Lossless Audio, Dolby Atmos and AutoMix are not settings on the HomePod, and they are not in the Music app either. All three sit in the Home app, under Home Settings, under your own name. And if you share the house with someone, they may not be yours to change.
Apple says it three separate times on one page: only the Home owner can turn each of these on for anyone using HomePod.
One path gets you to all three
On an iPhone or iPad, open the Home app, tap the More button, then tap Home Settings. In the People section, tap your name, then tap Apple Music. Everything below is on that screen.
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Apple’s blanket condition for the lot: “These features require an Apple Music subscription and compatible content.” Apple does not define what compatible means, so expect it to vary by album rather than by speaker.
The under-your-name part of that path is the detail that trips people up. These are not settings on a speaker, and they are not settings on a home. They hang off each person in the People section, which is why the path runs through your own name rather than through the speaker.
Lossless, and who is allowed to switch it on
Turn on Lossless Audio. Apple’s description is that “Lossless audio delivers CD-quality sound by preserving all the original audio data.” Then comes the sentence that explains why the switch may be greyed out for you: “Only the Home owner can turn on Lossless Audio for anyone using HomePod.”
Apple does not publish the bit depth or sample rate a HomePod actually plays, and does not say how lossless behaves over AirPlay, so there is no number to quote here. The same silence has followed hi-res lossless on the Apple TV.
Dolby Atmos skips the HomePod mini
Turn on Dolby Atmos on the same screen. Apple’s model note is three words in brackets and easy to miss: “(Not supported on HomePod mini.)” If your speaker is a mini, there is nothing to fix. And again, “Only the Home owner can turn on Dolby Atmos for anyone using HomePod.”
Apple does not describe a per-person override anywhere on the page, so a guest or a family member cannot quietly switch Atmos on for their own listening while the owner leaves it off. The wording is that only the owner can turn it on for anyone using HomePod, and that is the whole of what Apple commits to.
AutoMix or Crossfade, but not both
Tap Song Transitions and pick one. Apple describes AutoMix as a feature that “dynamically transitions between Apple Music subscription content for a seamless listening experience”, and Crossfade as one “which gradually transitions from one song to the next for a set duration.”
AutoMix is the one Apple ties to Apple Music subscription content, and it decides each handover for itself. Crossfade is the blunter option, a fade of a length you set, and it is the better choice when you want the same behaviour across a mixed library. The ownership rule holds here too: “Only the Home owner can turn on AutoMix and Crossfade for anyone using HomePod.”
If none of these appear
The HomePod guide states its own scope as “HomePod software version 27 or later”, which is a statement about the guide rather than about when any of these features arrived, so none of this is a version 27 novelty. Check three things in order: that you are the Home owner, that the Apple Music subscription is live on the account in Home Settings, and that the speaker is not a mini if Dolby Atmos is what you are hunting for.
For the television side of the same house, tvOS 27 for Apple TV 4K covers what changed there.
