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Google Nest Mini gen 2 keeps saying "Sorry, I can't change the volume from this device"

Suzique
Community Member

Everything has been working fine for ages, now I'm asking Google to change the volume and it says...
"sorry, I can't change the volume on this device". 
 I've gone through my Google Home settings and I can adjust the volume within that.  I can also adjust the volume when I tap on the speaker....but it won't obey commands.
It is set up in Stereo with another Nest Mini....and that works fine.
If I ask other things, eg time, weather...it's fine.  If I ask it to turn on/off the light...it's fine.

1 Recommended Answer

JillG
Diamond Product Expert
Diamond Product Expert

I know that most of you will have already seen our Community's Blog post about the speaker volume here Upcoming Speaker Group changes - Google Nest Community 

I will check to see if we can get this link put near the top or pinned so everybody is informed.  

Updated: directed to select as solution and that is the only way to keep it at the top.

View Recommended Answer in original post

318 REPLIES 318

ndaven021
Community Member

Do y’all know if these changes affect routines?

have routines setup that automatically change my 14 google speakers back to 50% every day at 5:00PM.  The last few weeks I’ve noticed it hasn’t been working properly.  I call each speaker out individually (i.e. “set living room speaker to 50% volume”,“set bedroom speaker to 50% volume”, etc).  I really hope Google finds a solution for this problem.  I’ve invested thousands of dollars in their ecosystem and this feels like a punch to the gut.  

Yes. It affects these routines as well.

SamInPgh
Community Member

They make it sound like their only choice is to disable all the functionality covered by the Sonos patents. I have an idea, Google... 

PAY SONOS TO LICENSE THE PATENTED TECHNOLOGY THAT YOU BLATANTLY AND INTENTIONALLY TRIED TO STEAL FROM THEM!!! 

LeoS
Community Member

So the cause of the problems was the dispute with Sonos after all. Google customer service has lied to us, letting us believe that this was a technical problem and that the engineers were working on a fix.

In future I'll think twice before purchasing and using devices or services from Google.

timmermc
Community Member

Not only Google. Be carefull to buy Amazon products also, a lawsuit hangs above them from Sonos also.

Do we now have to invest in Sonos? Don't think so. In reading comments about their products they ended mostly with one star from users of their app. But the sound is much better, so is the price!

Come on Google be fair and pay Sonos their licence. All users will be gratefull.

 

At least amazon products work...

LeoS
Community Member

For my paired speaker set the voice control seems to have now lost the functions 'Stop' and Pause' as well.

Kadven
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Had yet another error variation occur. Tried to play Classic FM from global player and received the response that something went wrong etc. etc. Then tried to get it to play Spotify and that worked. Tried again to play Classic FM and again failed.  No way could I get it to play the radio.

Then loaded up Spotify on my IPAD and cast it to the google nest audio stereo pair and that worked. then tried to play Classic FM again and now it worked including volume control. Switched back to playing Spotify and that worked. Thought great. Then found out the volume control would not work. Then tried the phrase 'play Spotify on this device' and it again worked including, shock of shocks the  volume control.

It seems that reliability of these google nest audio speakers is at a real time low and should not be recommended to anybody thinking of buying a pair of smart speakers until google sort themselves out.

Perhaps if google want to be helpful for once they should post a link to the SONOS site to buy their speakers instead since they  may be  more reliable.

 

 

LeoS
Community Member

I have the same problem. Can't start radio anymore via voice control. The Google Nest Audio returns the message "something went wrong'.

LeoS
Community Member

Performed a factory reset and now things are working again. Even changing the volume by voice control works again. However, I fear that's only temporary.

JandABurg
Community Member

"It seems that reliability of these google nest audio speakers is at a real time low"  - This.

Google/Nest has become so unreliable that it makes me wonder if Google/Nest is even interested in continuing smart speakers.

Seems like Google's letting Nest die the typical slow, painful, neglectful death that we've seen with so many other Google products.

Withdrawnmist
Community Member

It's such a shame. I just converted back to a Pixel phone after years with Apple and with this came a  benefit of 10% back so I treated myself to a couple of Nest Speakers to make a pair. They sound lovely but it's ridiculous that I cant voice activate the volume. I also have issues with my Pixel phone ' seeing' my speakers via Bluetooth. My phone sees the nest mini in my lounge 20 feet away but cant see the nest pair just next to the phone !

Withdrawnmist
Community Member

"Ok Google. Turn the volume up"

"No"

" Ok Google. Turn the volume down "

" No"

"Ok Google. Connect to my Pixel 6"

" No... Thanks for buying me .Happy New Year"

"Ok Google.  *****###**** !!  "

"No"

 

 

Kadven
Silver Product Expert
Silver Product Expert

Find it quite interesting to read what is now marked as the solution to this ongoing problem. It seems to be saying that there is in fact NO solution and if you want to carry on using google smart speakers it is a deficiency that we just have to live with. Also it refers specifically to speaker groups, so are we to infer from this 'solution' that having 2 speakers set up as a stereo pair (not a group) then this deficiency also applies and again it is a deficiency we just have to live with.

Seems to me that marking this problem as 'Solved' means that as far as google are concerned the matter is now closed so that's it.

 

Google is a joke. The solution is no solution at all.

furryoz
Community Member

Found the answer to this......google was using sonos patent. https://www.wired.com/story/sonos-google-patents/

Correct, see the solution.

furryoz
Community Member

Just saw it....thanks.

FixSpkrPairVol
Community Member

ScottElsworthy
Community Member

4 weeks and still not fixed? What the heck Google? Tech support from Google is a total joke. Surely a big company like Google can figure out how to change a volume without breaking some stupid patent.

 

NestPenguin
Community Member

Google have violated Sonos's patents, and so adjusting volume of group speakers is no longer supported. They have also now removed the ability to adjust the group speaker volume with the phone's physical button, according to articles, and they have also now removed the ability to adjust group volume on the home app, as I've just noticed. I can only control the group volume on the Nest Max, and I'm not sure if that is going to removed, too. Probably will.

 

So... Yeah, looks like there isn't going to be a 'fix' because the feature had been deliberately removed. This is a legal issue.

 

😕

Whatever1
Community Member

Speaker pairs not able to change volume either. Works when music stopped or no media playing but when requesting a song and it's playing, met with the same now highly f'ing annoying phrase.

FixSpkrPairVol
Community Member

I put some thoughts and links together in a new post. My intent is not to draw attention away from this thread (this is the spot to be), mearly to have a better chance of getting more eyes on it and not get lost in the ocean of replays here.

 

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Sonos-v-End-Users/m-p/79509/high...

 

 

NestPenguin
Community Member

There are actually new bugs since they've updated things. You can't even properly adjust the volume of an individual speaker by voice, if you casted to a group from it.

If I start a speaker group, I can adjust the Nest Max by voice, I can adjust the speaker pair by voice, but they now tell me, 'the volume is set to x' every time I do, but I can't adjust the volume of the mini speaker that I started casting to the group on, not even if you say, 'turn up the volume of the kitchen speaker'... So, with the speaker I started the music on, I can't even adjust it individually. I literally have to manually adjust it by pressing the device.

Lol, volume control broken, recipe/cooking with Google broken... I don't know what the hell the user of these speakers is anymore. I literally use them to assist my lights and thermostat, even though the home/away assist us broken on that, too. That's it. Settings alarms doesn't always work, setting timers sets them on the wrong device... It's just becoming useless. It doesn't even answer all my questions most of the time, anymore.

wbtim
Community Member

FIX IT GOOGLE!

FixSpkrPairVol
Community Member

Here's what all of the end users who have to use the Device Utility App have to look forward to

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-nest-chromecast-device-utility-setup-3087008/

Google, you're really making a splash in headlines. Way to go

Willowlyric
Community Member

I think we all need to start rating the google home app with 1 star. This will definitely get google's attention and warn new purchasers they have selected an unsupported product. Hopefully with a low enough rating it will advise people to return this unsupported and now falsely advertised product. 

FixSpkrPairVol
Community Member

timmermc
Community Member

It is now also happening with Deezer premium.

Starting FLOW from the Android app and trying to cast towards my stereo Google AUDIO pair, The Audio stereo set is not visible in the cast window.

I have to ask Google assistant to play a radio station and then suddenly my Audio speakers coming visible  in the casting window from the app.

When I next try to cast the Flow list on Deezer, after a few seconds I get a message: 'something is wrong, please try again'. Or it plays the first Flow track as it should, but this message comes with the next track.

Strangely enough there are no problems casting a playlist, this only happens by starting the Flow playlist...

Davidh
Community Member

The control of the volume of my paired HK citation one speakers has gradually got worse. Now I have to go and turn it up or down on the device itself. Google Home app will not control it and also the voice control has gone. I can't believe Google aren't going to flex their massive resources and get a solution to this.

sheltost
Community Member

In addition to all the issues discussed above, I started experiencing new issues in the last few days. I have various groups set up around my house, and whenever I tell Google to play music on any group, it tells me that something went wrong and won't play the music. This issue does not affect pairs--just groups. The only way I can get music to play on a group is to first instruct a pair to play the music and then tell Google to play it on the group I want. I tried troubleshooting the issue by deleting all my groups and then creating them again. I also unplugged every single speaker in my house and then plugged them back in. Neither of these actions had any effect on the speaker group problem. I really hope this isn't yet another function that Google has removed from their speakers due to the Sonos lawsuit.

In addition, my speakers all seem much less responsive. I can be three feet away from a speaker, and it often doesn't respond. Sometimes I have to yell to get the speaker to wake up and respond.

Finally, I have my speakers set up to respond with a female voice. But sometimes the speakers randomly respond with a male voice.

All three of these issues are very recent and incredibly frustrating. All my speakers are Nest Audio speakers, and they are all less than a year old. Before the issues associated with the Sonos lawsuit, I had no problems worth complaining about. I used to truly enjoy the Google speaker system I had set up all over my house and raved about it to friends. Now the system is a constant source of disappointment and irritation, and I am ready to reset my speakers and give them away.

Google has really dropped the ball on its speakers, and it is clear they don't care about their customer base. At this point, I feel I will never buy another Google product. They've blown my sense of trust in the company and its hardware.  

Suzique
Community Member

Yes, I'm finding that shedoesn't hear me now and I have to yell.  I specifically asked Google how to adjust the volume the other day.  I said exactly what she told me....and she wandered off to Wikipedia and gave me the definition of "volume".    
She also thinks she has turned on  or off the TV, and has failed.  I finally got her to stream radio and then asked her to "stop".  She wandered off looking for a song called "stop" to stream....

It feels like someone out there is deliberately messing with me......

I think a group of folks are intentionally messing with you (us) haha

 

I have been getting more errors and strange responses, including the odd male voice (not aus female I have setup).

 

Also no longer able to move tiles around or deselect devices to display in room settings - the save button stays greyed out no matter what I do and tiles refuse to move with long press.

 

So what happens if I want to add or remove a device in a room? Does it automatically go away or show up? Can I no longer add devices to rooms or do they just show up in whatever order Google decides they should be in?

 

When I get new errors I've been sending them via written Feedback on the Home app.

 

At this point I suspect only Product Experts (volunteers) are reading posts here, an no one is reading Feedback from Home app... but I'll keep on

 

I saw that someone posted on the Blog thread that they had a chat with G Support rep. They were put through useless standard steps and told the team was aware and they would be notified. Funny (not funny), I had the same conversation back at the end of December no contact yet...

GarrettDS
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks, 
Thanks for visiting the Community. 

Since this thread hasn't had activity in a while, we're going to close it to keep content fresh. 

We hope you were able to get the help you need but if the issue persists feel free to create a new thread, and provide as many details as possible so that others can lend a hand. 

Best regards, 
Garrett DS

NestPenguin
Community Member

Now, since the updates, casting to speaker groups had some new bugs.

 

Now, if I say, 'Shuffle x on All speakers' Google will respond, 'I can pay that on All speakers, All speakers or All speakers, which one do you want?', I say, 'All speakers' and it states, 'sorry, please check that device is connected to the internet'... Deleted the speaker group, and it worked for a bit, but then started doing the same thing again... If I say, 'play on bedroom speakers... Move the music to All speakers' it replies, 'okay, I'll play it on Bedroom speakers... Sorry, I didn't know what you wanted me to do'.

 

Jesus, Google. Bluetooth audio is crackling, and the speaker pair randomly starts playing in one speaker, of the pair, alarms randomly don't go off, recipes don't work, it replies to less queries and questions now, and it doesn't seem to understand me quite as well as it used to. 'Turn of everything' used to work all of the time... Now it is really struggling to understand... What is the point of this assistant anymore? There are way too many bugs.

I am now having the same problem you discuss in your first full paragraph. It started today. These speakers seem to be getting worse each week. The situation is almost laughable--I paid a lot of money for several Google speakers, and Google keeps taking away functionality with no warning, no explanation, no apology, and no compensation. I am really hoping a class action law firm gets heavily involved in this situation to force Google to take responsiblity for what it is doing to its customers. Things can't go on the way they are. This is completely unacceptable.

Halo69
Community Member

On top of the most frustrating loss of volume voice control, I'm experiencing the same additional problems as many of you here have described. The functionality of my speakers is getting worse by the day.

For instance: each individual speaker in my living room is set default to start playing on my speaker group. Still the assistant asks "Should I play that on Home 4/Do you still want me to play that on Home 4?" while I never set the individual Home 4 as a default speaker.

When I answer "No, on Graceland (my speaker group)", she replies "Sorry, I didn't get that. Please say what you want to play and add the name of the device". It takes several attempts to get it to play on the right group.

Google assistant is slow, sloppy and hardly responds. Often I really have to YELL to get her to listen. Yesterday I said 'pause'. She didn't pause the music but lead me to Wikipedia for an explanation concerning pause. Also, she started playing a song called Stop on YouTube instead of stopping playback.

There's no joy in owning Nest products any longer. The devices went from smart to dumb. They make life more complicated instead of easier. I could say it's a joke but sadly the joke is on us. We're in the hands of a multi million company that doesn't give a **bleep** about us...

vibrato86
Community Member

just so everyone knows it is absolutely the patent infringement lawsuit. don't Blame Google, Blame Sonos for being so petty. Jesus this is a hiccup for Google. it's not going to make Sonos Richer really. it's simply anti-consumer bull shyt. but hey there are a ton of work around everything from scripts, to routines, heck, for you Root users out there, there's always Root lvl Tasker scripts that can be set up asked that will do the trick. Most likely will have to be solved by Google, not by any update, but with a hardware refresh unfortunately. will be a non issue if you impatient, intolerant customers can trust the #1 cloud company in the world to be able to make a decent cloud based product that is actually good once in a while. I'd give em another go. 3rd gen is the charm right?

CarloDH
Community Member

The same thing happened to me recently, coinciding with the installation of a new google nest mini device.

I had 5 devices with firmware 1.54.277099, the new one comes with factory firmware 1.54.279716. If I add this new nest mini to a group of speakers, the volume control fails, plus the whole group behaves strangely.

The only solution I have found has been to remove the device with different firmware from the speaker group and everything works perfectly again.