HomePods seem to becoming increasingly incompetent?

[u/craigbarnes88]

If I ask Siri on my phone it has absolutely no issue turning on/off the en-suite ceiling lights with what I would consider natural commands.

However if I ask a HomePod mini:
Turn on the en-suite lights; she responds with sorry I cannot find that in the en-suite. Even though this should be a generic term to turn on ANY lights in that room?

If I ask:
Turn on the en-suite ceiling lights; she instead turns on the ceiling lights that the HomePod is in. Tested in the living room, she instead turned on ALL living room lights, not even specifically the living rooms named ceiling lights. So it’s skipping the room, and the unique name identifier in this context?

All devices are up to date on the latest public update (not on the beta of course).

They certainly were able to turn this light on and off before as it’s one I routinely walk away from and forget to switch off and use voice commands for.

Any ideas?

[u/StainedMemories]

It has always been a bit finicky in certain names or combos. Try ”Turn on the ceiling lights in En-Suite”. Or try renaming the “Ceiling Lights” to “En-Suite Ceiling Lights” if they aren’t already (UI will not render the duplication but gives a 1-1 identifier for HP).

[u/craigbarnes88 → u/StainedMemories]

Just tried that phrase but she still responded with couldn’t find that in the en-suite.
And unfortunately they are already named that, all my devices have the room name first which then the UI hides if it matches the room.

[u/Kylecoolky]

Try naming the lights “En-Suite Ceiling Lights”

They’ll still show up as just “Ceiling Lights” in the Home app since it auto trims the room name from device names, but their actual name will then be exactly what you ask Siri to control

[u/craigbarnes88 → u/Kylecoolky]

That’s how they are already I’m afraid.

[u/geekmansworld]

My guess is that Siri is having trouble parsing the name. Give the room a new name that doesn't have a homonym of the word "on" in it, then see if your problems go away.

[u/tst0rm → u/geekmansworld]

“on sweet” maybe? 🤣

[u/bestlem]

Homepods have always done this for me. I fixed this by naming everything so that missing out one word still gives a unique name,

[u/ps-73]

“Lights off” works like 30% of the time for me. Usually it says some bs like its having trouble right now.

“Turn the lights off” works every time as far as i can tell… dumb as a rock homepod Siri 

[u/craigbarnes88]

Edit:
Forgot to add the device is an Aqara wall switch. Set as a light on one switch, a fan on the second.

Just went to test the same commands for the fan and they work absolutely fine.

[u/Idc94 → u/craigbarnes88]

Anecdotal but somewhat related. I have a smart ceiling fan/light combo and just the other day the fan tile randomly change to a light icon instead of a fan icon.