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

[NoeC]

Thanks for the reply Ski.  On day one, I couldn't setup a group at all because the app was telling me that there were no speakers to group (there is actually 6).  On day 2, I had changed nothing, and the app could see all the speakers, and I could setup a group....

[JohnLand]

I have found to assign the group leader, I start a group with just one device and cast to it. Then go back and add other devices to the group. I have actually had all 14 devices playing almost for the entire day on occasion but then as we all know it will start "stammering and stuttering". I'll go check and sure enough it has assigned a new leader to the group. It always picks the same audio casting device that can't seem to handle the upload of up to 1.5 mbps. And it always picks 1 of the 5 audio casting devices as the leader never any other 9 devices in the group. My prediction is they will say the original audio casting devices are no longer supported rather than fix them.

[yaz_man]

Problems with speaker groups started when Google lost to Sonos. It hasn't been the same since. Google doesn't care about it's customers. I'm fed up with their lack of support. Whether it's the broken wifi issue on the Nest thermostats or the Nest speakers (of which I have over 6 set up), problems abound and no support or feedback. I'm never buying another Google product, whether phone, speaker, TV whatever. There is no regard to customers after the sale. They don't care.

[NoeC]

Thanks Yaz.  I tried casting to the speakers today, despite the instructions from Google that make it look so easy, TOTAL FAILURE.  Nothing works.  What an absolutely CRAP product.  I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.   Where's that packaging?  Time to return.

[NoeC]

I dug in a bit more...I tried to cast music from plex...No go, seemed to be casting, but no sound.  I tried Plexamp with the same music, and it worked (I'll raise that with Plex).  Are the days of User Acceptance Testing before release gone?

[morf]

Still alive this topic? Guys go for Alexa...goggle is not able or don t want to fix this problem...after 1 year this is the fact..this topic can be closed, like the entire google community. Community doesn't exists in this case.

[Uncle-Googs]

I was considering going from Roku to the Chromecasts for a while.  I see now there is a new TV streamer from Google.  Totally would have jumped on that had Google addressed this issue and thread and made this right.  Nope.  Last thing I need is another buggy device showing up on my Cast list now.  No more google hardware for me - other than Pixel phones.  I will be phasing everything else Google.  Thanks Google - its clear to me you could care less.

[Woopt-tf]

Nothing **bleep**ing works dumbass, all your **bleep** sucks and i want it fixed now because i paid good money for this **bleep**. i really hope you get traumatised by a living, standing, breathing shark and it eats you but makes you fix all the **bleep** beforehand. 

[Uncle-Googs]

Hello?  Kellan?  Google? Anyone?  Company coming over today - would like to play music.

 Of course some of my stereo pairs despite showing as a pair in the home app - wont play.  I see the "L" speaker outside of the pair its supposed to be in.  Neat.  Cant "separate stereo pair" - as that option is "not available right now".  Yeah.  Cool. I cant separate and rejoin them.  Gee.  Let me just FACTORY RESET THESE AGAIN to get them working.  I mean hell... I only did that a month ago.  And the month before.  And the month before... Oh... And the month before.  What a joke.

At least least I get to be told "by the way - the mic is off" again.  Best part of my month.  Thanks google.  Thanks Kellan.  Thanks for all the effort and support.

[WhyWhy99]

Kellan is a bot, there will be no reply. The 🎤 is permanently off at Google. 

 @kelanfromgoogle please send feedback.

[JohnLand]

Found @kelanfromgoogle over on Reddit asking questions about an update that happened around this time in 2023. Kelan's reply posts where signed at the bottom by 3 different google employees. My guess is they went over to Sonos!

[scragin]

Google doesn't care.

[Uncle-Googs]

Party in garage last night.  Speaker were a stuttering stammering mess of a sheet-show.  Dont worry google 30+ people now know your products are a joke.  In garage now working today ... Same sheet show.  Multiple wifi reboots.  Does anyone even give a sheet?  Anybody?  Nope.  Someone tell me what number I can call to talk to anyone?  Anyone?  Bull-sheet.  I will be ripping each ones of these off my walls soon.  Done with this crap.  Thanks Kellan for all the updates.  Complete joke.

[Uncle-Googs]

Working in garage today.  Listening to music on my phone speaker....cause the 4 nest speakers mounted to my walls and ceiling will not work.  Not that anyone at google cares.

[Uncle-Googs]

Went to use my stereo pair of minis in basement to work out.  Spent 10 mins trying to get them to play.  No luck.  One finally played but "cannot connect to other speaker".  Magically that on separated from the pair.  Not I cant split the original pair to rejoin them "feature not available right now" when I try to separate them.  Cool.  Hey!  Looks like I get to factory reset this speaker YET AGAIN!  Just did this about a month ago.  Hunk of sheet.  Any updates yet? Kellan?  Google?  Who can I talk to?  Anyone?

Nope... Just automated scripts telling me to reboot.  Factory reset.  Not sheet Sherlock - ive been doing that for the last year MONTHLY.  Waiting for a magical fix promised in this thread.  But silence on the matter.

Complete joke.  Just lock this thread already Google... As the final "Eff Yew" to your customers.  Never will buy another google product.

[Uncle-Googs]

When I tear all these down - I will take a photo and post it on this thread.  The amount of money Invested in this ecosystem -and  the amount of time I have spent resetting these stupid sheet speakers is a complete and utter joke.  Not that anyone gives a sheet at google.

Google wifi.

Nest audio

Nest mini

X 3 Pixel phones

Nest hub mini

Nest hux

Multiples of the above... All complete Sheet.

Google - you have lost me.  I will continue to rant on this thread every time I have to reset this sheet... Till the last of the above trash is out of my house.

[rhammond84]

Latest preview firmware on Nest Hubs and Hub Max seems to have fixed issues that been present for more than a year....

20.20240530.3.236

Hubs now play to the default speaker group set in the Home App, and in the case of a group with Hub Max, Google Home Max and a stereo pair of Nest Minis, the Hub Max now plays in the group without it needing to be added manually using the screen interface. 

[rhammond84]

Latest preview firmware on Nest Hubs and Hub Max seems to have fixed issues that been present for more than a year....

20.20240530.3.236

Hubs now play to the default speaker group set in the Home App, and in the case of a group with Hub Max, Google Home Max and a stereo pair of Nest Minis, the Hub Max now plays in the group without it needing to be added manually using the screen interface. 

[Uncle-Googs]

Bounced my wifi and rebooted all my devices.  Of course I am left with a bunch of broken stereo pairs that I will need to factory reset... Not off to a good start..

[Uncle-Googs]

After some time - my stereo pairs were repaired.  Of course things are working fine cause I just bounced everything.  Will give it time....

[Uncle-Googs]

Geez.  Did they ACTUALLY fix this?!? Everything has been working good today - granted I just rebooted everything.  Will give it time... As I have had false hope before.

[Uncle-Googs]

Hah.  Nope.  Dared tried to make an upstairs group - which used to work fine.  Turned into a studdering stammering mess.  I could not get to stop.  Voice commands - "something went wrong".  Home app not responding.  Youtube music acts like nothing is playing.  Rage yelling at hub to get it to stop.  Finally just rebooted my **bleep** google wifi AGAIN (just did less than 24 hours ago) to get it to stop.

Google, Kellen, Support Team... Thanks for the peaceful relaxing morning of music.

What a complete JOkE.  Its been a year since this worked consistently and nobody gives a sheet.

[JohnLand]

I feel your pain, I name my speaker groups 4 letter words. I live alone so I'm not bothering anyone till I remember the windows are open! 🙄

[BeerNecessities]

20.20240530.3.18053 system firmware here on my nest hub.  It seems to be working for the last week or so.  Keeping fingers crossed.

[Uncle-Googs]

My swap out from google/nest wifi to TPLink Deco mesh - has made things more consistent.  Devices show up faster and do not come and go like wack a mole.  However - groups are still an issue.

While I hope for a fix from google - i highly suggest moving on from google speakers.  Clearly they have moved on - based on the level of engagement on this PINNED thread.  They simply don't care - or dont care about the community enough to give us any attention or update on the problem.

Advice - dont buy google hardware.  Except Pixel phones.

[Uncle-Googs]

What is interesting is after my Wifi Mesh swap to Deco (from Google) things got more stable ---Strike 1 Google.  Groups still wont play (YouTube Music).  Magically if I use iHeart Radio... group plays fine --- Strike 2 Google.

Thanks for all the support Google - you are making these decisions clear for your customers.  YouTube music is now cancelled.

[Uncle-Googs]

Hey Google...

Been a Google Wifi user since Gen1, Gen2... have considered Gen3 (6e).  Nope --- bought a competitors mesh that will be here on Wednesday.  One less Google Product in my life.  Did I mention I was your salesmen for the Google Mesh system?  Many people have purchased them based on my recommendation.  I setup some elderly family with them also.  Nope.  No more.  If people ask - will tell them avoid Google hardware.  What would be HILARIOUS is - if that fixes my problems... but its too late Google.  I don't care.

I have x8 nest mini speakers, and x4 nest audios.  Those are next to go.  Might go Alexa - but honestly I am so turned off by smart speakers - I may just go back to Bluetooth.  Never thought I would say that.  But I want to listen to music - not interact with 10,000 apps and updates, and firmware and clouds.  When I have a moment - I want to be able to just play music.  You know - kind of how my Nest Audios/Minis used to be???  Cannot wait to just be able to play music.  OH!!! I will be canceling my YouTube Music also -- why?  Cause my GOOGLE speakers wont cast from the App, and they wont even play the songs I want it to when I ask "Here a playlist from Spotify like that..."  umm... I am paying for YouTube music.  LOL.

Google - I was your speaker salesmen also... no more.  Well - since 2023 I have stopped selling those for you - cause that is when everything went to SHEET.

Next on the list after that? --- x1 Nest hub max and x2 nest hubs... those might say a bit - as they are just photo frames.  But --- they will be out of my life soon.  Oh - I sold a few of those for you also!  No more - if people ask about them (they always do)... I will say AVOID... like all Google hardware.

Did I mention I was really considering going from Roku to Chromecast/Google TV?  Umm... 100% not going to happen.

Thanks for the support Google.

[Uncle-Googs]

Talk of a firmware update gave me hope.  Fixed?

Nope.  Dared tried to make an upstairs group - which used to work fine.  Turned into a studdering stammering mess.  I could not get to stop.  Voice commands - "something went wrong".  Home app not responding.  Youtube music acts like nothing is playing.  Rage yelling at hub to get it to stop.  Finally just rebooted my **bleep** google wifi AGAIN (just did less than 24 hours ago) to get it to stop.

Google, Kellen, Support Team... Thanks for the peaceful relaxing morning of music.

What a complete JOkE.  Its been a year since this worked consistently and nobody gives a sheet.

Google - just closed this thread.  This is pointless.  Clearly you have moved on - as have I.  Its been been a year of complete trash.  You dont care.  Likely have a new device coming out.  1-2 years ago I would have been excited about that - and sold even more speakers for you.  Not anymore.  Done!

[DallasGG]

What a mess.  I had ignored my google speaker groups not working for the last 3-6 months.  Today I tried them again.  They didn't work.  I tried deleting the 3 speaker groups I had and adding them back.  One of the groups worked ONE time and the 2nd time I tried that group, only played on one of the speakers in the group.  The other 2 groups didn't work at all.  WHEN IS GOOGLE GOING TO FIX THIS COMPLETE AND TOTAL MESS?  Amazon seems to be able to get speaker groups to work.  Why can't Google?  No wonder Alexa is beating Google in the smart speaker/display game.  Geez, just fix this mess already and stop blaming the users and asking them to jump through hoops to fix their speaker groups.  This should NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT.  You group speakers together and then they play music together.  IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS DIFFICULT!!!!!

[Uncle-Googs]

"The mic is off...."

Im sure the "Nest Audio 2 with Gemini" will fix all our problems.  Google - I used to look forward to your hardware releases.  No more.  I am moving on.  Will tell everyone that askea me for tech advice to look elsewhere and avoid your speakers.

[DallasGG]

I might have stumbled upon a solution for my speaker groups not working.  My old speaker groups were named "kitchen speakers", "living room speakers" and "bedroom speakers".  They worked a long time ago but not recently at all.  Most of the time, only 1 speaker would play in those groups.  

About 1-2 weeks ago, I created 3 new groups with slightly different names..."kitchen sound", "living room sound" and "bedroom sound" and put the same speakers in them that I had in the old speaker groups.  At some point in time, I deleted the old speaker groups.  Anyway, the new ones now work perfectly.  I'm not sure if this will be temporary or not.

The weird thing is that I had previously deleted the old groups/group names and added them back with the same names and speakers.  They never worked when added back.  My guess is that Google somehow ties a speaker group name to one specific speaker and won't release that name when deleted.  Any insight into this?

[Michel_281]

Hi,

Sound cut back issue when starting outputting sound due to bug. Temp fix by pressing the Resumé soft touch button on the primary speaker (when in stereo mode). 

Firmware 3.74.437716 bug reappears!!
Firmware 3.73.429109 was fixed .

Firmware 3.73.420420 bug reported

I am in The Netherlands 

[Aaroneus]

I have 5 Google Nest Audio Speakers in a speaker group called "Google Speakers".

I have Youtube Music Premium.

When I play music from the YTM app on my Android phone, I CAN play on "Google speakers" and it usually works.  Often one speaker will not play, and often one (sometimes different) speaker will say "too many people are using the account" even though it's just me.  I used to also have a Nest Mini but it never worked correctly so I threw it away. Anyway, it's all garbage tech and we all know that, but that's not the issue here.  

The voice commands for playing music seem to not be connected to YouTube music at all, and speaker groups are not recognized either.  For example, if I'm in the bathroom, and I say "Play my Jazz Music playlist on Google Speakers" it will instead play some random jazz playlist from youtube on the bathroom speaker only.  

I can use voice commands to pause or stop music, but I can't use it to start or resume (it always says "there is currently no music playing").  Pretty disappointing experience overall.

[JohnLand]

I gave up using voice commands well over a year ago, tired of screaming. 

Youtube Music Premium way back when it was still Google Play. Same problems "too many people are using the account", "sign up for YTP" etc. 

Little over a month ago jumped over to Spotify. Still have my YTP account as I hate advertisement on YT videos but after 15+ years paying Google those days are numbered.

[Uncle-Googs]

Swapped out my Google Wifi mesh for a Decco mesh.  I am noticing some improvements.  1.  My speakers are picking a close wifi node vs picking a node for no reason on the other side of the house.  2. speakers seems to show up faster on my cast list and not coming and going like a game of wack a mole.

Groups still busted - but they do show up consistently.

I have been able to start music on on stereo pair in YouTube music... Then go to the home app and add more speakers.  This seems consistent.

Still a mess.  Granted - its only been about 4 days since the switch.

[JohnLand]

I also switched over to Deco mesh last spring. In the Deco app under clients I was able to determine the "Group Leader" as the leader Uploads to the other speakers.

[Uncle-Googs]

Anyone have issues with groups playing.  Are you using YouTube music?  Try a competitor product like iHeart.  Groups that wont play on YouTube music work with iHeart for me.

So far --- moving from Google/Nest wifi made my environment more stable... but Groups wont work.  Then switching form YouTube to iHeart - now groups work.  See the pattern here?  Just need to purge the Google eco system.

[Gazer2740]

Hi there, I have read the speaker group threads (all older now) and am curious if there is any update on resolution?  Or am I just to give up and say this simple feature just doesn't work?

Specifics:  I have two nest audio speakers connected in a stereo pair and I have one nest mini generation 2.  Both work fine individually (I can cast audio from YouTube music directly to the nest speaker stereo pair or directly to the mini.)

However, when I tried to cast to my home group which comprises all three speakers (one speaker group and one mini) YouTube music will not play. I also cannot use voice commands to play music to the home group. 

Of course I have rebooted the speakers, of course I have removed and reset up the home group.

Are there any next steps? I actually ditched Sonos for this setup instead due to their disaster with their application. I was hoping Google stuff would work better. 

Help?

[Ashepherdson]

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7174267?hl=en-CA

Speaker groups work with select devices (list in linked URL above) , just have to set them up and you should be good to go.  I use them for YouTube music and TuneIn radio , works well 

[Gazer2740]

Yep, my devices are on that list. And yep, I've set it up and re set it up and factory reset and set it up again, but it doesn't work.  It seema easy... there must be some sort of bug because it hasn't worked since I purchased it.  

II guess I really can't think of anything I could possibly be doing wrong here. Setup is straight forward. Any suggestions? 

And for what it's worth, it seems like I've read through tons of other posts that are having similar problems. There's something more here than "just set it up"