homepad can't find stuff it knows it has to play

10 views
Skip to first unread message

Jason Davies

unread,
Apr 14, 2020, 6:34:54 AM4/14/20
to smug

Hi folks,

Stuck (working) at home, I splashed out on a homepod but it's really erratic about finding my music. I have iTunes match but not Apple Music. I can stream anything from the computer but try to turn it off in the evening so I don't end up working.. What's really weird is that it can't find songs I've convinced it to play. Eg Ultravox did a song 'Vienna' and the album had the same name.

Hey Siri play Vienna by Ultravox

  • I'm sorry I can't find Vienna in your music.

Hey Siri play Vienna

  • <plays the album from the beginning>

  • Hey Siri play next song (to the song Vienna)

  • Hey Siri what's this song called?

This is Vienna by Ultravox

<song plays)

Hey Siri play Vienna by Ultravox

"I couldn't find Vienna in your music" (while Vienna plays in background)

Any suggestions?

Cheers,

Jason

Sam - MacAmbulance

unread,
Apr 14, 2020, 6:48:18 AM4/14/20
to 'Jason Davies' via Sussex Mac User Group
Unfortunately In my experience so far, Siri is absolutely terrible, not a patch on Alexa. I end up repeating variations of the same command multiple times until I just give up and do it via an app or manually.
_

Regards
Sam Mullen

+44 (0)7747778022
in...@macambulance.com
www.macambulance.com

MacAmbulance

MacAmbulance Ltd.

Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597

This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information.

If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Sussex Mac User Group" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to smug+uns...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/smug/FBF1E6D4-5A21-4FAE-998A-36CB25966C8B%40me.com.

A C Crooks

unread,
Apr 14, 2020, 7:05:32 AM4/14/20
to sm...@googlegroups.com
We may be an outlier but on the whole our HomePod has worked more or less flawlessly since we purchased it. However, after one of those micro-second power cuts that happen from time to time, the Siri response was awful. What seemed to put it right was a couple of Handoffs from an iPhone of playing music after which voice requests for music have been OK.

One aside - we listen to quite a lot of internet radio stations with our HomePod and it isn’t unusual for Siri to select the wrong radio station when there are several with similar names. Not a showstopper but it does seem to learn over time to get the right stations. 

I’ve also found that using a 'dictation' voice - speaking slightly slower than conversational chat - seems to improve reliability. I’ve noticed this with my Apple Watch as well. 

Regards,

Tony
Sent from my iPad

On 14 Apr 2020, at 11:48, Sam - MacAmbulance <in...@macambulance.com> wrote:

Unfortunately In my experience so far, Siri is absolutely terrible, not a patch on Alexa. I end up repeating variations of the same command multiple times until I just give up and do it via an app or manually.

Jason Davies

unread,
Apr 14, 2020, 11:22:38 AM4/14/20
to 'Jason Davies' via Sussex Mac User Group

I ended up talking to Apple who confirmed there is a bug with iTunes Match as I'm not the first to say this has happened. But it isn't Siri per se; eg if I say 'play band Y' it says 'I can't find any music by band Y'. If I then say 'play song X' (by band Y) it often plays it. If I then ask what song it is, it says 'Song X by Band Y'.

But the acoustics are different depending how you start it off; from the Mac it seems to be only 16-bit and too bassy. If Siri plays it 'direct' it's still too bassy (but a different level lol) but the sound is overall much better. The sound is very good for a stand-alone speaker - saving up for now for a second one:)

Oh well. They will hopefully issue a bug update.

Cheers,
J

Jason Davies

unread,
Apr 14, 2020, 11:23:53 AM4/14/20
to 'A C Crooks' via Sussex Mac User Group
So it does learn? (That's the 'listening history' setting, I assume).

I'm also speaking a bit slower than usual, seems to help...

On 14 Apr 2020, at 12:05, 'A C Crooks' via Sussex Mac User Group wrote:

> One aside - we listen to quite a lot of internet radio stations with
> our HomePod and it isn’t unusual for Siri to select the wrong radio
> station when there are several with similar names. Not a showstopper
> but it does seem to learn over time to get the right stations. 


Cheers,

Jason
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages