Disable YouTube Music from playing videos

[CMact]

I've seen a number of threads about this, but no actual fix and then the thread gets closed. How can I stop my nest hub from playing videos on YouTube music when I ask for a song. For example saying 'Hey Google, play [song name] on YouTube Music' results in the nest hub playing the video, not just the song. I have videos switched off on the android app, but can't find an equivalent option in the Home app or on the nest hub itself.

[Muddi]

Hello CMact,

Thanks for reaching out. I know how challenging it is when you're having issues playing music on your Google Nest Hub. Let's try to get to the bottom of this. A few questions: when did the issue start? Do you experience the same issue when playing music from the native app? Do you have a premium account?

Let's toggle the option to disable playing videos on YouTube Music:

1. Open the YouTube Music app and ensure you're signed in to your account.
2. Tap your profile icon in the top-right corner of the screen and select Settings.
3. Tap Playback and restrictions and toggle Don't play music videos on.

Let us know how it goes.

Cheers,

Muddi

[CMact]

Hello,

I think this started a month or 2 ago maybe. Do you mean if I play music on my phone and cast to the device? In that instance it does not play videos. Or at least it didn't when I tested, this is not the usual way I play music on my nest/home speakers. I do have premium and I have already chosen the option to not play music videos on the YouTube Music app. Also your instructions are out of date, the option lives here now: Settings > Data Savings > Don't play music videos.

[Princesss]

Hi CMact,

I appreciate all your effort in trying some steps. Let's perform a complete reset on your Google Nest speaker and see if this would make any difference. Here's an article on how to perform a complete reset.

• Factory reset Google Nest or Home speakers or displays

Let me know how it goes.

Best,

Princess

[CMact]

I will try that and let you know.

[Princesss]

Hello there,

Sure thing! I'll keep this thread open and we'll wait for your update.

Best,

Princess

[CMact]

I have done a factory reset and the issue persists.

[Princesss]

Hello CMact, 

We appreciate all your efforts. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information then let me know once done.

Best,

Princess

[Princesss]

Hi there,

Checking in-- have you had the chance to fill out form? Let us know once you're done so we can check it.

Best,

Princess

[CMact]

I had not filled out the form, but in the past few days with no other change to settings it seems to have stopped playing videos. Perhaps a server side fix, given multiple people have been having this problem? I'll update if it happens again.

[Princesss]

Hi CMact,

Thanks for updating us. Glad to know that it's working now. Please keep on monitoring your device's behavior and if you noticed any changes, feel free to respond to this thread.

Best,

Princess

[CMact]

I spoke to soon, this issue has started again. When I say 'play some music' it plays a mix of audio tracks and music videos on YouTube Music.

[Princesss]

Hi CMact,

Sorry to hear about. Let's keep on monitoring this issue as updates are gradually being rolled out. 

Best,

Princess

[Princesss]

Hello there,

I've seen that you have been assisted via email. I'll consider this post as complete and let's continue working on that channel so we can assist you further. Feel free to start a new topic anytime you need assistance with your Nest devices and the Community would gladly lend a hand.

Best,

Princess

[smaterka]

Hello! I am having the same problem (Google is playing videos instead of just music) but when I go to Settings, I only see the option for "Playback"...it doesn't say anything about "don't play music videos". Has this option been removed or changed places? Thank you!

[nbeckman]

There is no longer such an option in the app.

[CMact]

It's now under 'data saving'.

[CMact]

In case anyone else has the same issue and finds this thread. The discussion was moved to email, but the gist of that was just 'we are always rolling out updates and hope they fix the issue', so no concrete fix still.

[Thandy2099]

Thanks for updating the thread. I too am very annoyed by this change.

[AmyPNC]

It is happening to me now since maybe yesterday and it's annoying me to no end. I am about to cancel my premium membership because the only reason I had it was to stop hearing the videos play on my speakers. 

They have till Oct 7th to fix it or I will go to another music app. 

[CMact]

Yes, I've also noticed it being a lot more aggressive this past week. Before it might be every 3rd of 4th song would be a video, now it seems to have switched, it'll play 3 or 4 videos back to back before getting to just a song.

Separately, but I'll put it here anyway, i'm finding it harder to play specific songs lately, across all of my speakers. 'Play [specific song] by [artist]' frequently results in 'Playing music by [Artist]', not the specific song, sometimes I get more success in just saying 'Play [specific song]' and not mentioning the artist at all, but that isn't always an options if it's not a unique title, as it will play the wrong song.

[AmyPNC]

Yep it's been doing that too saying it can't find the song. It's definitely being awful and super glitchy. Be nice if they just told us what was going on

[Bri1231]

This problem is terribly annoying. I've been a Google Play Music subscriber since it was launched. When I tell my nest hub to play music, it plays music videos. But I have the videos blocked (via Digital Wellbeing settings on Goggle Assistant). So the video doesn't play, it simply shows a freeze frame of the video and says video playback is blocked. So that's no the problem.

The problem is: the algorithm for their auto-generated music video playlist is - honestly - terrible. I was just listening to music (videos) in my kitchen and the same song played 3 times within 20min.

I WANT TO PLAY MUSIC ON MY NEST HUB VIA YOUTUBE MUSIC - not music videos. 

Give us a TOGGLE! Just like my YouTube Music Android app.

I'm not leaving. I'm just frustrated.

Clearly this is a problem, Google.

Fix it fast. 

[coloradoman]

100% agree with this. Youtube music will lose me as a subscriber of it keeps playing music videos on my nest. Just want songs. 

[5B2]

Google - How is this still a problem? Is there a plan to add a toggle to allow your music app to play, you know - only music?

[coloradoman]

I canceled youtube premium and switched to Spotify today. No videos, just songs. Beautiful. 

[Hewmann]

I'm considering this too. It's really frustrating.

[FotS]

For anyone else, what I have found that "works" is to specify to Google to play the song.

"Hey Google, play the song X by Y."

This does not work, however, if the only version they have is the video, so be mindful of that (I've run into that a couple times).

That being said, yeah, it'd be better if Google would change the default behavior.  They don't even need to add an option "Don't play videos", just change the default behavior!  If I'm asking for it to play music, I typically want the song, but once in a while I do want the video, so being able to specifically ask for the video and have that play without then needing to go into the settings to re-enable video playback would be great.

[KoolMoeDee]

Hi @Princesss and @Muddi,

I am also experiencing this issue via my nest hub max that I keep centralised in my home. Usually I will just ask the hub to simply 'Hey Google, play some music' and it will play music (audio only) based on my preferences as it knows it's me talking.

I noticed about 1 month or so ago now that it has began to play music videos instead of the actual audio only music when I give it the same instruction stated above. To be clear, it still does play the odd audio only music but it often gives preference to music videos as it generates the music playlist.

The issues this causes for me are that the quality of the video audio is not the same which causes issues when I am entertaining or want music in the background and it also draws my children's attention away from whatever they are doing at the time which has its own issues.

It would be great to be able to work with the team who looks after this product or service in order to get it troubleshooted and resolved as quickly as possible. This issue is causing quite the negative experience and is hindering the devices usefulness in the home.

I have tried all the steps mentioned in this ticket and a few other I have found but the issue still persists. I can only assume this issue lies on Google side and is tied to the music playlist generation algorithm/logic OR there has perhaps been a further integration with regular YouTube which makes it think that videos are also to be added to music playlists.

I would be happy to assist in any product testing, bug fix testing, software updates etc and I would be happy to work with the necessary team to try and get this issue resolved. I'm sure it's affecting many more users.

Please feel free to contact me if I can assist with any further troubleshooting or steps.

Thank you.