It all started when I was trying to watch something on my Chromecast, but neither the physical remote nor the digital remote in the Home app was working (or showing I would say). I was stuck, unable to do anything, and had to reboot the Chromecast. However, I then faced a new problem: I couldn't sync the Chromecast with my phone. While I could still connect the Chromecast manually on the TV, once it was all configured, I couldn't find the device in the Google Home app.
What's odd is that the Chromecast is synced with my Google account, yet when I try to cast from YouTube on my phone, the Chromecast never shows as an available device. Both my phone and the Chromecast are on the same Wi-Fi network; I can see them connected in my router app, and they're on the 5GHz bandwidth.
What could be the solution to all of this? I’ve read on some Reddit posts that people only see the device appear in the Google Home app after a couple of days, and that you need to allocate it to a room for it to finally work. For now, I don’t see it, and even after the Chromecast is configured, there doesn’t seem to be an option in the settings to sync with a phone (Google Home app). It seems that this can only be done during the reboot, and if it doesn’t work at that stage, you’re left with a Chromecast that does not cast.
My phone is a Pixel 5
