Google Home slow to respond

[Axon54]

Over the last 2 weeks my Google Home is very slow to respond. It sits and the lights spin after a command and many times it does not execute the command. Also, when I tell it to play a radio station it plays it on a nest speaker in another room. I have rebooted it by unplugging several times plus 2 factory resets and no change.

[Princesss · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

Sorry to hear about the slow responses from your Google Nest speakers. If you're currently experiencing this, here are some things you should check first:

• Check the distance of the Nest speaker-- it should be within range from the router or network preferably within 15-20 feet for a good and stable connection.
• Make sure that there are no other devices or appliances that may interfere with the connection. For example: a TV, microwave oven, or other electronic device.

Once you've checked on those, give these troubleshooting steps a try:

1. Unplug your Google Nest speaker and plug it back in after a few minutes. It may also be helpful to unplug your router to refresh its network settings and to avoid congestion on the network.
2. If that doesn't do the trick, perform a complete reset and follow the prompts to set up.

If you don't see improvement after performing the steps above, please give us a call or chat via this link: https://bit.ly/3adTfGB. We'll be happy to look into this further!

Best,

Princess

[DeeNesty]

I noticed it's faster after the initial very slow response, so the DNS TTL theory mentioned earlier in this thread has some weight.

I cache DNS on my home network so subsequent DNS lookups would be instant which explains the quick response after the initial 15 second wait.

Why the initial DNS lookup would take so long and why Google uses a short TTL is what probably needs looking at.

For anyone who doesn't understand this, basically a TTL/Time To Live is how long an IP associated with a domain or subdomain is valid before your machines and other DNS servers need to check for to see if it's changed. While your device might check your ISPs DNS server after the timeout, it also has to check a more 'authoritive' server itself because its been told the IP it knows is only valid for the TTL period.

Websites might keep this TTL at 48 hours to a week in normal operation but if they were going to make changes they would make the TTL shorter a while beforehand to DNS servers check more often for a smaller outage time if they change their IP address for whatever reason like different subnet or changing hosting providers.

If Google are not planning on making changes at the moment they could increase the TL for the subdomain used for assistant/nests etc which would resolve long waits for initial lookup as it should be cached by router for the longer TTL time.

[pksjc]

Thanks for investigating the DNS TTL a bit more.

Does your firewall have the ability to enter a static DNS entry to remove the reliance on the first DNS request needing to be cached?  This would help isolate it down to a DNS lookup issue on the first request for sure.  

Thanks

[DeeNesty]

Having checked my DNS/DHCP server it seems the Best mini ignores the DNS settings it's given so avoids using my DNS server. Every other device on my network uses it fine.

So maybe they have hard coded their own DNS servers in to it's software/firmware?

I can't see any DNS lookups from the mini so can't set a static IP there.

Im Assuming Google has done this to keep full control of the nest.

Would be good if someone could verify what im saying rather then it being caffeine deprived gibberish this morning 🤪

[DeeNesty]

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/6274141?hl=en-GB

This page says I can change the DNS settings via the WiFi icon/menu in the Home app but I dont have that. I have searched the app but can't find anywhere for those settings. Anyone?

[ResetElonex]

This is for people with Google Wifi products.

[pksjc]

Hi guys.  I took a look at my firewall log and the Google Home unit makes a DNS request every 45 - 50 seconds regardless if you're using it or not.  I can see that when we left it idle and didn't ask it anything for 3 hours, it was making a DNS call every 45 - 50 seconds.  Then when we asked it what time it was, it took about 15 - 20 seconds to answer (as this was the first question in a few hours) and the firewall logs showed that it made 4 DNS calls within 10 seconds and the last one went to my secondary DNS server. 

My primary DNS is setup for 8.8.8.8 and my secondary is 8.8.4.4.  These are Google DNS servers too.  I then waited 5 minutes and asked it for the weather and it responded fast this time as it was within a short time.  This time, the Home unit only made one DNS call to the primary 8.8.8.8 DNS server.  This DNS call was in addition to the usual 45-50 second cycle so when it answers fast, it only needs one DNS call and when it answers slow it uses up to 4 DNS calls.  So something looks like it may be timing out as it needed to go to the secondary DNS server.  Very interesting...

In addition, it's also pinging the GW IP every 1 minute as a health probe too.  It's making a connection to multiple IPs for it's services: 142.251.32.174, 142.251.32.202, 142.250.113.95 and others for the NTP, Google-Base, Quic applications.

[CommDoc]

Feels like we are making some progress. Thanks so much for narrowing the problem down. This is consistent with my experience. Way to go. 

[DeeNesty]

We need support to be passing this information on to the people at Google who understand what the devices talk to and how so they can finally resolve it. 

I am sure info in recent posts linking DNS and the slow speed is enough to get this resolved by google if they got the right person looking at the issue.

Nice input everyone!

[Axon54]

That’s the problem this has been going on for months and months and Google support told me they can do no more for me. Nice. 

[sven25]

I am also suffering from this and support could not really help. I keep bothering them but I am not sure this will be of any use... I have also sent feedback via the Google Home app but I guess this will only be noticed if a significant number of users do this.

[pksjc]

I'm going to try changing my public DNS servers to see if that makes any changes. I'm currently on Googles DNS servers, but I'll switch back to my ISP's DNS servers over the weekend and give it a try.

[Axon54]

Don’t  bother didn’t work

[Jake]

Hey all,

Sorry for the late reply. I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help? Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further. 

Best regards,
Jake

[Kriss]

Still the same. Voice command and response after 10 or more seconds 

[CommDoc]

Yep, still the same. I've tried many fixes, with Google support and suggestions from this thread. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 

[Webmonk]

Still the same

[Axon54]

I disconnected the Google Home after trying everything and nothing worked so operating only my nest minis now. Really disappointed that I can’t use the Home.

[DeeNesty]

Still not sure why my nest mini is ignoring my pihole DNS server as it set to give it as part of DHCP. So my quad9 TLS DNS setup is out the equation anyway.

Trying to escalate this with Google but it's like pulling teeth out with pliers while herding kittens

[Webmonk]

Getting the same here as well. Either doesn’t respond example family lights off. Then try’s to play music. Worked fine until the start of the new year some time. Getting to the point of sacking it off

[GoogleAddictVa]

I wanted to thank this forum for all the support. My device is now working perfectly fine going on 4 weeks. Thanks to bradshaw88 for the ip/dns gateway config tips & thanks to monkeyjampoo for the hack codes. Hope everyone here figures it out, peace out ✌️(haha jk) (edit: yes, this post is troll material)

[sven25]

So you fixed this by changing the DNS settings? Maybe I just missed it but I cannot find the two posts you referred to. Would you mind posting the links?

[GoogleAddictVa]

LOL. There is no fix. In fact, your device is working exactly as Google intended. Don't like it? But a newer model ✌️ p.s. I was trolling about a fix in my earlier post 😂

[Universe]

Hey, wtf. You better to share these tips or config. Or I'll find you! C'mon, fast

[GoogleAddictVa]

LOL, I was kidding around. Trolling if you will 🤪

[Sommer]

Jeg har også det samme problemet, treg til å svare og treg til å oppdatere hvilke lys som er på/av

[BrandonRam]

I have the same issue with my home devices. I have 2 devices, one of which is about 6ft from the router and they both react/respond very slowly when asked to do any tasks or respond to any question.

[JaimeG]

Exact Same issue ... I was thinking it was just me . Guess going back to Alexa.

[DeeNesty]

In the past doing an IT support role we always had people who said "it's magicly working now, what did you do?" when we had done nothing except ask them to do it again and talk us through it. You assume it was customer error from the start...

Having spoken to Google about this issue it suddenly started working at a normal speed and it's my turn to be convinced they changed a setting/twiddled a profile for my Google account.  It works at a decent speed for me and im not getting the problem of when I say turn the speakers off it telling me that power control is not supported like it did before.

So part of me wants to say speak to Google about your individual problem and something might get tweaked for your account but that old tech support mind is telling me it's confirmation bias...

But passing on the info on the off-chance.

[SusanR]

Same issue here. It started a few days ago. I have a Google mesh wifi set-up and three 2nd gen Nest minis. I've tried everything suggested here and nothing fixes the problem.

[SusanR]

Correction. They are Gen 1 Minis.

[Brevity]

It would be great if this was updated. I have this issue with every google device I have in my house. After It answers my question any further questions w/in (say) 2 mins time after that initial question is immediately answered, but otherwise I have to wait 10-15 seconds for a possible answer and sometimes I don't even get that. I have updated my firmware, reset the minis, I've done everything offered and every single one in my house does this. Started about October of last year (2021). 

What are we supposed to do here?

[Albertojedi]

The same is happening to me on all Google devices (including a new Nest Hub 2nd Gen and a new Nest speaker). It began after I noticed an update to my Chromecast with Google TV. So far the only workaround I'd find is resetting/rebooting my router once everyday. It solves the problem for about 24 hours, which obviously is not the ideal or proper solution.

[Axon54]

I was told by Google support “we can’t do anything else.”  No one has ever replied from Google to this thread. Frankly I will never buy anything from Google again and I will tell everyone I know to do the same. This has been an absolute joke. 
A personal update: after trashing my Google Home and going with just the 2 minis. They worked ok for about 4 months and now are doing the same thing as the home. Long delays, errors etc. makes you wonder about built in obsolescence?  

[pksjc]

Are the minis the Gen 1 or Gen 2 mini devices?   There's a theory that it's happening to only Gen 1 devices and this is Google's way of forcing the people to upgrade their devices to Gen 2 or later.

[Joemomma2112]

Having the exact same issue on both of my devices, without changing their distance from the router. They have been in the same place for 3 years. Did multiple factory resets and tried to forget the wifi network and reapply the steering to no avail. Even factory reset my modem and router, but still as laggy as ever.

[pksjc]

I'm using a NetGear Orbi WiFi6 wireless setup.  Just wondering if this is happening on WiFi6 access points or not.  Can you guys help verify what WiFi systems you're on.  Thanks.

[Brevity]

I'm using Google WiFi 😳

[Albertojedi]

Mine's just an standard Arris TG2492LG-LIB modem/router.

[GoogleAddictVa]

I'm going to say it again for the people in the back. There is nothing wrong with your Google Home Device. It is working as Google intended. If you are on this forum, it's because you are using a Gen 1 or Gen 2 device. Even if you bought it today, on clearance at Walmart for $30 or less. The device is outdated! You think Google can sustain profits with these things if they last 15 years? Nope! 2 years for these things, then give it away, buy a newer model or deal with the sluggish performance. On an interesting note, these things don't run Android, they run Googles latest OS called Fuchsia.  There's is nothing wrong with your network setup (wifi 6, DNS, 2.4/5.0 Ghz BLAH BLAH BLAH, it's fine) Here's a cool trick, try using your phone's Google assistant to turn on your lights (even if it's not connected to your home network) I bet it works lightning quick 😉  The **bleep** thing gets software updates while you're asleep & there's no way to rollback the updates.  It's a business strategy & it works!! A friend of mine uses an Alexa device & it's not as bad, but it is slowing down. If you want Siri, then save up $1200 or whatever at least Apple has longer support for their devices. THE END. This thread should be closed. 

[DeeNesty]

You will probably find these devices are subsidised by Google and not specifically made for profiting from selling the hardware device.

More to do with with gathering more information about you and family members and the devices you have in your house, which is information they can profit from.

So they dont have to do those tricks other manufacturers do to make you buy new hardware.  This issue is something else