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

[marcolopes]

yeah! And sometimes it "pops" very loud even if the volume is low... so, it's pretty nasty!

[marcolopes]

Thread created by me on the SPOTIFY community: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Popping-sound-when-streaming-SPOTIFY-on-the-Google-Nest-Spe...

[JelleGo]

'Hey Google, any update yet?' 🙂

[MTeliska]

Just bought my 8 new echo dots to replace my Google mini's. I will be testing them to see if they work better for playing music. 

[JelleGo]

They work better BUT there is a bug in some of them. They stop responding after 2 days and you have to restart them to properly work again. (More info on Reddit)

[MTeliska]

Thanks for the info. I would rather restart every 2 days to get rid of the constant popping and crackling that I get every day. I see that is an improvement.  

[gregruns]

The popping started recently for me also, maybe 3 months back. I've had the mini for at least 2 years.

One behavior change I am certain about is I recently enabled Google Assistant on my phone (Pixel 6a). I never used it on my phone before because it was more problematic having both my phone and the mini respond.

I'm going to disable assistant on my phone and see if that solves anything.

[JelleGo]

Don't think so. I don't have an android phone or tablet and have also the popping... 

[Yorkshireguy]

I got this reply when asked  Google on X 

Made by Google @ma....2d Thanks! We don't have any updates to give you about popping sounds. If you happen to replicate this, send feedback with the keywords "GHT3 Google Nest speakers produce random popping/clicking sounds". Our team is working on this too and they could use more data to work with. 

And they are working on a fix 

[marcolopes]

Google Assistant and/or Google HOME app as nothing to do with this!

The devices DO NOT depend on these apps to work!

The devices are AUTONOMOUS!

So, nothing to do with other software than the devices FIRMWARE itself.

[MTeliska]

I finally fixed my popping on my 8 Google mini's. I replaced them with 8 Alexa dots and they have been working for days with out a problem. 

[RYoung]

I've got 5 minis throughout my house.  All have started "popping" every minute or so when streaming Spotify, after 2 years of no issues.  Makes it pretty unbearable for listening to music (and especially sounds to sleep to).  I know this thread is full of reports already - I'm just adding to note that it's still an issue for me and hoping to bump it for attention.

[marcolopes]

All feedback is good!

Knowing that this was introduced "recently" is helpful (i would say RE-introduced, because many reports go back 3 years)

[TrumpForever]

I bought a Google Nest Mini 2nd Generation on sale at a mall last month, not knowing about the random crackling and popping issue. I immediately encountered the problem with Wi-Fi streaming from Spotify (I haven't tried with other music providers), especially on slow songs, where spurious noises stand out more. A slight improvement is achieved by disabling the Ultrasound sensing function, but it does not completely solve the problem. I then discovered that the Google Nest Mini can also be connected via Bluetooth. With this connection there is no crackling and popping, but the audio quality decreases significantly. Using the Musicolet app from my smartphone with its equalizer improves a bit, but there isn't the beautiful crystal clear sound of Spotify over Wi-Fi. Does the problem have to do with a DSP and/or the internal sound equalization, which is too strong on Wi-Fi? Mine is just a hypothesis, I'll ask those who know more than me.

[marcolopes]

Ultrasound sensing changes nothing for me (same problems)

With all the feedback collected, i an assume it's a FIRMWARE issue (almost all of them show that this problem was not happening - i can't say that, because my 3 devices have only 1 month and they showed the problem since DAY 1)

[gregruns]

BTW, I mentioned disabling Google Assistant on my phone because I thought having two devices near each other both performing similar "listening" functions might cause some interference. 

So far it's been two days and I haven't heard the popping noise. However, the noise was occuring randomly once every 15 - 30 minutes. I usually use the mini only while falling asleep so it could still be happening and I'm already out.

[marcolopes]

It's RANDOM...

Sometimes it's all OK... sometimes POPS a lot!

I hear Spotify almost 24/7, and it's inconsistent... Worst time is when i put low volume sleep / wake up music...

[gregruns]

Disabling Google Assistant on my phone to prevent interference didn't help

[marcolopes]

Google Assistant, Google Home, Spotify APP, or ANY SOFTWARE installed on third party devices have absolutely NOTHINHG to do with this!

Google Nest are AUTONOMOUS devices that need NO external software to work!

[Peter_selie]

I bought 3 Nest Audios back in 2022. I have them running flawlessly. But now….They all pop and crack like **bleep**!  I had the same issues on my minis. But the max don’t have the ultra settings. I guess it has something to do with the smart home settings. But it is a big shame that a company like Google is just ignoring all of us! 

[marcolopes]

I really don't understand how a company like GOOGLE (that i admite at so many levels) can keep the customers of an (otherwise) great product in the dark with such a terrible problem like this!!!

This is a device where users LISTEN to MUSIC!!!

No one likes their music to be polluted by POPPING sounds!!!

[Behthr]

It’s Dec 10, 2023 and yet still this annoying issue not fixed.

What are you doing in the background Google? keep saying we are aware of it!

Probably Nothing!

Cheap company with cheap products.

[marcolopes]

Keep sending "feedback" through de devices everyday (like me) until this annoying PROBLEM is resolved...

[tsengf]

Everybody do this!

[Behthr]

Agreed!

[lazerkiwi]

I got my 2nd google nest mini a year or so after the first one. The 2nd nest mini is doing this cracking noise. The first one doesn't do it. It seems like a common problem based on all the messages here. Please update a fix soon

[tsengf]

Can you identify any differences between the two devices? Are they running different firmware versions and are there any settings that are different?

[lazerkiwi]

Both my devices are on 375114. I just noticed the first one does make some popping sound when i was sitting in the living room. Not as often as the new device (2nd).

Same cast firmware: 2.57.375114

[tsengf]

Thanks just trying to confirm if there is any new learning here. As marcolopes suggested, keep submitting the "feedback" on the Nest device to get Google's attention. 

[marcolopes]

So, BOTH make the annoying popping sounds!

Since the popping is RANDOM in PERIODICITY and VOLUME, it's not unusual for one to think there some devices are OK... they aren't!

At least all google nest 2nd GEN are affected by this problem.

[lazerkiwi]

Just wanted to add my update from the two nest mini I have around the living room and bedroom. They make the pop sound randomly (perhaps every 30mins?) when playing audio (via Spotify or any music). At night I put the sleeping sounds on volume 1, but the pop sound is quite loud and disruptive, so I've stopped using the sleeping sound feature 😡 Google needs to look into this ASAP please

[marcolopes]

YES! I confirm!

The VOLUME part is the most annoying!

The popping noise volume has nothing to do with the MUSIC volume (it sounds usually LOUDER, VERY louder!!!)

I listen to music all night, and sometimes, every few minutes, it POPS very loud...

[marcolopes]

Please make your contribution HERE too! https://community.spotify.com/t5/Android/Popping-sound-when-streaming-SPOTIFY-on-the-Google-Nest-Spe...

[Cazik]

I also have this issue on my Nest Mini. It's been happening for probably a couple years... It wasn't an issue when I first got it though. Super annoying.

[marcolopes]

A couple of years??

I don't understand why many users are saying it "started" few months ago...

What u say makes more sense to me, because there are a lot of posts on reddit that go back 3 years... so, it would be strange that this problem was FIXED and reintroduced... most likely it has been around in the Nest Mini 2ng Gen since day 1... and that's BAD news, because GOOGLE did NOTHING about it...

[Doubi]

This issue keeps happening. Maybe your solutions is ask users to use YT Music ...

[Yorkshireguy]

I get it using YouTube music . TuneIn ,radio player , global player . So Don't think it matters 

[Metoo132323]

@Doubi Why are you posting in an "abandoned" thread? The OP in this thread marked the response by Google mods as answered/solved. You all need to stop beating the dead horse in this thread and create your own and stop being lazy. @Yorkshireguy 

[marcolopes]

There is a NEW thread already: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Nest-Mini-charcoal-Gen-2-frequen...

[Metoo132323]

I created a new thread where everyone should now post to instead of using this "Answered/solved" thread as nothing more as a place to vent: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Nest-Mini-charcoal-Gen-2-frequen...