How to fix HomePod not playing songs or playlists with Siri

Is Siri on your HomePod unable to play specific songs, playlists, or artists on Apple Music when you ask it to? This troubleshooting guide lists all the possible solutions to fix this issue.

Five HomePods mini in different colors with Apple Music and Siri icons over them

You can invoke Siri on your HomePod and ask it something like “Play Imagine Dragons,” “Play my Good Morning playlist,” or “Play Cats In The Cradle by Harry Chapin.” The voice assistant should ideally follow your request and play what you want to hear.

However, some people have noticed that sometimes Siri will act as though it had no idea what you’re talking about. Others have stated Siri replies, saying, “Cannot find playlist abc in your music” or something similar.

We’re going to show you how to fix this issue. Note that we have a separate tutorial if you can’t play songs on your HomePod from your iOS or macOS device.

Make sure the Internet is working and HomePod is connected to it

Your HomePod must be connected to a working Wi-Fi network to stream songs on Apple Music. There is no offline playback here. So grab your phone or computer to check if the Wi-Fi is working.

After that, ensure Wi-Fi is connected to your iPhone and Bluetooth is turned on. Next, open the iOS Home app, select your HomePod, tap the gear icon, and scroll to the bottom. You will see the name of the Wi-Fi network your HomePod is connected to. It will be the same as your iPhone.

If your iPhone is on a new Wi-Fi network, you will see an option at the top of the Home app to move your HomePod to it.

Increase HomePod’s volume

It can also happen that your HomePod’s volume is too low to be audible. Use the plus button to increase it.

Check if you have an Apple Music subscription

Unlike Spotify, Apple Music has no free tier. So, you must have a valid subscription to listen to it on your HomePod. You can use your iPhone or Mac to see your active subscriptions.

If you don’t have a subscription, you can still play songs you have purchased from the iTunes Store. Alternatively, you can set another music service like YouTube Music as the default for your HomePod.

Ensure you are not using Apple Music on another device

To my great annoyance, the Apple Music individual plan works only on one device at a given time. This is true even if you try listening to Apple Music on two devices, both having your Apple ID.

So, if you’re already listening to Apple Music on your iPhone, iPad, Watch, Mac, Android phone, or the web, it may not play on HomePod until you stop the current session.

Stop playing Apple Music on another device to play on current device

Say the playlist name correctly

If Siri on HomePod cannot play a playlist, open the Music app on your iPhone or Mac and make sure you really have a playlist of that name. Similarly, if it fails to play a song, make sure you’re saying the correct name.

Note: It’s also possible that Siri cannot understand the name of a song or artist if it’s a bit difficult to pronounce.

Check if “Hey Siri” is causing your other Apple devices to respond

When you give a voice command like “Hey Siri, play West Coast by OneRepublic,” does your other device, like your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or Mac, respond instead of your HomePod?

For now, you can touch & hold the top of the HomePod to manually activate Siri and repeat your voice command. Later on, you can learn which of your devices responds when you say Hey Siri.

Turn on the right Siri settings for HomePod

Do the following if your HomePod does not respond to Hey Siri or you see no visual or audio confirmation:

  1. Open the Home app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Select your HomePod and tap the gear icon.
  3. Scroll to the Siri section and make sure Listen for “Hey Siri,” Light When Using Siri, and Sound When Using Siri are turned on.
Siri Settings for HomePod in iPhone Home app

Additionally, make sure the Siri language and accent are set to the one you speak. For instance, if you’re from the US, set the language to English (United States) as opposed to English (Australia).

Restart your HomePod

You can turn off and turn back on your HomePod from the Home app or use the good old main power switch method. This can fix the glitches that the speaker may have developed during regular use.

Update your HomePod

If your smart speaker is on an old version of HomePod Software, update it to the most recent one.

Check Apple’s system status

On rare occasions, it can happen that everything is fine on your end, but there is an outage on Apple’s server level. Quickly check for this fact. If there is an outage, you will have to wait until Apple implements a fix.

Reset all settings on your HomePod and set it up again

Lastly, if none of the above solutions work for you, it’s time to erase your HomePod or HomePod mini and set it up again.