topic Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices. in Apps / Account

Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 16:42:36 GMT

Once music is playing one or more speakers, the media tab shows where its playing and give you the option to add to other speakers or remove from some. The list of "playing on" locations includes unpaired speakers, speaker pairs, wifi points, groups and smart TVs. Then the problems begin: I tested using NPR radio streaming:

1. If the stream is on my smart TV, the media tab doesn't show any other devices.

2. If the stream is not on the TV, all available devices are shown including the TV. But if I try to add the stream to the TV the app hangs.

3. If you select to add a group, the app shows instead that the components of the group are streaming. AND it stops streaming on all other devices not in the group.

4. If you select to add a speaker, it adds it and doesn't stop streaming to any other device. (good)

I suggest that adding should never include stopping other devices. It's easy to turn them off separately. Also if all the devices in a group are streaming the group should also show as streaming.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 21:44:30 GMT

Hey there,
I appreciate you taking your time to let us know about a feature that you would like to see or changes that we can look into making in the future. Feedback like this helps us constantly improve our products and services by knowing what we are doing right and what we can work on.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Garrett DS

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Tue, 30 Nov 2021 23:29:45 GMT

Sounds like a boilerplate reply to me. Did you actually look to see that anyone else had problems like these or try yourself?

I also have similar but different issues referring to groups when casting from YouTube Music. Where do I go to report these?

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:37:33 GMT

Hey there,

This is the only instance that I've heard of this issue before so I have nothing else to go off of besides what you tell me. What other issues do you have regarding YouTube Music and I can possibly help or point you in the right direction.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Garrett DS

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 18:37:30 GMT

Let me describe my setup:

Smart TV in Den

Living Room group in the living room which is:

- paired nest speakers and a nest wifi point

Bedroom group in the bedroom which is:

- paired nest speakers and a next wifi point.

Also an Everwhere group which has all devices except the TV.

Issue with Youtube:

1. Cast menus shows all groups and devices except wifi points(?)

2. If I cast to Living Room group or Everywhere the speakers all ping but nothing happens. If I go to home app media tab it shows the devices "playng" but with the "play arrow button greyed out and unselectable. Only the bedroom group works.

3. My wife and I are the only members of the nest "household" but i'm the holder of the Youtube premium account. When youtube is casting, I can go to the home app to pause, stop or add devices. But she can also pause, stop but NOT add new devices.

I'm guessing at this point that I have a corrupted group (living room) but we have no problems casting to the group using voice commands, maybe I should deleted the group and recreate it? I think I already tried that a while ago.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 19:11:36 GMT

I deleted the Living Room Group and recreated. Same problem.

When I cast from Youtube to bedroom group it works.

If I try to cast from Youtube to living room group it seems to work but no sound come out. If I click on cast icon It says "Living Room... No media selected."

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 19:21:27 GMT

I notice on the home app main page where all all devices are listed by room.

Then a list of Groups. Even when no music is playing anywhere all devid=ces and group have a "play music" blue link beneath EXCEPT my Living room group. There is definitely something wrong with that group. I made new group "newgroup" with the same devices as "Living Room" group. Same problems. So it seems to relate to the specific devices: a pair of speakers and a wifi point.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 22:18:48 GMT

Hey there,

Thanks for giving me the details of your setup, that definitely helps and I also appreciate you trying your own troubleshooting steps like trying to recreate the group as well.

Have you tried doing a factory reset on the devices that are having issues? You can try that, or, unlink and relink those devices as well.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Garrett DS

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 22:24:31 GMT

I have done both relinks and then factory resets a month ago to solve other problems.

I will try again tomorrow.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 21:28:43 GMT

Hey there,
Just wanted to hop in here to see if we still needed help on this. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Have a great day.
Garrett DS

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 21:33:45 GMT

I am away on vacation. I will try some factory resets when i get bavk.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 17:40:59 GMT

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 20:05:09 GMT

Got back from trip. All the same problems but worse. YouTube music can cast only to the TV. It doesn't see amy speakers.

Time for a factory reset.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

GarrettDS — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 20:57:08 GMT

Hey there,

Go ahead and do the factory reset, and let's see where that puts you.

Please keep me updated.

Best regards,

Garrett DS

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

Peterrrr — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 21:29:06 GMT

About 3 weeks ago, I also started having problems with my Groups and Speaker Pairs. (They worked previously for at least the last six months) When trying to cast any music or radio to additional speakers or pairs from the media tab, or through the assistant there would be a problem. So three weeks of factory resets, pairing, grouping, resetting routers and modems, disconnecting APs, deleting and installing the GH app. etc...... I discovered the problem lies in the fact that the Nest Audio devices have to be not only on the same WiFi but also on the same channel if they are paired/grouped. So after pairing/grouping , if whole home WiFi optimization, moved a device to a different channel, that device (still connected to WiFi)would still play music on its own, or respond to the assistant, but it no longer participated in the pair/group it belonged to. The GH app, would show the device sometimes under other linked devices, the settings COG could disappear, or one of the pair would be in the room it belonged to and the other in linked devices, or the pair name disappeared with the individual names either both in the room they resided or only one in the room. Hope this resolves your problem.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 21:38:22 GMT

So how do i change channels of individual devices? And why doesn't google know about this?

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

Peterrrr — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 12:07:41 GMT

Normally the channel is obtained by a device from your router. When you introduce an automated process that both expands your WiFi coverage (additional access points) and determines the best channels to use , the channels are determined by monitoring factors such as signal strength, interference and load. In my case, I had no direct control of the device, what access point it would connect to, thus what channels were used within my environment. For now, I removed that automated process, and went back to just using my router. (Yes I have lost coverage)

Now I know why my problem occurs, within the GH app, but who needs to make a change to stop it, is open. Does Google own it, or is it the provider of the Access Points and Optimization? Google is more than likely aware of this, but as any provider they more than likely have their own process for determining the priority for a change.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 15:28:26 GMT

Since you haven't fixed the problem, I'm not 100 % sure that your diagnosis is correct.

In my case I have a nest router and 2 wifi points.

For 5 Ghz they are all on channel 149(155).

For 2.4 Ghz the router is on 11 but the points are on 1. I saw another post where Google say that you cannot change the channels yet.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

Peterrrr — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 16:01:54 GMT

What can I say, Google Support confirmed my diagnosis.

I can not fix the problem, but I can work around it by keeping the devices with the problem on the same channel. It is true you cannot change the channels because you do not have complete control of the device. You can re-create the problem, by creating a group/pair then forcing one of the nest audio devices in the group to connect to a different access point, or band. The cast to the group would then not include the forced device, but that device will still function. A power up of the affected device may have it connect to the same channel that the other devices are using, thus the functionality would come back.

I was not using a Nest Router or their Access Points, so maybe your problem is not the same as mine. As stated earlier my problem is created when the optimization, or even the loss of a signal to the devices caused that device to join the network on a different channel.

Re: Home app media tab has problems selecting devices.

barrymilliken — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 19:11:03 GMT

So I did a factory reset off all devices in the living room, recreated the speaker pair and group.

STILL THE SAME PROBLEMS.

RECAP:

Nest router and smart TV in Den.

Nest speaker pair and nest point in Bedroom (which is also a group since you cannot cast to rooms only to groups)

Nest Speaker pair and nest point in Living Room (which is also a group)

Not the config is identical in bedroom and Living room but only bedroom works correctly.

Here are the problems after all setup which went smoothly:

In Home App main page ALL devices/pairs and groups (except of course the router) say "Play Music" below the icon EXCEPT FOR THE LIVING ROOM GROUP???

In YouTube Music app when I try to cast the options are ONLY the Liiving room point and the TV???

Maybe I should reset the bedroom devices?