Cannot unlink devices from my Google home App/Account

[adibakale]

I can't unlink 2 devices from my Google home Account. I no longer have access to these devices and it will not let me remove then. Google Nest often confuses my voice commands with trying to play music/videos on these devices which I do not have anymore.

When I try to "Remove" device from settings, I get an error message saying:

Unlinking account from device failed

 Unlinking account from (null) was unsuccessful. Please try again later.

How do I get these 2 devices removed from my account??

[MplsCustomer]

@adibakale 

You could try the steps suggested on this thread:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Cannot-Remove-Device-from-Google-Home-l...

[adibakale]

I’ve tried those steps several times. Not working.

[Alex_S]

Hi everyone,
 

We appreciate the assistance here, @MplsCustomer.
 

@adibakale, I’m sorry to know about what’s happening, let’s get this sorted out. A few questions: do you have a home member in the Google Home app? If yes, can they see these 2 devices and remove them? What’s the version of the Google Home app on your phone? Make sure it is up to date.
 

I’ll look forward to your response.

Warmly,
Alex

[adibakale]

Hi Alex

I don’t have any other member in my google home app. I have version 3.2.104z

[Alex_S]

Hi there,

Got it. Let’s try these troubleshooting steps:

• Go to Your devices > Check if the devices are showing on the list > Sign out
• Uninstall and reinstall the Google Home app
• Check if the devices are still showing. If yes;
• Create a new Home > Check again if the devices are showing. If not;
• Move all working devices to the new Home.
  • For reference on how to move devices: Share a home and devices in the Google Home app
• Delete the old Home

Let me know how it goes.

Kind regards,
Alex

[adibakale]

Hi, I’ve tried all of the above several times before reaching out to support.

• The devices are signed out.
• I’ve uninstalled and deleted the app multiple times.
• I’ve deleted and recreated the Home.
• I’ve created a new home - I can’t move these 2 devices into the new home.
• In fact, I cannot do anything with these devices because they are not connected to my Wi-Fi and they do not seem to be assigned to me, especially since I get this “null” error message when trying to remove them from linked devices in the google home app:

Unlinking account from device failed

Unlinking account from (null) was unsuccessful. Please try again later.

These seem to be phantom/zombie devices that my google home account thinks are linked, but they are not. I’ve tried everything you listed and everything i can think of/find on the internet and cannot get them removed.

[hmstanley]

This suggestion, moving devices to a new home BREAKS a ton of things.  Why is Google suggesting this step when they know full well it will literally NUKE from orbit your original home setup.  moving devices back and forth to new and old homes is the quickest way to kill your Google home.  

Also, removing the app and reinstalling never works.

Google needs a way to remove ghost devices from existing homes.  Period. 

Just give us a method or way to remove devices -- in my case, I reset it first before removing from my home that are no longer in my possession  and is impossible to put back online to reset properly, since I don't have it anymore.

Give us better tools.

[Smashcutt]

 

I am having the same issue removing two devices that are linked to me but disconnected and not in a home.  Both are Sony TVs.  I’ve signed out of both devices on the “Your devices” page.  When I try to unlink the devices in the Home app, I get the same error as the OP — “Unlinking account from (null) was unsuccessful.”

I don’t understand why Google has created a system that is set up to override the wishes of the user this way.  It is incredibly frustrating.

 

[hmstanley]

You can't...

Google has no way to delete these ghost devices and they will provide you NO help or method to have them remove the device.  I noticed an "unlink" function added recently and I thought "wow, they have given us this ability" nope, it doesn't work and it's borked, as is the entire Google home software stack. 

Its there and will be there FOREVER.

Here is my post > https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Wifi/Can-t-remove-Wireless-AP-Point-that-wasn-t-reset-pr...

[adibakale]

@Alex_S 

@hmstanley 

This is incredibly frustrating. Every time I want to control something, google nest asks me if I want to cast, or change the volume, or turn on/off “David’s chromecast” which is a ghost device. I don’t know who David is or why his chromecast is linked to my account!!!

I’m getting to the point where I am going to switch to Apple me HomePods or something which is almost equally as terrifying as this issue.

[Smashcutt]

As soon as Apple releases a smart display, I think I’m switching to HomeKit.  With Matter being the new standard, there will be a bunch of new devices that are HomeKit compatible.  Sorry Google, I used to tell everyone that your assistant is superior and smart home automation features are the best.  But the assistant has only gotten worse and worse and when you can’t fix something so simple and basic as ghost devices littering people’s setups, who cares?  It’s ridiculous. 

[xtamtamx]

HomeKit is amazing. I’ve been stuck still using Google Home since I use the Google/Nest WiFi mesh network and have had a phantom device connected to my account for 6+ years. Support has not helped in the slightest. 

[JB55]

I have a current support case open with the same issue. Mine was I changed the email address on my google account. One chrome cast worked fine, just entered new password on new account. The other chrome cast has been a nightmare and is escalated to engineering so hoping for a fix. I manually setup the device but it won’t work from home app, and the same device under the last two names I gave it when doing factory resets give me the same null error when trying to remove them and get a clean setup.  Really hoping this gets some attention!

[Southender]

I have the EXACT same issue. Three old devices that I can't delete.

[Sypher50]

Can google please give us an answer? Why did they stop answering this thread?!? I have a device I can’t delete and soon just going to switch to echo and turn all my google products back in under fraud through my credit card since the products are faulty and google isn’t fixing it under their warranty. Better Business Bureau will be notified too

[adibakale]

I think this is a bug they don’t have a solution for. @Alex_S  can you help?

[Juni]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the responses, and sorry for the delay. Check out this link and see if your unwanted apps and devices are still linked. If so, you can remove it from there.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Juni

[Southender]

This does not help.

These are not third-party apps or services. They are Google TV devices.

[hmstanley]

Hi Juni,

We went through this yesterday.. this was helpful in that it is a list of apps and you can get to devices that are logged in, but even signing out of devices that appeared to be "old" did not result in device panes in my Google Home from being removed. 

[adibakale]

This doesn’t help. This isn’t relevant to the issue we are all having. Can this be escalated somehow?

I’ve been sent a lot of links, which I’ve already tried, none of which are working.

[adibakale]

@Juni i appreciate your response, but how can this actually be escalated to engineering or a department that can look into the issue instead of sending us random irrelevant links that do not address this issue?

[Sypher50]

You stated this link will allow us to delete devices, but it only allows you to access apps linked to the accounts. Did you even look into the link you post or just blindly copy and paste from some other threads?! Do better

[Smashcutt]

It’s truly absurd. I feel bad for the Google reps because they have no real solution to offer because there isn’t one.  It’s just a poorly designed, broken system.  What an utter embarrassment for Google that they can’t fix such a BASIC function as removing disconnected devices.  Or maybe they just don’t care enough about the Google Home platform to address it.  I guess the joke is on us, the consumers.  Never again!

[AndreiG]

I have the same problem, and it is very annoying to see a ghost "Android TV", occupying a title on the screen! 
I was connected at some point with a device called "Android TV", I can see it in my list of "sessions on cast device(s)", but there I am Signed out. Still, in Google Home app is there on Linked devices, with no way to remove it.

[Fercho1]

Same problem here. Very frustrating. 😡 

[Sherzit88]

Same issue, hoping for a fix soon!

[Pyitchris]

I also have the same issue. Support was of no help so I’m keeping an eye out here for a solution. 

[MJKavanagh]

I just saw this on my app last evening for some TV device that: (I) wasn't there when I first moved into my new home and reset up my Chromecast; and (II) isn't a TV device I set up. I get the same "null" notification, and I find it incredibly annoying that there's apparently no way to remove it.

[DrMax]

Same issue - I got 2x nvidia shield tv pro that used to be handled by the Google Home app. After the recent app update, both devices show up as "Linked to you" and not associated to a home/room. Hence I created a new room and linked one of the devices from scratch. Now I see a total of 3 devices of which 2 are actually the same - showing the "Playing 100%" state, but only one can be managed, the other can't be unlinked with the same null error massage as stated in this thread.

Step it up Google, give us a way to remove those orphaned devices!

[watcharasan]

I have same problem and don’t have solution from google to fix it

[apollowwe]

Same issue, needs immediate top priority fix. 

[John-G]

Exactly same problem here as well. In 'Linked to you' 4 ghosted devices (in fact my Philips Android Smart TV with build in Google Assistent) which I cannot remove (no remove option) nor unlink (unlink fails similar to above).

The workaround of creating a new home, move all 'good' devices there and delete the 'old' home iis not an acceptable approach.

Note that this TV *is* present elsewhere in Google Home, but controlling it using Google Home often results in a confused Google Home as there are multiple devices with the same name.

What is the *real* solition?

[BaronArnold]

I am experiencing this issue with two Dish devices I cannot delete.

[adibakale]

Super frustrating and not sure how this is acceptable by google. There seems to be no solution.

[Sypher50]

Just get rid of google products. I’ve posted multiple times and they don’t care. Switch to Alexa 

[adibakale]

I don’t really like Alexa though.

[Smashcutt]

So, this is almost comical in an “are you kidding me?” sort of way.  Google seems to have updated the Home app.  You still can’t remove the zombie devices, but now, when you tap “Unlink device”, a black bar appears telling you that “these settings are unavailable” and that you should check your WiFi settings.  Ha!  Everybody got that?  They didn’t fix the actual problem, they just changed the error message to one that suggests you are the problem. 

Congrats Google.  I didn’t think you could do it, but you actually made it worse!

 

 

[adibakale]

I just tried this and confirmed they did just update the error message. So ridiculous. 

[AverageJoe]

Crazy how this is still an issue that hasn't been resolved. This has been a problem for me for the last year. These ghost devices were linked at one point, and when we moved to a new home, since we use the same products, it won't let me control those devices, and assistant tells me "It looks like this device, this device, this device and this device are unavailable at this time". 

Just give us the option to DELETE these items from the home that we do not want visible on the Google Home settings page instead of keeping them grayed out showing "Linked to you" and "Offline". Of course they were linked to me and offline... I am not using them. LET ME REMOVE THEM! There's no reason to not have an option to completely remove a device from the list of devices.