Chromecast Ultra - YouTube - premium nagging and "something went wrong"

[Cetlan]

It would appear that Google has been gradually making YouTube with the Chromecast Ultra less and less usable. A while ago they changed YouTube so that the Chromecast could no longer log into a YouTube account (even though it constantly suggested logging in on many menus and pages - it would just say you couldn't log in, and tell you to cast from your phone). Now, just within the last few days, it has started nagging about Premium subscriptions after ad breaks, saying it will stop interrupting if I just got premium (which is a lie, because the Chromecast Ultra can't sign into an account with Premium, as I've read on numerous forums).

There's the option to use the phone "remote" to click an on-screen button to dismiss this - which I hope would silence it for a while - but doing that just displays "Something went wrong" - probably because it's not logged in, so it can't save the setting to an account.

Anybody else running into things like this? Has anybody solved this? Or has everybody given up on Chromecast and/or YouTube by this point, and I'm the only person crazy enough to expect Google products to actually work for more than a year or two?

[Kimy]

Hi Cetlan,

Thanks for reaching out. I know how it feels when something isn’t working as it should. A few questions: Are you using the YouTube app or Chrome browser to cast? Do you have a premium subscription? If so, is this logged into the device you used to cast?

Check out this link for more information.

Regards,

Kimy

[Cetlan]

Hi Kimy,

Thanks for following up. I'm using the YouTube App on my phone. and the phone I'm using for casting is logged in to my Google account, which YouTube on the phone recognizes.

I don't have premium, so the fact that I'm seeing ads is no surprise. They're annoying but tolerable (except when YouTube decides a three hour documentary is an "ad", but that's a complaint for another time and place). But even if I had premium, from other reports I've seen, I wouldn't be able to use it with the Chromecast since the Chromecast can't log in and doesn't share the account the phone uses.

I'm guessing the other problems (the error message, and the fact I can't "permanently" dismiss the premium nag prompt) are also related to the inability to log in - but I could be wrong, they could be another problem entirely.

[Kimy]

Hello Cetlan,

Thanks for the details. Let’s try this approach. Try to factory reset your Chromecast Ultra for a full clean-up. Reinstall your Google Home App, then ensure that you log in with the same account as your YouTube. Complete the setup and let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Kimy

[Cetlan]

Thanks for the suggestion - haven't done a factory reset in a while, and hadn't thought at all to try uninstalling Google Home (I didn't even realize it could be uninstalled anymore, but I found the option).

No change though. Chromecast Ultra still says it can't log in, so casting can only be done as a "guest" (which I suspect it just fallout from YouTube being redesigned for Google TV - it's been like that for a couple years now I think) , and (more importantly) it still displays "something went wrong" and the "please sign up for premium" message that I just have to wait to go away at the beginning of every video because I can't dismiss it.

[Princesss]

Hi Cetlan,

Apologies for the delay. I would highly recommend performing a complete reset to your Chromecast so we can check if this would fix the prompts keep showing on your display. Here's how you can reset your Chromecast.

• How to factory reset your Chromecast

Let me know how it goes.

Best,

Princess

[Cetlan]

Hi, thanks for following up. The factory reset (already done as suggested by Kimy) didn't do anything. But it seems like Google finally noticed a problem and fixed it. I'm not sure when it changed, but I realized I haven't seen the error messages in a few days. I thought I'd just gotten used to them and started ignoring them, but indeed they just stopped showing up as suddenly as they started.

[Princesss]

Hey there,

Thanks for updating us. 

Glad to know that it's already working now on your end. Please keep on monitoring your device's behavior and don't hesitate to respond to this thread if you notice any changes on its behavior.

Cheers,

Princess