Apple Releases HomePod Software 17.5

Thank you for bricking my HomePod to render it useless, Tim Apple.

Did this update actually brick your HPs, or is this venting? Want to know before I hit “update”.

Did this update actually brick your HPs, or is this venting? Want to know before I hit “update”.

I updated two OG stereo HomePods, two stereo minis, and one stand-alone mini. All are working just fine after this update.

Did this update actually brick your HPs, or is this venting? Want to know before I hit “update”.

Update ran fine on my 2 HomePod minis, no issues to report.

Somehow I have a feeling this will fix NOTHING! As all previous updates since version 15, it's been downhill from there.

Ah, hopefully Siri can define words for me again instead of suggesting web results to my iPhone

Hi everyone,

So here are my observations on OS 17.5 installed on 11 HomePod minis and 2 Second generation HomePods.

In terms of update process, the download was smooth and I managed to install the new OS without any issue on all 13 HomePods.

That being said, pretty much all issues I had with the previous OS are still there:

1. If you ask Siri for the weather in two hours, it still gives you the weather for 2 h PM instead of the appropriate time and weather.

2. The HomePod current music information displayed on the iPad still has issues. Basically after a while the information doesn't show up on the iPad Lock Screen. Sometimes I cannot bring it back by going to control center. It just doesn't work. I have to restart the iPad to connect it to the HomePods.

3. Sometimes the HomePod current music information displayed on the iPad is truncated. Sometimes it doesn't show all the connected HomePods.

4. I still experience the issue where the music stops on all HomePods at the same time for two seconds and then resume.

5. I still experience an HomePod that suddenly stops playing and then starts again. That being said, it's the first time I can use my office HomePod mini stereo pair since Apple released OS 16.0. They can play music for a long time without having any issue. I'll have to wait a few more days, but that could be an improvement over the last 21 months.

6. On my end I didn't experience any improvement on the sound balance related to the «sound check». I tested this with the "The New Rock" playlist on Apple Music. Some songs were definitely louder than others.

7. I experienced one HomePod stereo pair on which the music was delayed compares to the others, but that happened not long after the update. Since then it hasn't happened anymore, so maybe it won't be an issue.

8. If you have French Canada Siri configured on your HomePods, Siri still says words that are not French. It actually sometimes try to say English words but with a French accent, which makes no sense at all.

There might be some improvements too. So far Siri has been able to tell the volume percentage every time I asked. However, this was an intermittent issue in the past, so it might resurface. But for the moment, let's assume it might be fixed.

Overall at the moment OS 17.5 is either an improvement over the previous OS or pretty much the same thing. I guess we'll still need to wait (or hope) to have a more reliable OS such as OS 15.7. If you are still on any of the OS 16 versions, OS 17.5 is better. I'll continue to monitor them and see if I discover some fixes or more bugs. If so, I'll publish the details here.

Take care!