Why does my HomePod sometimes delay sound?

[Howard Brazee]

I often listen to music and podcasts on my iMac's iTunes. When I tell iTunes to also play it on my HomePod, sometimes there is a significant delay making it hard to listen to both. I can pause the play for a second, and the sound synchronizes again.

Also, if I pause the play, my iMac stops playing instantly, the HomePod sometimes takes a while to stop playing.

I know that iTunes has lots and lots of recurring bugs, but I'm curious - why does this behavior occur?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

You can use AirPlay from you iMac to play on the HomePod simultaneously. They should play in sync, unless they are very far apart and you can hear them both simultaneously. The delay when stopping, or changing songs, is that the iMac is playing directly from iTunes locally, and the HomePod has to transmit via Wi-Fi, which can cause a short delay. Once the music is playing however, they should be pretty close in sync.

How to AirPlay audio
Play audio to multiple speakers with AirPlay

I would make sure your HomePod is up to the latest software version (iOS 11.4 or later), as it should then take advantage of AirPlay 2. You iMac would need to be running iTunes 12.8 or later for this as well.

C

 

[Howard Brazee]

HomePod IOS=12.1.3, iTunes=12.9.2.5; Almost always, once the music is playing, they are in sync. But not always. Every once in a while, if I turn off my HomePod from iTunes, my iTunes volume goes way, way loud. Muting for a second, fixes that. I guess I'll call this an iTunes glitch. Most all of my Mac issues are iTunes bugs.