Unstable speaker groups

[nsam]

Hi All,

I have 15 Nest Minis located around my house, that are grouped per room and per floor. Most of the time, when I open the Google Home App or Spotify, these groups are missing. It is hard for me to figure out when they show up, but here are a few other observations:

1) On the GH app, I can see all the speakers individually, and when I tap on them, I can connect to them.

2) Restarting the GH app doesn't seem to help

3) My internet connection seems to be fine, since I can give voice commands to the speakers. Interestingly, I can sometime tell the speakers to play on a speaker group and that works, even though the groups are not showing up on GH app/Spotify. 

This is a very frustrating experience, and I am second guessing my decision to build a new house using Google Home automation, should I cut my losses and look at something else like Alexa? 

[DmitryP]

Experiencing exactly the same. Can add I have an Asus AiMesh setup in the house. Wonder if it is related to the routers/access points somehow.

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Thanks for sharing details about the issue here. I know how challenging it is when you're having issues accessing your audio groups on the Google Home app. To confirm, are you having issues playing music on audio groups via voice command? Does it happen on a specific music service? Have you tried to use a different phone/tablet to check if you have the same issue? 

Please create another audio group but a lesser number of devices included like 2-3 speakers. Also, make sure your speakers are getting enough signal from the router. The recommended distance from the router is 5-20 ft. away.

Let me know how it goes.

Cheers,

Muddi

[nsam]

I have Nest routers with mesh, so doubt it is related to the router. 

[DmitryP]

Only 2 speakers in a group - a Google Nest Hub Max and a Nest Hub (2nd Gen). An access point is literally beneath the Hub Max, like a foot away. The Nest Hub is at most 15 feet away from the same access point.
Voice commands or casting from various phones result in the group's desynchronization and stuttering. Say, it works for a minute, then the audio gets desynchronized for a period of 5-6 seconds, then gets back to normal, and so on. Happens with YT Music for me as I do not use any other services.
-
Now that I have been experimenting with my mesh, I have fully disabled beamforming ("802.11ac Beamforming" and "Universal Beamforming" on the 5Ghz band as well as "Explicit Beamforming" and "Universal Beamforming" on the 2.4Ghz band) and that does seem to have helped the situation. It's been some time and I have not had an occurrence of stuttering.
Mind you, I use Asus AiMesh, in which, as I had read previously, I had to disable "Enable IGMP Snooping" and "Airtime Fairness" on both bands.
I can provide further details if needed.
Hope this helps at least someone.

[Muddi]

Hey DmitryP,

Thanks for sharing all the information. Those steps can be used as a workaround if other users have the same router settings as yours. I'll keep this thread open for a while to make sure that the issue is fixed. 

Cheers,

Muddi

[DmitryP]

Thanks, @Muddi! Totally understand the advanced settings may not be available on all routers.
Also, as mentioned by @Chuckee previously, the issue is fairly recent. It may be related to some sort of a software update for the speakers that screwed this up. The WiFi configuration settings that now "work" for me might hint Google engineers as to what got changed/needs to change in the software to bring things back to normal. That is if they ever get to see this thread.

[Chuckee]

Started happening for about a month a couple weeks ago and it's been extremely frustrating.  I highly doubt it's related to my Wifi since a smart display and a speaker pair are in the same room as the access point.  

The only way to get them working is to reboot the individual speakers.

Has Google acknowledged that it's something they did?  They went weeks without acknowledging that the group volume problem was a legal one.  

[Chuckee]

I had mentioned before that everything just started working again but that's not what actually happened.  I was doing a bunch of things so I completely forgot about all the things I actually had to do.  

I created a new Home in the Google Home app and moved all my speakers to it and then back again.  Everything seemed to work after that.  

I've tried everything I could think of prior to that.  Router settings, moving devices around, using fewer speakers (I don't think this is a valid solution since I bought as many speakers as I did because I wanted more speakers), rebooting dozens of times, rebooting daily, unpairing and repairing, etc.

update: today, I can no longer set a speaker pair volume by voice.  other speaker pairs work but this one doesn't...

[Muddi]

Hey DmitryP and Chuckee,

Thanks for all that information. I understand your point, but lets remember that the Google Home/Nest devices and displays are all relaying on your network. It is really important that your router is providing enough signal on all your devices. I'll still check this with the team and get back on this thread for update.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Sorry for the delays. Could you tell us the make and model of your router? Also, are you using a network extender or repeater?

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

It's been some time since this thread was updated. Does anyone here need assistance?

Cheers,

Muddi

[Chuckee]

thanks for following up.

I don't think there's really anything to do at this point.

I've just come to accept the speaker ecosystem is somewhat buggy and unstable.

It's mostly ok most of the time. I hope the engineers figure out the bugs eventually. 

outstanding issues:

- adding/removing speakers from a playing speaker group is hit/miss in the Home app

- volume control by voice is temperamental

- is group speaker volume gone forever?..

[Muddi]

Hey Chuckee,

Thanks for the information. We appreciate all your feedback. About controlling the speaker group volume -  I don't have information on whether this feature is coming back, and unfortunately, don't have anything additional to share at this time. For adding/removing speakers from a playing speaker group, this feature is not officially supported.

We're always looking for ways to improve -- we'll take this as feedback, and we'll gladly pass it along to the team. You can also send feedback using your device by saying, "Hey Google, send feedback." Visit this link for more steps.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey Chukee,

Due to inactivity, I'll go ahead and lock this thread in 24 hours. Feel free to start a new thread if you need assistance with your Google speakers and we'd be glad to assist you further.
 

Cheers,

Muddi