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Chrome cast stops working only when in-laws are over

Moose94
Community Member

Hey all, so when I’m at home with my family and use chrome cast on our favoured tv it works great. No connection issues and our device always finds “family room tv” and we are always able to connect without any issue whatsoever ever and even able to keep watching when Netflix asks “are you still there” 

 

 

however for some odd reason when my in laws come over our device never seems to find “family room tv” so I disconnect the internet for 5 minutes as well as disconnect chrome cast. after 5 minutes I plug my internet back in and wait for it to load then I plug in chrome cast and allow a couple minutes for everything to connect then we are able to find a device on our device/phone. But when you’ve watched 3 episodes or so and Netflix again asks “are you still there” no “family room tv” device is found and I’m left to disconnect the internet and chrome cast again. 

it’s a very frustrating issue and I’m steering away from chrome cast because of this. 

it honestly only happens when my in laws are over and it can kind of ruin the night if we’re all enjoying what we’re watching. 

14 REPLIES 14

Neill78
Community Member
  1. Do your in-laws have a pocket wi-fi or internet sharing turned on in their phones? Is your device automatically connecting to that instead of your home network? 
  2. When there are a lot of people together in the room is the signal from the device to the Chromecast being blocked?
  3. Can you set up a guest Wi-Fi for your in-laws to use while they are at your house? Maybe one of their phones is trying to take the same IP address as the Chromecast, so taking their devices off the network might help. Alternately, ask them to turn off their phones for a few minutes to see if that's the issue.

Moose94
Community Member

In laws do not have pocket wifi and are not sharing wifi or have a “hotspot”. 
I don’t really have a way to tell what the chromcast is connecting to. 

there are currently 3 people in the house and Netflix still says “no device found” 

 

i unfortunately don’t have a computer to actually get into my wifi and see what’s going on. 

 

also I’d like for the chrome cast to work when we’re not at home so if my in-laws are over they can use the chromecast if their phones are off that would no longer be an option. 

Moose94
Community Member

I also forgot to mention it’s not just Netflix that this is happening with. It’s anything the we try and connect to the chromecast. 

Neill78
Community Member

Sounds like you are not able to do much troubleshooting if you don't have a computer.

The only other thing I can think of is if you have two WiFi SSIDs, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz. Your Chromecast will only connect to one, but your other devices might switch between them automatically to get the best connection. But you can only cast to the Chromecast if your device and the Chromecast are on the same SSID network. 

When your in-laws are over, the greater number of bodies in the room or the number of cell phones sending out wireless interference might push your casting device to switch another SSID/frequency that is less congested.

Even without a computer, you should be able to check your router settings from your phone or a tablet. 

Moose94
Community Member

Yes I do have a router the put out the 2 signals 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz

 

my phone tells me that my signal is week as far as wifi connection but honestly chromecast is the only issue. Online gaming is great as well as our printer and so on. 

so how would I access that? From what you’ve told me that seems like the problem. It only happens with my in-laws though which is kinda weird. I could have 20 people over and it’s fine. 

Neill78
Community Member

Open your Google home app, select your Chromecast and check the settings to find out what network it's connected to.

Next time your in-laws are over, just make sure the casting device is connected to the same network and it should with ok. 

Moose94
Community Member

I wasn’t able to see what chrome cast was connected to but I do believe we’ve fixed the problem. Thank you so much. If I have anymore issues I know where to bug you 😛 

 

thanks again! 

Moose94
Community Member

Well I thought it was working but it was just a short stint. 

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there Moose94,

 

I'm just checking up on this thread, and I'm glad to see that Neill78 was able to help you out! In that case, do you have any more questions or need any additional help?

 

Thank you for helping out on this thread, Neill78!

 

Best regards,
Jeran

Moose94
Community Member

Well I thought it was working and now it’s not. 

Neill78
Community Member

In order to diagnose you need to do a little bit of troubleshooting. You can usually get it working for a while, right? So first, when it is working, check the device you are casting from and see what WiFi network it's connected to. 

Then the next time it stops working, check again and see if your casting device is connecting to a different network. At that point it should be easy to switch it back to the correct network.

 

Right now I'm guessing that your ChromeCast is probably connected to the 5Ghz network, but 5G has low range and a lot of bodies in the same room can really wreck the signal. When the signal is weak, the device you are casting from probably switches to 2.4Ghz automatically and can no longer see the Chromecast.

If you have the Google Home App, just open it, tap on the Chromecast name you are trying to connect to, then hit the gear icon in the top right, and select Device information. It will show you which network the Chromecast is connected to. The Chromecast will never change networks, so you just have to make sure your casting device is connected to the same one. And if it isn't, you should change the Chromecast so it connects to the network that your device tends to connect to the best when your family is over.

 

Good luck!

Neill

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Thank you for helping out again, Neill78!

Hey there Moose94,

I'm just checking up on this thread again, do you have any more questions?

Best regards,
Jeran

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey there Moose94,

Do you have any more questions that we can address? 

Thank you,
Jeran

Jeran
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Moose94,

Do you have any more questions? If not, I'll go ahead and lock up this thread in 24 hours.

Just checking up,
Jeran