Apple HomePod Mini Is Pushing My Buttons
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For the last few months, I’ve been experimenting with using a HomePod mini as a speaker for my Mac Studio. The idea was simple: if it worked well, I’d buy a second one and set up a stereo pair. So—how did the experiment go?
Let’s just say that the HomePod mini has now been replaced by a pair of Creative Pebble Pro speakers.
(To the audiophiles yelling into the void: I’m over 50, my hearing’s not what it used to be, and all I really want are two basic speakers that reliably play sound when I tell them to.)
So what went wrong?
Issue #1: The Great Volume Control Mystery
One day, I tried to turn down the volume on the HomePod mini. Easy, right?
Wrong.
The Mac Studio showed it was playing the audio. The HomePod mini also showed it was playing the audio. Turning the volume down on the Mac had no effect. Switching the audio output in the Control Center didn’t help either. According to the Mac, it was already outputting sound to the HomePod—even though it clearly wasn’t in control.
At that point, I wanted to just turn the speaker off. But there’s no power button. No reset button. No nothing. I could have unplugged it, but let’s be honest—that’s not a proper solution. Frustrated, I gave up and stopped playing music altogether.
Issue #2: Grocery List Limbo
I’d been using another HomePod mini in the kitchen almost daily to add groceries to my reminders list. For a while, it worked… mostly. Occasionally, Siri would have a brain fart and say, “You don’t have a grocery list. Do you want me to create one?” even though I clearly did.
Lately, though, it stopped working entirely. Every time I tried to add something, Siri would say, “I’m still getting up to speed with all your accounts. Please try again in a few minutes.” I figured it was due to my flaky internet connection.
So I moved the HomePod to a more open area in the house to see if that helped. No luck. Still broken. Fine—I decided to reset it.
But… how do you reset something with no buttons?
Resetting the HomePod mini: A Lesson in Patience
I Googled it and found the reset instructions:
1. Unplug the HomePod mini.
2. Wait 10 seconds.
3. Plug it back in.
4. Wait another 10 seconds.
5. Touch and hold the top until the white spinning light turns red.
6. Keep holding until you hear three beeps.
Great, except that the white spinning light never shows up. And since I’d already removed the HomePod from the Home app (thinking that would help), I couldn’t use the app to reset it either.
So now, the kitchen HomePod mini is just sitting on the table—doing nothing.
Conclusion: I Miss Buttons
I love Apple’s minimal hardware aesthetic. When it “just works,” it really is magical.
But when it doesn’t? You’re left stuck—no buttons, no clear feedback, no easy fixes.
The HomePod mini in the kitchen still isn’t working. If it had a physical button, I’d probably be back to adding groceries, playing podcasts, and moving on with my life. The same goes for using it with my Mac Studio. I just want reliable audio that I can control without jumping through hoops.
I’m not giving up on the HomePod mini entirely—but for certain use cases, it’s just not working for me.
Right now, the HomePod mini is pushing my buttons… and I really wish I could push its.