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Google Speaker Groups not working

MsLevis
Community Member

I'm also having similar problems-  Have mix of Google audio cast and google enabled speakers across the house- most of the time casting doesn't work - If I go into the home app the groups are disappearing and re-appearing alot- I'll select a group that worked the day before and only one speaker plays - it still shows all devices playing-  I can try it a few times- go in and out of the google home app and try to force it that way- sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - all the firmware is up to date and it's just SOOOOO frustrating -  I even went and got a new google home speaker thinking maybe gen1 was causing an issue- nope still same problem-  COME ON GOOGLE!!!  

607 REPLIES 607

Jdurand
Community Member

Hi Frances, Look I have a combination of Google devices and 3rd party devices such as JBL, Lenovo, and Visio speakers.  They are all included in my speaker groups.  The 3rd party speakers are essential because Google does NOT make "portable" speakers or Water resistant speakers.  Anyway, Until the beginning of 2021 all those speakers and smart displays and chromecast devices worked in groups.  Then in 2021 Google must have hired a new group of engineers because all hell has broken loose with speaker groups: 1) several times this year speaker groups no longer showed up as eligible to  cast to sometimes from any device and at other times the groups were visible on some android devices but not all  or on a PC using Chrome and vice versa. 2) several times only 5ghz devices would work in the groups. 3) for the last 2 weeks any devices that is not manufactured by Google does not work (that's **bleep**ty!!), if you look on your casting device it shows the speakers as if they were playing but they are not.  Even my Lenovo display shows the youtube music logo and the song that is playing but no sound comes out of it.  Your engineers need to fix their junk.  I pay a lot of money in Google subscriptions and yet I can not get any support.  I can not open a case myself.  I can't report those issues...  Google employees just do not care at all.  They must all be stuffing their faces and playing ping pong because their work is absolute crap.  Management must be inexistant too otherwise someone would say something.  Also you engineers must not use Google services themselves or they would fix their crap.  Google has zero quality control and zero professional ethics.  It is incredible that what was once a great company could turn into a group of egotistical morons who could care less about who pays their salaries: us!

APLandry
Community Member

This is exactly the issue I'm running into. If I build my group with exclusively Google/Nest devices (Nest Audio, Nest Mini, Google TV Chromecast, Chromecast Audio, and Chromecast Ultra, for example), it works fine. If I make a group with exclusively 3rd Party devices (JBL Link 10, Link 20, Link 300, Lenovo Smart Clock), those work fine. The moment I try and mix and match, all the 3rd Party devices no longer work. Individual playback on any of these devices works fine, but grouping across vendors no longer works, despite having worked previously. Extremely frustrating.

BKK
Community Member

I have two nest audio speakers, Google mesh wifi and pixel6 phone. I can get groups to work at all. Can only play to one speaker at a time. Have been on calls with Google support and can't get resolution. Google should buy back these speakers from all of us as they don't perform per the specs that were sold under. 

 

saschko
Community Member

Same with me. 2 jbl playlist devices, several google/nest devices. Mixed groups do not work any longer.

Having the exact same problem.  I have a combo on Google/Nest speakers plus four Vizio speakers with chromecast built-in.  Everything worked okay for several years until about 6 months ago.  It seems any group that contains more than one of the Vizio speakers has issues.  They seem to rotate which speaker plays for a few minutes before the casting session crashes. 

Google should fix this or refund all the money we wasted on speakers that now don't work.

BKK
Community Member

Couldn't agree more, Google should refund everyone.  I have Pixel6, Google Mesh Wifi, YouTube Music, and Nest Audio speakers and they don't work together as advertised and specified.  Either Google does the right thing or someone should start a class action lawsuit that we should all join. 

BKK
Community Member

Anyone on this thread an attorney or know one who would take this on?

Same here. 4 Google speakers, 1 Nest Hub, 1 Chromecast Audio, 3 Vizio speakers, 1 Sony speaker, all worked perfect in groups for years. 6 months ago it all broke. Google WiFi, YouTube Music subscription, Pixel 6 pro. All Google (or Google built in) front to back. All broken.

It's unbelievable that they're unable/unwilling to fix/support their software and are leaving us all in the lurch on this hardware we've invested thousands of dollars into. 

Patb095
Community Member

You’re right, Google even’t listening. This is the sloppiest company ever and these speakers are piece of thrash and they will go where they belong… in the garbage… had enough of google piece os **bleep**ty speaker!!!!

Any chance I can get help with this too? I’ve been struggling to connect two Nest Audio speakers for a few weeks now. Hit or miss in playing music together. And now the kids received their new nest minis and nothing will connect to each other. Groups seem to be causing more malfunctions. Help! I’m about ready to take everything back.

Same thing!! I have been trying to group 3 minis for over 3 months and now it won't play anything at all!!! I understand it only "talks" to the last speaker I grouped, but this is getting dumb.  I use them at my spa and it is not working!!! I can't even figure out how to try and start music from my phone instead of using a voice command, which now tells me "I do not understand." This is so frustrating. I have updated, ungrouped, regrouped, and everything else I can think of. I understand your frustration Kate. I am right there with you!!!

 

gdylee
Community Member

I have only google home mini and google home hub and I run into the same problems.

Frances, I’ve been struggling through this same problem for over 6 months now. All my devices are Google Audio, Max or hub’s. After I had five of these in my home and working perfectly together last summer I added 7 more around my home. That’s when the entire system fell apart and I’ve tried everything. I even have two internet providers into my home, I have one just for computers and one for multimedia. Confirmed Wifi coverage everywhere with my Alien system. Music won’t stay playing one more than one or two devices at a time even if it’s beside the router. $1,700 in Google devices….and still trying to use…

I’ve reset my router, many times. Reset all my devices, many times, reset my Google home and re-built my speaker groups. 

any suggestions ? 

I found the solution to my issues were with my wifi networks. Make sure you have you 2.4 ghz and 5 ghz networks uniquely named. Set up your devices to 2.4 ghz network.

BKK
Community Member

Unfortunately Google mesh networks don't let you do that.  You can have the guest network on 2.4 ghz, but I couldn't get my nest speakers to connect on the guest network. 

Thank you, I actually created an entire separate wifi just for Google devices only. I then re-addressed all my devices to this address. The first day I still had issues, woke the next day and have not had one problem since. It’s been perfect. 

Have you used non-Google manufactured devices? My devices made by Google work pretty well (some minis, Audios, and a screen), but when I add JBLs, they're not recognized by the network when the Google devices are running... so I have a choice of speaker groups with the JBLs or the Google devices, but not both. 

That defeats the purpose of groups tho. Google speakers have no bass.. so I have the JBL link view to guarantee some bass to the music.. but then not being able to use them together because of Google requires some patience 🤔

I had the same exact problem and I've isolated it to my JBL playlist speakers. They play from cast situations fine individually but when they're added into a group with Google Max speaker and other devices they intermittently be drop out. This only started happening after the Sonos lawsuit changes 

Ugh 😩.. I wish there was a solution, or that Google would come out with speakers with a decent sub/bass sound

I have a Google Home and two minis. All connected to the same modem and all showing up on my mobile phone and tablets. I can play music from any device to any Google device, but only one at a time. If I try to set up a group then I can only see attach one Google device. The others do not show on the list. For the uninitiated could you explain how to "set up an entire separate wifi  just for Google devices". Thanks

Hi @zulu722 

that’s the thing, depending on specifically what you have google has been sued by Sonos and now you cannot play music on group speakers if they are not showing up.
just google that lawsuit and you’ll see.  
 

 

Is this still working for you?

Mookie
Community Member

Many, many more users have the same issue: Casting to a group via smartphone for example works well, but giving a voice command to play music on a group is super buggy: Sometimes it works, sometimes not. Most of the time, it does not work. Google speaker acknowledges and says: "Playing music on group xyz", but there is no music coming from the speakers. Doesn't make a difference, from which app google is supposed to play the music from.

See also this thread in the former support board - we are waiting for more than a year for a solution, so it seems Google doesn't give a s**t about fixing group casting issues. I recommend to buy from a different vendor.... 

frances
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi @Mookie

 

I apologize for the delay you are experiencing in receiving help on your case. The Google Support team is working as fast as they can through cases. I have passed along your feedback and comments to the team. 

 

If you have any other questions or concerns regarding this situation, you can contact the support team and refer to your Case ID. The support team has a more in-depth view of this issue and are the only ones who can resolve your case. Just a reminder, your Case ID is: 2-6476000031887. 

How can I get in touch with the google nest support team? I'm having the same issues with voice commands not working to play on group.

Same issues here. Not able to cast audio to speaker group. Group contains a Vizio speaker, nest audio, and two google home minis (gen 1 and gen 2). No option to cast in home app besides "play music", which doesn't work. Option to cast to speaker group is available through Spotify app, and all speakers in group will connect and play audio for a few seconds before cutting out - still says I'm connected and casting audio to speaker group and Spotify says music is continuing to play, but no audio coming from any speakers in the group. 

Also, any time I cast audio to any speaker through the Spotify app, Spotify will skip forward several songs on its own. Not like that matters if music stops playing after a few seconds anyway...

I'm having exactly the same problem. I started with a nest mini and a nest audio, and they worked as a group. But today I got a pair of JBL Link portables, and they're seen by the group, and the group thinks they're connected, but they're not. What should I do?

BMW-North
Community Member

My problem exactly.  I spend at least 30 mins everyday resetting the 4 google nests I bought.  I have to delete and recreate the speaker group almost every time I want to use a voice command to play on the group.  Google replies that playing xxxx on all speakers but it isn’t.  Sometimes it’s one speaker, or two or three or none.    I ended up at this page looking for a solution.  I think I found it.      Alexa. 

It’s the sonos lawsuit

frances
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi All,

 

Thank you for taking the time to try and troubleshoot this issue. I appreciate your time and will try to help all of you. Thanks for your patience!

 

Eoin
Community Member

@frances wrote:

Hi All,

 

Thank you for taking the time to try and troubleshoot this issue. I appreciate your time and will try to help all of you. Thanks for your patience!

 


I'm reading your replies and you are literally no helo at all. Just the classic "Okay we'll email you". Are you for real?

 

Patb095
Community Member

Cut the carp… you are not helping… google has been having this issue for YEARS!!! 

frances
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi @MsLevis

 

Thanks for reaching out. I have made a case for you so that you can receive more help from the support team. This will be sent to the email address associated with your community profile. Your Case ID is: 9-4321000031991.

camoreno02
Community Member

Hi, my Vizio TV with Chromecast built In does not appear to be available for my group of speakers. My TV is V655-J09

marcinjkt
Community Member

Same problem here, although I cannot play anything on the speaker group (includes 3 Nest minis, 1 Nest hub, 1 Nest audio, 1 Chromecast-enabled 3rd party soundbar) at all. Tried from Home app, tried by voice command, tried via routine, tried via casting to the group. Nothing works. When I give voice command it says 'playing XYZ from Spotify on Everything' (Everything being name of my speaker group with all  speakers) and nothing happens. When I try to play it via Home app it loads for a moment and then displays error message 'Unable to play on that device at the moment' (very helpful, thank you very much). Tried clearing the cache from Home app, tried reinstalling the Home app, tried removing and re-adding the speakers. It's been that way for months by now. What the hell guys.

ClausBP
Community Member

My issues with Google speaker groups are only with giving voice commands

1.
The issue is only with speaker groups with mixed brands - e.g. a group og 1 Google Nest Audio and a JBL Bar 5.0 with Chromecast built-in™

2.
The voice command will work fine right after the group has been created

3.
After some hours the speaker group will not respond to Voice commands anymore

4.
If I rename the Speaker group e.g. by switching the first letter between upper and lower case - it will work again for some hours. e.g. rename group name from "House" to "house"

5.
GoogleHome-Support has given up and says that I am the only one with this issue (not likely - as we can see in this group) - and refers to JBL. Very disappointing, Google!
JBL support has also given up.

6.
Here is GoogleHome-Support's final remark:
"I hope all is well. Upon checking with our higher tier, because you only experience the issue with the third-party speakers in group then we need to refer you to your speaker manufacturer as we don't have ways on checking the settings or issues on your third-party speaker.

For your reference your case number is 3-1156000031930"

ClausBP
Community Member

SOLVED?
My mixed brand speaker group is suddenly working stable with voice commands.

I dont know why - but the issue with voice commands not working on my speaker after 24 hours  seems to be resolved.
It has now been working fine several days!!!

Odd. I updated to latest home app that came out a few days ago and still have issues.

Will roll back to very old APK (where room renaming worked) and see if it works better, likely not though as the issue is likely on google servers as voice commands isssued goes there first, then sent back to host item to execute (if i get it right, its not like its local at least 🙂 )

 

If all fails ill send back

3 nest hubs v2

2 home audio v2

4 mini v2

1 JBL link

and try Alexa instead, at least they have zigbee built in that i need anyway for parts of home automation.

If i tell Google to play musinc on group test, it only plays on jbl link, not google audio speaker 🙂 JBL doing something right?

Maybe ill keep the jbl send rest back. After all its portable and ip x7 and has charging cradle 😉 while google audio has none of above (but slightly more base and warmer sound)