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HomePod mini Stereo Pair only plays from one speaker (and switches speakers every few minutes!!)

Hi - I've been trying to get my new HomePod mini speakers to play as a pair. I have paired and unpaired them multiple times, run software updates on both AppleTV and HomePods, removed them from Home app, reset HomePods, paired and unpaired from AppleTV. On a couple occasions, I have had them work temporarily as a stereo pair both playing music from my phone and sound from AppleTV but, each time, in short order, they revert back to only playing from one. And now, I've noticed, the sound will switch back and forth between speakers but only one will play at a time. This has been frustrating and I'm out of ideas. My other HomePod mini stereo pair works just fine and has never given me issues... Any support or additional things I should try would be greatly appreciated!! Thank You!

HomePod mini

Posted on May 3, 2023 11:10 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on May 4, 2023 4:27 AM

There have been a number of threads about similar issues. I also had trouble with a stereo pair with my AppleTV.


A recent thread is here:


HomeKit Connection Issues - Apple Community


There seems to be a number of possibilities for all these connectivity issues.


First, there's a lot of discussion about the Private Wifi ID (the devices hardware MAC address) feature. Turning that off might help. However, it should only create the ID once, and as long as you don't reset anything, or use the devices frequently enough, then the address shouldn't change often enough (once created it should never change) to be the cause of these issues. Apparently if you have this activated on the iPhone when you set up the speakers, it gets applied to the speakers too. Try turning it off in the iPhone before setting up the speakers (carry out a full reset if needed) to disable the feature in the HomePods.


Using a too low DHCP IPv4 lease time in your router might be a cause, depending on whether your router tries to keep the same address each time, or whether it allocates a new one too frequently. Again, normally this IP address doesn't change that often. In my router I have selected individual devices and set the router to keep the same IP for each (I have tried using a manual configuration for my DHCP, but wasn't fixing the issue, it's not possible to set that in the HomePods). Again I'm not convinced this was the cause, as the problem occurred more frequently than the likely changing of any IP addresses.


In my Router there is a ULA (Unique Local Address) feature, this applies to the IPv6 addressing protocol (its function is similar to the Private Wifi Address feature). The HomePods do have an IPv6 address in them, so I disabled this in the router. So far that one seems to be the key element that might have cause the issue. That's the newest setting I've tried changing, and I've had perfect connectivity since. This was a bit buried int eh Advanced settings, so might be hard to find (if your router has this feature).


I also switched my AppleTV from Ethernet to Wifi (just so everything was completely on the same part of the network)..


Also try changing the Room setting, I changed mine from the default 'Living Room' to 'Lounge', and make sure all the devices are in the same Room.


Some of those were collated from other users possible fixes, some if from my own attempts to fix it.


So in all, a very 'belt & braces' approach, but trying each of those individually had not fixed the issue. Seems that you need to eliminate any possible way that any address system can change the ID of a device (so disable Automatic DHCP addresses in IPv4, Disable ULA, and Disable Private Wifi ID).


Similar questions

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

May 4, 2023 4:27 AM in response to Palisade_Peaches

There have been a number of threads about similar issues. I also had trouble with a stereo pair with my AppleTV.


A recent thread is here:


HomeKit Connection Issues - Apple Community


There seems to be a number of possibilities for all these connectivity issues.


First, there's a lot of discussion about the Private Wifi ID (the devices hardware MAC address) feature. Turning that off might help. However, it should only create the ID once, and as long as you don't reset anything, or use the devices frequently enough, then the address shouldn't change often enough (once created it should never change) to be the cause of these issues. Apparently if you have this activated on the iPhone when you set up the speakers, it gets applied to the speakers too. Try turning it off in the iPhone before setting up the speakers (carry out a full reset if needed) to disable the feature in the HomePods.


Using a too low DHCP IPv4 lease time in your router might be a cause, depending on whether your router tries to keep the same address each time, or whether it allocates a new one too frequently. Again, normally this IP address doesn't change that often. In my router I have selected individual devices and set the router to keep the same IP for each (I have tried using a manual configuration for my DHCP, but wasn't fixing the issue, it's not possible to set that in the HomePods). Again I'm not convinced this was the cause, as the problem occurred more frequently than the likely changing of any IP addresses.


In my Router there is a ULA (Unique Local Address) feature, this applies to the IPv6 addressing protocol (its function is similar to the Private Wifi Address feature). The HomePods do have an IPv6 address in them, so I disabled this in the router. So far that one seems to be the key element that might have cause the issue. That's the newest setting I've tried changing, and I've had perfect connectivity since. This was a bit buried int eh Advanced settings, so might be hard to find (if your router has this feature).


I also switched my AppleTV from Ethernet to Wifi (just so everything was completely on the same part of the network)..


Also try changing the Room setting, I changed mine from the default 'Living Room' to 'Lounge', and make sure all the devices are in the same Room.


Some of those were collated from other users possible fixes, some if from my own attempts to fix it.


So in all, a very 'belt & braces' approach, but trying each of those individually had not fixed the issue. Seems that you need to eliminate any possible way that any address system can change the ID of a device (so disable Automatic DHCP addresses in IPv4, Disable ULA, and Disable Private Wifi ID).


HomePod mini Stereo Pair only plays from one speaker (and switches speakers every few minutes!!)

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