Audio sync problem with multiple HomePod after update to IOS18

still getting the sync issue on 18.1 anyone else ?

Same here after iOS18 and HomePod OS18. Located in Austria/Europe! And sometimes a crack in one of the speakers. Four HomePods 1st gen in use.

Yes Same here I just spent all weekend rebuilding my HomePod network after this update broke the Sync - only to find it made absolutely no difference!! OS18 definitely the culprit- was fine before - even tried turning if lossless and Atmos but no change. I can live with slow Siri- but music not playing in sync literally defeats the point of having these speakers!

Same, I basically have to just use a single HomePod gen 2 in my living room. I tried combo of different HomePods and soon as use 2 it goes out of sync.

I just reported the bug. I brought out my sonos speakers and created a scene just as i did with homepods and no issues. Strictly a homepod ecosystem issue. The homepods have no correction between them. With all the mics on the homepods and listening for alarms and commands it cannot detect out of sync. Silly bug

The same problem appeared in OS17.0 and fixed in 17.2. But we have same problem now again.

OG HomePod 'previewing' random songs in a… - Apple Community

Factory reset doesn't work.

After the MacOS Sequoia upgrade, the Apple Music app I use to sync with my Homepod Mini broke the speakers of my MBP 13’ M2 computer. There are crackling and popping sounds in some parts of every song.

Same for me. TERRIBLE bug that seems to throw off the sync between homepods completely. I had to turn off lossless and dolby atmos that used to work perfectly fine on 17. Speakers are also crackling and then stops playing. Hope it doesn’t damage any hardware. Can’t believe Apple passed this update. I’m better off using a JBL bluetooth speaker. No update yet one month in :(

Same here, more than one homepod crashes after 1-2 songs

You can be sure that’s what everyone tried first. Even a reinitialization to factory defaults didn’t help. It truly is the update that’s problematic

Hi,

I also have the same problem here. Now some automations with music also are buggy, the song will skip after 10 seconds in a loop. They also started making weird popping noises and screeching sounds… all of this after the update that caused the out of sync music. I hope they fix that nonsense soon

have a pair of HomePod mini (gen 2) as default audio pair on AppleTV 4K (gen 1) all running iOS / tvOS public betas. I also have a gen 1 HomePod which I like to use as a “bass extension” for the pair of minis.

Playing the gen 1 HomePod alone, no problems. Playing gen 1 and gen 2 HomePods at the same time, the gen 1 gets further and further out of sync and soon the gen1 starts making horrible “BUUU.UUU.UUUUUUU.PPPPP.PPP” farty noises.

disconnect the gen 2 HomePods, gen 1 sounds as good as new.

For those who, like me, were hoping 18.3 would fix the sync issues, the answer is no. I had switched over to playing my downloaded music from my Mac instead of using Apple Music streaming. Still the very occasional abrupt end and false start, which setting the slider back to the beginning of the song fixed for another day or two. But no speakers going out of sync several times an hour.

My free trial of Apple Music ends on February 27. Unless this has been fixed by then, I'm canceling it before then. If I see from these boards that a future release has fixed it, I'll subscribe again. Yes, I have all of my pre-subscription music saved, so I won't lose anything.

Maybe someone else has better news?

Addition: When I play radio stations with Siri (via Apple Music/TuneIn) there is no "out of synch" problem.

still goes out of sync for me on radio stations with Siri (via Apple Music/TuneIn)