HomePod OS 16.3.2 Wi-fi Issues

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JD2002 Author

Level 1

60 points

HomePod OS 16.3.2 Wi-fi Issues

After upgrading AppleTV and HomePod (including minis and HomePod 2 in a pair), the paired HomePod 2’s began continually disconnecting from AppleTV (4K G2). I did a bit of testing and found that all the HomePods were using the 2.4 GHz radios vs. 5 and seemed to be locked there and unable to change. The 2.4 GHz band in my neighborhood (aren’t they all?) is completely saturated so throughput on that band is a bad joke under any circumstances. This type of behavior has never occurred before the 16.3.2 upgrade. Since I’m fortunate enough to run commercial grade access points at home and have no 2.4 GHz devices connecting to this SSID, I disabled the 2.4 GHz radio for the SSID entirely, which forced all of the devices onto 5 Ghz which has resolved the connectivity issue. Needless to say — I consider this to be a kludgy workaround. Is anyone else seeing this or similar odd Wi-Fi behavior with 16.3.2?

Posted on Feb 13, 2023 07:58 PM

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Answer 1

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Vancouver22

Level 8

37,160 points

Feb 14, 2023 10:40 AM in response to JD2002

I have all thee models of HomePods and all use my 5G network. It’s only been less than a day on 16.3.2 though. I watched some Apple TV last night, after the updates and it was good. This was a second gen Apple TV 4K with the HP2 stereo paired. The only wifi issue I had was on my iPhone, I couldn’t update my watch because it was telling me I wasn’t connected to wifi.. I rebooted the wifi and reset network settings on my phone, then finally the watch updated. The HomePods should use whatever your iOS device uses. (The device that set HomePods up)

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Answer 2

JD2002 Author

Level 1

60 points

Feb 14, 2023 04:22 PM in response to Vancouver22

They did -- but insisted on using the 2.4 Ghz band for that SSID. To verify, I tried it again this evening by re-enabling 2.4 Ghz availability for the SSID and, as before, the HomePods moved to 2.4 Ghz and seemingly refused to move back. I put a more permanent solution in place by adding a 5 Ghz-only SSID to the access points and migrating all AppleTVs and HomePods onto that SSID. Problem solved (for me), but perhaps Apple should look at any driver, supplicant, or network-stack changes that went into 16.3.2 as there seems be an issue -- albeit perhaps only corner-case.

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Answer 3

Feb 15, 2023 01:26 PM in response to JD2002

I have OG HomePods and HomePod minis, with numerous connection and network issues recently. Turned Off "AX" features on the router (Netgear LAX20 wifi 6) and all issues disappeared. HomePods (OG and 2nd gen) only use 802.11N, but this was never a problem before.

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Answer 4

AZDreamer

Level 2

202 points

Feb 16, 2023 06:16 AM in response to donewithistuff

I'm glad turning off AX fixed your issue. But, as a side note I have 4 OG's in two pairs that are all connected to the 5Ghz band from from my Orbi 750 Mesh router. AX is also turned on for both bands. Apparently the AX mode fix only works for certain routers.

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HomePod OS 16.3.2 Wi-fi Issues

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