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

[Lardo]

I'm not sure if this helps anyone, but I think I've solved the issue I was having with Speaker Groups on my own system.

Basically, my Google Home Max Speaker would ALWAYS steal control from all other speakers, and none of the others in the group would play anything. The only thing that worked before, was creating a group which excludes the Google Home Max speaker.

Last night I had a hunch that maybe they were connecting on different WiFi bands, so delved into my Router settings. It turns out, the Google Max Speaker was connected on 2.4ghz, whereas the other speakers were on 5ghz. I cannot choose which they connect to, and despite the Google Home Max speaker being closer to the router than the others, it still chose 2.4ghz by default. 

I turned off the 2.4ghz band on my router settings, let everything disconnect and then reconnect, and now they're all on the 5ghz band and weirdly, everything seems to be working perfectly again. 

I have no idea if this is a known cause, or a known fix, or if I will see the problem again in the future, but I hope Google can somehow fix it so all speakers connect on the same band, when a router doesn't give options to choose which one they connect to.

TL:DR

Forced my Google Home Max speaker to connect to 5ghz band on my WiFi router, and it seems to have fixed the groups issue.

[RussdaFuss]

I predict that this won't help for long. Not to mention that it's unfortunately not a practical solution. Nevertheless, thank you for your discovery.

[Lardo]

I'm with you on how long I think it'll fix things for. WiFi band shouldn't affect anything anyway, and maybe just the act of disconnecting them all from WiFi and having them reconnect has kicked it into action for a day or two? 😞

[ski22]

Some wireless routers do not pass multicast traffic between bands by default, or you may need to enable an option that allows multicast to be transmitted between bands. This option is sometimes referred to as IGMP snooping or something similar. Multicast is initially used to determine the groups to which the group leader then streams the music. If multicast packets can't get between Wi-Fi bands, other speakers may not be aware of speakers on a different frequency.

[RussdaFuss]

My lord, that is by far the best and most plausible explanation for a possible cause of the problems here in this forum! Respect! I would have hoped for such a well-founded explanation from one of the Google employees many months ago, but you obviously seem to know more about the subject than many Google employees. Remarkable. If we assume that this feature has always been present in many routers, then that does not explain why music playback on speaker groups worked relatively stably before September 2023. Unless Google was forced to change something about the handling via the multicast protocol due to the patent infringement and the successful lawsuit by Sonos. It should not be impossible to develop a routine in which the group leader can also communicate with the client speakers across networks?!?

[marcolopes]

"Some wireless routers do not pass multicast traffic between bands by default" 🙄

Wireless multicast is a "**bleep**"...let alone the limitations that some routers have (stated by you) https://wirelesslywired.com/2019/05/02/multicast-over-wireless/

So... The BIG question is...

Everyone here that has problems with Speaker Groups (i don't use them - only STEREO pairs) has devices configured on BOTH WiFi Bands? (2.4 and 5Ghz)??

You just have to confirm that to reach a conclusion... Configure every device in the SAME WiFi Band and test the problem! (I have a rule of thumb when it comes to these type of configurations, and keep the same "type" of devices under the same WiFi Band... that's my rule)

[BeerNecessities]

I have confirmed in the google home app that all 5 of my speakers are on 5ghz.  I have an ASUS RT-AX82U router and had an older ASUS router earlier with the same problem.  This has been going on for a year now.  Sometimes in the morning the whole group will work (maybe after device lease expires and resets.  2 days on my router) or after a router reboot.  I think most peoples fixes are just temporary.

[jopnc]

This thread is a bit hard to follow since replies are all over the place, but:

- I've moved all of the speakers from the 2.4 GHz band to the 5GHz band and then factory reset the speakers; no dice.

- I've enabled IGMP Proxying; no dice.

Short of the wireshark assessment covered by ski22, I feel like I'm chasing a concept I'm not well equipped to remedy myself. (Also, I can't entirely turn off the 2.4GHz band, because the smart plugs/lights only operate on that band).

[Lardo]

I think we're all just clutching at straws until Google fixes the issues. Although I'm not holding my breath. 

They're releasing new products all the time, but this just means we'll get less support on the ones we already have. 

Maybe when they rework stuff with the new Gemini AI bits, they'll fix it up properly, like how it used to be 4 or 5 years ago. 

[RussdaFuss]

The question of why users don't simply configure their devices on the same WiFi band comes up again and again.
The answer is simple! Separating the two WiFi bands means losing important and useful functions that modern routers offer today.
I use the FritzBox 7590AX premium model from the European market leader, which is widely used in Europe.
Functions such as uninterrupted WiFi roaming, mesh functionality and intelligent cross-band repeating are then simply not usable. In addition, there is no option available to the user to activate the forwarding of the multicast protocol between the WiFi bands.
Not to mention that this simply cannot be the solution, since the Google devices and speaker groups have worked more or less well in the past.

[tobiasrubin]

The firmware of 3.73 does not fix the issue of low audio streaming  from YouTube Music or Spotify to a Google Nest pair.  I would like to know why Google has yet to resolve this issue.  If it comes to it I am happy to leave Google for another alternative and happy to tell others to stay away from your Nest products.  I can only imagine those who have your Nest Thermostat and software issues they could be experiencing.

[Uncle-Googs]

Agree.  The threading on this forum is about as user friendly and reliable as our nest speakers.  A simple reddit style indent format... where you can follow ONE thread to completion would be nice.  Then the ability to move on to the NEXT thread to completion would do wonders.  Maybe we could actually track to a resolution and conclusion on some of this troubleshooting?!?

But like anything google - they have to mess around with what works... and here we are.

Im all for progress.  But progress has to work to be progress.

This forum format is terrible... and a step backwards on just the very basics of usability.  Just like our nest speakers.  All these features and updates to our speakers to make them 'better'... but the very BASiCS are busted. 

By the way... the mics off....

[Tijhuisje]

Reddit link 1 

Reddit link 2 

Please take this a little more seriously, Google. Your Google Home/Google Nest platform is almost dying right now.

[Ericpapaluca]

I've given up on this and gone and bought a whole new hifi system.

This response to this issue shows you that you can't trust Google to do the right thing or ensure the expensive products they sell you work.

If anyone else wants to jump ship look into Logitech media server (now Lyrion media server) for multi room playback and sync. 

Will not recommend Google products to anyone.

[Tijhuisje]

I totally feel your frustration. Google has a terrible track record when it comes to sticking with their products and giving users a consistent experience. It's like they throw something out there, let it sit for a couple of years, and then just abandon it without thinking about the people who invested in their ecosystem. The way they've handled Google Home with these buggy updates and unreliable performance is just another example of that.

What's even worse is the financial hit. I’ve already lost around 400-450 dollars to this f**king ecosystem, and now I’m stuck with devices that don’t work as expected or become totally useless. It's beyond frustrating.

It's ridiculous to see that, instead of fixing issues, they seem to make things worse with every update. And yeah, the fact that they can just pull the plug on any product at any time makes it hard to trust them. You invest your hard-earned money, and then you're left with devices that don’t work as expected, or worse, become totally useless.

Switching to Sonos sounds like a solid move. At least they seem to care about quality and long-term support, unlike Google, who seems more interested in half-baked ideas that they abandon when the next shiny thing comes along.

[mrxree]

Don't be so sure of that: Sonos laying off 100 people amid expensive app problems | Ars Technica.

[Tijhuisje]

Sonos has made mistakes, but they are currently working hard to fix the chaos. Many of their mistakes have already been resolved. This is something you can’t say about Google. Google isn’t focusing on the Google Home ecosystem anymore; their focus is now on AI. Very sad.

[WhyWhy99]

Why has nothing been done to fix this issue, no matter how many resets and creating new groups it never works for more than a day or two then the groups either disappear or only play on one speaker, every few months it's another problem. No support except ftom chat bots that tell u to factory reset, you are cheating customers when you advertised stereo pairs and speaker groups, they no longer function. So chatbot what's your reply? 

[Noah8]

Ur welcome

[Uncle-Googs]

Sitting in my garage again listening to music on my puny phone speaker again.  Mind you - In have 2 nest minis and 2 nest audios hung on my ceiling and walls in my Garage... sure look nice.  You think any of those 2 stereo pairs will show up and let me cast to them?  Nope.  What about the over arching Garage group showing up?  Nope.

I am 8 songs in now of trying and  looking for ANYTHING in my garage to show up.  NOPE.  I can see them in the home app just fine and they respond to volume changes but wont cast.  Im literally surrounded by google speakers that I committed to mounting to my ceilings and walls... and here I am listening to music on my phone speaker.

Google apparently sees nothing wrong with this.  I factory reset these all a month ago... Had some hope... But I am back to the same broken state.

Thanks again Google for ruining a relaxing moment of music in my garage with complete frustration.

ANY updates Kellan!?!?

[Tijhuisje]

Exact same issue here man, got the same issues with Nest mini's and Nest audio's.

[Uncle-Googs]

Mounted these all back when they worked... They were amazing... Now... Its a complete crap shoot if they will work at any given time.  Looks like today is a  "not gonna work" day.

Pixel8a

GoogleWifi

Paid Youtube Music

Various nest speakers and hubs (20+)

What a joke.

[WhyWhy99]

And there will be no reply, the chatbot only responds at the beginning of a thread. I have made the difficult decision to offload the G. devices ND switch, have had nothing but problems for 1.4 years now, first the crackling, now the speaker groups, these devices are nothing more than data collection points with no more functionality. 

[marcolopes]

Oh, que POPPING and the CRACKLING! Dear god... i was plagued by this since i first bought my Nest Mini devices! I was all over google (here in the community and many other places). Finally, they fixed it in the last firmware... but no "word" on explaining the reason(s) why this happened in the first place!...

[JD1978]

I had to remove and reset all my devices from the Google Home Application. Once I did that I could add all 6 speaker devices back and then create a new home group (new name used), and everything started working perfectly. 

[Uncle-Googs]

Time will tell.  I did that also - and claimed victory.   Only for it to return to the same buggy mess of today about 3-4 weeks later.

[AmazingShawn]

My speaker groups have been working for about a week, hopefully for longer. Thanks for all the feedback and problem-solving. When it did go out, I gave up for the day and tried the next day. My issue now is with the YouTube Music shuffle. It never really shuffles. It plays the same start-up song when I hit shuffle. I have 2,000+ songs and expect it to shuffle, so I'm not listening to the same songs day after day. How do I correct this issue?

[Dastud]

[Uncle-Googs]

You need to rearrange this graphic to be a subliminal 'middle finger'... to really nail the customer experience when dealing with anything google.

[Tijhuisje]

They really should update the firmware. The firmware is the issue here. Can confirm it.

[MrKistic]

It boggles the mind to consider that a company of this size that produced a series of products that worked perfectly well for some years, or at least the speaker groups did, could end up in this situation where they apparently have no real idea of how they've managed to stuff it all up and obviously have no idea of how to un-stuff it. In the meantime the customers of the company have spent their hard earned money in good faith that the product they purchased would continue to function into the future, as products should, only to find they now have a collection of very expensive paperweights. I guess at least you can tell these paperweights how useless they are and get a response from them, which is more than we get from the company in this forum.

I can at least say the situation has improved and the solution to the problem has become fairly efficient in my case. Wake up, try playing something on the speaker group, discover that magically overnight the speaker group has decided it will only play music on the single Chromecast Audio in the group... so remove the CA from the group, add it back in and sure enough it all works again. Until tomorrow, of course.

Eat, sleep, curse Google, repeat.

[Uncle-Googs]

Next firmware update should fix all this.

I bet the firmware is called... "Nest Audio 2 w/ Gemini ".

If that happens - I will embrace Alexa with open arms...

[Uncle-Googs]

Fed up... I just deleted all my groups.  All I have now are a few individual speakers and hubs... and about 5 stereo pairs.  When playing from YouTube music - I can select ONE stereo pair.  I then via the home app - wait for the "whats playing" popup from the main screen when you open the app.  From there - I can add additional stereo pairs to make the adhoc group of speakers I want to play.

I swear this used to be a feature right in the YouTube Music volume control (adding more).  But now I need to hop to the Home app to add more.  Will try this for a few weeks see if works consistently.

Thanks for all the help Google.  Really appreciate all your concerns and support for your customers.  Oh... Wait... The mic is off.

[GLove]

So I just picked up a pair of speakers. I was able to pair them for stereo sound. Unfortunately every time I use Assistant to play music they revert back to mono setting. After hours of trial and error, I think I have a work around. The solution is to use Bluetooth only. Voice commands to play directly with the linked music service was the issue. If I pair directly to my phone or tablet without casting via Bluetooth seems to solve the disconnect. I can still ask questions and get responses in stereo, but just can't link to services. So not a true smart speaker, but for 50% off I can live with it.

[WhyWhy99]

Return them if you are able, search the forums anything in a group will not remain stable in your G. Home app, They have known about this well over 8 months and stems from yet another botched update that sent the whole system crashing. Waste of time and money.

[chaconmorales]

Hi folks,

Thanks for posting here in the Community. @GLove, I am sorry that you are experiencing issues with your Nest Audio when playing in stereo mode. I’d be happy to help you. Let’s check it out.

Here are some basic troubleshooting steps:

1. Device Grouping: Verify Grouping: Ensure both Nest Audio devices are correctly grouped together in the Google Home app. Re-Group: If necessary, un-link the devices and then re-group them.
2. Stereo Sound Settings: Check Settings: Verify that stereo sound is enabled for the Nest Audio pair in the Google Home app.
3. Device Placement: Distance and Obstructions: Ensure the Nest Audio devices are placed within a reasonable distance of each other and without any obstructions between them.
4. Google Home App Issues: Restart App: Close and reopen the Google Home app. Update App: Ensure you're using the latest version of the Google Home app.
5. Test with Different Audio Sources: Try playing music from different sources (YouTube Music, Spotify, etc.) to see if the issue is specific to a particular app.
6. Check for Error Messages: Look for any error messages in the Google Home app or on the Nest Audio devices.
7. Nest Device Firmware: Update Firmware: Check for any available firmware updates for your Nest devices. Sometimes, updates can resolve group-related issues.
8. Restart Device: If none of the above solutions work, you might try restarting or rebooting your Google Nest display.

In case it is needed, you can check the following articles to Pair two speakers for stereo sound, to Factory reset Google Nest or Home speakers or displays and to Link your music services and set your default service

Please keep me posted.

Regards,

Mario

[GLove]

Seems like a lot of trouble. Think I am going to end up returning them.

[chaconmorales]

Hi GLove,

Thank you for following up. I understand your frustration with your Nest Audio. I apologize for the inconvenience you're experiencing. 

I understand that you prefer not to try the troubleshooting listed above. In case you need further assistance please let us know and before returning your device please review the return policy of the retailer where you purchased the Nest Audio devices. This will provide information on return windows, required documentation, and any fees. Important Note: If you purchased the Nest Audio directly from the Google Store, you might have different return procedures. Please check the Google Store's return policy or the guide to Return a Nest device.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Best regards,

Mario

[WhyWhy99]

Why don't you address the real problem that you have known about all year pairs and groups are no longer working and are a result of a botched update. There are multiple threads over the months and the other chatbots have acknowledged the problem. How many of us have spent hours and hours rebooting, resetting, and regrouping to get an hour or two of functionality? You advertise speaker groups and stereo pairs...yet can not deliver. 

[Uncle-Googs]

You think we dont want to take your advice?!  You need to understand you have users here that have done the above multiple times.  Only to have this "fix" work for a month before becoming unreliable.  I recently fully factory reset all my devices - repaired - regrouped.  Had about a month before things were broken again.  Sure... Your steps might fix things for a day or a week... But give it time - and we are all back to the same broken state.  I got these speakers to relax and listen to music.  They used to be fantastic.  Now - they are unreliable.  You expect me to reset and repair... and check all my settings every time I use these speakers?  Something is bugged that causing this.  Your advice is the same broken record.