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

[hmauroy]

We started noticing the pops recently when playing soft music with long notes in a playlist called SPA Lounge on Spotify. Never noticed the pops for the past 3 years living with these awesome speakers. Now I dont think they are so awesome anymore 😞

[Hmmm8888]

@hmauroy 

The speakers never were awesome. But the issue isn't [hardware] related with the user's equipment.

[tsengf]

Do you happen to know what might have changed? I don't think this community knows what's causing the pops. My best guess is the firmware version, but I cannot confirm.

[hmauroy]

I don't know what changed. It started a few weeks ago while starting listening to calm music where the notes are long and interleaved, so there are no pauses in the sound. It happens several times an hour.
I have no idea how the buffring of the data stream from spotify is handled in Google Nest mini. But I guess there is some sort of overflow of some intensity values which makes the pops.
I just wanted to chime in to create another data point for use cases.

[marcolopes]

Not limited to Spotify or YouTube Music...

It's related to ALL STREAMING!

I noticed it when streaming DAILY NEWS!!!!

[Hmm_8888]

Seems like "data point" is becoming a popular phrase in forums these days which is as absurd as the comments here asking when Google is going to fix the problem or the shilling. 

[pluri]

@hmauroy  As already said, also by others, the issue is happening with all streaming sources and is NOT due to bad/corrupted audio data in the streaming. The proof is that the pop noise is present even with the volume turned to zero !

Also if you pair the nest with an external Bluetooth speaker, the pop noise still happens on the (otherwise silent) Nest while the reproduction of the streaming music on the external Bluetooth speaker is flawless, so no bad data in the audio streaming.

The pop noise is more noticeable to our ears when listening at low volume a gentle music in a silent room (at night) rather than listening at high volume some kind of loud heavy metal song.

Also from my experience the loudness and the reiteration rate of the pop noise is not always the same ... why ? I don't know.

We have to consider that these devices are pretty dumb, most of the "magic", apart recognising the "Hey Google" sentence, is done remotely on the Google servers, the problem may be even starting there.

Only Google knows which is the cause and if there is a solution. However they really seems to have abandoned the development of such products under many aspects (there are many other even worse bugs) so I really think that they just don't care to provide a solution.

Just take this in mind when purchasing other products or services from this company (not that the others are much better though).

[hmauroy]

Of my 3 speakers, only the one with firmware 2.58.384934 is popping. The other two have 2.57. 375114. 

[marcolopes]

Listen carefully!!

I have 3 devices also. 2.57 and 2.58 (not even officially announced!!) and they ALL pop!

[pluri]

@hmauroy I have two devices with fw. 2.57. 375114 and they BOTH pop. I'm pretty sure that sooner or later you will notice the pop noise also on you other speakers.

[marcolopes]

This is what puzzles me!

For me, i noticed it from DAY 1 (but i bought 3 devices 6 months ago!)

Many have been reporting this for +3 YEARS now!

So??? Was it ALWAYS there? Was if FIXED and reintroduced??

You can check my posts with links to many reports all over the net (mainly reddit)

[Hmm_8888]

I just got an notification that someone selected the RECOMMENDED Answer by the mods. Talk about unbelievable. Much like for the last few days there were many likes on social media with posting bogus media of the solar eclipse which was limited to the North America claiming the footage was from Australia, the EU, Asia, or South America. What an unhinged time we're living in. 

[marcolopes]

Same here... must be someone HAPPY with the "Hey, it's been A YEAR! but OUR TEAM is aware of this and working on a solution"!!!! 🙄

[Jaarimaa]

Any solution yet?

[marcolopes]

NO solution.

NO google feedback.

NO support feedback.

NO moderation feedback.

[Hmm_8888]

@marcolopes That goes for you too. Refrain from responding to lazy posters who just come here and ask the same bloody question: what's the fix or is there an update. I have already unsubscribed from this thread and I imagine many others have too because of these annoyances.

[pluri]

@Hmm_8888 do what you like to do, is up to you. Just don't tell other what they can or cannot do.

If you are unsubscribed why are you still posting ?

[tsengf]

Hi all, I know that I'm going against the common sentiment here, but I want to share my experience since I've joined this thread. I was on FW 375114 when I first joined. I have since updated to 384934 and popping still happens. Since I first posted, the intensity of the pops stayed the same, but the rate of the pops decreased significantly. When it happens it's still obnoxious. What I want to say is that I can confirm that when the "Ultrasound sensing" feature is disabled, I do not get the obnoxious pops. Every once a while, when I'm paying attention, I will hear a faint disturbance in the audio stream. If I were to guess, they're the pops but I can barely notice them. I have also confirmed when I reenable the "Ultrasound sensing" feature, the pops are again obnoxious.

My question is why some people have some success from disabling "Ultrasound sensing" and not others. Could it be due to the speaker placement and its surrounding? Maybe when the feature is off, the speaker is still doing something to sense its surrounding. I don't know and can't explain it.

Feature description:

"Ultrasound sensing uses your Google Nest device's speakers and microphones to determine whether a person is approaching the device. Your device's speaker will emit soft, inaudible ultrasonic pulses. These pulses are reflected off of nearby objects in the room and the microphones detect these reflections."

[marcolopes]

Sorry, i don't notice any difference in the POPPING with or without "Ultrasound sensing" on OR off!

[pluri]

@tsengf I can't say nothing about fw.  384934 because my two devices are stuck with fw. 375114.

Regarding why some people say that disabling ultrasound resolves or improves the problem my guess is this: in my experience the rate and intensity of the pops is really random and unpredictable, there are some days when I can't hear any or just very subtle ones, while in other cases I may have two or three very loud pops in few minutes.

Then the pops are more evident in a quiet environment, when listening to low volume music, rather than listening to high volume music in a noisy environment, there only the strongest one are evident.

So to say that something is a solution it takes to hear with attention and for long time to have a significant statistic.

Regarding the ultrasound feature the only obvious function is to light up the touch buttons when you approach the device ... this is especially useful at night. Google says that no data collected from the ultrasound sensor is sent to the cloud.

P.S. as I'm writing this I noticed that this feature is currently not working on my two Nest Mini even if it is enabled in the options ... so we have another bug, very good ! This thing is really falling apart.

[tsengf]

@pluri Good points. I want to add a little more light with regards to my situation. I have the mini in my office that I stream internet music during the work day. It's playing several hours a day. I have the volume set to 1 (hey google, set the volume to 1). I have been monitoring the pops for about 2 months. I can't remember when I last posted (when I interacted with marcolopes). My mini is sitting in a dark corner of the room behind my monitors. I'm pretty sure if the ultrasound is suppose to detect me, the monitor would be obstructing it. For me, there is a light and day difference in the quality of the pops with Ultrasound sensing on and off.

[marcolopes]

BTW! The devices POPS when streaming anything... except when you ask to play "relaxing sounds" (i believe they are stored locally and repeated in loop!)

The device POPS when:

- Streaming Spotify

- Streaming Youtube Music

- Streaming the NEWS!

- Streaming the ASSISTANT ANSWERS! (YES!!! IT popped yesterday when answering me!!)

[marcolopes]

I can!!!

BOTH firmware's are absolutely the same in what concerns with this problem!

Firmware 384934 isn't even listed as OFFICIAL! 😄

[marcolopes]

Well, I'm going to (once again, and again!) turn OFF the "Ultrasound sensing" on all devices and report back!

P.S. don't forget to REBOOT the devices after the switch, because it makes a difference on the first hours?? Another specific behaviour that puzzles me!

[sr_vrd]

I literally just bought one of these today. I had no issues with my first gen Google Home Mini, and this one, which I bought specifically to play music/books/sounds at night, is extremely annoying.

Has there really been no progress on this issue for this long? Extremely disappointed. I will probably return it tomorrow.

It was also really difficult to get it to set up and I have not been able to add it to speaker groups, which was one of the reasons I decided to buy this specific device. 

[marcolopes]

Reporting (again!!) about the possible fix disabling the "Ultrasound sensing"

1) I have disabled (again!!) the "Ultrasound sensing" on ALL devices (standalone, stereo pairs, etc)

2) I have rebooted ALL devices

3) They started popping almost immediately, and i could NOT notice any difference on the popping

SO... in my experience, disabling the "Ultrasound sensing" results in NO REAL difference in the popping frequency or VOLUME.

[hyvuonggia]

Looks like there is the issue with the Ultrasound sensing that cause poping sound. After turn off, the random popping sound is gone. Atlease in my case.

You can turn off by following this link: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9509981?hl=en#zippy=%2Cgoogle-nest-mini

[tsengf]

I want to voice that turning off the Ultrasound Sensing feature also eliminates the popping on my Minis. As I mentioned in another message, it is not clear to me why disabling this functionality helps some users but not others.

[marcolopes]

NO, IT WON'T!

IT will pop again soon!

In my case, it pops right away!

TURNING OFF THE "Ultrasound Sensing feature" does NOT RESOLVE the popping issue in the NEST MINI!!!

[tsengf]

@marcolopes I have been running with the Ultrasound Sensing feature disabled for 2+ months. I am confirming that I not hear the pops. My volume setting is 1. I stream content for several hours each day. When I reenable Ultrasound Sensing, the pops immediately come back. As I mentioned in this thread, it appears that Ultrasound Sensing resolves the issue for some users but not all. I do not understand why. I'm located in the US by the way. I'm also happy to record a audio stream if it helps to convey the point. But regardless of this, I agree that Google is not doing their job of resolving this for all users.

[marcolopes]

Can you turn the "Ultrasound Sensing feature" ON and report back?

That is really strange!!!

Are you testing only 1 device?

What's the firmware version?

[marcolopes]

Again... and AGAIN...

Turning OFF the "Ultrasound Sensing feature" on the Google Nest MINI does NOT solve any issue related to Popping!

It just WON'T!

No matter what firmware you have (i have both the latest "firmwares", the official and the unlisted one) and all devices pop with the "Ultrasound Sensing feature" turned ON or OFF!

[ChanceBacca]

My dog hasn't been sleeping at the foot of my bed for the last year. I didn't think anything of it, until I noticed the moment it the speaker Pops the first time, she gets up and leaves, and refuses to come back until the speaker is off. We decided to try not turning on the speaker the last two nights, and the dog has stayed. Apparently you've been pissing off my dog for a year. Fix this useless thing before they all get trashed!

[marcolopes]

😀(sorry, it's not funny... but it made me laugh!)

Yes... This just proves how ANNOYING this BUG/Problem is!!! Very very annoying!

No one trying to "relax" can relax listening to music with "constant" RANDOM POPPING noises all over!!!!

(and, as i said before, it's not just "music"... it's STREAMING in general! The devices POP even when the ASSISTANT responds... and when you are listening to NEWS FEEDS, etc etc)

So... it's not related to Spotify and/or YouTube Music... it's related to ANY AUDIO that is not played locally)

The only audio that does NOT POP is the one that is probably played directly from the device, such as "relaxing sounds" (you can ask the device to play some relaxing sounds, and i believe they are SHORT SAMPLES that are played from the hardware memory/buffer, and DO NOT stream from the network)

[enagen]

Mine only pops when streams Spotify, no pops from YouTube Music or Bluetooth, so maybe you are right, could be an internal process/decode, but why mine gives only problems with Spotify? So, is not the hardware, so its worse, its a Google program code error and they do not fix it.

[marcolopes]

I thought that too! But 6 MONTHS playing with 3 devices DAILY showed me otherwise.

The devices POPS when streaming anything... except when you ask to play "relaxing sounds" (i believe they are download when needed, stored locally and repeated in loop!)

The device POPS when:

- Streaming Spotify

- Streaming Youtube Music (i don't use it, but it has been reported several times in THIS current topic!)

- Streaming the NEWS! (happened to me several times over the past weeks - i usually don't listen to news on the devices)

- Streaming the ASSISTANT ANSWERS! (YES!!! IT popped when answering me!!)

[marcolopes]

Anyone with this NEW problem??? It's driving me MAD!!! https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Nest-Mini-play-wrong-songs-and-p...

[enagen]

The problem seems to be with Spotify, no crackles from YouTube Music or Bluetooth cast...

Edited" crackles sounds DO continue from YouTube Music...but less frequently 😒😒😒

So COME ON!!!! You could solve this with a few codes!!!

[marcolopes]

I will say it again and again and again...

The devices POPS when streaming anything... except when you ask to play "relaxing sounds" (i believe they are stored locally and repeated in loop!)

The device POPS when:

- Streaming Spotify

- Streaming Youtube Music

- Streaming the NEWS!

- Streaming the ASSISTANT ANSWERS! (YES!!! IT popped when answering me!!)

[marcolopes]

I really believe that this problem was introduced when Google was "sued" by SONOS for using proprietary "streaming" code on the Google devices, and google "engineers" had to remove that code (or else!)

But, since late 2023, a decision was made in favor of Google, and the firmware was updated: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/10/google-wins-sonos-patent-case-immediately-ships-speaker-soft...

Was the firmware reversed to affect the STREAMING code? If it was, shouldn't all these issues be resolved NOW?