topic Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders in Home Automation

Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

spmatthews03 — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 16:23:36 GMT

A few weeks ago (maybe longer) my families shared folder that we have looping on our ambient and hub mod on different devices, only shows folders uploaded from me. No access controls were modified, but although the folder has 400 images... it only scrolls through the few I've uploaded. I've turned off curation and tried all the tricks. I believe this is a bug, not captured during one of the recent updates as it was working on November 16th specifically.

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

GabrielaG — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 00:49:18 GMT

Hi spmatthews03,

Thanks for reaching out to the community. I'm sorry to hear the Ambient Hub mode is no longer working with shared folders. I will be happy to assist you right now.

To get a better understanding of the situation, please help me out by answering the following questions:

What is your Google Nest Hub device? You can find which Nest you have by clicking this article Google Nest devices.
Are we talking about the photo frame? If so, have you tried to create a new album with less than 100 photos?
If not, could you please provide me with more details about the issue, and when did the issue first occur?
Have you done troubleshooting steps before?

Any additional details you can provide will be helpful.

Regards,

Gabriela

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

spmatthews03 — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 04:21:13 GMT

1) Pixel Table, Google 4k Streamer and Google Chromecast

2) I haven't tried creating an album with less than 100, it was working 4 weeks ago with an album of 400 images

3) I noticed in near the end of November, around thanksgiving. It worked fine on Nov 16th and 17th (as it had for a year prior as well) that was just the last time I know it was working as I did a slide show for family

4) I've gone through the troubleshooting steps.

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

GabrielaG — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 19:32:12 GMT

Hi spmatthews03,

Thank you so much for keeping me updated. I appreciate that you took the time to answer my questions. I'm sorry to hear that the issue with your ambient mode is still not resolved. I'm happy to continue assisting you right now.

I recommend troubleshooting the Google Chromecast. You can follow the steps below:

Factory reset your Chromecast.
Activate the ambient mode settings.
To adjust your Ambient Mode settings:

Open the Google Home app.
Tap and hold your device's tile.
In the top-right corner, tap Settings.
Scroll down and tap Ambient Mode.

Add an album

Open the Google Home app.
Tap and hold your device's tile.
In the top-right corner, tap Settings.
Scroll down, then tap Ambient Mode Google Photos.

Note: Ambient Mode doesn't display archived photos, even if they're in a selected album.

The maximum resolution of Ambient Mode on Chromecast Ultra devices is 1080p.

You can only access and manage Ambient Mode preferences on Chromecast or Chromecast Ultra from the Google Home app.

If you have Chromecast with Google TV, you can change Ambient Mode settings on your TV screen.

Feel free to keep us posted if you have more questions.

Best regards,

Gabriela

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

ConradM — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 11:43:05 GMT

Same here on a chromecast, since a couple of weeks only my photo's showed up from a shared (Family) album. Tried to fix the issue by removing all albums and add a album created by another user, but still it won't show that users photos in ambulant mode

System firmware version: 291998 Cast firmware: 1.56.291998

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

GabrielaG — Sun, 05 Jan 2025 23:35:28 GMT

Hi ConradM,

Thanks for reaching out to the community. I'm sorry to hear your Chromecast is no longer working with your family album. I will be happy to assist you right now.

To get a better understanding of the situation, please help me out by answering the following questions:

What is the generation of your Chromecast device?
Are we talking about the photo frame? If so, have you tried to create a new album with less than 100 photos?
If not, could you please provide me with more details about the issue, and when did the issue first occur?

Any additional details you can provide will be helpful.

Regards,

Gabriela

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

ConradM — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 08:38:37 GMT

What is the generation of your Chromecast device?

it is a Gen 2
Are we talking about the photo frame? If so, have you tried to create a new album with less than 100 photos?

Yes, all albums are <100 images and I've created new albums w/o succes
If not, could you please provide me with more details about the issue, and when did the issue first occur?

Not completely sure because there is a number of images from the primary account that still shows up. I think somewere in December I started notecing less variaty.

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

spmatthews03 — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 15:29:09 GMT

I have noticed a couple things. As a software developer myself I do believe this is an unintended bug, and some privacy settings were revoked. What I had to do for my wife's photos that were not showing up was the following:

Go to Google Photos
Hit profile icon, and select Photos Settings
Select Privacy
Scroll down to Photo Frames
and then fix the albums that are shown.

For example, my wife and I share a 600 photo album that we like to display on our ambient mode on a Nest Hub, a Pixel Table Dock, and a new Google Streamer. Only the 6 photos I put in to that album actually show up since an update in November/December when I first started noticing this. I do not understand why hers was removed from this 'Photo Frame' access, but for some reason it was no longer listed there. I can't go to the other 5 people who I share an album with and have them fix it, because ultimately this should be fixed by an update. I'd like to know if this was found to be a bug, and if it will be resolved in the future so all of my shared albums can be displayed once again.

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

Zkurpysyn — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 11:19:24 GMT

Sam here. Shared albums doesnt show up on ambient mode. Factory reset and adding it privacy/photo frames doesnt work as well

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

jonkrohe — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 13:30:00 GMT

Same. Albums shared by other family members no longer showing up in ambient mode on any google device I have (Nest Hub Max, Google TV Streamer, etc.). This has worked for years and seems to have stopped 2-3 months ago.

Re: Ambient/Hub mode no longer works with shared folders

Jmike1 — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:52:15 GMT

Fixed my same issue perfectly. Thank you!