Speaker Groups No longer working

[Hardy27]

So recently I cannot cast music to a speaker group.

For instance I try and cast YouTube music to any speaker group and it just freezes and audio will not play.

I've tried deleting the groups and starting over as well as factory resetting all of my devices which includes Nest hub max, Nest hub first and second generations, three nest audios and a couple of nest minis.

Music will play on them individually or the two nest Audios I have paired for stereo but casting to all of the speakers at the same time is no longer working....

[Alcolepone]

I have been having the same issue.  Hoping to get a response to fix the problem

[Juni]

Hi folks,

Thanks for posting and for being a step ahead of us. 

This is not the experience that we wanted you to have, let me help you out. You can rename the group to "Speaker group" and see if this will make a difference. If that did not work try to create a new home and set up your speakers/displays there then observe if this will fix it.

Looking forward for your response.
 

Thanks,

Juni

[Hardy27]

Unfortunately this did not work and I've had to create new homes recently multiple times due to issues with nest cameras not working correctly and streaming live video.

I'm not sure what's been going on the past 6 months but things have certainly went down hill with Nest and Google home in general. Literally nothing has been working as intended...

[AWF]

Quite a useless recommendation

[Juni]

Hi Hardy27,

Thanks for trying that. Could you provide the firmware versions and operating system of your speakers and displays.

Keep me posted.

Best,

Juni

[Hardy27]

I have multiple speakers and hubs 3 nest audios, one first gen nest hub, one second gen nest hub, one nest hub max and 4 minis? 

Is there an easier way to forward screenshots with the different firmware versions? 

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Chiming in to ensure everything is covered here. Just an added questions: does it happen to other music services like Spotify or Pandora? How far are the devices from the router? Are you using a dual-band router? 

To check which firmware version you're on, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Home app.
2. Touch and hold your device's tile.
3. Tap Settings > Device information.
4. Under "Technical information," check for Cast firmware: "X.XXX.XXXXX." If the device is on Fuchsia, check for System firmware version: "X.XXXXXXXX.X.XXXXXXX"

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

I have a lot of nest speakers and nest hubs.  Too many to post all of their firmwares here but I'll post a few

Router is nest wifi.

As far as streaming services I only have YouTube premium so not sure about Pandora etc...

But anytime I try and cast to a group nothing happens outside of the hubs freeze on the YouTube icon and gets stuck there and will not go any farther

Device name

Living Room pair RP

Home Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Forget

Preview program Off (waiting for next public firmware update)

Open source licenses

Technical information

Left speaker:

System firmware version: 299498 Cast firmware: 1.56.299498 Language: English 

Right speaker:

System firmware version: 299498 Cast firmware: 1.56.299498 Language: English (United States) 

Name

Living Room speaker

Home

Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Preview program

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 309385

Cast firmware: 1.56.309385 Language: en-US MAC address: 

Living Room display

Home

Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Time format

Preview program

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 8.20220713.2.219 Cast firmware: 1.63.322641 Language: en-US 

Kitchen display

Home Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Forget

Time format

Use 12-hour format

Preview program

On (firmware version: 8.20220713.2.219)

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 8.20220713.2.219

Cast firmware: 1.63.322641 Language: English (United States) Country code: US

Name

Mini 1

Home

Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Preview program

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 313652 Cast firmware: 1.56.313652 Language: en-US 

Name

Mini 2

Home

Home

Placement Living Room

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Preview program

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 313652 Cast firmware: 1.56.313652 Language: en-US 

Name

Bedroom display

Home

Home

Placement

Bedroom

Wi-Fi

Nest Wifi

Time format

Preview program

Open source licenses

Other licenses

Technical information

System firmware version: 309385 Cast firmware: 1.56.309385 Language: en-US

[Muddi]

Hey Hardy27,

Thanks for the information. To confirm, have you tried setting up some of your devices to a different network to see if they still have the same behavior?

Keep us posted.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

I have not tried a different network outside of my Nest WiFi. Shouldn't Nest WiFi be the most seamless experience and not cause issues with it's same products?

[Muddi]

Hi Hardy27,

Got it! We understand that Nest WiFi is the most seamless connection. However, we have to make sure that all steps have been done as this will help us further isolate the issue on your device. 

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

I'll just have to deal with not being able to cast to a speaker group.... That would require yet another factory reset to connect to a different network and at this point I'm not interested in factory resetting everything again. I appreciate your help but I'm exhausted with factory resets at this point.

[Muddi]

Hi Hardy27,

I totally understand that troubleshooting can be frustrating, but these are the most helpful steps to figure out what's going on with your device. You don't need to reset all your devices. We can just try to set up 2 of your speakers to a mobile hotspot to see if they will have the same behavior when connected to a different network. Let's give them a try!

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey Hardy27,

Checking in to see if you've tried the steps above?

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

Yes I connected them to the hotspot on my pixel and the problem persists 🤷🏻‍♂️

[Muddi]

Hi Hardy27,

We appreciate your efforts. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information then let me know once done.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

I think I've figured it out. I removed my Chromecast with Google TV from the group and can cast to a speaker group now.

Please note that prior to this issue CC with GTV did infact work in the group so hopefully you can pass this information on to that team and have functionality restored because that was a great addition to the group.

[Dan_A]

Hello there,

Awesome — glad to hear that your issue is fixed and thank you for sharing it in the Community. It looks like we can consider this one complete, so I will lock the thread in 24 hours unless I can help out with anything else.

Best regards,

Dan

[Hardy27]

My issue is NOT fixed I could include my TV in my speaker group previously via Chromecast so there's still an issue that needs addressing

[Wpiman]

I don’t have any TVs on my speaker group. The app I used can send text to speech to the speaker group using. The Google voice but when it casts it locks up. I have to manually stop the casting.

[Amelia0]

But I am unable to understand this version  please solve my issue that about Traffic rider mod apk for PC.

 

[Wpiman]

I use an app to cast voice to Chromecast speakers and I have this exact same issue on TWO applications.  It happened with the last month.

I know the app will show the status as "buffering" when this occurs.  Others in the users group for the app are experiencing the same thing.

[Wpiman]

So I did some extensive debugging on the problem today. I discovered that I can cast one .wav file to the speaker group all day long, and there are no lockup. The .wav file that the application I am using is also generating a .wav file, but if I cast this file; it causes the intermittent lockup issue.

The main difference between these .wav files as far as I can tell is their bit rate. The former has a bit rate of 128kbps. This one works great.

The second file has a bit rate of 358.2kbps. This .wave file causes the casting problems.

I would be happy to share these .wav files it will help you guys debug the issue.

File: completedAsDialed.wav

File type ID: WAVE

Num Tracks: 1

----

Data format: 1 ch, 8000 Hz, Int16

no channel layout.

estimated duration: 6.786000 sec

audio bytes: 108576

audio packets: 54288

bit rate: 128000 bits per second

packet size upper bound: 2

maximum packet size: 2

audio data file offset: 44

optimized

source bit depth: I16

----

File: testCast.wav

File type ID: WAVE

Num Tracks: 1

----

Data format: 1 ch, 22050 Hz, Int16

no channel layout.

estimated duration: 3.429025 sec

audio bytes: 151220

audio packets: 75610

bit rate: 352800 bits per second

packet size upper bound: 2

maximum packet size: 2

audio data file offset: 46

optimized

source bit depth: I16

----

[Muddi]

Hey Hardy27,

My apologies for the delays. To confirm, are you able to cast to your Google TV when not in a group?

@AWF: We appreciate your efforts. We'd be happy to take a look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information. I’ll keep an eye out for your response specifically, so please let me know once you’ve filled it out.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Hardy27]

Yes I am

[Juni]

Hello there,

I wanted to follow up if you are still in need of any help. If so, please fill out the form above.
 

Regards,

Juni

[Juni]

Hi there,

We haven’t heard back from you, so I'll be locking this thread in 24 hours. Feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Best,

Juni

[Muddi]

Hi Hardy27,

Thanks for confirming. Are you casting music or video to your audio group? Also, we'd be happy to take a look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information then let me know once done.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Juni]

Hi there,

We haven’t received your form. Kindly fill it out so we can continue with the next step.

Thanks,

Juni

[AWF]

I have to say that Google is doing everything in their power to ignore that the have broken using speaker groups after losing their patent battle with Sonos

This has become a pervasive issue, and thos of us who have sadly invested heavily in the Google smart home ecosphere expect Google to fix this.