Google Assistant not playing ROUTINES and personal playlists on Spotify despite proper commands

[marcolopes]

This is a recurrent problem, introduced either by Google OR Spotify (they are NOT clear about that!)

It was introduced in the beginning of the YEAR (2024): https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Google-Assistant-devices-re-direct-to-random-albums-wi...

It was FIXED in JUNE!! https://community.spotify.com/t5/Your-Library/Google-Assistant-devices-re-direct-to-random-albums-wi...

It was reintroduced 2 DAYS ago!

GOOGLE NEST Community Thread (the NEW one, because they closed the previous one once this issue was solved by Spotify + Google) https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Nest-Mini-play-wrong-songs-and-p...

[marcolopes]

Sure!!!

With the "STUPID" Assistant that basically (when it understands!!!) does a Wikipedia search! Useless...

With or without Gemini, i just want these problems fixed!

At least let me PLAY my music with Spotify and EXECUTE my routines correctly!

I don't even want speaker groups working because i follow the thread with the problems associated and i would kill myself before trying to deal with all the problems at once!

[Jinja]

I don't want to speak too soon, though last night and tonight it seems to be working. When I ask for a specific personal playlist it's actually finding that playlist for the first time in months. I'd be keen to find out if anyone else has had any luck.

[marcolopes]

Tried last night (i use it almost everyday) and nothing! It played a completely different playlist with the same name (the priority should be PERSONAL playlists, PUBLIC playlists added to our LIBRARY, and then "other" playlists)

[Jinja]

Bah, sorry! I did notice that the routine that calls a personal playlist didn't seem to work though asking for it directly did. I'll try again later, it might be a transient fix.

[SmartHomeH-TAGS]

@marcolopes  maybe Google is trying to give you a hint to upgrade to the Nest Hub. It does give a far superior experience with a screen and does play the playlist you want and without the introduction before playing the music with a little automation...

https://youtube.com/shorts/Syy1p71zVOU?feature=share

[marcolopes]

Problem getting WORST everyday!

Now i get "Something went wrong" on most basic "music" commands (and others)

Playing the correct playlist is almost IMPOSSIBLE now (whatever the words we use or the order we use them!)

[Vicki3]

I cannot get any radio stations again for the 2nd time this year. Might go back to alexa. I know it is just the hub as my mini works ok

[jpzsports]

Truly amazed that this issue still occurs. Extremely frustrating. I'm just hoping that it is resolved when Gemini comes to Google Home at the end of the month. We'll see.....

[marcolopes]

Yes! Still ON! It drives me crazy!!!

And yes... i hope that Gemini for Home will solve it, but i won't BET on it!!!

And NO... it's not by the end of the month for me... USA first, then a bunch of European countries (mine is NOT listed), so... don't expect that anything changes before YEAR END at least... https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Gemini-for-home/m-p/752516

Meanwhile the users are left with almost USELESS devices!

[jpzsports]

@AnishKattukaran PLEASE have your team fix this issue! It has been going on since July. When I tell my Google home mini to do an automation that has a music playlist (on Spotify) it doesn't play the correct playlist. When I verbally say the playlist, it works fine (sometimes). We've all tried renaming the playlist, changing the automation, etc and nothing worked. 

[Jinja]

Same behaviour here, seems odd that it works when verbalised (mostly), though not when via routine.

[marcolopes]

It's a mix!!!

Sometimes works using some keywords, but in the next day it doesn't!!!!

Either way, it's a MESS, and it's Google's fault! For the 3rd TIME on 2 years... :\\\

[marcolopes]

You won't find a viable solution!

Changing playlists NAME is NOT viable!

Even if ou do it, the system still messes up pretty badly!

Tis has to be FIXED by Google on their end, like it was FIXED before!

I don't even know if the Google Gemini will have a positive impact on this... but i won't bet on it!

[Vicki3]

I just want my radio stations back again.

[marcolopes]

It has come out to the MEDIA...

Forget Gemini, Google Home users just want the basics to work again

"Months, and countless complaints later, Google Home users say they just want their devices to get the basics right again."

Finally someone is looking at the Google Nest ecosystem problems! https://www.androidauthority.com/google-home-continued-problems-3612288/

[Milessimon]

Apparently there's a secret threshold for outraged replies with RANDOM CAPS throughout that NEEDS to be hit before they DO anything. 

[marcolopes]

LOL!

Better than CAPS is BOLD CAPS!

Sorry, but i EARNED the right to use CAPS after all the HELL I've been living with these devices for 2 years! 😉

[marcolopes]

Nothing new...

Everyday is an adventure!

Even with the same command, onde day plays one thing, the other plays another!

It's all a complete mess!!!

[SmartHomeH-TAGS]

@marcolopes you don't have a Nest Hub?

[marcolopes]

No... only Google Nest Speakers...

And if "they" have it right on the Nest HUB, why don't they fix it (for the 3rd TIME in 2 years!!!) on the Nest SPEAKER??

This is nonsense...

They just don't care...

[marcolopes]

Getting WORSE every day!!!

Now one cannot even play ANY playlist!!!

It just doesn't play them, no matter what we say! Nothing! NADA! ZIP!

And sometimes it says it needs the "Personal results" to be ON! (they are!!!! always have!)

WORST ecosystem ever!!!!

[Tommyg83]

This is completely unacceptable. Google has not publicly addressed this in any way shape or form. Many people pay for their google home products primarily for this function that is supposed to work. It hasn't been working for nearly 1 year. They make and spend billions of dollars per years. It's just disgusting really.. 

And of course we all know their next move.. 

"Pay us for a Gemini at home subscription to fix all of the problems we won't" 

[Vicki3]

My radio stations are back but drop out every 10 mins or so and it is not my internet as the hub is the only thing that drops out. I am using my alexa with no problems at all

[Vicki3]

I have given up on google they are useless and using Alexa with no problems with dropping out at all

[marcolopes]

I asked GOOGLE for a REFUND for my devices.

This is just NONSENSE!

Also commented on LINKEDIN about this.

[marcolopes]

Gemini won't solve any of these problems!!!

[Tommyg83]

If it behaves anything like Alexa, it just might...

I tried Alexa app and it's absolutely flawless with Spotify functionality. There is a really silly workaround. 

Trigger your Spotify playlist to play on your phone via an Alexa routine, then trigger a google routine to move the music to a specified speaker.  The only issue with this is if your phone goes to sleep mode or do not disturb, it wont trigger the Alexa routine.  The overall ridiculous workaround would be to buy one cheap Alexa mini (so it never sleeps) and use that to trigger the playlist routines, then use a google routine to reroute the music to google home devices with a command like "move music to bedroom speaker"   

[Tommyg83]

From my understanding with experiencing the issue over the last 8 months or so, this issue is directly linked with Google assistant/home routines not recognising your Spotify premium subscription despite everything being connected and setup correctly. I've tried basically everything. 

-clearing spotify and google home app cache data

-signing out everywhere on spotify

-removing spotify and google home from previous mobile and tablet devices

-relinking spotify in google home app

-renaming playlists, copying all songs to a new playlist, deleting the old playlist

-deleting all routines and recreating them from scratch

-uninstalling and reinstalling google home app and spotify app

-factory resetting all google home devices

-completely deleting my home in google home and setting everything up from scratch

The really strange thing is I can now trigger my personal playlists via a voice command on google home but not via manually triggered or scheduled routines.. if I try to trigger a playlist via a routine I get different variations of this response "choosing songs is only available to Spotify premium subscribers" 

[marcolopes]

I can CONFIRM THAT!

My Devices said "You must have a Spotify PREMIUM account to do that"!!!!! OMG!!!!

It's all gone down the drain!!!

And no, you CANNOT solve this cleaning caches, reinstalling software! NO NO NO!!!

This is ALL related!

This is GOOGLE's fault!

This was introduced by them and must be fixed on GOOGLE's END!

Don't waste your time with "resets"!

[marcolopes]

No news, No fix... still the same problems...

Can't play anything or execute routines...

[jpzsports]

Hi everyone, I have frustrating news. After months of waiting, I finally received the Gemini update for Google Home and THE PLAYLIST ISSUE STILL PERSISTS!! Even after Anish said, "Gemini for Home should address some of the issues you've had accessing personal playlists" it still occurs. I tried renaming the playlists, making new automations, etc and it is the same or perhaps even worse than before. I cannot get my automation to play a specific Spotify playlist and cannot get it to play with a simple voice command either. This is truly infuriating. 

[marcolopes]

I was expecting that!!!

THANKS for the feedback!

Of course, GEMINI WILL NOT solve this issue (and other issues like devices GROUPS) because this is an UNDERLYING problem that must be solved at the COMMANDS API level!!!! 👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾👾

[marcolopes]

So sick and tired of this!!!

So many things BROKEN in the past months...

When i say "Hey Google, NEXT" - it responds "Playing the NEXT on XXXXXX" - This is NOT NEEDED and is very very annoying! This was NOT present at most times... it's been going ON/OFF at some points in time, but mainly this was NOT a vocal feedback of the device on such SIMPLE commands!!!

When i say "Hey Google, play the SPOTIFY playlist XXXX" (so i can do a "workaround" for the PLAY commands problems) it responds "To do that i need you permission to have PERSONAL RESULTS on THIS DEVICE... bla bla bla". I HAVE PERSONAL RESULTS on ALL DEVICES! Another nonsense BUG that limits our way around problems!!! Same happens when i say "Hey Google, play MY playlist XXXX"!!!

I now play MUSIC on these devices MANUALLY through the Spotify APP!

They are just PLAIN speakers and nothing much else!

[AndersC · Accepted solution]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the discussion and your patience with us. We’ve rolled out a fix for the issue affecting some routines from playing Spotify personal playlists. If you’re still experiencing issues with this, could you let us know?

We also wanted to address reliability with playing personal playlists outside of automations. We know that there are opportunities to improve reliability and are working on it. While we don’t have a fix in the immediate, we wanted to acknowledge this and take accountability.

Regards,

Anders

[Vicki3]

why does the radio stations keep dropping out all the time through radio app

[Jess5]

Hi Anders, 

yes I am still having issues. I want a specific playlist to play so therefore in my automations I write: Play  playlist ‘Lofi Girl - beats to relax/study to’ for 40 minutes but instead the playlist I get is: Lo-Fi Girl and Cats Studying: beats to relax and study to, chill gaming streaming work music, sleep chill and study music. 
 And that’s only what the song is called and not the playlist. So in my end it’s still not working. 

I think what is deeply frustrating is that it has taken sooo long for an acknowledgment and maybe a fix, but also it was working so well before. The automation just needs to literally read what is being asked of it and not add in so many things.

It feels like that Google home is only picking up certain commands  over the actual command and not actioning the whole thing. 

Please fix

Jess 

[Jinja]

Sorry Anders - its not fixed. 

Playing Personal playlist via automation:

Mini v1 - not working

Mini v2 - not working

Home v1 - not working. 

Google Hub - working. 

From App on phone - working.

Playing personal playing by asking for them

Mini v1 - not working

Mini v2 - not working

Home v1 - not working. 

Google Hub - not working. . 

From App on phone - not working.

[jpzsports]

Thank you!! Finally!! Just tested it tonight and it played the correct playlist in my automation for the first time in almost a year. So happy! Will do more testing but it looks like it is fixed! 

[marcolopes]

Now say the same routine name with something already playing on the device!

[Tommyg83]

I don't know what you did AndersC but you have likely made many millions of people happy overnight. A fix rollout that Santa Clause himself would envy.

I'm only in early testing, but first test was running a scheduled routine from the home app on an android phone to run a personal Spotify playlist at a specific time which hasn't worked for over 9 months, and it worked.  I nearly fell out of bed when my personal playlist started playing again. 

I'll do more testing tonight on different speakers, different playlists, voice commands and other routines and report back.

For what it's worth to us (maybe just piece of mind) can you shed any light on what the potential cause and fix was? Was the issue entirely on Google's end, or did user activity contribute in some way? Will it likely happen again?