Stuttering music and losing connection to Apple HomePod mini through Airplay

[shrimp_sandwich]

Plan

Premium

Country

Sweden

Device

iPhone Xs Max

Operating System

iOS 16.2

My Question or Issue

When I play music on my Apple HomePod Mini (Brand new, updated to iOS 16.2) through my iPhone, via Airplay, the music stutters a lot and I can't play for more than 5 minutes, before the connection to the HomePod mini drops out. Apple Music or podcasts works great.

I have good Wifi-coverage and a good connection (speed test with my phone next to the HomePod is >500Mbps with Speedtest).

I've tried different quality settings of the music, and also downloading it to my phone.

Turning off WMM on my router as this thread suggested:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Mac/Stuttering-Audio-Streaming-To-Apple-TV-Via-AirPlay/td-p...

but unfortunately that didn't solve it either.

Anyone else with these issues? Ideas?

[MihailY]

Hey @shrimp_sandwich,

Thanks for reaching out.

We're sorry to hear the solution in that thread didn't help. To make sure the issue is not related to your router, can you please connect the HomePod to a hotspot on your iPhone and try again?

Let us know how it goes.

[guadidz]

Hi, im having the exactrices same issue, it worked ok a week Iago and now this... my HomePod is brand new.

and help?

[OscarDC]

Hey @guadidz,

Welcome to the Community and thank you for joining the conversation. 

Just to be on the same page, have you tried the troubleshooting steps mentioned in this thread? If so and the issue persists, would you mind trying with a different Wi-Fi connection? In case you don't have another one available, you can use a mobile data hotspot to test it. 

Also, could you record a short video where we can take a better look? You can attach it to your next response by using the Insert Video option in the post editor. You can also upload it to Google Drive and share the link with us (make sure the video has the permissions for anyone to watch it).

We'll be on the lookout.

[shrimp_sandwich]

After having my HomedPod Mini exchanged for another one, the same stuttering occurred with the new Homepod as well. I think I´ve isolated the problem, to my mesh network at home. This is pure speculation, the Homepod is situated between two nodes, and when either the source for the music, or the Homepod changes connection point, the connection drops. The homepod can be "locked" to one specific mesh node, but the phone obviously can´t. When the phone doesn´t move, the streaming works out fine, but if I move between the nodes, it could interrupt the music. When switching of all nodes except one, the streaming works flawlessly.

[il_bula]

Tried everything and the only thing that worked was deleting and re installing the app. By the way it sucks to buy a premium product, pay a subscription for a service and have this kind of issues.

[rwaldum]

When using Spotify to airplay to an Apple HomePod the audio on occasion starts stuttering. 

This doesn’t happen with Apple Music and Apple has indicated folks should reach out to Spotify about this. 

it doesn’t happen to any other platform I airplay to. It’s not consistent (works for days on end) but when it does start happening it seems to be stuck like that for most of the evening. 

I’ve noticed Spotify doesn’t always honor offline downloaded songs on occasion with poor service - may be related? But I have 1gbps internet at home with a strong wifi signal to both devices and as mentioned, this doesn’t happen when using Apple Music (switching to Apple Music works fine, switching back to Spotify usually continues the stuttering once it’s started earlier)

[AlejaR]

Hey @rwaldum,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

We hope you don't mind us moving your post out of the ideas section to one of our Help boards as it fits better here.

In this case, we'd suggest you make sure both the Spotify app and your HomePod are up-to-date. You can check for software updates for your HomePod by following the steps in this article.

On another note, and as mentioned previously in this thread, would you mind trying to change the WiFi connection you've been using? If possible, you can create a hotspot on your phone and connect your HomePod to it to see if you notice any changes. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.

Would you mind giving us more details about what you mentioned: "I’ve noticed Spotify doesn’t always honor offline downloaded songs on occasion with poor service"? Are you unable to play the content you've downloaded when offline?

We value every piece of feedback you let us know, but keep in mind it's better to post this type of question here on our help boards. Our Ideas board is to help us receive new products and feature suggestions that will allow us to improve our app and service for everyone.

Keep us in the loop!

[rwaldum]

Hi @AlejaR

thanks for moving the thread to a more appropriate section.

re: app updates

- iPhone and HomePod are (and always are) kept up to date, along with all apps I run. I’ve checked and all is on the latest versions. Spotify as well. 

re: wifi network

Ive moved the devices to a different wifi network and the problem persists. It happened before while there were no other devices on a new wifi network I set up. It’s definitely not network related or signal strength related.

there’s a thread on Apple under HomePod specifically about this issue and numerous people have run into this, without real resolution, and Apple directed folks to Spotify as it never happens on Apple Music or other steaming services. It seems like an offloading / caching issue with the ability to steam to home pod while also allowing apps to play to the phone - I would put forward a guess that Spotify doesn’t buffer long enough on the HomePod. 

re: offline playback

Sometimes I can’t play songs that have been downloaded for offline playback. Most of the time this happens it’s because I have 1 bar signal and Spotify seems to have gotten enough of a connection to think I’m online and then “does things” but the signal is so weak that it’s basically stuck… if I put my phone in airplane mode it usually starts working… which is just annoying. But this isn’t always the case - sometimes I’m online and it takes a while before it would start playing a song previously downloaded for offline playback. I view that a song downloaded for offline playback should be able to immediately play regardless of any network state. 

[rwaldum]

@shrimp_sandwich

my issue stems from more than network changes. 

I’d accept if it was a once off if devices moved between networks / endpoints (super bad implementation of whatever they need low level networking stuff for in their app along with poor buffering if a quick network hop can cause that, but I can drive 70mph down a freeway and have not a single Sutter in a 10 minute conversation, without any buffering)

thar said, my issue happens relatively infrequently… runs days without incident, and then suddenly it will start and continue to happen randomly every couple of minutes, sometimes for less than 30 min, and sometimes, over an hour (I held out 75 minutes to see if it could go away on its own while I was in a different room before I felt like I would lose my mind)

Spotify really should not care about actual connections and mesh devices whatsoever. As long as it looks like the same wifi network, it should not in the slightest be bothered with anything else. If they are, it’s on them to fix this - I was under the impression Apple hid most of this stuff from apps… for good reason. But maybe it’s exposed these days. 

[Major-domo]

Hey all, I'm replying to this as it needs some traction. I need to agree with @rwaldum on this one. This is not a Wi-Fi issue, this is a Spotify issue. I have multiple devices connected through Apple Home. 2xMini pods, Apple TV and a Sonos Arc +  x2 Sonos SL. Spotify connects and plays fantastically on everything that's not Apple related. It works with the mini pod's as well but I feel its all about spotify's mood because spotify can go a day without having any issue with the home pod minis and then the next day it will be choppy and lose connection all the time but for some reason when I switched to Sonos, it streams without any issues. So what gives?

[Eni]

Hey folks,

Thanks for all the info you've sent so far. 

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

Additionally, we'll be on the lookout for more reports about this and if we're able to gather some more data, we'll keep you posted. For now, we'd recommend just keeping the Spotify app up to date to receive the latest fixes and optimizations. 

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[tinwe]

Just replying to confirm that the Spotify is having awful issues of stuttering on Homepod. No other casting is experiencing these issues. 

[rwaldum]

@Eni

Thanks for running with this. If anything is needed, feel free to reach out. I can almost reproduce this on demand now, even on a standalone network with just my iPhone and HomePod on it. It’s easier if I add a PC/Mac (or other Spotify running device)

more than happy to provide logs, wireshark network traces, … if it will help. 

I’ve already migrated half back to Apple Music but it’s not the same experience with up and coming artists so I’m really hoping this pulls through.

from digging around the easiest fix on Spotify side is to support  AirpPlay 2.

i also found some other articles related to this:

apparently spotify still doesn’t have native HomePod integration - so spotify is 100% responsible to managing buffering and streaming… if there was a doubt this is Spotify specific, this cemented it… native support offloads this chore to Apple entirely (174 pages of comments and still not prioritised? What even…)

- https://community.spotify.com/t5/Live-Ideas/iOS-Implement-Native-HomePod-Support/idi-p/4985214/page/...

and this is the original Apple forum issue (with 203 people having +1’d the issue :

- https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253918395

reddit link demonstrating:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/HomePod/comments/vyev6r/homepod_mini_stuttering_while_airplaying_from/?shar...

[hijacee]

Also wanted to confirm that this exact problem is occurring with my devices. We have an iPhone 12, an iPhone 13 and 4 HomePod minis in our household. All devices and apps are up to date (Spotify Version 8.8.90.593, iOS 17.1.1 (21B91), HomePods 17.1.1 (21K82)).
Streaming to one or multiple HomePods does not make a difference. 

Sometimes playback drops out for just under a second other times more than 5-10 sec!

As mentioned by other users before, no issues with Apple Music or Podcasts.

I really would like to see a solution to this problem as this is our main way to listen to music! 

[Elpatt]

Also having this issue intermittently and have tried all fixes advised in the thread. It would be great if Spotify would prioritize this. It makes the switch to tidal or Apple Music seem more attractive with every skip. 

[jessesawa]

I’m about to switch to Apple Music because of this problem. Been a Spotify customer for over ten years 

[aespejo]

I just got a home pod mini and am having this same problem. As stated by others it only with the Spotify app. 

[tbd104]

I have also been experiencing this issue for well over a year. it is extremely frustrating. I experienced it on my Amazon Echo devices as well as the Homepods. This is leading me to stop using Spotify. 

[Iperka]

having the exact same issue here. This is drawing me towards Apple Music. Please do something about this soon!