Nest Mini losing place in podcast, and episode when saying "Hey Google, resume podcast".

[zzubnik]

In the last few days, the command "Hey Google, resume podcast" does not result in picking up where I stopped. It goes to a point in a previous episode. the same point every time no matter what I do. I have tried skipping episodes, letting it play for a couple of hours, unplugging the unit, but no matter what I do, it goes back to a specific point in a specific episode. It is quite maddening, as the series has hundreds of episodes, and I can't remember which one I was on, or how far through.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I am old, on my own, and rely on the Nest mini to keep me entertained.

Thank you.

[Wags]

I am having similar issues. This morning was listening to the latest episode of a podcast, but had to stop it when someone came in the room. When I tried resume the podcast by saying “Hey Google Resume Podcast” it resumed a different one of my podcasts, not the one I had just been listening to. I had to stop the wrong one and resume the correct one by name. But when I did that I started the correct podcast from the beginning, not from where I had left off.

[GarrettDS]

Hey there, 

Sorry to hear about the frustrations that you're having with the Google Assistant, I'm happy to help. 

I would suggest visiting our Google Assistant Forum and writing to them there as this is a question that they would be able to help answer. 

Please let me know if you have any further questions.

[squalo]

In that forum they suggest posting here.  Something has changed with the Google mini speakers that broke their ability to save locations.  

[zzubnik]

Thanks for the suggestion. I posted there as well. I didn't get a single reply. I guess there is no solution and Google doesn't care. I was about to buy a Nest hub and cameras. I don't think I will if Google will just abandon products. My three Nest mini are now utterly useless to me. Very disappointing.

[thedraconian]

I'm having exactly the same issue recently and agree it has been broken recently.

I stop a podcast on the speaker and it will resume from the point that it was pause on the mobile app and then never sync the progress back.

So I either have to play it via connecting the app on my phone to keep the progress or have to tell it to fast forward when ever I say play again. 

[ImpexQuery]

I've also been having the exact same issue now for at least two months.

All my podcasts play from the position last stopped in the app.  No progress made on the speaker is syncd.  I even did a compete deletion of my podcast activity and they're still stuck at a point in the past

[squalo]

I think this is going to end up being another Google support abandonment issue.  Google doesn't have much attention span with any of their products outside of search.

[Cflo]

I’m having the same issues. Makes my six Google speakers useless for podcast. Fix this Google! 

[squalo]

I only have 3 but this has rendered them almost useless to me.  I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the Sonos lawsuits

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/01/google-loses-sonos-patent-case-starts-stripping-functionalit...

https://www.theverge.com/2022/1/6/22871304/google-home-speaker-group-volume-control-changes-sonos-pa...

[thedraconian]

Hey,

I was aware of that law suit too but my issues started before that verdict, so unlikely unless they were ‘testing’ things that needed changing.

But I believe those changes are yet to be made, although coming imminently.

[Wags]

As far as I an tell the law suit specifically addresses issues around the volume control of speaker groups, so I can’t understand why it would affect synching podcasts  between my phone and my Nest Hub. Actually the synching does work in one direction. If I listen to a podcast on my phone and then resume on my Nest Hub, it resumes at the right location, generally speaking. But when I stop listening on the Nest Hub the current location is lost.

[ImpexQuery]

That's my take on it too.  Unless there is some other patent dispute they're heading off it should be irrelevant.

And same symptom, my Google home mini will always pick up where the app on my phone left off.  But it never syncs even 1 second of progress back.  So every time I start the podcast I'm back to the last known position from my phone.

Interestingly the news is similar.  I guess it uses podcasts.  It syncs zero progress I'm always left listening from the beginning with is frustrating since I have "long read" news that could be an hour long and I have to remember my location.  It was always the case as long as it was the latest episode I'd always return to where I left off.

[thedraconian]

Completely agree, the only reason i said 'Testing a change' is they may have indirectly broken something, but seems like a tenuous link.

I have the situation as you've highlighted, the Syncing does work in 1 direction, hence resorting to casting from my phone most of the time, which is less than ideal.

[thedraconian]

Decided to do another search on the Google Assistant Forum and found this discussion where the issue has supposedly been escalated:

• Google Assistant no longer saving where I left off in a podcast

Let's hope this leads to a fix some point soon.

It's weird as I can see the activity in the "Web & App Activity" settings here, but it is obviously not being persisted anymore.

[squalo]

It may have been escalated but the fact its been broken this long with no feedback on expected resolution time has me concerned.  In the years since I went all in on Google products I have been left high and dry countless times.   Abandoning products has just become part of the GoogleDNA.

[zzubnik]

This is why I have now decided not to buy further into the Nest systems. Google can not be trusted to care about a product for long. Even one that they are still selling. It was escalated last year, and still no fix.

[elvis99]

Many people, including myself, are having the same problem. If you say, "ok google, play X on google podcasts", it should resume correctly.

[thedraconian]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I gave this a go and the same issue occurs. The problem isn't resuming the podcast on the GHome, it is the fact that it doesn't sync so you loose any progress made when playing in this manner. 

[Wags]

The only way I’ve found for the Google Nest to resume the podcast at the correct place is to use the app to position the podcast to the same spot where you stop on the Google Home. It’s tedious, but when I finish listening on my Google Home I open the app on my phone, drag the progress slider to the correct spot, and play a couple of seconds on my phone. Then when I tell Google Home to resume the podcast it picks up at the right place.

[Deb4767]

This is what I do and until a few weeks it worked perfectly and was so convenient but not anymore. I am desperate to resolve this issue.

[toobaditsg00gle]

Let's face it, the Google devices are frankly garbage. This has now happened twice, rendering the product largely useless as an audio player. I've received zero actual help or solutions from Google on it despite numerous calls and email conversations. This is what I get for purchasing audio from an advertising company.

[ImpexQuery]

Too true.

I now have to use my phone to tell my speaker what to do so I can reset the position.

I might as well just use the phone's speaker and forget about the Google home altogether.

[elvis99]

I have to admit, the only reason I picked Google over Amazon was because all I do is listen to podcasts and Amazon didn't resume my podcasts and Google did. Now Google isn't resuming them, so it's disappointing they introduced this bug. And even though there are lots of people complaining about it, it still isn't fixed.

[ph45]

same for me. Just started in last few weeks but podcast now will always start at same point from that time.

[elvis99]

They need to fix this, it's so annoying. I found the only way to make it work is to start playing the episode on my phone in Google podcasts, then pause it and ask the home device, "play X on google podcasts", and then it works. It's so unnecessary, just fix it already!

[ph45]

mine just started to work again. I deleted all activity history, not sure if this did the trick.

[thedraconian]

Hey, so you went to "Web & App Activity" settings here and clicked on Podcasts and only "Deleted all time" for that section? Or something more? 

[docabilly]

Unfortunately this didn't work for me in Australia

[thedraconian]

Forgot to report back but this didn't work for me either unfortunately 

[ph45]

that's it.

[Wags]

Unfortunately, clearing the podcast history didn’t fix the problem for me.

[BarefootBoy]

Any fixes? Google speakers used to be like netflix, in that I could reliably start a podcast on my phone while driving home, pause it on arrival, and resume on one of my several speakers in the house an hour or two later. Now, it's just unreliable. It's been like this since at least mid 2021. 

Overall, Google speakers and displays have gotten less and less reliable. More often, they do not hear the Wake word. I think Google has gone overboard in response to public cries about privacy. At some point, you have to have a backbone.

[Deb4767]

Mine has been stopping in the middle of the morning routine for weeks now as well. Not happy with it at all. 

[LeonUK]

Same issue here. Maybe someone should do a podcast about this issue...

Let's hope the issue is resolved soon.

[AlanOwls]

Same problem here too. Google mini not resuming my podcast on Google podcasts, just starts at the same place every time. I use the command, hey Google resume my podcast.

[elvis99]

Yeah, it's not working for me either. What I find hard to believe is that not a single member of the Nest Home development team doesn't listen to podcasts. How is not one developer pissed off enough about this bug to just go and fix it?

[helloworld]

I've had the same thing for a while now, which is annoying as the podcasts I listen to are usually very long. 

In general, I feel like Google Assistant hasn't improved at all in the last couple of years and may even have gotten worse. One thing that happens sometimes is that a voice on the podcast somehow triggers a Google command. So at random the podcast stops and I get some weird message about not having a certain type of device set up.

[Dipperlake7]

Exact problem…

  Whenever I try to continue a podcast on my other mini it resumes with the same incorrect podcast from months ago…. It’s like Ground Hog day!   Although I have yet to do it, it seems the best suggestion is to fast forward to where I left off on the other mini.

[LeonUK]

The issue is with the Google Podcast app, as a workaround I downloaded Spotify, changed it to my default podcast in Google Home and the issue is resolved. HTH