Having trouble with Speaker groups? Read this first

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hi everyone, 

Thank you for continuing to notify us of the reliability issues you’re facing with your Speaker groups. I escalated these issues internally and the team is actively investigating a resolution. If you’re able, all feedback is appreciated! Please keep it coming by saying “OK Google, Send Feedback." Providing details, such as mentioning that the issue is with the "speaker group," is especially helpful.  As always, we appreciate your feedback and are working hard to alleviate the issues. 

Thank you for the patience,
Kelan

[kelanfromgoogle · Accepted solution]

Hey folks,

Thank you for your continued patience while our team has been working to address the issues with Speaker group functionality. I want to give you all an update and confirm that a fix was identified which will address a specific problem where some devices, when acting as the group leader, cause an issue with audio not playing on other speakers that are part of the same group. However, you may experience that the main (or leader) device will still play the media as expected.

The following devices will cause this behavior when used as the group leader:

- Chromecast with Google TV (4K)
- Chromecast with Google TV (HD)
- Google Home (Fixed as part of firmware update 3.73)
- Google Home/Nest Hub (first-generation)
- Google Home/Nest Mini (first-generation) (Fixed as part of firmware update 3.73)
- Nest Audio (Fixed as part of firmware update 3.73)
- Nest Hub (second-generation)
- Nest Hub Max
- Nest Mini (second-generation) (Fixed as part of firmware update 3.73)
- Nest Wifi Point
- Pixel Tablet
- A small percentage of third-party speakers were also affected

Note: the issue must be fixed on the device that is the leader of the group in order for the other devices in the group to start playing consistently

The fixes are specific to each device type, and are dependent on upcoming scheduled update rollouts. We will update this post as the fixes begin rolling out for each device so you can test your own speaker groups.

There may be some devices that take longer to receive the update so if you’re still encountering issues, you can try these temporary workarounds:

Cast directly: if you’re trying to play audio in multiple rooms, cast the audio directly to the individual speakers.

Restart your devices: If you’re having trouble with your speaker group and are unsure which device is the group leader, try restarting all devices that are part of the speaker group. This can often resolve the issues.

As always, we deeply appreciate the feedback and your patience. If you are still running into issues with Speaker groups, please leave a comment below with clear descriptions of the behavior you're encountering. This feedback will help the team further investigate and mitigate anything else that might be causing this feature to not work as intended.

Thanks again, we're working diligently to get everything back to how it should be.

Kelan

[Uncle-Googs]

OMG.  So i ditch YouTube and Subscribe to iHeart.  Suddenly the instant I do that (I am paying for iHeart for 5 minutes) - my speaker groups and pairs are a complete mess just like they were in YouTube music.

Come on.

I bet this is all just a big DRM handshake issue on the back end causing the problem. DRM - seems to always default to "you are criminal" unless proven otherwise.

Here I am just trying to use the stuff I pay for.

What a joke.

Get your crap together.

[Uncle-Googs]

I take that back... May have spoken too soon.  What an odd coincidence though. Now things are back in iHeart.  I will report back in a few days.

[rickjforbes]

I enclose a video of my Group experience.
In this example I have a Group that is called "Kitchen Group" it consists of the Nest Hub Max you see in the image and a legacy speaker with a  Chromecast Audio in it (called Kitchen Speaker) 

The Kitchen Screen has the default audio playback set to "Kitchen Group"

In the video you will see that the speaker positively responds to voice commands and says playing from Kitchen Group, yet neither device plays sound (so as far as Google are concerned this may be a erroneous "Success")
Further prompting shows that it selects the Kitchen SPeaker only for playback even though Kitchen Group is selected, and I only end up getting any sound at all when a single device command is issued (i.e going around teh default group)
In no circumstances does the group, or part of the group work

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GFXo1SoFmDLwGBi26

It's a similar story with my Lounge Group consisting of two devices, including the one showing in the video.
Again I get a positive affirmation, but no sound playback.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/x3iTY22wwa7fTrnP9 (warning, I express my frustration in this video)

[BeerNecessities]

This has been broken for 9 months.  I tried your solution and it did not work for me.  I even rebooted my nest hub after changing the settings.  I sometimes get it working by rebooting the router but that isn't a solution.  Please google fix this!

[Uncle-Googs]

So far after leaving YouTube music - and using iHeart things have been better.  I am only on day 4 of the switch.  While it is not super fast for all my devices showing up - they do eventually appear.

I maybe spend 5-7 minutes waiting for what I am looking for will show up eventually -vs- trying for 40 minutes and never being successful.

Good luck all.  iHeart seems to have this implemented better than YouTube.

[Uncle-Googs]

Still a mess.  I thought iHeart was better - but after a few weeks -  it is equally a disaster like YouTube music.  Thanks Google 

[Dastud]

Hubs still won't  play in a group. Now, for added frustration, about every week my group only plays 2 of the 8 speakers in it. I am **bleep** tired of the lack of action on this. This problem is not new. Are you really telling us that google can't figure this out in 2 years???? 

[Janne]

The sleep sensor cannot be activated. it says; "can't save settings" Factory reset it several times. Been that way since it was new. Nest Hub Gen2

[BrokenSpeakers]

Still won't cast to the nest hub or other weird behavior since last September/October. 

[Dastud]

Been a lot longer for me,

[morf]

Ehy guys...is there someone interested to a class action?

[Dastud]

The most common age range of Google employees is 20-30 years. 60% of Google employees are between the ages of 20-30 years. They are too busy working on woke search engine results and inclusive BS to worry about whether their equipment works. Take away the wine drinking and the PS5s and maybe, just maybe they can work on it for the 12 hours they actually work per week.

[Wrenloch]

We need to be able to control the master volume of a speaker group rather than having to change the volume on each individual speaker. Are we in the 90's still?

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hey @Wrenloch,

You can control volume for multiple speakers or devices at once using the Google Home app or through Google Assistant. We posted a recent blog about this, you can check it out here.

Thank you,
Kelan

[rickjforbes]

 Hi @kelanfromgoogle and @Wrenloch 

I just read the link you provided above and have screenshotted below.

I may be being stupid but I cannot see the functions described in the Google Home app

It says open the app and then a mysterious "start a playback session"

How do I do that? As far as I can see there is no way to start a playback session from any screen in the Home app, other than creating a cast mirror of device audio on my phone.

As far as I know voice commands are the only way to play and these would play via whichever app is configured..this in turn would be the app you would then expect to be able to control the volume from..i.e launch in Spotify..control from Spotify or by voice (.i.e "reduce volume by 10%")

I wouldn't expect separate and distinct media controls to come up.

I attach a screenshot of three screens in the Home app..please can you direct me to which one fulfils the instructions show in the instructions in the link you provided below in #2 #3 and #4

The Devices Screen?

 The Favourite Screen?

 The Device Cast Screen?

 

Please let us know.

I think when most of us want speaker groups to work we either have a default group set as playback for each listening device (i.e my kitchen hub default playback group is Kitchen Group) and I would ask Kitchen Hub to play XYZ (Radio, Spotify YT Music, BBV Sounds) and it would play on the default group OR I would speak a specific device group name IF I did not want it to play on the default group. I.e play xyz ON Lounge Group or "play THIS on Lounge Group INSTEAD" if I was moving room.

During this my mobile device should not need to be anywhere near me...as it is voice commands..

Yet these instructions appear to be mobile device centric and yet still nonsensical.

The only other way to initiate a playback is through the app in question..i.e Spotify and I tried that..it works like a Cast and does NOT bring up the controls shown in your link (for me at least)

A video might be more helpful..if you could show us this update in action that would be great.

Anyone else seeing what I am or am I missing something here?

Richard 

[RussdaFuss]

This would be really practical if only playback on one group of speakers would work at all.

[Bardickson]

Stereo Speakers will not work with spotify

Only as of this evening (12 June 24 - in UK), my daily routine includes playing spotify through my stereo (nest minis 2nd gen) speaker group. Today it helpfully tells me "something went wrong." 

Escalated troubleshooting in with various orders of cache clearing (apps), resetting devices (phone and speakers), unpairing speakers, uninstalling (apps on all devices), reinstalling (apps), regrouping speakers (and repeating whilst uninstalling and reinstalling both spotify and google home on various devices. And that included doing a 'clean' reinstall of spotify so all my downloads are gone. And testing with new account.

After all of which I can say:

- It is only an issue with spotify (not other apps - works with YT music, radio, news). But that's a pretty big issue because - it's spotify. No, I don't want to transfer over to YT music to replace spotify. I use spotify along with 600 million odd others. 

- It is only an issue with speaker groups. For me, that means stereo. Individual speakers can still work. But given this thread, speaker groups for music are a pretty huge portion of the customer base and a common use. In fact, it's why I bought the things. 

I don't think just it's a big ask to expect stereo speaker casting for a popular music app. Some might say having left AND right is a pretty basic part of the service if you are selling smart speakers. A service that worked fairly seamlessly for years. But no more.

[marcolopes]

Stereo Speakers will not work with spotify: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Having-trouble-with-Speaker-groups-Read...

And just a reminder that i keep saying and saying...

GOOGLE HOME DEVICES are APP AGONOSTIC!!!

When someone tells someone to CLEAR the CACHE / REINSTALL Spotify, etc, because the Google Speakers are not performing as they should, it denotes a total and complete lack of knowledge!

Are you going to reinstall or clear WHAT on WHAT??? You don't need a phone or a tablet or a PC to use a Google Home device!

Sure, you need Google Home APP to CONFIGURE the devices, but that's about it! You don't even need the Google Home APP anymore...

[GaryMac1971]

Just recently, as in Tuesday, I have lost the ability to play music from my Hub Max when grouped together with my other two Hub devices in the same group.

Was running great up until Tuesday, since then, its only my two Hubs, and the Hub Max displays (sometimes) what is playing but no volume.

Any idea what gremlins are lurking? I uninstalled my Spotify, and reinstalled (from both computers, laptop and Samsung Cell) and it worked for about 1 day and back to 2 hubs playing,  hub max nothing.

[RussdaFuss]

Don't waste your precious time. It's sad but true, but there's nothing you can do as a user. My Nest Hub hasn't played any music in a speaker group since the beginning of September 2023. All the measures that support recommends and that you can take as a user are completely useless.

[rickjforbes]

Just in case any agent tells you different @RussdaFuss @GaryMac1971 

Here is one of the agents "looking after" one of my cases admitting it is a known bug.

Don't waste your time. Complain to retailer if you are in warranty..use this screenshot 

 

[GaryMac1971]

Crap. Figured as much, such a pain in the butt, I may have to start reconsidering my Google Ecosystem here.

[marcolopes]

"I uninstalled my Spotify, and reinstalled (from both computers, laptop and Samsung Cell)"

SPOTIFY APP (and even GOOGLE HOME APP) have NOTHING TO DO with the problems of the GOOGLE STANDLONE DEVICES!!!

YOU DON'T NEED Spotify installed in ANY device!

Why would you???

Do you need a PHONE or TABLET or PC with Spotify installed, connected to the same network where your Google Home DEVICES are to play music????

NO!!!!!!!!

NO!!!!!!!!

NO!!!!!!!!

You only need the Google Home to CONFIGURE the devices. After that, you don't even need the Google Home APP, let alone SPOTIFY or any other app!

[GaryMac1971]

---

@marcolopes wrote:

"I uninstalled my Spotify, and reinstalled (from both computers, laptop and Samsung Cell)"

SPOTIFY APP (and even GOOGLE HOME APP) have NOTHING TO DO with the problems of the GOOGLE STANDLONE DEVICES!!!

YOU DON'T NEED Spotify installed in ANY device!

Why would you???

Do you need a PHONE or TABLET or PC with Spotify installed, connected to the same network where your Google Home DEVICES are to play music????

NO!!!!!!!!

NO!!!!!!!!

NO!!!!!!!!

You only need the Google Home to CONFIGURE the devices. After that, you don't even need the Google Home APP, let alone SPOTIFY or any other app!

---

I understand that. At first I thought it was Spotify. Sometimes, Spotify can get.. well, spotty.

While I am doing things today I am going to try like heck to get this working. I cannot fathom why working all this time now one speaker, in my group of 3 would just decide to stop working. 

Makes no sense. Would be nice however, if I can get all 3 speakers in my All Speakers Group playing in unison like they were on Monday of this week.

[GaryMac1971]

I resolved the issue.

This time I reset my router (unplugged it for about 5 min) and then plugged it back in (best to do this monthly anyway).

I once again, deleted my "All Speakers" group, re-added everything back in and now it works as it was on Monday. 

All speakers playing in unison. Hopefully this is the last time I need to do this. 

[Dastud]

just wait........

[GaryMac1971]

Maybe, maybe not. Only time will tell.

[Dastud]

All I'm saying is remember what you did. 🤣

[GaryMac1971]

LOL of course!

[HansWSchulze]

I had a lot of issues over the last 8 months or so. I have had these toys for 3-5 years.

Today I was able to ask Nest to play spotify on a Sonos device, a specific album.   It worked!

Now if only Shield would wake up when I threw a request at it.  I know the gatekeeper, will poke him, thats a 6 month issue as well.  Usually those get fixed in a month or two.

Assistant has been pretty unstable too over the last month, sometimes only replying at the second repeat of a question or request.  That's fixed.

[Uncle-Googs]

So... As reported switching to iHeart didnt help like I thought it did.  More annoying - i cannot play requested songs or stations WITHOUT ads on Iheart (via voice command) even though I am paying for iHeart!!!  I have tried Linking my accounts, setting defaults... Nope.  As far as my Nest / Audio speakers are concerned - i am on the free (with ads) iHeart only if I use voice commands.  Neat - money well spent!  Oh WAIT- I could just CAST from the app on my phone though!  Oh wait - that is trash also (see all previous posts and rants).

I am officially done with any Nest Audio/home devices.  No more new devices or upgrades for me.  My next move is to phase this trash out of my house.

Nest wifi

Google Fi

Pixel Phones

Nest home Minis

Chromecasts

Google TVs

Nest Audios

Nest Hubs

Nest Hub Maxs

.... Done.

I will stick with Pixel phones... But no more Google products for me.

[Uncle-Googs]

Hanging out in my garage this am cleaning up - meat smoker going.  Been... 1.5 hours of rebooting, refreshing, restarting, closing, pulling power cables.  But - i cannot get my garage speaker group to show up.  Stupid me - thinking my all google ecosystem would work.  I am so done.  Cannot wait to phase this crap out.

[Wd080679]

Before you trash it try and get me some information about what you want to actually accomplish. You wanna rock out in your garage and you have wireless, Bluetooth speakers then go to Bluetooth settings and then scan for your devices. Idk or understand what you mean you did all this work because a reboot, pulling a few wires and bitchn and moaning because it doesn’t work after that sounds like me lmao. I hate the **bleep** things some days, I’ve actually on two occasions thrown my nest hub through the window of my bedroom once and almost through the fkn wall a second time and it’s got its scars and bruises but I keep trying to make it work for me because I like the concept and idea of what the smart speaker is actually capable of doing. I don’t mean to sound rude or a smart asz but it’s the way I think and talk so please don’t be sensitive about it and get sand In your **bleep** and just communicate back with me and I will tell you how to handle your problems. Later and Peace ⭐️💯✌️

[morf]

Ehy google! Any roadmap for fix this issue???? Do you think it is reasonable this situation?

[Wd080679]

Hello Google world, I just want you guys to know that the Google nest and mini are great but, im not no software developer or code expert but I do know things occasionally but the problem is the default speaker that is selected In audio menu, make sure that your iPhone, android or any other device that you have connected with in the past has not “ hijacked the connection. This is what happens with me if I forget my display is Bluetoothed to my sound bar so just swipe up on display, tap the gear icon, tap Bluetooth and then forget paired devices. That’s the only way I know how to get the audio back to my google nest. Tech guys , it’s more likely to happen when voice recognition ( match) is on and the tone of your voice is lil different from your recognition saved so the nest , if that device is in your Room  and online while not analyze the wavelength pattern to the user. No im not a computer programmer but I’m going to start helping with my feedback and try not to cuss and scream when it doesn’t hear me correctly or has hiccups here and there but all in all, it’s a great tool just I think , my opinion only , you guys with the ai project going , the race to be the dominant team by 2025 or so ( I hope you all know your sht really good and DONT over Engineer things . I have had Alexa, of course I have Siri and Google and outta all the software ( apps) that was just so easy to basically write code and program new task, tap and run automations and grouping is very simple. Google isn’t that difficult it seems that Alexa has a people pleasing and easy to navigate and set up task design. I don’t kno BCD , grey code , Unicode nor the other 2-3 4 idk but I’d really love to be a part of helping the Google team and developers especially with diagnosing issues, reviewing projects and reverse engineer your hardware to better understand the components and how they are used as well as how much they are capable to do. Look I’m Eric I have left enough horrible, disrespectful feedback and bad language than most people do but I am mentally ill lol. So that’s why I’m starting now to help resolve the issue and then I’ll get to work on the next project that I fear is already done and to late helll I’m sure y’all seen me before if not then I’ll get to working on the things I can do to help you guys be the best of the best. Thx for reading I hope o can help because I’m disabled, at home with nothing else to do but tinker , research and try to explain the most complex peonomanas all the way from my solar system build to the reason el nena and niño have severe impacts in the Atlantic Ocean all the way to the Gulf of Mexico where it then with the hot winds and te cold low pressure system makes the hells hurricanes also I need to if no one else fix the world hunger crisis, that’s pretty sad no one’s doing it yet and also climate change, I guess before the oceans rise to another 1.5 * Celsius but for now I’ll try and work on a few of these post having issues with the software and maybe we can get a fix on it soon and you could rewrite the software update.  Thanks for your patience and time I k ow I sound full of sht but so was Tesla, newton, Einstein, ect a lot more

[RussdaFuss]

We as users have bought a finished, complete and functioning product. We have paid money for a product with a certain feature and function. It is not our job to help the developers to complete, optimize or repair it. Here in the EU we have strict consumer protection rules. These regulate, for example, product liability and the fulfillment of advertised product features. Google is currently violating these rules with its unfinished or non-functioning products.
I would like the EU Consumer Protection Commission to become aware of this situation and initiate appropriate proceedings against Google.

[kickmaleerie]

Like lot's of other folk my Google speaker's - I have x2 Google Nest Audio, x1 Google Home Mini (1st Gen) and x1 Google Home behaving bizarely. They are also in a group called "Garden"

1. When I ask on any device  "Hey Google, play BBC Radio 6 Music on Garden"  I get the response "Got it, playing your YouTube music playlist called BBC Playlist for 20th April 2014 on Garden" - which it then does. Needless to say I have no such Playlist in my YouTube account.

2. To work around this I used to ask "OK Google, play BBC Radio 3 on Garden" which would start OK and then ask "OK Google, play BBC Radio 6 Music" and  the response would be "Playing BBC Radio ^ Music on Garden".

3. We listen to BBC Radio 3 each morning on the Garden group until 1pm, but since   Wednesday 19th June the response to "OK Google, play BBC Radio 3 on Garden" is met with "I can't do that here, but you can play it from one of your other devices"  - which, of course, I can't as I get the same response.

4. Requests to non-BBC stations and BBC Radio Stations other than BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music play fine both on devices and device groups.

I have reset all devices and recreated them and rebooted my router. This is completely bizarre behaviour that Google need to sort out together with the BBC.

TIA

John

[Urosh]

Just sharing my experience as a progressively less avid google home fan...was doing some entertaining yesterday and went to stream music to my circa 20-odd google speakers & chromecast devices throughout the house and (in technical terms) everything just crapped out. From audio glitching to displays just not connecting at all, I tried rebuilding speaker groups and home said they were there one second, next second they were gone??? I eventually gave up and defaulted to a UE Boom connected via BT instead. Extremely frustrating and disappointing given the google speaker grouping thing was working for ages, then just stopped. Google should not be relying on its users to fault find and assist in supporting investigations here, just get on with fixing it! At this point, this issue, coupled with my 2 x Google Home speakers constantly telling me to "hang on while I get connected to wi-fi", is enough to make me start thinking about a new ecosystem. I had the google mesh system and it was great, until I exceeded the number of connected devices it could support. I switched to a rock solid Netgear Orbi mesh system and have circa 80-odd devices connected at any one time with very little issues, other than my Google ecosystem. PLEASE FIX IT!!!

[unkle_skunkle]

So I've had Google Home/Nest for several years. It's NEVER worked reliably. I mean, on occasion, it will surprise me and everything works as it should and I think that Google has finally gotten around to fixing the longstanding problems with this product/service. But always, within a matter of days it's right back to the same problems. Google certainly has the resources and intelligence to fix this issue if it was a priority for them. But it's not. That's the simple truth. Best believe that if their cash cow search engine was this buggy and unreliable they would have it fixed in a matter of hours, not the months/years that this service has been nothing but an exercise in frustration. If Google Home worked they way it's marketed to, it would truly be a pleasure to own and use. But it does not, and it never has, except for every once in a while. It's trash. If you have not already invested into this trash ecosystem, please do yourself a favor and look at Alexa or Sonos instead. Google Home will take your money and make you sad. You'll end up on these forums looking and hoping for help that you will never find. Just stay away. 

[scragin]

I have two Google Max speakers which I pair together as "Stereo". Unfortunately, they have NEVER been able to maintain a connection and now I see the issue may be in the creation of the "Stereo" group and not individual speaker issues. The pair works for a while (hours/days if lucky) and then loses connection. I have to remove the Stereo group and sometimes the individual speakers (Left and Right). Then I have to manually reset each speaker to factory, re-register, rename, and regroup to Stereo. Sometimes after factory reset, the Google Home app will show their old name (Left or Right). It's incredibly frustrating. I have tried the unplug/replug ten times "fix" and a hot spot on my phone. The Stereo group works for a while, but ALWAYS loses connection in time, then I have to, once again, reset, relink..............