What started off as a pretty good morning for Apple has turned into a relatively less-than-great afternoon/evening.
It began with Apple announcing the AirPods Pro, the truly wireless headphones equipped with Active Noise Cancellation. Immediately after that the company launched iOS 13.2 to the public. Alongside that software the HomePod, Apple’s smart speaker, was updated to HomePod 13.2 as well, bringing with it support for multiple users, Ambient Sounds, and Handoff.
However, things got a bit rocky when several different Apple services were hit with a prolonged outage. Apple Music, Radio, and Beats 1 all experienced issues through most of the late morning and into the afternoon, only just getting resolved not too long ago.
And now some HomePod owners are running into a bricked smart speaker following the software updates and the services downtime.
Users across Reddit, Twitter, and other platforms (via 9to5Mac) are expressing frustration about the fact that their HomePod has effectively become useless following the iOS 13.2 update. For many, the smart speaker has stopped working altogether following the software update.
Some users say they see a red light on the top of the HomePod, while others are left to watch an endlessly spinning white light. Many owners obviously tried to go through the process to factory reset the HomePod, but that has led nowhere, making the HomePod a sizable, and expensive, paperweight.
There does not appear to be a fix, currently. Apple is suggesting some HomePod owners should take their smart speaker into an Apple Store to have it checked out and, potentially, have it replaced with a new unit:
Currently, there doesn’t seem to be a solution to the problem. We expect Apple could pull the update and re-release it at a later date. At this time, Apple has yet to officially acknowledge the issue, but they’re asking some customers to take HomePod to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider in order to get a replacement unit.
At this point it sounds like if you haven’t already updated your HomePod, you might want to wait just a bit to go through with it. Of course, there are folks out there who say they updated their smart speaker just fine and it’s working as intended. Sounds like a bit of a roll-the-dice situation.
If you updated your HomePod, are you experiencing any issues? Let us know in the comments.