topic Re: Google Hub no longer responds to play command in Speakers and Displays

Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Ashloi — Sat, 04 Feb 2023 19:20:06 GMT

Evening community 😁

I have 3 nest mini speakers in different rooms in the house - Kitchen, Office and Living Room. Each are part of the same household and have rooms assigned on the Google Home app.

Until about a few weeks ago, I used to be able to use a voice command "Play music on the [Room] speaker", and music would play on that speaker, regardless of where I am in the house. Now, that voice command does not work ("Sorry, I don't understand") and I have to either be in the same room as the speaker or use my phone to manually cast audio.

Has anybody else experienced a similar issue and able to offer any help with this? I've tried resetting all devices and reconnecting to WiFi, to no avail. I'm sick to the back teeth of accidentally playing the theme from "The Office". 🤣

Thanks

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Blake595 — Sun, 05 Feb 2023 07:38:13 GMT

I am having the same issue with this, it's been going on for at least 2 weeks now. I saw that someone had this same issue roughly this time last year but it just started magically working again.

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Dan_A — Wed, 08 Feb 2023 18:06:20 GMT

Hi folks,

@Ashloi, @Blake595, that certainly hasn’t been easy for you ― let’s check it out. A few questions, when you did the reset, was it the same steps as what you see on this link? What exact command did you try? What music providers are your Nest Minis not playing? It would help a lot if you could do a sequential reboot first:

Unplug the power cord of your router followed by your Nest speakers.
Plug them back in after 3 minutes tops.
Restarting your phone might also help.

Also, to isolate further, unplug 2 Nest Mini’s and give a voice command to the remaining speaker. Try commands that include the room name and the speaker name itself.

You can also change the device name:

Make sure your mobile device or tablet is linked to the same account as your speaker or display.
Open the Google Home app.
Touch and hold your device's tile.
At the top right corner, tap Settings > Device information > Device name.
Enter a new name > tap Save.

Renaming the room could help:

Open the Google Home app.
At the top, select the home with the room you want to rename.
Touch and hold the room name you want to change.
Tap Settings > Name > enter a name > tap Save.

Depending on the music provider you're with, you can unlink it from the Google Home app and link it back in. Just follow the steps on this guide.

Best,

Dan

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Juni — Sat, 11 Feb 2023 21:44:15 GMT

Hi there,

I just wanted to follow up if you were able to try the steps provided. Please let us know as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Regards,

Juni

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Azarco — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 22:43:54 GMT

Hey everyone,

We haven't heard from you in a while so we'll be locking this thread if there is no update within the day. If you have any new issues, updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the Community.

Thanks,

Alex

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Ashloi — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 22:45:25 GMT

Hi Juni,

Thanks very much for your response and help. I tried following the above steps, basically factory resetting the devices and starting the home group from scratch, but this has not worked. I only have one music provider - Spotify - so this should be the default across the household.

Previously, all devices would respond to "Ok Google - Play music on the [ROOM] speaker." I have a speaker in the Living Room, Kitchen and Office, all set up as rooms in my home on the app. This command no longer works.

I have since found that they respond correctly to "Ok Google - Play SPOTIFY on the [ROOM] speaker." I've no idea why or when my devices started being pinickity about the music provider.

As workarounds go, this will have to do unless there is another solution.

Thanks again,

Ash

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

Blake595 — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 22:57:32 GMT

What I am trying to do with mine is type it on my phone to play music on one of my devices

*Pull up Google assistant

"Play music on the living room speaker" this was working fine until the middle of January, but now it continuously says "sorry I don't understand"

I was also hitting the "media" button on the Google home app but this has been removed in the preview (I have requested this feature back in the preview feedback section)

Routines force me to pick a certain genre or artist (assuming Google recognizes my artist), I listen to a variety of music and do not want to create multiple routines for each genre of music.

My living room speaker is a Lenovo smart clock essential so I cannot use the screen to request music

My current only option is to use a voice command and hope that Google assistant doesn't decide to play music on my phone instead of the living room speaker

Google Hub no longer responds to play command

ClifDC — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 05:51:36 GMT

Starting yesterday, neither of my Google Hub displays works with any "play" command for any other device. For example, for years the command "OK Google, play radio station KUSC on bedroom speaker" would play that radio station through the Chromecast audio named bedroom speaker and connected to the audio system in the bedroom. Starting two days ago, both Hub displays respond to that command with "Sorry, I don't know how to help with that. Here are some things you can try." (None of the things to try work either).

I have rebooted the router, rebooted both Hub devices, rebooted the Chromecast Audio, removed and reinstalled the Chromecast audio and still get "Sorry I don't know how to help with that."

The Chromecast Audio is working properly. If I play music on my phone, I can cast it to that Chromecast Audio with no problem. The bedroom speaker shows up as a device in the Home app and its volume can be controlled from that app and the casting can be stopped from that app.

Re: Google Hub no longer responds to play command

Where2how — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:40:29 GMT

I have the same problem since yesterday. Now when I ask any of my smart speakers to play a radio station on a Chromecast it just says "sorry I don't understand". I've been using the same command multiple times a day for about 4 years with issues. I've even go routines with the long form command play radio X from tunein on y speaker that have stopped working.

I've tried other commands and retraining my voice but it seems to be related to the radio.

Please Google reinstate radio.

Re: Google Hub no longer responds to play command

Kheldan — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 11:39:47 GMT

Yup, Google went and broke this this on "device or group" command is resulting in sorry I didn't understand you and also broke routines... Google will have to fix this unfortunately nothing you can do. It's poor Quality Assurance to let this type of evident bug through to the public...

Re: Google Hub no longer responds to play command

crogs — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 13:31:50 GMT

You're not alone...

https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/112hi7w/sorry_i_didnt_understand_when_asking_to_play_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

My reply is in there too. Now it's the I don't understand. Before it would say "I need to know what device you want to play it on, and I would have to rephrase the phrase I've said for years.

What used to be as easy as "play 94 wip on the console speaker" just got annoying. I'd have to reverse it to "on the console speaker play 94 wip" because it didn't know what device I wanted to play it on. Now it doesn't understand. It won't even wake up to it as an alarm. It just gives me search results.

I didn't know a learning machine could actually get dumber. What's worse is when Google support wants you to reboot, reset, try to do it from a phone's Hotspot and other mobile device like its some isolated incident because they can't piece together a f ton of people having the same problem means it's you not us. And then troubleshoot appropriately instead of trying to waste our time doing stupid stuff that won't help. Step away from the script and use your brain and what little common sense you possess.

Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

92blacktt — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 01:40:00 GMT

I've been through the ringer trying to fix my google home system. I replaced all the devices and bought new devices like google support asked. I reset the home, I deleted the hold home and stated new home. I recogfigured the home and now I ask it to play music on a device, and I get back "Sorry, I don't understand". I get this response for almost all requests to play music on a speaker group or particular device at this point.

Its not been working for a year now and I don't know what else to do. Please help.

Re: Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

RMuser — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 07:33:21 GMT

Try to disable IPv6 on your home router, my speakers worked perfectly until my router was replaced and it included IPv6 by default. All the Google speakers then stopped updating and eventually 'didn't understand' almost anything.

Following a tip I found online I disable IPv6 within the router settings, reset everything and it all now works, mostly.

Re: Google Nest Speakers not playing music on specified speaker

SuMa — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 20:49:49 GMT

I have the same problem.
I ask the @Living room speakeer to play Radio in bathroom speaker and the reponse is: "Sorry, I don't understand". So from Bathrom speaker on living room speaker. From google assistant iphone work great.

reboot and reset the speakers. Same problem.

Play music on specific device or room commands stopped working

SirOpsALot — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:30:23 GMT

For the last several days Assistant responds "I don't understand" whenever I tell it to play music on a specific speaker or in a specific room. If I just say "play music" it starts playing on the nearest device.

I've tried power cycling all the devices but it did not help

Re: Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

LeeCotton — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 08:11:18 GMT

I doubt it's a router problem, as I can see many other people have posted on here with playing music/radio problems, including myself. Google has clearly changed something for the worse.

Re: Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

RMuser — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 08:25:03 GMT

The IPv6 solution isn't for the recent issue with grouped speakers not playing radio or music; the IPv6 conflict is long running and prevents any speaker attached from being able to understand a command.

Re: Play music on specific device or room commands stopped working

rhammond84 — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 09:37:39 GMT

Bug introduced a few days ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/googlehome/comments/113648u/speaker_group_stopped_working/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Re: Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

92blacktt — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 17:11:26 GMT

I disabled IPv6 and still have issues with music playback, turning devices on and off and speaker groups.

Re: Google home completely unresponsive and non-sensical. "Sorry I don't understand".

ChocolateDrop — Sat, 18 Feb 2023 17:30:24 GMT

Wish I had a solution. I'm having the same issue. My issue started about a month or two ago. I'm using a next hub with the latest release version.

My assumption is that there was an update that broke some devices.

To rule out a router issue completely, can you connect the device to a different router and see if the behavior changes?