePod owners suggested trying a different power outlet, leaving it unplugged, or even touching and holding the top touch sensor while plugging it back in, none of these steps helped.

Sometimes users can take the HomePod to an Apple Store and hope to unlock it and bring it back to life. However, most of the time, customers have to pay for a new model because there is no way to repair this device. While I’ve never experienced this with my HomePod pairs, it’s been one of the top issues customers have reported.

HomePods dying isn’t the only problem plaguing Apple’s speakers. If you have multiple speakers from the company, most customers report problems syncing these devices. Even though a stereo pair was one of the OG features of the first iteration of the HomePod, eight years later users are still having trouble getting them to play music or act like real speakers when watching a show or movie. In a Reddit post from two years ago, one user wrote: “One HomePod is controllable and the other does not respond to volume changes or mute itself. The only way to fix this issue is to restart the Apple TV and HomePods a random number of times until they work again. »

A year ago, several customers were complaining about HomePod syncing issues that affected not only the original model, but also the HomePod mini. “When all the speakers are working, after a while they go out of sync by just a fraction of a second and you can hear an echo effect from that, which means I have to disconnect the HomePods one by one.” There are also articles from three years ago, five years ago, etc. showing that even though Apple continues to update and refresh the HomePod software, these problems persist and keep coming back. Just like when the device just dies, sometimes everything works fine, and other times everything goes wrong.

As of today, HomePod is still limited to a few countries and regions. When the original model was released in 2018, it obviously wasn’t available in Brazil (it still isn’t); so before I could get one of the speakers, I continued to search for reviews and experiences with the new black and white models. Since I’d already had bad experiences with Apple’s clear accessories for the iPhone, I knew that getting the black model was probably the best option, but I didn’t realize how right I was until I went to the US a few years later and saw a white HomePod at a (not so) Premium reseller. It was completely dirty and a little yellow from the way the sun penetrated inside the store.

If you take a look at some Reddit threads, you’ll see that white models are getting a lot dirtier, like this case and this case here. While Apple says customers can use a 70% isopropyl alcohol wipe, 75% ethyl alcohol wipe, or Clorox disinfectant wipes, the main recommendation is to clean it with a dry cloth, which doesn’t do much.

Still, even if you own something like the black model, you might also notice that the mesh on the AirPods Max starts to come loose after a few years and it looks like it might be torn any time soon.

This issue has affected most of my friends with HomePods, as well as several people on Reddit. In a thread with 42 comments, a user asks other customers about their HomePod model, how long they’ve had the device, the current software version, and what Apple Support told them because they were experiencing ghost contacts with the HomePod. Usually, when ghost touches occur, it means that the HomePod is already on the verge of death. However, before it stops working, users hear the HomePod playing a song loudly in the middle of the night or realize there’s a faint noise somewhere in the house, only to find out it’s the HomePod playing an album on repeat for hours.

There are also several reports of HomePod ghost keys, as well as possible workarounds. For example, cleaning the screen can be helpful if the HomePod has a layer of dust on top. Turning the device off and on again is also an option. Users can also try a few software tweaks, like disabling the ability to touch and hold the screen to call Siri, or increasing the touch duration to four seconds to call the personal assistant, which could help prevent a fake ghost touch from playing something on the HomePod.

On an iFixit forum, a user reported having “multiple HomePods with faulty touch sensors that would randomly trigger playback.” They used a teardown as a reference to disconnect the touchscreen, reassemble the HomePod and avoid this issue. This way, they could still use Siri and AirPlay, but would no longer be bothered by music playing randomly at strange times. While this isn’t recommended for those without experience tearing down the technology, it reflects how desperate HomePod customers have been over the years due to issues.

Of all the biggest problems facing HomePod owners, this one might be the easiest to avoid, although it continues to be a problem: Siri just isn’t reliable. While Apple has yet to reveal its plans for Siri on the HomePod and Apple TV, the current experience is just plain bad. For example, the personal assistant may get confused when setting a reminder or multiple timers, and sometimes it even gets the weather forecast wrong. If your HomePod is set to English but for some reason you’re listening to songs that aren’t in that language, you need a ton of luck pronouncing the name of the song with an English accent to ensure that the HomePod will play what you want.

In an age where Amazon has Alexa+ and speakers also have built-in AI, it’s simply unacceptable that Siri still doesn’t understand multiple languages ​​at once, especially on a device like the HomePod. So far, rumors suggest that Apple is considering a “HomePad,” a HomePod-like device with an iPad-like screen. This device will be a competitor to the Amazon Echo Show, and now that we’ve gotten our first look at Siri’s new capabilities, it looks like the next iteration of the HomePod could be much better.

Still, Apple has not addressed the use of different languages ​​in the same voice query, and users continue to face a poor experience when trying to listen to something slightly different from the language set by Siri on their devices.