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

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hey @GarySu 

Do you mind providing more details about the issue you're experiencing with your Nest Audio? Have you tried making sure the Speaker group only consists of the devices listed in the above reply? If your Speaker group has device types that have not received the fix then it's possible for that to be causing issues with playback.

[GarySu]

Hi Google,

My speaker group only consists two Nest Audio devices. But recently one of it keep saying it couldn’t connect to another device even after I reset both devices and reconnected them back. Here are some observations I found, hope they can provide more information.

1. I can use Google home APP to connect the speakers into group (looks good at this stage). But when I use my laptop’s Bluetooth to connect the speaker group, it disconnected immediately for most of the time.

2. If I accidentally connected the speaker group to my laptop. It will say the above error about one of them can’t be connected. Then, both of them will disconnect after the error occurred.

Thanks~

[rickjforbes]

Hi @kelanfromgoogle 

Is there anyway you could get users a more detailed release notes for the latest software, the page here is far too light on detail

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7365257?hl=en#zippy=%2Ccurrent-preview-program-firmware...

Users can then check whether the bug they are having has actually been addressed rather than trying and hoping for the best, which is potentially a waste of time.
Any sane development team will have target items/user stories they are looking to add or fix (it says fixes and improvements) and will produce notes on the fix and and testing/UAT that has been done.
It seems very unlikely that Google has just released software claiming a fix and it has not worked, I'd look towards a misunderstanding of what was released by support rather than a complete release failure in an organisation of your size and status.
With such a large volume of users with an issue, you have a huge responsibility for peoples (customers) time across the globe, as they collectively dive back into testing stuff that might not even be on the list, or is KNOWN to still be unstable.
Anything you can share would be useful, and should be standard.
Dropbox do this incredibly well https://www.dropbox.com/product-updates

[jopnc]

My speaker group still isn't working. They were up until early last week. When it went out, it would begin the song/music as a group then abruptly cut out. Now it's only recognizing 2 out of 3 devices at at time.

Setup:

- Google Nest Mini (V2)

- Google Chromecast (V3)

- Belkin Soundform Elite

(Alt: Google Nest Hub (V2))

While I've accepted that the Nest Hub and Soundform Elite have never played together in a speaker group, the Soundform used to play well with the Chromecast and Nest Mini. The Soundform would be replaced if it didn't have the superior audio and wireless charging.

The Google Nest products are both on cast firmware 3.73, the Chromecast on cast firmware 1.56, and the Soundform on cast firmware 1.40.

I've gone through the troubleshooting steps of resetting the devices, power cycled the router, reinstalled the Google home app, deleted and recreated the speaker groups, used different music apps; nothing worked. Also, earlier this week, when creating speaker groups, the initial speaker added took the name of the speaker group....

Short of a fix, I'd have to abandon these devices for more expensive products - which is something I would like to avoid.

[jopnc]

Also, unsure of how to set a group leader of devices.

[RussdaFuss]

You never will, because it's probably complete nonsense.

[RussdaFuss]

I can confirm that music playback on a speaker group now works as long as the group only consists of Google Home and Google Home mini (Gen. 1) devices.

As soon as a Nest Hub (Gen. 1), a Chromecast Audio or an audio device from a third-party manufacturer is added, the Home and Home mini no longer play audio.

However, all other devices in the speaker group play music.

In addition, in this case the Google Home app does not recognize that music is playing on the group.

In this case, controlling the group and stopping the music is not possible via the app.

Keep trying, dear Google developers. Even you can do it at some point!

[RussdaFuss]

Update: well done, Google!
Your new firmware is just as bad as before.
Playback on the speaker group stops again after about 5 minutes. I'm so fed up and I'm not going to waste any more of my life deleting and recreating speaker groups and resetting and rebooting your devices. You are the most ridiculous tech company on the planet.

[rickjforbes]

@kelanfromgoogle 

When are you expecting a release that fixes the other Google speaker devices please?

If no precise date can you give us customers some idea whether it will be days, weeks, months etc?

Thanks so much 

Richard 

[rickjforbes]

Hi @kelanfromgoogle 
Could we get a response either way here? If you do not have this info, I think it would be good to understand as well, particularly in respect of considering whether to purchase more items from Google or to address items with retailer before warranty expiration.

"

@kelanfromgoogle 

When are you expecting a release that fixes the other Google speaker devices please?

If no precise date can you give us customers some idea whether it will be days, weeks, months etc?

Thanks so much "

Richard

[pgrossb]

My new google nest was working fine for one day  and now my google nest is doing the same thing as my version 1 Home.  "Hmmm something went wrong. Try again in a few seconds. I have Xfinity wi fi and this seems to not work well with googel?

[rickjforbes]

Probably had old version of software built in and then updated automatically to the broken one

[Derekf35]

Will a fix be pushed for Google Chromecast Audio devices? My groups worked great until recently and still are not working

[krm1]

I have been having trouble with two Google Home Mini speakers for the past two months. They were working fine for several years. All of a sudden they stopped working - same message on both "Your Google Home isnt setup yet. Download the Google Home app..." I have done a factory reset on both devices several times, done a fresh download of the Home app on my Pixel phone and my tablet...same result every time. Get that same message on both devices. Device info: System firmware version: 415414 Cast firmware: 3.73.415414. Please help!!!

[megaHz92]

Ever since this update to my Google Home, when I ask Google to play music from any source (I've tried Apple Music, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio) the music plays, then randomly starts pausing after ~3 songs

[mrxree]

@kelanfromgoogle it's been a month since your second update which effectively stated that the issue was not resolved for many Google branded devices. What's the status for those, and how is this being addressed with the other OEMs that make Google Cast enabled audio devices that support the speaker group functionality that has been degraded since before your first post four months ago?

In addition, please acknowledge the questions raised stemming from your post wrt which device functions as group leader. There is no user control over this (and I think the group leader role isn't statically assigned). In addition, I don't think Google Home nor the Cast UI provides visibility to this. Some third party applications with Google Cast integrations seem to provide visibility into the leader assignment but not any means for controlling it. As a result, the guidance you provided relating to group leadership isn't actually actionable. 

[CHAZZER]

An update would be nice

[WhyWhy99]

All of my devices are listed above and none of them can stay in a speaker group for more than a day...then turn into ghosts and disappear. This information is false. So chatbot it's been awhile...where is the update?

[JohnLand]

I know I've been spending way to much time on all this, but have been getting very good at Speaker Whack-A-Mole. I am able to identify the group "leader" easily now, not that it really makes much of a difference. But what I have noticed several times is that if I start playing on a group that I setup, it renames it to the group leader with the number of speakers playing. Today Google home has it +9, yet Youtube Music has it as +7? 

If I remember correctly they added back the volume control "quickly" after the judge reversed some of the Sonos lawsuit. To me that's when the major problems started, it was rushed without testing it properly.

I am attaching screenshots of a group called "Office Group" that is playing on "Bedroom Edifier" the group "leader" of the Office Group+7+9 

[Raydar]

What is a group leader device and how it is identified?

[WhyWhy99]

I'm sorry the mic is off.

[Hundry]

Are chromecast audios concerned? 

[rpwong]

Hi Kelan,

I'm having this problem with a Chromecast Audio, which demands to be the leader in a speaker group. Will Google release a fix for it?

From what I can tell, the CCA and Chromecast Ultra haven't had a firmware update in three years (I assume since they were discontinued), and I don't see them mentioned in your list of devices. Without a fix, my CCA is basically obsolete.

Thanks!

[ArtyMarty]

The thing is, the chromecast audio WAS working, and google broke it when they changed the firmware on all devices because of the sonos lawsuit, so they do need to fix it. (under Australian consumer law they do anyway)  or refund the full purchase price of the chromecast audio devices + expenses (which would include the YouTube subscription fees paid since 2015).. About $1800 in my case... 

[Uncle-Googs]

Same.  Everything used to work... then Sonos.  Google acts like we dont now any better... "Oh yeah... Reset your device..." - give me a break.

[MrKistic]

I have been thinking the same thing regarding the ACCC, this behaviour would not be allowed by a manufacturer if it was any other kind of product that did not have magical auto-updating software. If your coffee machine with an expected 10 year life stops working after 2 years they are required by law to either refund or repair.

Realistically Google should let us turn off automatic software updates and pin the firmware to a specific version. I just want my speakers to work in a group and I don't care if they aren't running the latest version or don't get the latest "features" they might offer in terms of voice recognition etc. If we could run them with the last version of the firmware that actually worked we would not have any of these problems.

[ArtyMarty]

I have an audio group with :

• 3x chromecast audio 
• Nest mini 
• Google home mini 

When I ask Google home hub or mini etc to play on that group, it usually ONLY plays on the chromecast audio devices. (one of the chromecast audio devices is pretty much always the group leader.) 

Sometimes it will play on all devices in the group correctly. 

Often it appears to work and play on all devices, however the Google mini or Nest mini in the group will keep announcing that "your YouTube account is being used on too many devices "

THAT MAKES IT 1000% MORE ANNOYING when it's a Google problem with a service I'm paying for!

Restarting all the devices in the group might get it to work correctly one time, for a little while, but if I make a second request to play music it either goes back to playing only on the chromecast audio devices or playing on the chromecast audio devices and the minis in the group, but thinking the minis are an additional seperate request so they keep announcing the "YouTube account being used on too many devices" rubbish 

[Uncle-Googs]

Welcome to the google ecosystem.

Pixel phone, google fi, google wifi, nest minis, neat audios, paid YouTube music service... and I cant consistently play music.

What joke.

[MrKistic]

I've had the same issue for a while now. I only have one chromecast audio in the group but after a certain period of time, usually around 24 hours, starting music on the group only plays on the chromecast audio. If I remove it from the speaker group and then add it back the speaker group works properly again; at least until the next time it fails but it normally works for at least a day.

It's an annoying workaround but I can deal with it for now. It would be interesting to know if you can pinpoint which of yours is the leader and whether you only need to remove and add that one or if you'd need to remove and add them all.

[InertAgent]

The latest production firmware releases fixed this issue for me, where the Chromecast Audio was the only one playing in a group. Before the new firmware, there was a always a duplicate group leader because they didn't see that the Chromecast Audio was already the leader. I can see the group leader with the go-chromecast command available from https://github.com/vishen/go-chromecast/.  In Windows powershell I use the command ".\go-chromecast.exe ls | sls 'Cast Group' " 

[JohnLand]

The current 3.73.429109 software plays better, but my problem is the Cast Audio running 1.56.28.1627 software. I have 5 Cast Audio devices along with 10 other speakers from Google and other partnered manufacturers. The problem is the "Group Leader" is Always going to a 'Cast Audio Device' and the normal upload for the leader is 30 - 60 Kbps. If I add to many speakers to a group it will literally double the upload with each speaker added. I have had it jump up to 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps, that's when things go south rather quickly. I have repeated this over and over again and would more than willing to demonstrate how adding one speaker doubles the upload, load!

[Lardo]

What's weird is, my Google Home Max is the one causing me the issues. Any group it's in, it won't play on any other speakers. 
The firmware for the Google Home Max is different to that of any of my other Home speakers!!! Why is this???

[scragin]

Correct. My Google Max speakers show: 

System firmware version: 275994

Case firmware version: 1.56.275994

My Max stereo pair had been working fine (finally!) when I only launched music from Spotify on my iPhone (change device to Stereo; shows Left playing). But today, it randomly stopped playing. I reselected Stereo in Spotify several times, but it always just stopped minutes later. So I got tired and "Hey Google'd" my kitchen display to play the same list on Stereo and it's been working fine. So many intermittent issues with these **bleep** speakers!

[scragin]

More intermittent info. I tried getting my Stereo Max speakers to play today and they didn't show up in Spotify. When I went to Google Home app, it showed disconnected (like SO MANY times before). I said F-it and listened thru earphones from phone. Then, I noticed that Stereo showed up again in Spotify. And it also showed up in Google Home. WTF? That never happened before. I used to have to reset both speakers to factory, re-register in G-Home and Re-pair. So I guess the moral of the story is that there is no consistent bad behavior--it's the worst of all issues, the intermittent failure in multiple modes. WTF did Google do to create this clusterf--???

[scragin]

Well, my Max speakers were reconnecting on their own for a while, but now I'm having to do the same old factory reset; reregister in Home; re-pair. I haven't even tried any other speaker groups because they likely wouldn't work. I just wanted a single Max stereo pair that works. Unfortunately, it has yet to happen reliably. I'd really like to cut lose with some fine expletives to express what I feel about Google right now, but I'd probably get banned...

[Anonymous]

For several weeks now, my Google has been speaking the weather forecast in English instead of Dutch with some gestures. When I shout Hey Google, what will the weather be like? Today's weather is in Dutch, but when you shout Hey Google, what will the weather be like or how warm, she will speak English. Is there a known bug?

[okey1]

Same here, used to work fine in groups, but now the stereo nest audio speakers do not work in a group All my Google minis and soundbars work fine, It's definitely an issue with the Google nest audio

[Whyvonne]

I have two Nest Audios, paired, two Nest Minis, and all four speakers in a speaker group (House Party).

My morning routine includes playing a podcast from the Nest mini in my bedroom. This went fine, until I tried to get the podcast to play on the  House Party speaker group. The cast icon read "Connecting..." but never connected.

When that didnt work, I tried to change the speaker to any of the other individual speakers and the speaker pair. For the individual speakers, it said it had connected, and looked connected in the Google Home app, but was not playing and speaker volume could not be changed.

I tried playing the same episode from other apps, including Podcast Addict, Spotify, YouTube Music.  The audio would either (1) not connect to any speaker, speaker pair or speaker group, or (2) say it was connected but no audio.could.be heard and the speaker was unresponsive in the Google Home app.

I have (1) restarted the router, (2) removed myself from Public Preview and reinstalled the Google Home app, (3) reset all the speakers.

Any help would be appreciated. Google Assistant was a workaround earlier today, but now Assistant is playing the wrong media (noted in a separate post). It is getting to be pretty frustrating to use Google Home.

[Eddie18]

I have exactly the same problem that only statrted happening today

[Hgodfrey3]

I have 7 speakers total. One home, 6 minis.  I have Google Fiber. I create my group with all 7 but they constantly disappear. The group disappears all the time also. It seems like once I connected the 2nd router, this got worse. The mesh test says it's perfect.  I deleted EVERYTHING, reset all speakers and started over. Still not working! It's so annoying!