Can't control volume of Google Home speakers from other devices or through routines

[geedlet]

I want to use my speakers to play white noise at night, and I want to set it up to play through routines. The problem is I often can't (or don't want to) initiate the routine by speaking to the device I want to play the music, and for whatever reason, I can't seem to remotely control the volume of the media that plays.

Example 1: Sometimes I come into the bedroom after my husband is asleep, so I can't ask the Home out loud to perform a command-triggered routine. Instead I have to manually trigger the routine on my phone, which I usually do by opening the Google app and using the auto-completed routine trigger phrase. The problem is that when I trigger it from my phone, it somehow interprets the custom command "Set Volume on bedroom mini to 9" (and every syntactical variation thereof that I have tried) as changing the volume on my PHONE instead of the bedroom mini. It seems to just ignore the device name entirely.

Example 2: I tried to set up a routine for the living room that starts white noise at a specific time every night, but again, the volume is incorrect, and even in an automated routine that is set to RUN on the living room mini somehow fails to change the volume when it includes a command like "set the volume on the living room mini to 8."

I've done a bit of Googling and I gather that this may have something to do with a legal dispute with Sonos, but has anyone figured out a workaround??

[Cathal_S]

Hi geedlet,

Have you tried using a command for changing volume in percentages?

'Set living room speaker volume to thirty percent '

[geedlet]

Yes. It does correctly understand the volume command, because it has been changing the volume on my phone whenever I run the routine on my phone, and the volume output on my phone matches the input, whether as 9 or 90%.

[Azarco]

Hey folks,

Cathal_S Thanks for the assistance.

geedlet This might be related to the update about speaker groups wherein customers will no longer be able to control the volume of all the speakers in a speaker group at the same time. This includes from the Google Home app, on display devices, and using Assistant voice commands (ex. “Change [group name] volume to 50%”). Customers will need to control the volume for each speaker in the group individually. Visit this link for more information.

Best,

Alex

[geedlet]

Thanks for the info, Alex. As far as I'm aware, I'm not using speaker groups. Is there a way to tell if I am using groups, and to stop using them if so? And would that help at all?

[Azarco]

Hey geedlet,

I'm sorry for the confusion. To confirm, are you using a ready-made or custom routine? Also, is it only happening within the routine actions? 

Thanks,

Alex

[geedlet]

I've tried both using the premade bedtime routine and creating a custom routine, the result is the same both ways.

[Princesss]

Hi geedlet,

Thanks for trying the steps. Let's go ahead and try to perform a complete reset to your Google Home and see if this would make any changes on its behavior.

Keep me posted.

Best,

Princess

[Azarco]

Hey geedlet,

Checking back in to see if the resetting your device help. Let us know by updating this thread, and the community will be happy to lend a hand.

Thanks,

Alex

[Azarco]

Hey geedlet,

One quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need assistance, feel free to start a new thread in the community and we’ll be happy to help.

Kind regards,

Alex

[geedlet]

Resetting did not help.

[Azarco · Accepted solution]

Hey geedlet,

Thanks for the update. To have a better look, can you take a screenshot of your routines? Also, try clearing all your routines and create a new one.

Let us know how it goes.

Best,

Alex

[geedlet]

Well, it was a pain in the ass, but deleting and recreating all my routines worked, so thanks!

[Princesss]

Hi geedlet,

Thanks for the update. Glad to know that it's already working.

Since this has been resolved, I'll consider this post complete and will lock the thread in 24 hours. Feel free to start a new thread if you need assistance with your Google Nest devices.

Best,

Princess