Static and crackling sound on HomePod Mini

I'm listening to the radio from an Apple Music url. The popping noise annoys me. I want to throw my homepods out the window.

My homepod 2's and my mini's have all been crackling several times a day, even before the 18 update. I've reset them all several times but it hasn't stopped. Some times the static/crackling comes on and the music starts stuttering, like it's stuck in a static loop. I use Apple Music.

Originally this ‘distortion’ broke out on one stand-alone mini, and it was so profound I thought that the speaker had blown a cone, it was beyond intolerable. I made an audio file of it as ‘evidence’. On playback it was obvious that it couldn’t be a physical fault as the original audio was still perfect but in the background, the ‘overlay’ of distortion and crackle was independent to this. Repetitiveness then suggested commonality between both the stream provider and the time of day. Whilst the time of day may still stand (mid afternoon) the fault now appears in various stream providers including Apple Music and BBC Sounds.

Subsequently, this ‘infection’ has now spread to any stand-alone/mono mini. The linked stereo originals are as good as gold (now probably jinxed) but the rest, utterly infuriating and very inviting for them to become very expensive one off baseballs ! - All are auto-updated to current OS.

We did the ‘red light’ reset, frankly if anything, it made the reoccurrence more frequent.

For those that may appreciate or understand: the premises has a split 2.4G & 5G router, both have the same passwords. 2.4 of course predominantly for ‘stuff’ around the place to do their things. The router software always invites to combine both, but as an ignorant user, I assume this to mean loosing the separation for 2.4 peripherals only - do advise if I am in la-la land on this point!

When I tried to log the fault Apple system said the units were out of their support period.. being in a hurry I aborted the attempt, but reading the conversations here, I am going to revisit and try again, as it looks like that was a red herring.

With the holidays on their way, the fear of this distortion breaking out as and when the festive tunes are contributing to the ambiance of various parties and such is an extremely disheartening thought (is it time to brush off the iPod and link it back into the Cinema System once more…? - Oh please Apple anytime sooner than soon would be seriously appreciated by far too many loyal customers…

I have 12 HomePods. Three sets of the first release HomePod's that are stereo paired, and six mini's that are not paired. The first time I encountered the static issue was with the 18 update. The 18.1 update has seemingly made things worse. I find that touching the top of the HomePod/Mini and then restarting will sometimes fix the issue; however, it seems to swiftly return or move to another speaker. Both the HomePod and the Mini's are affected. Sometimes they go out of sync, or fall into an echoing loop. This is extremely annoying. I have an Eero network in my home and have not had problems with these speakers for some time until now. When I first got the speakers they would not all play when told, then there was the popping issue, now Apple has introduced this annoying issue that makes using the speakers a real hassle. What makes it worse is I am paying for Apple Music!

I have multiple HomePods and HomePod Minis at my home with extended Wi-Fi network. I have been experiencing this a far more than previously although this has been part of my 'Apple'-experience prior to OS18. I really hop that this get fixed since this does not reflect the brand at all. I there are any technical questions from Apples side on this please contact. I can also confirm that this happens with MacBook Pro M2 with 15.1. as well. This seems to be more related to the Wi-Fi and its ability to sync across different products. All of my HomePods/Minis are OS18.1.

So until 30 minutes ago, I was going to update and say that none of the nemesis crackles have been fizzing this week, then blow me, not only are they back, but for the first time ever, the darn interference is now emitting from the stereo synched mini’s - Just when I thought that that mid-week urgent iOS update might have sneaked through a secret patch too. Oh well, square one again. For those monitoring with the frustration and annoyance at level 11 - Spinal Tap movie reference - I have noticed this week, that, when the stereo synched mini’s are in use, there is now a very perceptible persistent panning of the horizontal audio plane randomly. (Proven using audio known to be fixed pan centre)

Another new observation: If there is a spike in the premises voltage or digital signal ‘splat’ of the EMC interference variety, immediately the pair will develop a non-synchronous out of phase audio that at times progressively gets worse with 35+ mS of difference. Of course absolutely unbearable and requires a ‘PASUE/PLAY’ action that clears it up.. I mean, really!?

Reading that these pods have multiple microphone noise sampling correction, I am minded to think that there is a possible PCB capacitance matter that if these affected “splats” momentarily discharges some/all capacitors (or equiv’) to ‘loose’ their synchronicity and cause them to ‘hunt’ and ignore their equivalents causing the rapid decay of synch. Potentially both hardware & software errors- If the same model is applied to the distortion, (all hypothetical and unproven) and the software has also lost a line of code, then the ‘microphone’ hunting could again be the cause as they fight to correct the sound output whist at the same time maintain a low level master audio output -

NOTE: that for me at least, there is a faint pure crystal clear audible broadcast that continues in the background overwhelmed by this distorted mush.

I am no electronics engineer but I am a sound designer/operator from the entertainments biz’ and so very acquainted with digital delay, noise sampling and cancellation and how software has changed the ease of delay synchronicity (Haas effect) without the maths and tape measures, but also a massive headache if a PCB or rack unit drops. I do wonder if Apple may have overlooked this approach and gone off on a different tangent which is why it is taking so long to ‘clear the fault’ that is very much global.

Out of interest, has anyone tried or able to try operating some of your pods via a UPS or voltage smoothing/ filter unit? Or able to split some on to such leaving others as is without relocation, just the feed of power. Unscientific but another strand to rule out .

It is, I agree, such an annoyance on something that should not be a problem and should be addressed by Apple without hesitation and in recognition of poor customer service from such a highly respected and prestigious retailer. When they work, these little baseballs are just awesome and audio, but my god, when glitchy… no good for your blood pressure !

Happy Thanksgiving to those that are across the pond from me!

Same here!! Since upgrading to IOS18 my HomePod minis keep getting audio interference and coming out of sync. The HomePod has upgraded ok!

I have had less occurrences the last few days. It seems to increase frequency of static when I’m using more than 3 HomePods at the same time. Since iOS 18, the audio control center has been much more finicky as well (when I tap a particular speaker, it often doesn’t take, it just goes back to an unselected state).

Hoping for updates soon!

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!

I spoke too soon. For a few days there was no static, but today it started again.

Same here! Apple TV + HomePod mini Stereo Pair.

Workaround: Pause, wait, resume.

Waiting for a fix.

I just bought 3 HomePods mini and I am having the same problem. I switched from Sonos I hope apple will fix this problem soon bc I’m really unhappy with this issue. I wanted to be able to listen in multiple rooms to the same tv show while doing chores and this totally messes my experience up. And yes, I updated to iOS 18 when it came out

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!!