topic Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet. in Speakers and Displays

Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

LJS_LasVegas — Wed, 21 Feb 2024 21:07:21 GMT

Starting a few days ago, Google home cant keep track of my speaker groups.
I have 3 Nest Pro Wifi devices. 9 speakers (most new, old ones in garage) 1 mini hub, multitude of TV's lights switches.
First occurrence was a few mornings ago while running my wakeup script, the response was "can't find (group), please be sure it is plugged in and connected to the internet." - I spoke that command and recieved the same response. I unplugged one speaker and plugged back in. Shortly after I was able to speak that command and it worked.
Later in the day I asked to play music on 'group' and it could not run the script at all. I noticed the phone was attempting to respond and I checked the wifi connection to discover it was on the 2.4 GHz band (pretty much not used. I reconnected to the mixed band SSID and told the phone to forget the other band. I restarted my phone and a short time later the speakers were responsive.
That evening, I spoke that line to change music source and received the same "can't find group" message (different speaker heard me). I unplugged that speaker and plugged back in (clear it's mind). Later I repeated the command and this time it couldn't find the group again. I loaded the Home app and checked - all looks good - close the app. A short time later I repeated the command and it worked this time.
The next morning I ran my morning script and received the "can't find" error again. I reset speaker and waited - didn't work. I had one speaker play music and went through my morning rituals.
Later that morning I decided to do a full reset. I first reset the wifi group. After more than enough time for reloading, I tested the command; It had the same error. I unplugged all my speaker devices and the hub. Again allowing several minutes to reinitialize and recommunicate with each other, I went to test again. This time, the speakers could not find the internet. I then reset the mesh devices again. This time the speaker groups worked.
I left the house to run errands. On returning I spoke the standard phrase and then again received the "can't find group" error.
Currently, I was able to restart my nest hub to get the speaker group working. I attempted other speakers without success, then opened the app and 'resaved' the groups before restarting the hub. - Adding: After about an hour, I was again successfull restarting music via the hub (but not from other speakers). After watching a movie, I was no longer successful restarting music on the group from the hub.

Note: when I am able to play music on the speaker group, the command "stop music" is always successful.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Wondaqueen — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 13:23:21 GMT

I'm having the same issue which started this week. Two things that worked (for a while) - deleting then recreating the group and taking a speaker out of a group saving it and then putting it back in and resaving it.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

XonMus — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 17:13:54 GMT

I've been having the same issue since yesterday (2024-02-21). Multiple smart speakers are unable to find my audio speaker group, but it shows up in my phone's Google Home app, and can be cast to through apps on my phone.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

aesopal — Thu, 22 Feb 2024 17:38:40 GMT

Taking out a single speaker and adding has worked for me, early days regards how long the fix lasts.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Mickeymci — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 08:53:05 GMT

When i ask to play "radio station" in group "kitchen speakers" everything works. Ask to play music (youtube) on "kitchen speakers" i get "Sorry i can't find kitchen speakers please make sure that device is turned on and connected to the internet". Ive removed, reset, deleted re-added devices but still same error.

Strangely i cam cast to the speaker group so it knows it's there.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

RussdaFuss — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:20:08 GMT

I've been struggling with this and a few other problems since around the beginning of September. Since then, I have had to delete and recreate my speaker group about 2-4 times a month so that the group can be found by Google Home and music can be played on it.
It's just annoying and frustrating. Contacting support and the developers didn't help at all. The whole system is for the bin!

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Cloney — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 09:21:25 GMT

Same issue here, if I use voice it can't find the group, if I use my phone and select the group from the cast list it's fine.

Over the past month or so there's been a few issues with groups. Getting pretty fed up with the Google setup

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

RussdaFuss — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 10:34:37 GMT

I had the same experience. Until I deleted the group and recreated it.
However, I noticed that absolutely every Chromecast, Google Home and Nest player appears TWICE in the selection on my smartphone.
Is that the case with you too?

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Mickeymci — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 13:25:15 GMT

Thankfully no. Its starting to look like Google wants the Microsoft 90's reputation of buy us but then slowly break or discontinue products and they wonder why Apple fans are willing to pay a premium.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

aesopal — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 18:13:45 GMT

so more feedback, fix just last for a few hours, repeat and it works again. Annoying as i've had a blissful few months of google home being pretty much on the ball. Come to think of it most of my issues over the years have been groups related, I assume appearing and disappearing as they update the central service. I assumed AI would eventually integrated into stuff like home but when they cant even get the basics right 😕

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

SorryICantFinda — Sat, 24 Feb 2024 23:22:08 GMT

IN THE PAST
(months to over a year ago) when I had this problem I had to create a completely new Google account and rebuild my entire home in it. I experimented and went back and forth between accounts and demonstrated that the new account worked, and the old one did not, even after I wiped all my devices and reinstalled them. There was something about my old Google Account that stayed corrupt (old cached info hiding in the cloud somewhere?) and I could never figure it out . So now I have a new throwaway Google account for my speakers, and am keeping the old one for reference.

PRESENTLY
my Google Home speakers cannot find any of my groups. It started about a week ago. But for some reason my Android devices CAN find my audio groups.

TROBLESHOOTING
Interestingly enough if I cast from an android device (one of my Pixel phones) to one of my groups FIRST, I can THEN call out to my Google Home speakers and they will be able to find just THAT one group again, but still CANNOT find any of the other audio groups.

It is as if the android device kickstarted just that one audio group that it casted to so that Google Home speakers would recognize just that group and then cast to it. But this does not last long. If I stop the Google Home speakers from playing and do nothing for awhile, they go back to a state of "Sorry I can't find an X group"

My new daily habit is I wake up, I call out to my Google speaker to play the radio on Home Group, it responds ""Sorry I can't find a Home Group..." I then take an old Pixel 2, play that radio station app and then cast it to Home Group using the Pixel cast capability, and it works. Then I call out to my Google speaker and voila, it recognizes Home Group again.

ANOTHER AUDIO PROBLEM that is perhaps related?

BAD AUDIO QUALITY (low sampling rate) on Google Home devices when they cast vs. when I cast from my phone:

Over the last several months something else bad has been happening on my Google Speakers: They have dropped the sampling rate of the casting of my radio station such that it sounds like the announcers are talking in a can. HOWEVER when I use radio station's own native app and then cast using the android devices built in casting, the sampling rate is much higher.

In troubleshooting I have found similar behavior as the previous troubleshooting: IF I first play the radio stations native app on my old Pixel and then use Pixels casting capability to my Home Group, it sounds great. AND THEN if I call out to my Google Home speaker to play the same station it sounds great. But it does not stay this way forever. Eventually it goes back to sounding like a can.

WORKAROUNDS

The first is to reduce my overall Google Footprint:

I am looking to remove my Google audio devices and replace with good old analog audio cables to a central audio source. Crawling under my house another time to put audio cable to each room is more cost effective when doing the cost benefit analysis of all the time I have lost tinkering to get Google Home to work reliably (look up "Sunk Cost Fallacy" and you will realize that maybe you too have spent too much time trying to get your Google cloud based devices to work when you should go back to LAN and/or analog ).

HOWEVER I will not give up entirely on the cloud. I also have an old Amazon Echo speaker that I will experiment with. The one thing I really liked about the Echo is it has stereo out jack that I can put into my analog amplifier. Google speakers do not, at least the ones I have.

As for home control, I'll keep a Google speaker handy. But even then, I am finding that using the vendor's native app on my android devices for control over my LAN vs using Google Cloud seems much more reliable. Fewer dropouts of individual devices. I have experimented by turning off my internet, such that Google Home cannot work, and then using my phone apps on the LAN to control my house.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO YOU:

Google "Sunk Cost Fallacy" to understand it and make the determination if you have taken too much time out of your life troubleshooting this and need to try something else.

Minimize your overall Google footprint and consider going LAN and/or analog. Pull a few physical wires around your house to a central audio source. Yes its a bit of work, but once you are done, you will have more time to enjoy your music or radio than troubleshooting the cloud.

If you stick with Google Home devices, use only throwaway accounts that you can quickly replace. Do not use your paid account. Use that for more private data like email, storage, calendar - as that seems to be reliable. The Google Home stuff on the other hand, should be used with a separate throwaway account that can be swapped out if things go corrupt (see my commentary above about my throwaway accounts). Plus you will be more secure with your data if you have a separation of accounts for home control and your more personal/private information.

To reduce the issues with Google home devices, simply keep your old android devices around the house , which seem to be more reliable. Use your individual vendor home control apps on these devices on your LAN (no internet needed)

FINAL COMMENT:

It simply comes down to reliability, trust, and control and how much time am I willing to give up to deal with the wide variability of reliability and trust in the cloud before I go back to doing things locally permanently, thereby regaining my control. I am NOT saying Google is bad. It has come up with some really cool stuff that, when it works, it is really nice. But when some of these things glitch too many times, it ends up eating my own valuable time such that I simply need to give them up to be happier in the long run. This is true of any technology, especially in the cloud. Reliability, trust, and control.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

HowardR0071 — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 13:06:10 GMT

My speaker group stopped working. On one device I can see the group but on others I can't. When I try to play the group it says not found. All my speakers show on all devices. None of the articles I've found helped. I've rebooted everything and removed and re-installed google home. when google home reinstalled the devices are still there so uninstall is not fully uninstalling.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Mickeymci — Sun, 25 Feb 2024 14:47:04 GMT

Wow you've went through a lot. Makes a manual system seems the easier option. If Alexa would only work with youtube music I'd switch. Starting to loose faith in the smart hime when the people running it seen DUMB

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Dippie — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 03:37:20 GMT

I just started running into this problem. It's been really annoying but the workaround seems to be adding and removing one of the devices.

I'm tempted to get a Sonos just because of this.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

SorryICantFinda — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 03:43:30 GMT

Today for the heck of it I rebooted my internet devices, including wifi router. It worked for a little while. Later in the day it went back to "Sorry I can't find an..."

My guess is your problem will return. If so... What happens if you remove devices one by one? Or do you have to remove and then add? Tedius to try, but the goal is find the root cause and fix.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

Dippie — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 04:14:21 GMT

It works when I remove one of the devices from the group, rather than from Home. I haven't escalated to try other options because there hasn't been a need to.

The devices themselves work fine alone.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

jc8654 — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 12:50:59 GMT

Having the exact same issue.

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

LeoLobhaan — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 13:39:17 GMT

Same problem here. Google is a mess

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

RussdaFuss — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 16:17:11 GMT

Okay Google,

we've had a difficult relationship over the years.

We had our ups and downs. But mostly lows.

Your unreliability and moodiness have become an imposition and it's time to go your separate ways from now on!

Goodbye!

Re: Can't find "group". Be sure the device is turned on and connected to the internet.

SorryICantFinda — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 17:36:47 GMT

Just for kicks this morning I went to remove my main Google Speaker and re-add it to my home. The set up interface in the Google Hme app showed THREE Home Group audio groups to choose from ONLY durng set up. Plus there were a bunch of other groups I had created and deleted in the past. I chose one of the Home Group. BUT when I went BACK into the Google Home App, my speaker was not there. Nor were all the groups I had deleted in the past. Why where they still in the set up when I had deleted them, MONTHs ago?

So what this is telling me is possibly a bunch of old information is cached somewhere and cannot be accessed to clean up.

Its as if your home gets cluttered with junk that blocks your path down the hallway, and there is no way to get rid of it. All you can do is crawl over it. One day you wake up and have to run to the bathroom really fast, and, uh oh. Google Home seems to be a a virtual hoarder (of old data). HA! For Audio groups, it's "Hotel Google Home." You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave.. 😉

I need "Virtual College Hunks Hauling Junk," geeks who know the ins and out of Google and can clean it up.

Anyone have ideas on how to find the hidden groups and completely clean them out?