Chromecast Gen 3 and Gen 2 crash constantly when streaming Youtube

[sercero]

Hello,

This started happening recently.

When casting Youtube to a Chromecast Gen 2 (also tested Gen 3, I have both) after five minutes or so suddently the stream stops and I'm taken to the screen with the screensaver.

I have to restart the stream and this happens again after 5 minutes and so on...

This did not happen in the past and I was able to stream for hours different videos queued one after the other.

I have tried resetting to factory and also using the provided USB power source (the charger that comes with the Chromecast in the box) to make sure that the device is getting the proper amount of power.

One thing I noticed is that the Chromecast gets very hot.

[sercero]

I want to add that streaming Netflix does not cause this issue, so that leads me to believe that the hardware is not at fault, but something must have changed in the Youtube API or streaming content that is more challenging for the Chromecast. It is a shame that we cannot select the quality of the streaming content. I would prefer stability over quality.

[dohnut]

I had the same problem (with both of my Gen 2 Chromecast units) that started recently (past several months).  I believe it is caused by a number of factors which may be unique from phone to phone, but give this a shot..

For the record, I'm using a One Plus phone which has a somewhat stock version of Android (version 11), so the menus may be different on your phone.  Try to find the equivalent area in your settings if the path below doesn't exist on your phone.

Go into "settings -> apps & notifications -> YouTube -> Advanced / Battery" and select "Don't optimize".

In case this is different on your phone, I'm given 3 options: "Intelligent Control", "Optimize", and "Don't Optimize".  "Intelligent Control" was the original default.  What we want is for the application to remain running normally when it is in the background (especially when your screen is off).  "Don't Optimize" seems to have had that effect.

This seems to have solved my issue (time will ultimately tell I suppose).

[dohnut]

FYI, I realize that the YouTube running on your Chromecast is not the same YouTube app running on your phone but it appears that something is failing on the phone app which then signals the app running on the Chromecast to terminate.

Another test you can do is to keep your phone screen on and YouTube in the foreground on your phone while casting.  This was the original fix (had to keep the phone plugged in and/or use dev settings to prevent sleeping) until I started looking into the battery optimization which seems to accomplish the same thing but without dev settings or keeping the phone on USB power.

[sercero]

Hey @dohnut , thanks for your response. Your findings correspond with what I found on reddit.

It seems that the battery saving feature is inhibiting communication between the YouTube app on the phone and the one on the Chromecast. My theory is that the YouTube app on the Chromecast pings the phone and when it detects no response it shuts down the stream. That behaviour is new and baffling. My solution for now is to start the casting from a PC to have as an "anchor" and then use the phone as a remote to control the playlist. The battery saving options are not accesible. I have a OnePlus 5T with OxygenOS and it seems that since YouTube is an embedded app (came with the phone) the battery saving options are not available, I just cannot set the battery optimization settings for YouTube.

[JenniferV]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the suggestions, dohnut — we appreciate it.

@sercero, thanks for being a step ahead of us. Please also try the steps listed below and let me know how it goes:

1. Clear the data and/or cache of the YouTube app.
2. Uninstall and reinstall the YouTube app.
3. Turn off any power or battery saving mode on your phone.
4. Disable and re-enable Automatic date and time and Automatic time zone.
5. Check for system updates on the device.
6. Try to cast from other devices.
7. Perform a factory reset on Chromecast again.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[JenniferV]

Hi there,

How's it going? Still need help?

Regards,

Jennifer

[JenniferV]

Hey there,

Just checking in to make sure that you saw my response. I'll be locking this thread if we won't hear back from you again in 24 hrs. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[Jeran]

Hey there!

We haven't heard back from sercero, and it's been a few days, so I'm locking the thread. As always, feel free to make a new thread if you have any more questions or concerns.

Thank you for your help, dohnut and Jennifer!

Best regards,
Jeran