Shortcuts on HomePod Mini's not working

[GrizzlyAK]

Hi, a year ago or so, I developed a bunch of shortcuts on my iPhone and was able to use them to control things in HA though this integration. It worked like a charm. I went out and bought 5 HomePod Minis for around the house to be able to use that functionality anywhere and more easily. Once set up, that worked like a charm as well. After about a month, Siri started informing me that "Uh oh, I'm having a bit of a problem here" whenever I try to run a shortcut from a HomePod Mini. They all still work perfectly when launched with Siri on my iPhone directly.

I've gone round and round with Apple support to no avail, so my $500 worth of HomePod's are mostly paperweights. I never really considered that the problem could like with the integration, so I wanted to ask here if anyone else uses HomePod Mini's to launch shortcuts through this integration, and if it still works, or quit working. I KNOW it does work, since it did for about a month.

Initially, I suspected incompatibility between iOS versions. I have an iPhone 7 and it will go as high as iOS 15.x, but not iOS 16, which is where my HomePod Mini's are now. It could be that the HomePods updated their iOS automatically at some point which broke the functionality, but I'd REALLY like to figure this out and make use of them. If anyone else uses HomePod Mini's with this integration, or perhaps could test with a later iPhone/iOS to see if it works, that would be awesome. Cheers.

[bgoncal]

Can you share one of your shortcuts? I can trigger my HA shortcuts from HomePod mini currently (all on latest OS)

[GrizzlyAK]

Hi Bruno, sure. I've included the iCloud link here. Let me know if this doesn't work. Please note that this same shortcut works when I long-hold the home button on my iPhone7 when I say "Hey Siri, Security On", which prevents (most of the time) the HomePod Minis within earshot from responding, and the phone actually preforms the shortcut perfectly.

The problem is the HomePods. Siri responds with something like "It's taking too long" or "I'm having a bit of a problem here", probably a timeout trying to reach HA through the phone. Anyway, let me know if you need anything else.

One thing that you might test if you still have an older device sitting around, is try to run a shortcut on in iPhone that is pre-iOS 16 on a HomePod Mini that is OS 16. I tend to think that is where the issue lies. Like I said, this worked for about a month initially, and I think, until about the time OS 16 appeared. Anyway, please do let me know if you figure out anything. Unfortunately, the iPhone won't take iOS 16, but I'm past due for a new phone anyway.

https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/0e1416fc4e524d708707bd16350d3dc8

Cheers,
Shane

[bgoncal]

It works for me :/ perhaps it’s indeed a problem in Apple ecosystem between OS versions, I don’t have a phone with older OS to test

[GrizzlyAK]

Good to know. Thanks. I'll report back once I do update my iPhone and am on iOS 16. Cheers.

[ScottJD]

I feel ya with over 175 shortcuts and months with a new HomePod before I figured this out. I almost made it into a baseball for fun.
I finally got mine fixed. Running iOS 17.4.1, HomePod 17.4

• 1 In the home app under the HomePod settings turn off personal requests. This will stop the HomePod from syncing shortcuts with the cloud.

• 2 Close the shortcut app on all my devices.
  Disable iCloud Sync in settings under shortcuts, I also enabled “allow deleting without conformation”. Do this on all devices that you own.

• 3 After a few minutes go back into setting on one device and enable the shortcuts iCloud sync, then launch the shortcut app on that same device. Wait a few minutes for this to sync up with the cloud.

• 4 Now repeat step 3 above for all the devices you have on that iCloud account while waiting a couple minutes in between each one. Then wait and do step 3 again for the next device.
  In my case I have two iPads, a phone and MacBook Pro so repeated this with all 4 devices to get them back in sync with the cloud.

• 5 After iCloud sync is enabled on all devices and a couple minutes have pass you can go into the home app, enable personal requests again for the HomePod. After a few minutes all shortcuts should be synced up including the ones on the HomePod and everything should work again.

I hope this works, it took me months to get this finally reset and working after buying a HomePod.

[GrizzlyAK]

Thanks for the information, @ScottJD . I'll give this a try. It is a little better after upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, but still spotty. It sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, with Siri reporting there is no "app for that" or "no scene set up", or some other cryptic nonsense. On my iPhone now, unlike before, I have to unlock my phone before Siri will run the shortcut, even though I have the "Use Siri when locked" (or whatever) turned on. Maybe Apple has added new security features that changed that behavior, but I don't remember having to do that previously. I remember lying in bed telling Siri to set the alarm, and her complying. I've finally turned off Siri Listening on the Homepod in my bedroom where I typically run shortcuts that use HA, forcing Siri to use my phone instead, which almost always works as it should (after I unlock it first).

The problem I have with Apple's ecosystem is there is no real documentation to help troubleshoot, and their support is IMO non-existent, they lock their user forum threads so that you can't reply to the same problem, producing multitudes of threads listing the same problem. It is in a constant state of flux, i.e., new security settings that appear with new releases, sometimes drastically changing behavior and leaving us to figure out why things are suddenly broken, and sometimes even the behavior of existing settings changing. Just like what you describe: iCloud sync should be easy, right; turn it on and everything is available everywhere (as they say)?

It will be a little while before I can commit the time to try this, but will definitely report back with results. Finger's crossed. Cheers.