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

[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.

[Dastud]

So the whole problem is that we just don't want to "try the troubleshooting listed above???????" Are you Fkin serious?? Why don't you try reading the countless posts from people doing exactly that. REPEATEDLY. With no long term success. Your response is to return the devices, if possible. Here's a novel idea. Fix your product so we don't have to return it.

[GLove]

It is a shame. I have been eyeing the speakers for a long time. I am tempted to keep one, but they sound better as a pair. It has been years since the speakers have been updated. You would think all the bugs would have been worked out. A shame.

[itsgiuseppe]

My GHM speakers will often stop or avoid playing in speaker groups when I have my mesh network enabled.

When this happens, I unplug one of the access points and the speakers work as expected again. My network access points are Nest Wifi Pro.

In another thread I see that there is a fix for speaker group issues in 3.73 - will the Google Home Max be bumped to 3.73? My four multi-hundred dollar speakers are still on 1.56.275994 (which is the latest firmware out for them) and I don't see them listed in the below thread. The Google Home is listed, though, and those were released in 2016, a year before the Google Home Max.

I know they are discontinued but I would be very disappointed if these speakers were simply no longer supported. Especially since I spent thousands of dollars between these speakers and my Google-branded wifi system.

It was my understanding that Google intended to continue to support these products. Can we get an official word on if the Google Home Max speakers will ever see any more support from Google? Specifically in the form of software updates to fix issues?

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Having-trouble-with-Speaker-groups-Read...

[osl]

I've been having the same type of issues recently with my speaker groups. Sometimes one speaker will stop playing, sometimes there is one specific song that when it plays all the speakers stop. Also it seems like occasionally the device I originally was casting audio from in YouTube music stops playing audio, and either another device, like my cell phone,  takes over, or occasionally Google Assistant goes off on its own tangent and no devices are controlling the music.

I I work in it and install Wi-Fi networks quite often and it never dawned on me that the meshing could be what is disrupting the speaker groups. I use ubiquity unify Wi-Fi APs. I was using the unify u6 APS, though I just switched to u7 the other day.. I wonder if I should reset all my devices, seeing as Google says that you should do so if you upgrade or change your router or gateway setup, though technically the aps aren't doing the routing so it should be okay.. then again I updated my firewall a few months back and didn't think too redo the Google devices 😜

[itsgiuseppe]

If you have a mesh set up at home, next time you're having issues try unplugging all but the main access point and see if the speakers start behaving shortly after. Assuming that they are all in range, that is. It works for us every time.

[RussdaFuss]

My friend, I don't like to say this but we shouldn't hope for a solution here.

Google is not a person with decency and conscience, but a profit-oriented corporation.

They've already gotten your money and they don't care if you're a happy customer.

There are billions of people in this world who are all potential customers and soon there will be new Google products on the market that these people will buy.

That's the system.

[DallasGG]

What is so weird about this speaker group problem is that one day my 3 speaker group only plays on one speaker and then a day or two later it plays on all 3....and I didn't change anything.  And then just today when I ask Google a question, ALL google speakers that can hear me answer the question at the same time (it worked correctly yesterday).  What is going on with these Google speakers?  They are nothing but inconsistent, day after day after day!  I'm hesitant to change anything because one day they work and then the next day they don't.  C'mon Google, a company as big as you can fix your smart speakers, can't you?

[WhyWhy99]

The same thing has happened to me. 

[Tijhuisje]

Hey, it's not the Wi-Fi network or connection. Sonos speakers work perfectly and they can see each other. It just works.

But Google doesn't.

[Uncle-Googs]

Neat.  Deleted all my groups.  Now a stereo pair in my living room somewhat/somehow split apart?  L speaker shows up on its own.  Yet the L and R stereo pair still shows up?!  Cant play to them.  I cant "separate" them however to "re-pair" them.. as "settings not available right now".  Neat.  Let me just factory reset these AGAIN... for the month... And rebuild my Stereo pair so I can listen to music.

Yet again --- There goes the 20 minute music moment I had..

Yup... Nothing wrong here Google.  All i need to do is follow these GREAT trouble shooting steps... cause i foolishly dared to play music on my speakers that just worked a few days ago..

[Uncle-Googs]

Oh neat... Hey!  That was soOoo easy... Just follow the posted troubleshooting!  Thanks Google and experts community!  Its working for a few more days!!!... until the next reset is needed.  I even have time to listen to 1/2 a song yet!  Great speakers.

[Uncle-Googs]

Oh Darn... Stereo pair not showing up in cast list.  I forgot I may need to reboot my google wifi first... then maybe (MAYBE) it will show up.  Thanks for the support... music moment officially lost... Bummer...

[Uncle-Googs]

Yup.  Just a quick factory reset.  Reclaim.  Re-stereo-pairing, wifi restart... Im back in business!  So easy....  jamming some tunes now!

[Tijhuisje]

Hey Google,

F*ck yourself with your speakers.

[Uncle-Googs]

By the way - the mic is off.  Pease slide the switch to the left...

The next thing I might try is setting up a separate single 2.4ghz band for just these devices.  Which is not possible using google wifi... So would have to be a separate AP.  I notice after I factory reset these (im an expert at this point)... often time after they connect to the wifi during setup - my phone/home app says they cannot be found on the wifi.  Then... Magically after a few minutes they show up under the "other devices in your home".  I can then add them to a room and finish the setup.  Makes me think this a wifi/band issue?  Not that google cares... But a thought...