Nest Audio Crackling

[abellaj]

Disclaimer: This thread was migrated from our previous version of the Google Nest Community.  You can continue to receive updates on your thread issue here or simply ask, browse or more in the new Google Nest Community. 

Original Poster: Facey

Hi, took delivery of the Nest Audio speaker last week.  I've noticed the audio is crackling while playing music (tested Spotify and YouTube Music).  Also tried both apps via the cast feature and while connected via Bluethooth.  Same result in all conditions - random audio crackling / popping.

Cast to group of speakers around the house, the Nest Audio is the only device to have audio issues.

I've performed a factory reset, no resolution.  Any advice?

[abellaj]

Hey folks, 

Sorry this has taken this long and I understand how you feel about these unwanted crackling noises when you're listening to your music of choice. 

Our team would want to check on this further. Please send feedback on your Nest Audio by using the keywords "GHT3 Nest Audio Crackling and Popping". To know more about sending feedback, please refer to this link. 

We'll keep everyone posted on this thread as soon as we have something to share — we appreciate your patience. 

Best, 

Melba

(Community Specialist)

[JHerbY2K]

An update on this would be really great. I submitted troubleshooting data as requested, months ago. There is no workaround on the Nest Audio - turning off ultrasound is only an option for some reason on the mini. We have a speaker for listening to music we haven't been able to listen to music on for probably 6 months now. I feel like Google stole my money.

[frances]

Hi All,

First, thank you @ccaunca for sharing a solution! I appreciate it. 

Hello @JHerbY2K

Thanks for your patience and apologies for just getting back to you. I'm sorry for the inconvenience caused by your devices making a crackling noise and for this long resolution time, I definitely understand your frustration. 

This is still an ongoing issue the team is looking into and we're asking customers to send feedback after reproducing the issue so the team can continue to investigate. I understand this process can be frustrating but having these fresh reports will be super helpful for the team. When sending feedback, you can use the keywords, "Nest Audio crackling" and you check out these steps on sending feedback.

Once again, I appreciate your patience. I will keep this thread open to post updates as they occur.

[jll]

I have the same issue on a brand new google home (large one). Have been using minis for years with no issue. 

super disappointed in this large google home unit. It’s unusable for the only task i use it for…. Being a half decent speaker. 

[MrStealUrMoney]

And thats a fact 😂

[ccaunca]

You try plugging it in directly to the wall and not into a power strip?! Was just having this issue with a new Mini Home I got a few days ago. Was plugged into a power strip and had the crackling, unplugged and plugged directly into the wall and it went away for me.

[jll]

Does not solve it for me. 

[ccaunca]

Yeah so a few days after doing this, the crackling started happening again and hasn't really stopped since.

I have another mini, but a previous model and a Nest Audio and I do not have this issue with either of them.

I hope they resolve this!

[jll]

Same exact behaviour here. Moved it from the wall to a powerstrip and thought the issue was resolved.

It came back a week later.

[D_m_g]

It's a software issue, a reboot will fix it temporarily but it will come back after a few days. Not sure whu hasn't this been fixed yet, I've been sold a faulty brand new product and I feel scammed.

[cjain]

Same here. This is just horrible.

[D_m_g]

It's friday again, like clockwork the nest audio is crackling occasionally. I will restart it and post again when the problem comes back. This is unacceptable, why hasn't there been an update that fixes it?

[ccaunca]

So, just tried turning off Ultrasound Sensing as I found in a search that led me to Reddit (my apologies if someone here suggested). But so far so good. Resolved my crackling for me and minutes before it was up to no good.

Will see how long this lasts!

[Catcat]

This saved me dumping my mini it was driving me cracked. The crackling stopped as soon as I plugged it straight into the wall socket 

[jll]

Same symptoms as you. Have not found resolution online. 
super bummed by this new addition to my current minis! 

[Apollyon]

Same here. I have 2 nest audio units. One crackles and the other doesn't. Irrespective of volume. The same piece of music will cause crackling on one but often not during the same parts. Can we get a firmware update or something? Can't think that it is a physical problem. Super annoying as I had trouble with Google "support" in getting these in the first place.

[Perrsyl]

Are your speaker playing in stereo mode? Is the speaker that make the sound, the left speaker? Try to play music with both speakers independently. In my case, it worked, no more crackling or popping but no more stereo sound… To me, the problem comes from the stereo mode of the google home application.

[Perrsyl]

It is not working all the time apparently…

[Perrsyl]

The update is not enough…

[Charles]

I've been having the same issues described above. We have 7 minis (2nd gen) and cast to them all at once from Spotify and all of them crackle at different times. It's very distracting. Doesn't matter how close or far they are from the router, which band they are on (2.4 or 5g), which channel they are on or how loud they are playing. The only thing we have noticed is that they don't crackle straight away... It usually takes a couple of hours before it happens.

We have turned off the ultra sonic options in the settings and it has made no difference.

We are wanting our money back as we have been waiting for a solution for 6 months! 

[AlexanderForbes]

Same issue here, Intermittent crackling at any volume. Like someone is wiggling a faulty audio cable. Speakers are useless until this is fixed.

[Perrsyl]

What I have found and try is to turn off the ultrasound sensing. For about 5 or 6 hours the popping and crackling disappear completely. Then slowly the crackling were audible but not the popping and not all the time. Consequently, the situation improved but still it’s annoying to ear.

[AlexanderForbes]

The bigger nest audio speakers don’t have that setting unfortunately, so it’s crackling all the time.

[Perrsyl]

That is true, I have two google nest mini but even after turning the ultrasound sensing off the crackling and popping sound came back after about 5 hours. Why it took so long to come back, I don’t know. I realized though that the annoying sounds were mainly coming from the left speaker when settled and playing stereo mode. Consequently, I decided to uncouple the two speakers and play music with both of them independently. Well, the music is playing for more than 10 hours and there are no popping and scratching sound heard since…

[Perrsyl]

It appears that the scratching and popping sounds are related to the stereo mode of the google home application…

[AlexanderForbes]

Going to test this again. I tried a single one the other day after unpairing to test exactly this also and it crackled. I'll try again though with the other unplugged and also test both (I only tested one)

[Perrsyl]

Just a question. Do you use 2 speakers in stereo mode or one speaker alone produce the scratching and popping sounds??

[Charles]

We have been using 6 nest minis in 5 rooms (2 speakers in one room and the rest in their own rooms). I will look into the stereo options and see if that changes anything. It's definitely not something we have turned on as we just connected all minis to the wifi and then used them. Since the crackling noises started the first day of use, we have disabled the ultrasonic sensing setting but that is the only option we have disabled. 

[jll]

I've tried every combination of pairing, unpairing, stereo, single speaker etc. and nothing solves it. Always get crackling on the large nest audio and never on my small google home mini.

[pmongloid]

same with me!

I thought my left one is faulty and i got replacement from google.

now my ex-right speaker became new-left one and it's making crackling noise.

[AlexanderForbes]

Update. Yesterday Morning I changed my Apple Airport Extreme 5g from a channel I thought was best to "auto" channel choosing and the static has gone for now. Will continue to test this week and report back. 

[jll]

 Can you elaborate on this? You had manually set up a channel restriction for your nest audio speaker on your airport? And now you removed that manual configuration and the crackling is gone?

To my hears he crackling doesnt sound like a wifi problem, more like an electrical problem with the speaker itself. This would explain why no software/configuration change can help the problem. It would also explain why unplugging it solves the issue every time for a short period of time.

[AlexanderForbes]

No nothing to do with the nest specifically, i had my 5g network set to a specific channel but changed that to "auto" so it just chooses the one it likes best and the noise went away for a day or two then came back so maybe it was just a coincidence.

I've tried every combination and have not been able to nail down a behaviour. Sometimes the cracking is immediate sometimes it shows up a few hours later. 

[JHerbY2K]

I opened a support case, for what its worth. They asked me to do a bunch of stuff that obviously didn't fix the issue, then I sent them an audio clip of the problem (listen at 35 seconds and at 40 seconds for crackles)

https://recorder.google.com/share/7da9d14b-c9d2-48d8-b00b-30eec3e7177a

I was told  "Hello Jeremy, Hope you are well. The team checked the audio file but can't hear the crackling sound. " and they closed the case. SURE DOESN'T SOUND LIKE THEY'RE INVESTIGATING. Fuming. Will never buy a Google product again.

[jll]

For what it's worth, I hear them (although they are very faint in your reccording) and my issue sounds exactly like this.

I agree the product is garbage, sad to see how poorly they treated you with your support ticket @JHerbY2K .

I'm happy i noticed early enough to get a refund. 

Too bad we can't get an update from @abellaj on this...

[bdaun]

I have had a Home Hub for over a year and it worked fine until just about two weeks ago. The sound is now crackly, warbly, etc. If a software update caused this, then a software update should fix this too. Let's hope this is resolved sooner rather than later or I will give up and by a Sonos system.

[JWitman]

The “tests” are pointless, and also terrible customer service - putting the work on the customer. 

I did these “tests” all the way up the chain to sr. Level support, and eventually they just stopped responding or updating me. 

I just moved to a new house a month ago and so far….no crackle. Same wifi. Same speakers. No crackle. So I’m wondering if it’s environmental…not that that helps solve the issue. 

[bdaun]

Interesting that the crackle stopped when you moved to a new home. My experience is that I moved to a new home last spring and the speaker worked as expected. However, two weeks ago (approx.) it started to have the crackling/warbly sound.

[D_m_g]

I haven't moved homes, or changed my wifi APs and my google home has been crackle free for weeks. All I did was play rain sound every night, maybe that fixed it? Who knows, just hoping it doesn't happen again.