As said, there is a static and crackling sound lasting up to 5 seconds when I’m playing music from Spotify on my HomePod Mini. It comes up every couple of minutes and then music resumes playing normally. So far I had no issues, and after this emerged, I updated all softwares to latest versions and updated the Spotify app. Any ideas what to do next?
HomePod mini, 18
I've been experiencing the same problem after updating to OS 18. It happens whether I'm using the HomePod minis as tv speakers or while listening to music. I've also noticed an echo that comes and goes like the speakers aren't playing the audio at the same time.
I have a stereo pair of HomePod 2's as the default audio output for my Apple TV 4k in the living room, and stereo pairs of minis in all the other rooms. Everything has been fine for more than a year, but recently when I try to AirPlay Apple Music it works fine for a few minutes, then, static, crackling, off-sync echos, and dropouts that don't stop even when I move to a video app (like Netflix) until I literally shut down the entire system and restart the homepods. Doesn't happen if I'm using a video app and AirPlay to any or all homepods, only when I play Apple Music. Too intermittent to nail down for reproducing in a support call. I really want to be able to painlessly listen to music throughout my house again.
Saturday Oct 13 UPDATE:
About every 5 min the crackling sound showed up in different speakers around the house from 12:15pm -3:30pm. Mostly, it was in the Homepod 2, so I unlinked them and it continues in different pairs of mini's around the house! Interestingly, they all stayed in sync today, just the static/crackling sounds. This all sucks. All speakers and apple products are updated, but it still happens. Restarting all speakers didn't help either.
I have 9 HomePods throughout my house, having 2 stereo pairs of original units, and 2 stereo pairs of minis, and a single mini in a bathroom. All of my minis have had this horrible issue until the last software update. I’m not saying it’s fixed, only so far, so good. I was planning on buying 4 minis as Christmas gifts for nieces and nephews, but that isn’t gonna happen until this discussion thread goes dormant because the issue is fixed for all. Have a good day wonderful people!
Finally, some logical "possible" explainations! Mine also started crackling shortly before iOS 18. I will now, also, start a ticket with apple support, as I truly believe that they will respond quicker if more people contact them. Thanks for the detailed info!!
Statics, crackling, single Homepods disconnecting randomly, sometimes last chunk of audio is stuck in a permanent loop (0.25 sec)…
this is really annoying.
in my setup i have 5 Homepod Mini and 1 Belkin Soundform Connect.
music is played via iphone 13. all on newest firmware.
Network is AVM Fritz Mesh. Newest hard-/firmware.
In addition to the Airplay/Homepod problems the Iphone regularely disconnects from Wifi.
AVM knows the problem but passes it on to Apple. - no solution for several Updates even major OS updates).
so i guess its time to switch back to good old FM Transmitter/Receiver for seamless multiroom audio. - welcome to the future (2024)
I just updated my 20 or so HomePods to OS 18.1: Gen 1, Minis and Gen 2 at both locations...both with a single wifi SSID 5ghz and no conflict with 2.4ghz. Will report back after a few days if the problem hasn't recurred.
Did Santa’s magic fix this problem? Well, for me here, just before the festive period (and at the Apple iOS update) miracles began to happen. It stopped! And has remained so; although I fear that by admitting it, it will be jinxed. But I can honestly say that absolutely no static whatsoever has taken place here since that time; so much so that they all have been finally doing what they are supposed to do all through the festivities and all with visitor and guests positive feedback (no pun intended).
“Siri ask <assured third party app> to play <an assured radio station>”… even though it is supposed to, never ever has this command been activated! “There is a problem with…” or “I’m sorry, I can’t do that from here, you’ll need to do it via an Apple device” (paraphrased)
HOWEVER… synchronicity between pods and also between stereo paired pods remains abysmal. Whilst it does seem to self correct occasionally, more often than not, intervention via a brief pause is often required for normal service to resume. There is no particular timeline, it is completely random, but when it happens, it really happens. The worst is of course with stereo paired pods. This fault is not always during use, but mostly. So all is not out of the woods just yet, but so far at least, a positive start to the new year is holding out ; let’s hope the final hurdle will be soon too.
[Edited by Moderator]
I’m also experiencing this issue with crackling, distortion and out of synch dropouts when airplaying Apple Music to my HomePods and I have now logged a formal support case with apple
Apple Case ID: 102444010836
This is affecting all 4 of my HomePod minis. Since updating, I have to constantly restart my HomePods because they are crackling and out of sync with each other. This is horrible
I spoke too soon. For a few days there was no static, but today it started again.
I second all of these experiences and emotions...I hesitate to listen to them any more due to all of the frustrations.
Same here! Apple TV + HomePod mini Stereo Pair.
Workaround: Pause, wait, resume.
Waiting for a fix.
Sure enough the static started a few hours after posting that I hadn’t had any static for 4 days.
I even downloaded and installed the newest iOS available on all of my HomePods, I have seven of them had no static for a day thought. Awesome It’s fixed !! Nothing but static today!!!!
Amazing Apple has yet to release a bug fix update for this AirPlay problem!
Static and crackling sound on HomePod Mini
