Nest Hub Not Playing In Speaker Group

[bearwolf56]

For some reason my Google Nest Hub Gen2  (GNH) stopped playing with speaker group.  I debleated the group and created it again, added all the speakers and that worked for a while then it quit. Then I  took the GNH out of the Home app and rebooted the GNH, added it back to Home recreated the speaker group and added them all to it and it still wouldn't work. I'm not sure what the next step would be. 

[RussdaFuss]

Hello, even though it's very annoying, unfortunately you won't get any help with this problem here. The only answer from support is that the case has been handed over to development. A quick solution to the problem is therefore still not expected.

Please look here:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Nest-Hub-no-longer-working-in-speaker-g...

[bearwolf56 · Accepted solution]

I found a way to fix my problem. On my Nest Hub there's a icon  that says "Home Group". There I have to check each device I want to play. After selecting it shows the last device I checked saying "Playing Now" and the name of the device. The upside it works. The downside that I have to do this. It defeats the purpose of creating a group speaker in the first place. Also there's no information anywhere that this option is even available. One neat thing about the "Playing Now" and "Home Group" page is that you can control the volume of the devices from there. 

[Dasher1]

I'm having the same issue. In my case I found that if my speaker group had a mix of the older Google Home speakers and the newer Nest speakers then both my Google Hubs wouldn't start. If I created a speaker group that contained only the Nest speakers the hubs would work without an issue.  As usual I'll be waiting for a fix. 

[AJT5]

Same issue here. I read a blog where Google says this has been fixed, but still not working for me. I have rebooted, etc. and still won't play. Frustrating. 

[RussdaFuss]

Yes, that's how it works. But you have to do it by hand every time. This is not what you would expect from a speaker group.

[bearwolf56]

Your right, and I do have to do it every time. For some reason the Nest Hub tuns itself off from the speaker group. And yes it's not what I expect from a speaker group. Actually it's a real pain. 

[Gambo]

this have been a issue for some months atleast now, there is no fix on the horizon im a support 

[RussdaFuss]

You said it. Support asks the same questions over and over again, as if the problem was not yet known. I don't think we can expect a solution. Google has already made its money from the hardware.

Edit: it's getting worse day by day. The clock radio stopped working since yesterday. I can no longer let my home speaker wake me up with music when the music should be playing on the speaker group.

[RussdaFuss]

There seems to be a dependency with Chromecast Audio devices. Another user here in the forum reported this. Do you also have one or more Chromecast Audio devices in your group?

[bearwolf56]

No, I only have two mini nest speakers and two lenovo clocks as well as the Nest Hub

[simv]

I noticed that when I added a Chromecast Audio to my group it stopped working. I now have to manually go into Media - Now Playing and then tap the Speaker Group its playing on and manually add the Nest to the group (even though its already in the group in the Home App). I noticed when I do this, the playback device goes from saying the speaker group to "Chromecast Audio + 4 devices"

[RussdaFuss]

Your observation is very interesting. At least for us users, because I don't get the impression that Google developers use these findings for their work.

I've tried a few times in the past to recreate this dependency between Chromecast Audio, Google Home Speaker and Nest Hub but the error isn't clearly reproducible. Sometimes problems appear immediately, sometimes errors only appear later, and sometimes errors appear not to occur at all.

It seems to me that errors occur spontaneously and randomly on the Google servers on which the configuration of the speaker group is stored.

But I absolutely agree with your observation with the Nest Hub. If music is already playing on the speaker group, playback can be started later on the Nest Hub itself and “Group+1” will be displayed.

I reported this observation to Google Support but they didn't respond to it.
All in all, I think all of these bugs and the corresponding workarounds are known to Google Support and developers.
These people are not stupid and know their own products, configuration and firmware. At least for me as a software developer, this connection would probably be clear quickly.

So there must be a (good) reason why all these problems aren't fixed...

[simv]

You're right, it is inconsistent. Since doing it a couple of times as described above, and turning off and on my Chromecast Audio (removing the power), my grouping has "stabilised" and now plays to all devices in the group fine (including the hub and the Chromecast Audio together). Very frustrating.

[Reecemacd]

I’m still having the same issue for months. Google please fix this! 🙏

[EllarJiess]

My 1st gen Nest Hub sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. It's a member of 3 groups (I have 5 across the house) and it seems to pick and choose which group it'll play with one day, then not the next.

[pdesmarais]

I removed the Google Home from 1st Gen from the Group and it work's fine.

[Schniedelwuzzz]

I have a Chromecast audio and a hub in a home group. The group stopped working. I removed the Chromecast audio from the group. Only the hub was left. I played music on the group and while it was playing I added the Chromecast audio to the group. Suddenly it worked. Hope this works for you too. 

[Dastud]

I have tried many things to make Hubs play. Some work shortly and most do nothing. Frustrating. Never underestimate Google's ability to f@#k things up.