Strange popping sound in my nest mini

[limuremu]

Hello, I’ve just got my best mini about a month ago, and it’s been great so far. That being said, in the past week I’ve been hearing this sort or popping or cracking sound, similar to what you would hear if you had dust on a vinyl record and tried to play it. I haven’t heard it happen when the assistant is responding to me, but they don’t happen on a schedule or anything, more randomly. I’ve unplugged it and plugged it back in, rebooted it through the Home app, and tried plugging it into a different outlet. I’m pretty sure it’s not my wifi, and I’d like to avoid a factory reset if possible but I’m running out of options. Any help?

[Juni · Accepted solution]

Hi folks,

Our team is already aware of this and currently investigating this issue. Since this is the same discussion, we'll move this conversation to the main thread and we'll continue to update it as soon as we have some news to share.

Please note that once done this thread will be locked.

Regards,

Juni

[tsengf]

I've been using it with the ultrasound sensing off for a few days. My conclusion is that the intensity of the pops is not as pronounced but I still hear the pops. I will switch back on the ultrasound sensing to confirm.

[WhyWhy99]

Any problem you report Here they just gaslight you with some canned BS answer, followed with 'this works for most people'...yet the thread here gets bigger everyday? 

[marcolopes]

Did you buy them all at the same time?

[marcolopes]

So... it's COMMON to EVERY Google Nest Mini, or some specific BATCHES?

I really want to know this... because i ordered 3 more and o need to know if I'm going to sent them all back! 😕

We all know that the hardware is build by the lowest bidder, and the components change... hell, even the chemical on the rubber coating changes (mine came all STICKY! i was a bad sign!)

[MTeliska]

So today I've checked all the firmware. They're all updated, but I played the music today and it pops more than it has ever so I don't think the firmware fixed it. Keep trying. 

[MTeliska]

I don't know if it's a coincidence but I went into all Google minis and displays and turned off this setting. 

Lower volume when listening When talking to the Assistant, the volume on the controlled TV or speaker will reduce so Assistant can hear you better

Crackling went away so I'm thinking that the minis are hearing the other speakers and the assistant is trying to lower the volume on each one of them. I'll play them for the rest of the day and see if the popping and crackling come back. 

[MTeliska]

Wishful thinking still pops and crackles. 

[marcolopes]

I only have ONE device currently and it pops!

[Kfisher00]

Full Chromecast ecosystem here with Home Max, Nest Hub, Chromecast Audios. Pops have recently sprung up. Eero 6E mesh network w/gigabit internet. No problems before now- feels like software/firmware level issues. Terribly disappointing, the latency adjustment was essential and library casting and synchrony a treat. I was all-in to this with a working audio environment. Pops reduce this to useless. Google regression is intolerable- give us option for firmware rollback to assess.

[Rickwhits]

I'm also having this same issue on the nest mini. Looking forward to a resolution.

[Lauras89]

I hope you aren't expecting one soon. Been going on for three months. 

[barkmann44]

Six months...

[Lauras89]

Oh, mines only been doing it since about July.

They are taking the absolute mick with it now. 

[marcolopes]

I spent the last few hours doing research... seems this started 3 YEARS ago, and been around ever since. Perhaps it's a recurring BUG google keeps FIXing and REintroducing... can't understand the reason!

[marcolopes]

This has been around for SIX months and still isn't fixed??

[DisappointedMe]

Same here as all above. Primary use is background noise during the night to drown out military grade tinnitus. Reduced effectiveness as a result of the unwanted popping/cracking every 30-120 seconds. Will likely regress to playing directly from phone on nightstand until if/when a resolution is implemented. Shame.

[marcolopes]

I hear you!

I use overnight sound to mask my tinnitus too!

And i came from a TABLET + BLUETOOTH Speaker combo, without any issues!

Google Nest 2nd gen has indeed a very good sound... and the voice assistant integration is very nice, but... with all the problems around the Google ecosystem, i don't think i will keep the devices...

[Hmm_8888]

Bump. Add me please to the ongoing problem and I'm unimpressed with the silence by the Google Team.

[Hmm_8888]

The thread is unlocked. At least the sound board is back. No popping here though 😝

[MTeliska]

I think it's strange that Google makes the hardware. Google makes the software and they can't fix it in a timely manner. I guess the only way to fix it is to switch all my stuff to Amazon echo. Thanks, Google.

[Hmm_8888]

There's actually nothing particularly unusual about this situation. Google, in fact, doesn't manufacture their own hardware; instead, they opt for outsourcing. When it comes to software, it has seen a significant decline over the years. I used to be a big fan of the pure "vanilla" Android experience on their devices.

Having utilized several Pixel devices throughout the years, I can confidently state that the software, along with its lack of user-friendliness, is quite disappointing. Their hardware quality is subpar, and they seem to struggle with achieving a seamless integration of all components.

[marcolopes]

Who is in charge of the Software / Firmware development?

I bought google ecosystem because it's... well... GOOGLE!

But after having this problem (POPPING random noise) and reading this topic, and how google is (NOT) handling it, well, seems everything is doomed: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Let-s-Discuss-Using-Google-Assistant-an...

Before i gave attention to a few popping sounds i said "well, i just want to hear music with 2 MINI paired in STEREO and do some basic routines, so i'll be fine"... but now that i have made intensive testing, listening to music during the day and relaxing sounds during the night, NOT EVEN FOR LISTENING to music is this good for!!!

Google, what the hell have you done??

[BeannieBoy]

Same issue here. Commenting so that I can receive thread updates if there ever are any. I’ve reported feedback on my speakers too. 

[Whatever1]

WALOFB

[Whatever1]

Whether is the issue or not who knows  but... Ultrasound sensing needs turned off BEFORE pairing speakers as turning it off once paired only turns it off on one. If you have speakers paired, unpair them, turn US off and re-pair as a stereo duo.

[Hmm_8888]

No. The popping sound is new. The ultra sensing isn't. Google did something wrong. I also only notice the popping with Spotify only.

[marcolopes]

Off course they did... just like they messed up the entire ecosystem, literally! https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Let-s-Discuss-Using-Google-Assistant-an...

[WhyWhy99]

The ultrasound has nothing to do with this problem, even with both speakers set to off the popping persists. 

[Lugnut888]

I’m having this same issue. Makes the devices useless. Screws up my sleep and music. I’ve tried all the solutions offered, nothings helped at all

[Danny10]

Try to position the nest audio apart from other WiFi devices. It might help a bit, at least to me it seems so. Still having issues with crackling, but not as worse as before.. Could be a coincidence though.

[Hmm_8888]

It seems you've not been keeping a close eye on the situation. This issue is indeed NEW, considering that the speaker had been performing as expected until recently.

Importantly, it's not related to any hardware problems. And yes, what you've encountered is nothing more than a mere coincidence.

[marcolopes]

That would be a total NONSENSE!

[Hmm_8888]

Don't waste anymore of your time aside from keep sending feedback/reports to Google and here. 

Given some of the replies, I wouldn't be surprised if someone suggests placing the speaker in a fishbowl of water. 

[marcolopes]

Same problem HERE!

NEW device (purchased this week).

Been testing it with music playing almost 24h/day

POPS some times every hour... (a "pop" or "crackling" sound that it's louder than the music at random times)

Very annoying! Now i did a search before purshashing ANOTHER Nest Mini to pair in STEREO MODE before i do something stupid and buy 2...

[Hmm_8888]

@marcolopes 

The pop-ups are definitely random for me. I don't hear them with Google YouTube Music, I don't hear them when playing white noise.  Moments ago, It happened about twice in about 5 minutes. This was the most frequent occurrence. It's almost as if you're capturing media (from the old days) and you have too many applications running on your PC which is creating CPU/network surges.

Once again, I can't emphasize this enough. This is a very NEW occurrence with my Home Mini (speakers) despite having no issue (with this) ever before in my 3+ years of using it every day.

[marcolopes]

"Once again, I can't emphasize this enough. This is a very NEW occurrence with my Home Mini (speakers) despite having no issue (with this) ever before in my 3+ years of using it every day."

THIS is important info. It's clearly a FIRMWARE issue and not hardware (we all know that this stuff is made by the lower bidder and changes all the time)

And yes... I'm currently noticing this as we speak (many POPs in the last 30 minutes listening to SPOTIFY). I'm gonna change to listening to relaxing sounds to see the result.

So, if you (and other users?) only notice this with SPOTIFY music, could it be related just to this streaming platfom? Well, i don't know the tech specs of the Spotify API but as a programmer i can say that everything is possible!

[marcolopes]

Playing relaxing sounds is OK (then again, they are repetitive, and probably there is no streaming at all)

[Hmm_8888]

They are in fact streaming. How I know this is my ISP does frequent service updates in the middle of the early morning hours and my Mini wakes me up to tell me there's no internet. 

[marcolopes]

The internet connection interruptions are almost irrelevant for this problem.

It could be a WiFi signal problem, but that's NOT the case.

I have the equipment very close (1 - 2 meters)

This has something to do with firmware and the way it buffers the data (etc)

I don't want to think it could be something related to hardware (mainly because it would be disastrous and the fact that most of the users started to have this problem afrer a specifit point in time)

[tsengf]

I run Logitech Media Server which allows me to use the Mini as a playback device for local media. I hear pops using LMS as well in addition to content streamed from the internet.