No longer able to set an alarm on insignia voice speaker NS-CSPGASP

[terrytad]

The insignia speaker in question is probably four or five years old.
The speaker has Google assistant on it. Just recently unable to set an alarm.  Google response to trying to set alarm “sorry what’s the day and time”.  This feature has worked fine for years.

The Google assistant responds to all other function as it has in the past.

I have reset the speaker, reinstalled it on Google Home, restarted Wi-Fi, etc.
Any assistance is appreciated

[Milkman8888]

Yep, mine is doing the same.  Bricked as an alarm clock.  Google, please help...

[gmarsella]

Same here, stopped working as an alarm clock and I finally gave in and purchased a Lenovo CD-24501F smart clock.  How refreshing to be able to set an alarm which works; a novel idea.  I'm not happy with the quality of the speaker for music (that Insignia device had really good sound) but I need to go to work every day, so I'll sacrifice the sound quality to keep my job.  If you want a decent replacement I'd go with the Lenovo product; it looks great and actually will wake me up when I set the alarm (wow).

[shabadoux]

Oddly enough, the alarm feature on my Insignia didn't stop entirely until last week. I did experience for awhile the need to include my time zone but, other than that, it worked the whole time.

That's weird in itself that mine missed an entire issue but suffered the other two.

I wouldn't doubt that Google is purposely messing with us to make us buy new stuff.

[DaleSchultz]

yes, indeed. Yours may have not had to restart during that time.  I suspect things show up after a power failure and it boots up and picks up new firmware.

[xenidus]

This is EXACTLY what happened to me. I apparently avoided the original debacle last November, and even the March one. I never had a problem, but in July I pulled the battery powered Insignia smart speaker off the power to listen to music outside, forgot about it, and it was dead upon plugin.  I then couldn't get it to respond, eventually it booted back up though after charging... NO ALARM CAPABILITY.  Then I found all of the other miserable souls that have been battling this for months 😞

[ganderzon]

It seems to be a very common problem. We have found that you can set a timer instead of an alarm, and that will work. Set a timer for 8 hours. Will wake you up in 8 hours.

[cameraz]

Open Letter to Google

 Many, many of us in the Google Universe are owners of the Insignia Home Speaker. These units use Google Assistant.

We have found the Insignia speaker to be an essential part of our smart home setups. The speakers give us access to all of the features offered by Google Assistant, including the ability to listen to and play music, make a phone call, check the news and weather, and more.

 But one of the most widely-used features of our Insignia speakers is the ability to set alarms. These alarms wake us for work and school, dentist and doctor appointments, special events, etc. We have come to rely on these alarms in our daily routines.

 Unfortunately, Google has has made some software changes, which have rendered our alarm functions unusable.

I think I speak for other Insignia Home Speaker owners that this inability to set alarms on our speakers is a great inconvenience for us as we have relied on the alarm function for many years.

Therefore, I am asking Google to please restore the alarm function on our Insignia Home Speakers. Surely, Google’s software engineers can do this; thousands of customers are counting on you!

 Sincerely,

--Steven N

[DaleSchultz]

plus, they have now also broken the calendar functionality. Once the alarm has woken us we could ask what was on the calendar. Now it just says it does not understand, but adds that there are no tasks for the day, so it did understand that we are asking for calendar information.

It appears that some change was made to the code that handles time zones which has broken all time zone dependant functionality. Google needs to direct such request to the old code again.

[spikemncer]

 I agree with cameraz,

Of all of the Google devices I have purchased through the years the Insignia home speaker was the best.  It has the best sound, the best universal display that includes time, and temperature, and is a perfect alarm clock.  Google to this date has not made a product that can compete.  Please continue support for these devices. Your loyal supporters will appreciate it.

[gmarsella]

I also agree with the very well-written and succinct summary provided by Cameraz.  Further, while Google's services may be "free", Google derives immense benefit from collecting our data, including our usage, habits and behavior and selling that data to third-party advertisers.  We all understand the business model and have agreed to it.  However, there are other ecosystems out there (i.e., Amazon) which function in a similar manner and offer a robust selection of products and services.  While we all enjoy the Google ecosystem, it only works if the products we purchase from Google and other third-party vendors will properly function on it.  If that's not the case, then it's time to change ecosystems.  For all these reasons, it is in Google's best interest to resolve problems which it inadvertently creates to keep the ecosystem healthy and functioning.  

[cameraz]

Very well said. Thank you.

Google, take note!

[SummerStorm68]

I am dealing with the same problem right now me and my husband Google Assistant works on everything else but it will not set an alarm

[Centerbeamer]

Same here.  Alarms have stopped working again.  Big problem.  I's in my bedroom.  Glenn

[MrNews]

This just started happening to my 4 Insignia speakers within the past few weeks: first, no snoozing, then no alarm settings. None of the workaround commands suggested here since last November have worked. A daily alarm I set years ago IS still working, and responds to "Stop." (Just checked, and Calendar no longer works either.) I was able to set a timer for my  early start tomorrow, so we'll see if that works. I really like these speakers, which show time and temperature; it's a shame that Google product updates ruined them. But all praise AI, right?

[Automanpdx]

I use the insignia speaker to list my tasks, calendar events, and news podcasts with the “good morning” routine. Noticed a week or two ago that it would say “ I don’t understand” when it got to the calendar portion. Everything else in the routine worked. It appears to be related to the alarm problem. I think there is an issue with it synching to the user’s calendar and thus cannot set the alarm. 

[MG14]

3 weeks later and still no response from Google.  I'm beyond disappointed.  My Insignia speaker still won't sett  any alarms.  This can’t be that challenging to fix.

[MrNews]

I switched my one Google Home speaker into my bedroom (I have four Insignias elsewhere), and I can now set alarms. However the Google Home speaker loses connection, and has to be unplugged and re-booted nearly every day! I'm considering switching to the Amazon ecosystem.....

[cameraz]

"Hey Google!" There are a lot of people -- who use your products every day -- who are depending on you to fix whatever it is you broke to render the alarm function inoperable in the Insignia Home Speaker.

Please acknowledge our pleas and issue an update to fix this problem. Thank you.

[3DBuckeye]

Google offers no support - switching to Amazon.

[rjohnson67t]

Anyone look into a class action lawsuit against Google?

[xenidus]

Mark me down for another failed "Alarm" Insignia speaker. Definitely has to do with a power outage/run out of battery that triggers something to be updated on Google's side. Because mine was the battery powered version, power outages didn't ever trigger the issue, so I didn't have Alarm problems at all, but the battery ran down outside in July, and all of a sudden now my Alarm functionality is broken.  "Hey Google, Fix this thing"

[shabadoux]

I've also noticed that this device is unable to add an event to my Google calendar. Google is a dirty company. Too bad the other option is Amazon.

[DaleSchultz]

yes, it appears that anything related to time and time zones no longer works.
It seems to not be able to adjust times to local time, so all alarms and calendar functionality is gone.