So I’m in my office playing podcasts from Overcast and sending them to my HomePod Mini. All working fine.
My daughter comes in and shows me that the same podcast is showing in her phone as currently being played. And if she adjusts volume up or down, it does adjust the volume on the HomePod! She’s never intentionally connected to the HomePod from her phone before. And she currently shows no BT connections.
My first thought was that maybe when I tried to choose the HomePod for AirPlay I accidentally chose her phone. But I don’t see her phone as an option. And I am getting all of the audio on the HomePod properly. We’re all on an iCloud Family plan. And the HomePod is part of my HomeKit network/setup.
I’m kinda stumped. Anyone have any idea what’s happening here? Thanks in advance!
You mention that your family is on the iCloud Family Plan. But you didn’t mention if your daughter’s phone is on a separate Apple ID (within the Family Plan) than your deices and/or the HomePod. As a reminder, different of Apple’s services on the same device can be signed into different Apple IDs. Make sure all services are signed into using your daughter’s Apple ID on her phone.
Yes, great point and question! We all have our own unique Apple IDs. She wouldn’t even know my credentials. But as a sanity check I’ll look at her phone when she comes home in a bit.
FWIW, if she starts playing something in Overcast it plays fine on her phone.
Same deal here in the office. Small office of 5 people who are unrelated and live in different homes (NO FAMILY SHARING.) But we are all on the same wifi network. When I play Apple Music on the HomePod it shows up on everyone’s iPhone home screens. And they can skip tracks, change the volume and stop the music. I couldn’t figure out why the music was stopping in the back office until one employee in the front office who doesn’t hear the music thought something was wrong with her phone and she kept stopping “these strange songs” showing up on her iPhone Home Screen.
Okay, so glad it’s not just me. Trying to wrap my head around what’s happening here. It would be strange to me if this was default expected behavior.
No one else in my house has ever intentionally (or prob even unintentionally) connected to the HomePod Mini in my office. But of course we are all on the same WiFi network.
Pull down on the upper-right of her screen to access the control center. Then tap the audio destination thingy.
You might find that her phone is linked to the HomePod.
This happens intermittently with my phone, and I haven’t quite figured it out. It could also be related to having been in proximity to the speaker with the phone open and actively being used.
I think I may have solved this. The problem coincided with some strange behavior when trying to airdrop to my wife or daughter. Both problems went away after I deleted both of their contact entries and recreated them from scratch. I’m guessing there was some cruft or corruption in one or both contact record.
I’ve had these contact records sticking around since my iPhone 4S, so they were pretty old.
But we are all on the same wifi network. When I play Apple Music on the HomePod it shows up on everyone’s iPhone home screens. And they can skip tracks, change the volume and stop the music. I couldn’t figure out why the music was stopping in the back office until one employee in the front office who doesn’t hear the music thought something was wrong with her phone and she kept stopping “these strange songs” showing up on her iPhone Home Screen.
