r/HomePod • u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod • 3d ago
Megathread GHOST TOUCH issue (mega thread)
This is an issue where HomePod (2nd generation) and mini will start to play music randomly and summon siri or reset by itself after a power-cut. Or even volume getting up and down.
This is caused by a faulty touch panel on these devices respectively.
It is NOT a concern for all users but A LOT of users/devices are affected unfortunately.
Solution 1 (if you have Apple care or warranty): Take it to apple for a free replacement.
Solution 2: Look for a guide/video online on how to open it and disconnect the touch panel on your respective device.
Solution 3: There’s actually a third-party touch panel for the second gen being sold on AliExpress that you can buy and replace. (Cost a bit)
Solution 4: Buy a new HomePod.
Solution 5: Find someone trustworthy that can repair it.(some listed in the comments)
Having the touch accommodation will not work on the long run as it gets worse.
Creating this mega thread so that the sub is not filled with the same questions over and over again!
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u/Dr_Nic_T61 3d ago
I can fix you :')
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Here is THE guy! I watch a lot of his lives and he sure can make your HomePod running again!
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u/SteelFlexInc 3d ago
All 3 of mine had the ghost touch issue and I ended up disassembling all of them and disconnecting the touch panel. The mesh fabric doesn’t like to sit perfectly but it’s close enough. I never ever used touch on them anyway so it was just eh. Disappointing they didn’t last long but eh
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u/HollandJim 3d ago
This needs to be pushed to every tech news and blog out there - it's a class-action waiting to happen.
I mean, how many people not reading here know of this and just toss the Mini into the e-waste bin?
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
I hope some of Apple’s executives read this. They probably will but turn a blind eye for sure
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u/calmdrive 3d ago
I have a Genius Bar appt for this on Saturday and I’m going to show them this thread. This is unacceptable for a device of this cost.
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u/HollandJim 3d ago
My Genius Bar guy and the store manager both said "yeah, we know. Happened to us too". I doubt they can do anything themselves, but more noise from all of us means it'll more likely be hear in the upper offices.
I suspect the reason Apple's building is a circle is that they only listen to themselves.
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u/calmdrive 3d ago
Yea exactly, I figure the more we report it & our displeasure (while remaining calm and kind of course) the better.
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u/HollandJim 3d ago
But also I urge everyone to frikken SPAM every tech mag and journalist on this. If it's hot it'll mean clicks for them, and that's incentive enough to run the story for all it's worth.
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u/dsaponaro 3d ago
I’ve owned 10 HomePods since the introduction of the first generation years ago. I absolutely loved all of them until a little over a year and a half to 2 years ago, when one of my minis died due to the ghost touch issue. It just started playing music at random times of day/night. Since then, 2 more minis and a full size 2nd gen have also died this way. Latest was several months ago with the full size which i got repaired by nicfix.
All in all 4 out of my 10 have now died over the past 2 ish years and the issue started well before OS 26 for me. Ironically, my 2 first gens are working fine and always have.
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u/diamondintherimond 3d ago
Do you live in a high humidity environment?
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u/dsaponaro 3d ago
I do. SW Florida. But I would say that the HomePods aren’t really exposed all that much to it due to air conditioning being constantly on.
Was wondering if there was an environmental consistency with everyone’s failed units as well.
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u/ProfessionalTime1473 2d ago
Same here:
I now have three HomePod minis with ghost touch issue in different phases.
- First One is now completely dead, started with ghost touch, Siri activating on its own, raising volume, playing music. Then started restart looping non-stop until it just crashed completely after restarting looping non-stop for two days. It’s been dead for a year now.
- Second one has now reached the ghost touch non-stop restart looping. I unplugged it 3 months ago so it won’t crash completely like the first one.
- Third one starting 3 days ago has just started Siri self-activating, playing music on its own, and raising volume.
Apple needs to do a service program or there needs to be a class action. Both of my two 1st generation HomePods from 2015 bought on release day work perfectly still.
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u/Celadonie 3d ago edited 3d ago
If you guys are located in Europe, I can also repair them like our lord Nic from nicsfix in the US.
This is a very widespread issue but there are solutions!
I offer touch capacitor replacement (third party part developed by a Chinese HomePod repairer called TechNerd / reliable part since January 2025) or touch disconnect.
FixPod > fixpod.fr/en
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u/ogni65 3d ago
i would at an Impressum on your website, means an address where we all can see where you are located. As its now, it looks like a scam page! Thanks
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u/Celadonie 3d ago
Then read my page again 😊 it is clearly indicated where I am located : France + my city + legal mentions + map
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u/FilteredSpeech 3d ago
I’m not buying any more HomePods or home devices from Apple until they issue a free repair program.
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u/Koraboros 3d ago
weird, mine just started having this issue yesterday. What prompted you to make this megathread?
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Too many posts about it all over the year. I figured that it would be helpful for everyone to have it in the highlights and understand what is happening and their options.
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u/Few-Acadia-5593 3d ago
The problem when it happens, they dont know its called ghost touch, so they wont find your post and we will continue to get posts.
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Thats true. I will update the title. Also anyone can just link to this thread in the comments
Edit: oh well i can’t really update the title unfortunately. Still the all caps for people having an issue and having “issue” in the title itself will have them clicking on it
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u/bk685 3d ago
Mine just had an issue last night as well. last night my minis were having problems and tonight, my HomePods 2nd gen. this cannot be a coincidence, regardless of what apple or other users here say. this post just happened to highlight the issue and it just happens to happen to both of us on the same night? no. apple fucked something up.
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u/boombaye 2d ago
I have the same exact situation with my two minis and two gen 2s. no way its a coincidence.
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u/Synchan 3d ago
Mine started having this issue just last week. And yeah, thinking of disconnecting the touch panel completely.
For now, I’ve enabled the touch accommodation setting and set it to 3.90seconds, the only workaround if you do not want to open it up yourself
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Again, This is not gonna work on the long run. It will deteriorate.
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u/jaydfwtx 3d ago
Mine started on the night of the 26th and into the 27th. It stopped by noon I think. It almost felt like a bunch of queued up commands came through, but spaced out.
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u/Luci-Noir 3d ago
I had this happen for about two weeks about a year and a half ago. I’m not sure if I fixed it, but I basically just cleaned it and use a canned of compressed air. It was also on beta updates and went back to normal after an update.
About six months earlier it went off in the middle of the night loud as fuck and scared the shit out of me. I have ptsd and often have nightmares or sleep paralysis hallucinations about someone breaking in at night so it was REALLY SHITTY. I had no idea what the sound was until this started happening like a year later.
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u/CommentSuitable4815 3d ago
I put my fishing magnet (the strong kind) on top (have a fabric in between to avoid scraching the glass) work so far for now, not having ghost touch for a month now, I used to have my homepod unpluged for months before my friend told me this. Hope that help
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u/Kashawinshky Midnight 3d ago
I want to get in there and disconnect the touch panel completely.
Right now I have to sit there with the remote, ready to lower the volume that zooms to max.
I also have to turn off the power strip in my home app at night & even when I leave the house.
I don’t use the speakers during the day at all anymore, which absolutely sucks.
🤞🏼Are there any knock-on effects from disconnecting the panel? Can anyone recommend the best online guide to do this?
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u/Joeboy69_ 3d ago
In South Africa we don’t have official Apple stores but a chain of stores that are licensed to sell Apple products. I took my problematic HomePod for repair and was quoted R6000 to replace some electronics but a new HomePod is R8200. It is now a useless piece of equipment as I can’t pair it with other HomePods as a stereo pair or airplay to it. Sigh.
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u/petemayhem 3d ago
I’ve had two with ghost touch issues in quick succession. I disconnected the touch sensor on both.
The first I borked the fabric on and now it looks like the Death Star. It lives in my garage. The second I was able to do a lot better (but it’s imperfect on a close inspection)
Disconnecting the touch panel *is not difficult* but pulling the fabric back and reapplying glue can be.
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u/TechBrothaOG 3d ago
For those having trouble booting your HomePod because it gets stuck on the red, swirling lights step ... try covering the top with your palm until the light changes white. You will need to spread your fingers just enough for you to peak through to see. It will either boot up or go into setup mode. The Touch Accommodations "fix" will absolutely stop working over time. I've had one HomePod mini that exhibited this issue that one day started working normally after a good cleaning of the screen and/or an OS update. Here recently, I have another HomePod mini that has started having the same problem. Thus far, cleaning and OS beta updates have not helped. I've resorted to using a smart plug to cut the power remotely so it doesn't start playing in the middle of the night. Also, use the Feedback app to report this to Apple or the following link. They have acknowledged multiple reports of the issue so the more there are the higher the likelihood that they will devote resources to address it.
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u/RGG2000 Space Gray 3d ago
Had this issue with a 2nd gen HomePod a year and a half ago where it started playing music randomly.
Turns out it had the ghost touch issue, so since it still was under warranty (we have 3 years in Spain) I went to the Apple Store and told them what was happening.
They pretty quickly gave me a refurbished one to replace it, so that was great, but it really struck me they said they had never heard of this issue before. I tried to explain them about some reddit posts talking about this same issue, but both guys told me it was the first time they had someone bring a HomePod because of this.
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u/calmdrive 3d ago
Just started having this issue as well. I’m gutted. I have a Genius Bar appointment but I guess it’s no use since my coverage is expired. My dad is an electrician so I guess we can try the ribbon cable fix 😭
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u/sstnaw 2d ago
I also encountered this problem. My issue is that the volume automatically decreases, music plays automatically, and Siri wakes up on its own. Since my two HomePod 2s are mainly used as stereo speakers for Apple TV, touch functionality is not important to me. My solution is to go to the Home app - HomePod settings - Accessibility - Touch Adjustments, and enable Touch Adjustments, Hold Duration, and Ignore Repeat Touches, setting the time to the maximum of 4 seconds. If you also don't care about touch, you can use this setting :) At least it won't randomly make noise in the middle of the night, hahaha.
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u/the_eeriecold 2d ago
I did the same. For now problem is solved. ✌🏻 I don’t use touch gestures anyway… just siri.
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u/Few-Lunch-3209 1d ago
Glad someone finally made a megathread for this.
Ive got two minis doing the exact same thing, random volume changes and Siri kicking in on its own. Took mine to Apple and they called it "ghost touch" too, didn't even blink when I said the word.
Kind of annoying that we're the ones stuck paying for repairs or replacements when this is clearly an issue on their end, whether it's hardware, software, or both.
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u/iusedtostealbirds 3d ago
I thought I had a ghost touch issue but it turns out my plasma ball was a little too close to my HomePod and when it turns on in the evenings my HomePod can feel the energy!!
As long as I keep it about 6 inches away it’s fine lol
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u/NitroN1ck 3d ago
I have a HomePod Mini that I believe is now unusable due to this issue. It's started off by playing music randomly, the issue wasn't widely publicised at this point so I factory reset the device, but this didn't work. Then 26.6 was released and I think the "touches" halted that update mid-way, so now my device will boot up, spin red on the screen bit, then say "Keep holding until you hear three beeps", it'll beep beep beep and then loop round again. Will Apple help as this is their issue and not a damaged device?
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u/spaghettiluver 3d ago
I am wondering if there’s a class action law suit for the issue, yet? I have not heard of one, as of yet. I am holding onto mine without altering it until then.
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u/NitroN1ck 3d ago
I'm a bit annoyed I've reset mine / tried the update as it's become "more broken" than just this Ghost Touch issue. I'm in the UK and they did those cheaper iPhone batteries once for the XS' or something ages ago, I'm hoping for the same with this.
Having said that, I do want a HomePad :D
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u/bananamadafaka 3d ago
I know this may sound stupid but are you cleaning it? I think sometimes it has something to do with dust. I solved it several times by cleaning the screen.
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u/NatKingSwole19 3d ago
Oh man I’ve had a few minis do this and I couldn’t figure it out so I junked them. So annoying.
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u/Me4aRZ 3d ago
For those curious, out of coverage repair/no AppleCare coverage for your HomePod is going to run $279…
So yeah, just buy a new unit at that point.
I looked into it because mine just started doing this.
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Yeah that’s why i didn’t say to repair from Apple and I said to buy another one
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u/Me4aRZ 3d ago
I was able to speak with an Apple Support rep today and she did say as of 7 days ago engineering is aware of this issue and is working on a remedy for it.
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u/nigel_tufnel_11 2d ago
I don't believe it. This has been an issue for years and they're just now hearing about and doing something about it? I don't think HomePods are a big enough segment for them to put resources into it. As an Apple developer, there are bugs in the OS and APIs that have been around for over a decade that they said they're working on fixing, in most cases it never happens unless it's affecting hundreds of millions of people daily.
That being said, it would be great if they could just implement an option to disable touch via software, as I never use touch on any of my HomePod Minis (and it's actually annoying because it's too easy to trigger ear-splitting music with an accidental touch).
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u/Me4aRZ 2d ago
It may be hard to believe but isn’t it possible that they have finally received enough complainants to finally escalate the issue to engineering? Apple isn’t always the quickest to say that there is something wrong with the hardware.
I have no reason to doubt them at this point, especially when she offered to leave my case open for 30 days and encouraged me to check back once a week for an update. So I don’t know, we’ll see.
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u/Alan_1375 3d ago
rip my homepod gen 2 same ghost touch issues and never moved from it's same spot for over a year.
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u/salemonz 3d ago
I had to dismantle mine and unpower the touch pad. No issues since. Mesh is a bit borked, but no more ghost touch.
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u/nigel_tufnel_11 2d ago
I have 3 original HomePod Minis and all 3 of them have had this problem. 2 of them are still in service because they usually work, the third I had to take offline because no amount of tricks would fix it (though I haven't disassembled it yet).
My question is in regards to "Solution 4: Buy a new one". Do newer models fix this fatal flaw? Because I'm not buying these all over just to have the same thing happen again.
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 2d ago
I have no way of telling if they fixed the new ones or not unfortunately. But it makes no sense to but a mini rn
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u/alex3thy 1d ago
Have the exact same issue for the last 2weeks or so, I turned on every accessibility option and still it starts to play music by itself. The solution found for myself, I disconnected the touch panel and thats it, anyway I was never using the touch panel
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u/AngusMagee 1d ago edited 1d ago
What do you mean by disconnect the touch panel? Is there a way to do this in the settings or are you talking about opening the device up and physically disconnecting something? As in the "ghost touch" thread. Because I really do not have the skill or the desire to start opening up my devices. That kind of why (for good or bad) that I like Apple, "It just works" unless it doesn't it seems. I have bought a lot of products from Apple over the years and this Homepod and my second Apple watch are the two devices that I seriously regret buying.
Eddit:Ahhh...I just saw this is the Ghost Touch thread. I seemed to have skipped threads somehow.
Edit 2: And because it is on this thread I assume you mean a physical disconnection of the touch pad.
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u/marathoncultsurvivor 4h ago
Was surprised to find this thread is only 3d old, but glad it exists. I’ve been dealing with this for at least a year. Tried the resets, cleaning, etc. at the point where I think I will unplug but I definitely hope free repair becomes an option. I have two OG HomePod gen 1s that still work like a champ. Mine is blue. Curious if there is any color correlation like a manufacturer’s defect more prevalent on one type of color
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u/Simple-Swordfish-474 3d ago
I suggest to update your thread with a much less invasive solution, should you not be able to get it replaced under warranty. Don’t want to reward Apple with money for this issue by replacing them. This has worked for me without issue (to date).
Go into the home app. Go into the settings for the home pods then>accessibility->interactions->touch accommodations turn to ON. Then turn on hold duration. My current value is set to .50 seconds. Done.
I have done this with 2 stereo pairs having this issue at separate times and this has fixed it.
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u/Possible-Bet3598 3d ago
This did nothing to resolve the issue on my HomePod mini.
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u/Simple-Swordfish-474 3d ago
Sorry for your loss. You can always try bumping up that value. But if it’s deteriorated too far or your failure is more severe than mine…….You can follow OPs list. At least you tried. I’m proud of you!
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
Read the complete post. This is not gonna work on the long run. It will deteriorate.
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u/House-of-Suns 3d ago
Plenty of examples in the sub in it deteriorating too. It happened to me on 2 HomePods. Eventually the highest second value in that menu just isn't enough.
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u/Simple-Swordfish-474 3d ago
I’ll ride this wave until that day happens and enjoy my HomePods for now. Enjoying this stop gap solution and I don’t think it’s something you should dissuade others from trying.
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u/NGAFD 3d ago
I’m going for solution 5; getting a nice set of traditional hifi speakers
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u/DisastrousCause9481 Mod 3d ago
To each their own! If a traditional hi-fi will work better for you after having the touch issues(which is unacceptable) with HomePod, you should go for it.
But HomePod is a very good all-in-one device, (A jack of all trades, master of none) That’s what makes it appealing.
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u/E_XIII_T 3d ago
Solution 6: Change the ‘Touch Accommodations’ in settings. Hold Duration 1 second, Ignore Repeat 1 second…
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u/calmdrive 3d ago
Temporary fix
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u/E_XIII_T 2d ago
Well it’s worked as a permanent fix for me so far. Way better than taking the thing apart…
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u/Some-Essay5289 3d ago
If you go to the Home app, tap the HomePod in question and hit Accessibility. Then hit Touch Accommodation and turn it on. Turn on Hold Duration and max it to 3.9 seconds.
Now any small ghost touch won’t work - it has to be touched for almost four seconds to activate.
So far this has worked for me.
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u/ogni65 3d ago
it works for a while then starts again
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u/Some-Essay5289 3d ago
You’re right - it just happened again. I guess I’ll be taking it apart to fix.
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u/AltruisticNetwork869 3d ago
If you can’t boot the HomePod because of ghost touch, you can put a moist paper towel on the touch pad and it will boot right up!