Nest Hub automation will not play specified playlist.

[Mark2424]

Hi,

I have spent days searching and reading posts about this issue (years old, and relatively new), have tried everything specified, and nothing so far has solved this problem. Up until about a couple of weeks ago this was working properly.

I have an automation set in my google home app to play a Spotify playlist at 7:30 every morning as my "alarm clock" to wake up.

My Starter is: "When the time is 7:30 a.m. Weekdays"

Action: Adjust media volume.

Action: Play music: <playlistName>

I have tried variations such as "Playlist <playlistName>", "Spotify playlist <playlistName>"

I have also tried variations of, as the final Action instead of "Play Music", "Try adding your own":

* Hey Google, play <playlistName>

* Play <playlistName>

* Play my playlist <playlistName>

* Play <playlistName> on Spotify

I have tried unlinking and re-linking my Spotify account (yes, I have a Premium account).

I have tried removing and re-adding that specific Nest Hub from my Google Home.

If I use a voice command, "Hey Google, play my playlist <playlistName> on Spotify", it works as expected - the correct playlist begins on that device. I have tried with various playlists. I have tried using playlists with somewhat ridiculous names in the hopes that it will not be confused with another song or artist. Nothing has seemed to work when this is initiated with an Automation. Some other song or artist is selected instead of my playlist. I have tried playlists with a single word as the name, and playlists with two words as the name.

Somewhat related: Is there a character limit when using "Try adding your own"? When I type out the command initially (on my iPad) the prompt line is "long". When I go back to review it, even though all the text seems to be there, the prompt line is truncated and only displays a portion of the entire command, and that last visible word (not the last word in the phrase) is what seems to be matched in Spotify.

Thank you for any insight.

Mark.

[luciaaa]

Hi, @Mark2424,

Thank you so much for reaching out to the community. I'm sincerely sorry that the playlist you've set as an alarm doesn't work at 7:30 a.m. I’m happy to help you and find a solution! 

Thank you for taking the time to unlink and relink your Spotify account, as well as removing and re-adding the Nest Hub to the Google Home app.

To effectively troubleshoot, please provide the following information:

• Where are you located?
• Do you have the same problem when you cast directly from Spotify?
• Does this inconvenience only occur with the playlist routine, or does it happen with your other routines?
• Is your streaming app plan the premium one?

This information will help me to provide you with accurate troubleshooting steps. 

For now, let's rule out that there is a glitch in the routine and that this is what is preventing the playlist from playing. Please follow the troubleshooting steps below:

1. Create a new routine with different names without deleting the current one.

For detailed instructions, please refer to this article: Create and manage routines for Google Home automations. 

Please let me know how it goes.

Best regards,

Ana

[Mark2424]

Hi Ana,

Sorry for the extended delay for my reply, I was out of town for a while. What I ended up doing, which seems to have "solved" the issue is I did a factory reset on my nest hub. It works for now, but it is not really a "solution" if the issue crops up again.

Thank you so much for your reply.

[Mark2424]

To answer some of your questions, for posterity:

• Where are you located?
  • Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Do you have the same problem when you cast directly from Spotify?
  • No, although aside from this morning routine, I rarely cast from Spotify on my nest hubs.
• Does this inconvenience only occur with the playlist routine, or does it happen with your other routines?
  • Only with the playlist routine. Any routines I have to set lights works as expected.
• Is your streaming app plan the premium one?
  • Yes, it is.

1. Create a new routine with different names without deleting the current one.

• I will try this anyway just to see what happens.

Thanks again,

Mark

[luciaaa]

Hi, @Mark2424,

Thank you for your response. I appreciate you taking the time to perform a factory reset and provide the requested information. I hope the troubleshooting steps in my previous post help your routines work normally again. Please keep me updated on the results.

Best regards,

Ana

[RAffenitHudson]

I'm having the same problem, and it's driving me nuts. I've removed the nest speaker from my home and added it back, which seems to have fixed its permissions, but it still won't play my playlists from my routines, it just plays and random song from Spotify with similar words. I guess I'll try a factory reset, but this is all extremely frustrating

[Mark2424]

Since my last post (after a factory reset) things were working properly until yesterday. Then yesterday morning (and again this morning), as @RAffenitHudson described, my hub plays a random song (actually, it chooses the same song upon repeated attempts) that has a similar word to my playlist name. If I say "Hey Google <starterPhrase>", for a few attempts it played that similarly named song. After a few attempts of very clearly saying "Hey Google, play my personal playlist <playlistName>" it finally worked. It's as though when the routine is launched, the hub has access to Spotify, but not to any playlists in my personal account, or the playlist name specified in the routine's "Play Music" field (the last event in the routine) is not being converted/compared properly to my playlist names in the Spotify app.

[JillLarsen]

I am having the same issue with my Apple Music playlists. It started a few weeks ago, for us, as well. We have multiple speakers throughout the house and it incorrectly plays a similar playlist (of it’s choosing) on all of them when given the same command so it isn’t a device issue but a Google issue. 

[Raten]

This seems to happen to me every year too. I have a holiday playlist that I use as my morning alarm, which I switch to in November. All through November it works fine, and then all of a sudden December hits and now it wont pick my personal playlist with a very distinct name, but instead some random playlist that also has the word "Christmas".

Something in the algorithm must change depending on the time of year and assume that people want certain types of music when they use certain keywords.

[Yewwy]

I am also now having this problem again after months of no issue, even after factory reset it will just find a song that has a matching word instead of the listed playlist, getting a bit sick and tired of this rigmarole and may just end up switching back to my Alexa. 

[BalajiG]

I am from India.  Having the same problem since yesterday.  The playlist from the automation does not play, while individual song set up in the routine plays.  Mine is also linked to Spotify.

however when I clearly give a voice command to play the playlist it plays.