If you have a software-bricked HomePod lying around, there’s good news for you as someone has found a way to fix it.
You May be Able to Restore the Software on Your Bricked HomePod, Ultimately Fixing it
Apple has a strange policy for software-bricked HomePods. Instead of repairing them, the company gives you a new one while charging money for it as it is counted as an out-of-warranty repair. However, someone has figured out a way to restore the firmware on these bricked HomePods and make them work again.
It’s pretty wild Apple does not restore a HomePod that only has corrupt software. Yet, here we are.
It’s as simple as restoring the software like how you do on an iPhone or iPad. However, there’s a small problem – the way you connect the HomePod to a Mac. Apple uses a proprietary connector (found underneath the HomePod) for diagnostic purposes. If you have the right adapter for it, you can use the same Apple connector to interface the HomePod to your Mac and restore the software.
The process is slightly complicated, because the connector does not exist for everyone, however, there’s a chance it might be very soon.
I’m hopeful this fix will be available for everyone in the near future and that HomePod sitting in your basement can be revived again so that it can start playing your favorite music. For now, the fix is possible, but it’s a work-in-progress at the same time.
If you’re interested in all of this, make sure you head over to GitHub now.
Sometimes Apple makes weird decisions about its products that does not make sense. For example, with the butterfly keyboard on the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the company would replace the entire logic board along with the keyboard rather than fixing just one key. With HomePod, Apple straight up assumes it’s completely bricked, even though it’s just corrupted software, and nothing can be done about it.
I won’t be surprised if Apple restores the software on these HomePods in the background and sell them as refurbished.
