Static and crackling sound on HomePod Mini

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!

Well at least I’m not crazy alone. C’mon Apple. Fess up and fix this.

Don’t waste the money on Gen 2’s. I have Gen 2’s doing it too.

I’m in the process of updating my HomePods right now and hope it solves this issue for all of us. The crackling was so bad I thought it was going to do damage to the units that I have in the kitchen. Thanks all!

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