Adjusting volume on a HomePod causes playback position to shift/reset

[ericswpark]

The problem

When adjusting volume on a HomePod through any means (on the unit itself, through the Home Assistant dashboard, or from another Apple device), the playback position appears to shift back or reset completely to the beginning.

This was observed with a HomePod Mini, through the Apple TV integration. Not sure if it affects other devices that are supported via the Apple TV integration as I do not have other devices to test with.

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core-2025.1.4

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

What type of installation are you running?

Home Assistant OS

Integration causing the issue

Apple TV

Link to integration documentation on our website

https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/apple_tv/

Diagnostics information

No response

Example YAML snippet

N/A

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

Additional information

No response

[home-assistant]

Hey there @postlund, mind taking a look at this issue as it has been labeled with an integration (apple_tv) you are listed as a code owner for? Thanks!

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[postlund]

Interesting, I will look into this!

[ericswpark]

Some more notes after installing and testing with the underlying pyatv library:

• When music playback has just been started, adjusting the volume makes the position reset to the very beginning, for every single volume adjustment.
• If I pause the music playback and resume it, adjusting the volume makes the position reset to the position where I paused the track, for every volume adjustment
• However, when I run atvremote -s <IP> push_updates I don't see any updates about the position (or the volume) pushed when I adjust the volume.

I checked with the script from here (postlund/pyatv#749) and modified it to add volume updates:

import sys
import asyncio
import pyatv
from pyatv.interface import PushListener, AudioListener


class MyPushListener(PushListener, AudioListener):
    def playstatus_update(self, updater, playstatus):
        print("Currently playing:\n", playstatus)

    def playstatus_error(self, updater, exception):
        print("Got an exception:", exception)
    
    def volume_update(self, old_level, new_level):
        print('Volume level changed from {0:f} to {1:f}'.format(old_level, new_level))

    def outputdevices_update(self, old_devices, new_devices):
        print('Output devices changed from {0:s} to {1:s}'.format(old_devices, new_devices))


async def main():
    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()

    atvs = await pyatv.scan(loop)
    if not atvs:
        print("No device found", file=sys.stderr)
        return

    atv = await pyatv.connect(atvs[0], loop)
    listener = MyPushListener()
    try:
        atv.push_updater.listener = listener
        atv.audio.listener = listener
        atv.push_updater.start()

        print("Press ENTER to quit")
        await loop.run_in_executor(None, sys.stdin.readline)
    except:
        atv.close()


if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.get_event_loop().run_until_complete(main())

This also behaved as expected and showed volume level changes without position updates.

My theory is that when the audio listener is called in Home Assistant, it reuses the old position value from the last play status update from PushListener, which is why the position shifts to either the very start (in case the track was started) or somewhere in the middle (if previously paused during the track).

I see that volume updates are done here:

core/homeassistant/components/apple_tv/media_player.py

Lines 232 to 238 in 6737c51

	@callback
	def volume_update(self, old_level: float, new_level: float) -> None:
	"""Update volume when it changes.
	This is a callback function from pyatv.interface.AudioListener.
	"""
	self.async_write_ha_state()

I'm not sure how HA state updating works but I'm guessing it calls state()?

core/homeassistant/components/apple_tv/media_player.py

Lines 182 to 203 in 6737c51

	@property
	def state(self) -> MediaPlayerState | None:
	"""Return the state of the device."""
	if self.manager.is_connecting:
	return None
	if self.atv is None:
	return MediaPlayerState.OFF
	if (
	self._is_feature_available(FeatureName.PowerState)
	and self.atv.power.power_state == PowerState.Off
	):
	return MediaPlayerState.STANDBY
	if self._playing:
	state = self._playing.device_state
	if state in (DeviceState.Idle, DeviceState.Loading):
	return MediaPlayerState.IDLE
	if state == DeviceState.Playing:
	return MediaPlayerState.PLAYING
	if state in (DeviceState.Paused, DeviceState.Seeking, DeviceState.Stopped):
	return MediaPlayerState.PAUSED
	return MediaPlayerState.STANDBY # Bad or unknown state?
	return None

[ericswpark]

I think I've found the issue:

core/homeassistant/components/apple_tv/media_player.py

Lines 315 to 320 in 6737c51

	@property
	def media_position_updated_at(self) -> datetime | None:
	"""Last valid time of media position."""
	if self.state in {MediaPlayerState.PLAYING, MediaPlayerState.PAUSED}:
	return dt_util.utcnow()
	return None

Every time the state changes, HA calls this to get the last time the position of the playback was updated, but dt_util.now() gets the current time. Thus HA thinks that we are at X position right now and resets/shifts the position.

This value should ideally be saved by playstatus_update and referenced from a class variable.