Automations lock up when they adjust volume on Hub

[Artful_Dodger]

After years of working flawlessly, Google Home automations that include the action to adjust the volume on my Hub have started getting stuck. For instance, when I tell the Hub "OK Google, good morning," and the "Good morning" automation runs, it's supposed to set the Hub volume to 40%, turn on a couple of lights, then tell me the weather.  Beginning this week, when I tell the Hub "OK Google, good morning," the Hub recognizes the words, pauses a bit, then does nothing. BUT, when I immediately say "OK Google, stop," the Hub says "Okay" or "No problem," then says "Good morning," tells me the time, turns on the lights, and tells me the weather.

It seems to be getting hung up when setting the volume on the Hub, and telling it to "Stop" breaks it free. If I move the Hub volume action to be last in the list, everything happens right away as it should, then the Hub's volume gets changed, but the Hub becomes unresponsive for a bit.

I tried changing the action to "Adjust Media Volume" instead of telling it to change the volume of the Hub device specifically, but the same thing happens. The routines get stuck at the volume change, but will continue if I say "OK Google, stop."

I've rebooted the Hub, router, modem, and my phone. Nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

[SmartHomeH-TAGS]

Make a new Automation with a new voice command and add one action at a time to see if there's an issue with a specific action.

[Artful_Dodger]

Thank you for the reply. 

The system seems to hang on a volume-change action only when the volume of the device being spoken to is being changed. If the device changes the volume of another device, it does not get stuck. I did a few tests using my two Hubs: "Living Room Hub" & "Bedroom Hub":

TEST 1

• Starter: When I say to my assistant "Grapefruit"
• Action 1: Set volume of Living Room Hub using "Adjust Home Devices"
• Action 2: Turn on a light

When "Grapefruit" is said to the Living Room Hub, its volume changes, but the light is not turned on. Saying "OK Google, stop" makes the Hub say "OK" (or "No Problem"/"Alright"), and the light turns on.

When "Grapefruit" is said to the Bedroom Hub, the Living Room Hub volume changes and the light immediately turns on.

TEST 2

• Starter: When I say to my assistant "Grapefruit"
• Action 1: Set volume of Bedroom Hub using "Adjust Home Devices"
• Action 2: Turn on a light

When "Grapefruit" is said to the Bedroom Hub, its volume changes, but the light is not turned on. Saying "OK Google, stop" makes the Hub say "OK", and the light turns on.

When "Grapefruit" is said to the Living Room Hub, the Bedroom Hub volume changes and the light immediately turns on.

TEST 3

• Starter: When I say to my assistant "Grapefruit"
• Action 1: Set volume of device being spoken to using "Adjust Assistant Volume"
• Action 2: Turn on a light

When "Grapefruit" is said to either Hub, the volume of the Hub being spoken to changes, but the light is not turned on. Saying "OK Google, stop" makes the Hub say "OK", and the light turns on.

I also ran the same tests using my Mini and it behaved the same, only turning on the light when the volume change was done on another device. If Action 1 was set to change the Mini's volume, the Mini changed its volume, but did not turn on the light until being told "OK Google, stop."

This was not a problem until a few days ago. Many of my automations set the volume of the device being spoken to as the first Action, and they've run flawlessly for years. Now suddenly they don't.

EDIT TO ADD: I also tried using the "Try adding your own" action with the command "Set volume to 30%," but it behaved the same as changing the volume with the other methods. 

[SmartHomeH-TAGS]

Personally I always use Test 3 method by adjusting the Assistant Volume.

Now, the light. Are you using "Adjust  home devices" or using the "Try one of your own" custom commands?

Because the custom action "Turn on light" should turn on the light/s in that Room. (Note: Do not use the "a" in your custom command).

[Artful_Dodger]

I agree about using Adjust Assistant Volume and will use it from now on. I wonder if that action was available when I first set up these automations way back when, lol.

I wrote "Turn on a light" as a shorthand, as I didn't feel I needed to explain how that action was being accomplished. Action 2 in the tests uses "Adjust home devices" to turn on a specific light in the house. I can replace Action 2 with any command, and the problem remains that Action 2 and any subsequent actions are not performed until the stall of Action 1 is rectified by saying "OK Google, stop.

Using my usual "Good morning" routine as a test, the Hub is supposed to adjust its volume, turn off one light, turn on another light, then tell me the weather. As it is now, I see the volume change, but the other actions do not occur until I say "OK Google, stop."

If I move adjusting the volume to be the second-to-last command in the sequence, the Hub immediately says "Good morning," tells me the time, turns off one light, adjusts its volume, then stops. If I then say "OK Google, stop," the Hub says "OK" and turns on the other light.

If I move  adjusting the volume to the very end, everything seems to work as it should, but it's probably still getting hung up on the volume action and eventually times out. It's not an ideal fix, though, because I want it to set its volume before telling me the time and weather, not after.

I'm quite confident now that the problem is tied to the setting of volume, specifically when setting the volume of the device being spoken to.

[nolats44]

This problem is happening on "Set alarm volume" as well. When the automation hangs, I repeat the command verbally. That breaks it loose and it finishes the automation. This automation worked fine until May 2025.

me: "hey google, goodnight"

speaker: turning off 5 lights

-- indefinite pause --

me: "hey google, set alarm volume 30%"

speaker: "beep beep"

speaker: "what time would you like to set your alarm"

etc...

[Artful_Dodger]

Wow, that's even worse, having to deal with this right before going to sleep! If you say "Hey google, stop" during the indefinite pause, would it continue without you having to say the alarm command?

So it seems asking the hub to set any of its volumes in a routine causes it to hang. I met one other person on Reddit who just started having the same volume problem. Hopefully there will be enough of us soon that Google fixes it.

[nolats44]

At least it doesn't set the alarm volume to 0% (problem from a year ago) which is why I use the custom command now. I tried it with the provided command for the specific "display" also - both failed. I am currently setting the volume and alarm volume manually, before I use the "good night" routine. Either they have a problem with volume controls in general or they keep trying to do new stuff with new devices without proper testing on their own legacy devices.

[branflakes]

I am also having this same issue. Following for a resolution.

[te_rav]

I am also having this issue. It began late last week.

[Ellemama]

I've been cursing my hub for weeks. It just clicked that my only automation using volume is my "good morning", so I just figured it out and ran to google. Glad it's not just me. Hoping for a resolution soon! I can't hear the info but then don't want the radio blaring either! First world problems, but I'd just noticed a few months ago the volume was an option and I loved it. 

[GabrielaG]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reaching out to the community. I'm sorry to hear that the Google Home automations that include the action to adjust the volume on your Nest Hub have started getting stuck. I'd be happy to provide some guidance.

To help provide you with the correct information, I'd like to ask you a few questions and send you some troubleshooting steps: 

• What is the display's Fuchsia firmware version?
• What is the Google Home app version?
• Have you tried to re-set up the device in the Google Home app? If not, can you please try to re-set up the device, but make sure that your Google Assistant and Google app are on the latest version.
• Once the setup is complete, please try to recreate the same routine.
• If the issue persists, can you please send me a screenshot of how the routine is configured in the Google Home app.
• To further isolate the issue, try to remove the adjusted volume in the routine.

I appreciate the help providing some steps SmartHomeH-TAGS.

I'll look forward to your response.

Regards,

Gabriela

[Artful_Dodger]

Hi, Gabriela -

Thanks for the reply. Here is the information you requested:

Google Nest Hubs (same for Bedroom Hub & Living Room Hub):
System firmware version: 26.20250116.103.2900
Cast firmware: 3.76.463359

Google Home app:
Version 3.33.45.1

I did a factory reset of my Bedroom Hub. At first the Google Home app did not detect it (it did detect a neighbor’s for some reason). Eventually, when I force stopped the Google Home app and cleared its cache, it did detect the Hub and let me re-add it to my devices.

I don't see an option for inserting photos, so I put the screenshots of my test routines in this Dropbox folder, as well as a video of the routines in action. They're simple tests, so I also described them below. Thank you!

Routine: Test A
Starter: When I say to my assistant “Test alpha”
Action 1: Adjust media volume: 29
Action 2: Bed lamp: Turn on (selected using Adjust Home Devices)

Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, test alpha”
Volume on Bedroom Hub changes to 29% with display of volume dots
Then nothing...
Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, stop”
Bedroom Hub says “OK” (or something similar)
Bed lamp turns on

Routine: Test B
Starter: When I say to my assistant “Test beta”
Action 1: Bedroom Hub: Set volume to 56% (selected using Adjust Home Devices)
Action 2: Bed lamp: Turn off (selected using Adjust Home Devices)

Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, test beta”
Volume on Bedroom Hub changes to 56% with display of volume dots
Then nothing…
Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, stop”
Bedroom Hub says “OK” (or something similar)
Bed lamp turns off

Routine: Test C
Starter: When I say to my assistant “Test charlie”
Action: Bed lamp: Turn on (selected using Adjust Home Devices)

Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, test charlie”
Bed lamp turns on

Routine: Test D
Starter: When I say to my assistant “Test delta”
Action 1: Living Room Hub: Set volume to 30% (selected using Adjust Home Devices)
Action 2: Bed lamp: Turn off (selected using Adjust Home Devices)

Say to the Bedroom Hub: “Hey Google, test delta”
Living Room Hub in other room sets its volume to 30%
Bed lamp turns off

[GabrielaG]

Hi @Artful_Dodger,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate your time in responding to my post and performing the troubleshooting steps with me. I'm happy to continue assisting you.

It seems there's no issue with this configuration; if you want to use the same routine with a different device, you can just copy the same configuration but change the device to be adjusted or to be controlled.

Feel free to keep us posted if you have more questions.

Regards,

Gabriela

[Artful_Dodger]

Hi, Gabriella,

As of tonight the routines are working again! They don't freeze after changing the volume. I didn't change a thing, so I assume Google quietly fixed something they broke last week. I hope it stays fixed for good. Thank you for your time.

AD

[Artful_Dodger]

Are you still there, Gabriela?

[Artful_Dodger]

For those following this thread, see if your routines are working again. At some point in the past couple of days Google might have fixed whatever they broke last week, because my routines no longer get stuck on the volume actions. Fingers crossed it stays that way! 🤞