topic Re: Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome in Speakers and Displays

Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome

Captainkeyz — Sun, 19 Mar 2023 10:37:42 GMT

Firstly - i have seen dozens of reports online on casting issues but very few ever seem to come to resolution. Contributors seem to go strangely quiet after a couple of exchanges and then you close the ticket as you haven’t heard from them.
I can assure you I won’t be one of those..

Secondly can we skip the echo chamber routine of getting me to reboot devices, check for latest firmware, put devices nearer to router . Ive been working on this for months and all of that has been done many times

I am casting from iOS using Spotify to Google audio stereo device pairs.

The audio stream randomly disconnects and when I look in Google Home I can see those devices pairs are appearing / disappearing from the groups view which I suspect reflects disconnections.

This was not an issue when I installed this setup a few years ago so I suspect an upgrade has broken something in the chain.

any thoughts on this.? Are there any diags to run to get a proper read on what is happening?
It s high time this issue was pushed into 3rd level diagnostic or we are stuck in a world of 1st level Q&a that goes no where

rgds

mark atkins

Re: Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome

Muddi — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 23:26:29 GMT

Hey Captainkeyz,

Thanks for reaching out. We apologize if the thread was closed sooner. As Community Specialists, we occasionally do a bit of housekeeping to keep the conversations in our community fresh and relevant. This includes locking threads after a period of inactivity.

Moving forward, I know how challenging it is when you're having issues casting with your paired Google Nest Audio. To confirm, do you have the same issue when casting on a speaker group? Could you list down all the speakers that you have? How far are the devices from the router? Are you using a dual-band router? Also, what is the make and model of your router?

Please note that distance and network signal is a big factor when casting to your devices. If you have a dual-band router and band-steering is on, it automatically connects your devices to the best available WiFi frequency in your home. That's why we recommend casting and putting the speakers within 15-20 feet away from the router for better signal. This will also help your devices to stay connected on the same network frequency at all times.

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers,

Muddi

Re: Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome

Captainkeyz — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:14:19 GMT

Thanks for reopening this thread Muddi

i think I have fixed the issue in the interim but in answer to questions. I know you always have to ask the same questions from your troubleshoot run book but I really have been through all of the usual stuff. I live in a small house with sheet rock walls so signal really isn’t an issue.

I have the following:

lounge- 1 x stereo pair Google nest audio

lounge- 1 x stereo pair Google nest mini

kitchen - 1 x google nest mini

upstairs hall - 1 x google nest mini

i have one group -“All” with everything in it. One complication is that I have the two lounge stereo pairs inside another “all lounge” group

Re: Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome

Captainkeyz — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 08:30:49 GMT

Sorry. Not to moan but your app on this forum is very bad when used on mobile. Any attempt to save or edit before posting and it either posts early or I lose everything..

so my last was incomplete.

To cut to the chase, this issue is to do with static v dynamic routing on my home router. I have seen this a lot in the past with device connectivity in other scenarios .
THE FIX: Log in to home router and set locally attached devices using IPV4 to always use the same address - making them static. That in itself is not enough - your app seems to get confused with IPV4 and IPV6 addressing - in Google home I see my devices being duplicated - sometimes showing speaker names but then appearing again as group names. It looks unstable with these names appearing and disappearing in the app. To fix this, I set the firewall to be “Stateful” on my home router - as I understand the IPV6 equivalent of static…

So now everything is nailed up and static on my home network and at last no more drop outs while in operation!

Suggest you add to your run book and also pass to Devs as Google home is still struggling to display two stereo pairs within a group even though the cast is now stable.

thanks for listening to my rant - very frustrating but now fixed

Re: Devices behave erratically in GoogleHome

Muddi — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 22:14:59 GMT

Hi Captainkeyz,

Thanks for updating the Community forum of your resolution — it's a big help! We're always looking for ways to improve, and we appreciate your feedback.

If you have any updates or just a discussion topic, feel free to start a new thread in the community.

Cheers,

Muddi