Roon stopped playing to paired HomePods [Ticket In]

Roon Core Machine

MacBook Pro 2019, 2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9
MacOS 10.15.7

Networking Gear & Setup Details

Airport, WiFi

Connected Audio Devices

Files served via Synology DiskStation DS416

Number of Tracks in Library

100,000+ tracks

Description of Issue

Been using Roon with paired HomePods successfully for more than a year; suddenly this morning (9/22) Roon will no longer play to zone with paired HomePods. Roon will play to core machine, other HomePods, each HomePod individually, but when paired HomePods are grouped in zone green connection light flashes briefly but play is paused automatically within first second. Never seen this before.

I restarted core machine, updated to build 831 on core and all devices, reset both HomePods, etc. Can AirPlay to same HomePods via Apple but cannot via Roon. Highly frustrating, as it’s never been a problem and it just stopped today. Have to believe it’s related to the Roon update. Thank you.

RTW

Hi @Richard_Williams2,

Please note the exact local time + date when this issue next occurs and the name of the track that was playing and upload your Roon Logs by using these instructions. The best way to get them over to me would be via Dropbox / Google Drive, but if you don’t have either service please let me know and I can provide alternate upload instructions.

Hi, Dylan.

Logs here:

My last attempt to play a file was at 9:27 am this morning, the track was “Follow Me Down” by an artist called UNKLE (sometimes U.N.K.L.E.)
In addition, I tried to play a track called “There’ll Come a Day” by The Damned several times last night, and you can find references to it throughout the log file.

Behavior is the same no matter what track I try. Thank you! - RTW

Thanks, @Richard_Williams2. I’ve passed this along to the QA team, we’re looking into this!

Hi @Richard_Williams2,
We’ve done some testing on our end but we haven’t been able to reproduce this on our side. When we try to group HomePods they’re working okay, so there’s likely an extra factor that we aren’t aware of just yet that we need to identify.

First, can you confirm the firmware version that your HomePods are running? Are they fully up to date?

Additionally, we’ve enabled some additional Airplay logging on your account that will help us learn more about what’s happening. I’m hoping you can do the following:

Please reproduce the issue and note the exact local time + date when this occurs and the name of the track that was playing and upload your Roon Logs by using these instructions. The best way to get them over to me would be via Dropbox / Google Drive, but if you don’t have either service please let me know and I can provide alternate upload instructions.

This time it was 7:56 pm, the song was Natural Selection by UNKLE.

I’m on HomePod firmware version 15.0. I didn’t see any kind of additional build number, and the app says everything is up to date.

Thanks, @Richard_Williams2, I’ve sent this to our QA team.

Hi @Richard_Williams2,

I spoke with the team about this. In our testing we were able to successfully group two standard HomePods, but what we think might be happening here is related to differences between HomePods and HomePod Minis.

Do you have both HomePods and HomePod Minis? If you group just HomePods does it work? Similarly, does group just HomePod Minis work? Could you try doing this and let us know the times and track names for these tests? We’ve left the additional AirPlay logging enabled so we can take a look at the logs for both of these attempts.

Thanks!

OK. I do indeed have both HomePods and HomePod Minis. I tried all combinations. I was able to group the two HomePod Minis together and play successfully. I was able to group each of the two HomePods (A & B) separately with one of the Minis, and they played successfully. But I was again not able to group the two HomePods (A & B) together. Music does not play - Roon automatically pauses a fraction of a second after you hit Play.

The song used this time was “Beautiful” by Moby. I tried at 11:58 am (on the Minis), tried the different combinations at 11:58-59, and then I think the HomePod grouping that didn’t work at 12:00 pm.

Not that this helps, but in my Home setup (Apple), the two HomePods are paired. (I do this to allow them to work together in stereo.) The two Minis are not. I did not try unpairing my HomePods in Apple to see if that would allow me to play them when grouped together in Roon.

Thanks for the updates, @Richard_Williams2. We’ve been looking into this as well and it appears that this has to do with HomeKit grouping. If you ungroup them from HomeKit and then group them in Roon it should work. We are investigating why this stopped working. We believe it has to do with the audioOS update and not our update and are looking into options. We’ll keep everyone updated when we have more info!

Thank you - I do use them grouped outside of Roon and don’t want to have to group and ungroup them constantly, so please keep me posted.

I’d read somewhere once that if you group them in Roon without grouping them in HomeKit, you have to manually tweak the DSP settings to get the stereo effect. After some testing, this appears to be true - pairing them in Roon doesn’t pair them in stereo. Before the update, Roon was able to pass through the stereo pairing from HomeKit. Thank you for investigating.

I am experiencing the same issue. All devices on the network perform as expected. After the most recent update to Roon, only my pair of HomePods (configured as a stereo pair) will not play (from Roon). They will act appropriately using every other service. (HomeKit, Spotify (direct), Airplay from each device, Qobuz App, etc). Roon will locate each device and play separately, but the moment I group them, the playback stops and shows the play triangle again.

Removing from Homekit and adding back to Roon WILL play both speakers, but not as a stereo pair. They play as separate ZONES.

iMac running 10.15.7 (the latest update my core will allow)
All HomePods are current (15.0)
Roon 1.8 (build 756)
All iPhones and iPads are also running 15.0

I think the topic was pinned here:
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/audioos-15-and-homepod-groups-roon-investigating/172922

And that’s the thread that will be updated as they investigate.

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I now have the same issue with grouped stereo pair Homepods. I’ve been playing them in stereo for a year and, it appears that with the latest build, they stopped being able to play in that manner. They will now only play individually.

I now have the same issue too …

After a month and a half, there has been no solution to this problem and it has rendered Roon unusable in my household because we use both Roon and Apple Music (for different collections) and cannot switch grouping back and forth and change procedural EQ settings every time someone wants to stream music.

All the threads on this topic (about 4 of them) have been closed without resolution and there hasn’t been any kind of update from the Roon side since the initial problem was diagnosed. My concern is that the workaround that some are using to play Roon to their stereo-paired HomePods has somehow de-prioritized this issue in the dev queue. But like many others, I am paying for a service that doesn’t work the way that it used to, and that is becoming problematic.

I would really welcome an update on this problem or reassurance that it is still under investigation. Appreciated!

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Agreed. Just picked up to HomePods and would love to know what’s up.

I am afflicted as well. I hope there is a resolution soon!

Me too probleem !!

Hey everyone :wave:

Thank you for sharing that an issue discussed earlier in the year seems to still manifest itself. Our QA team has let us know that the have a ticket in for what’s been reported. We will follow up either to ask for more helpful information or with an update.

Please, stay tuned :relieved:

2 Likes