Chromcast Shutting Off While Inactive

[MintChoco484]

I leave my TV on so my dog has background noise when I leave the house. Recently when I come home, the TV is off and I suspect it's because the Chromcast has been "inactive" for 2-3+ hours. My settings haven't changed and it's still set to be on for at least 8 hours before shutting off. So far each time it's been while playing YouTube TV, so I'm not sure if it would happen on Spotify, YouTube. I've done a restart as well and it still happens.

[kelanfromgoogle · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

Thank you for your patience. Our team is aware of this issue and is actively investigating to find a fix. In the meantime, if you wish to prevent your Chromecast from powering off due to inactivity you can navigate to Settings > Developer options > Stay awake and toggle that option.

To enable developer options on your Chromecast with Google TV navigate to your device settings > System >  About > Android TV OS build, and then press the Select button on the remote about 7 times. This process will enable the developer options on your device.

Please stay tuned to the community forum, we will communicate as soon as a fix is identified and on the way.

Thank you,
Kelan

[JRANyaj04]

I know there are posts similar but I don't know if there is closer to what I'm experiencing. 

Out of no where, because it didn't use to do this, but my chromecast will shut down completely. I have ambient mode on it but even if I'm watching live TV and it's supposed to stay on and keep playing, it will just turn off. No ambient mode. But complete black screen to where my TV says "nothing connected to the HDMI" and make my TV shut off due to inactivity. 

Then I can't turn it back on with the chromcast remote, it won't turn on if I'm casting to it, it stays off until I turn on my TV with my original TV remote and then turn on my chromceast with my remote. 

The thing that I don't understand the most is that it isn't inactive!! It's playing something and it still does all this. It would use to stay on for days even on ambient mode but not anymore. 

It's just a pain, I've done checked all the settings I've unplugged, I've done a reset, and nothing has helped.

I use this for my daughter's room so I can simply put on whatever she asks for from my phone. And she uses this as her background noise while she sleeps. So I have to always get up in the middle of the night to go fix her TV if she wakes up and notices its off. 

If this is the same thing as the others and I just got to wait for the update, let me know when that will be cause I need it asap!

Thank you.

[anthonyct]

Sounds like you have the same issue as the rest of us. 😕 Following the steps to enable developer mode and turn on stay awake will probably fix your issue.  Ambient mode wont turn on by itself and will have to be manually started but aside from that there are no other side effects that I've noticed.

(Settings -> System -> About -> [Android TV OS Build]) Select Android TV OS Build and press the button on the remote a bunch of times (7ish) until a message saying you have enabled developer mode shows up.

then

(Settings -> System -> Developer options -> [Stay awake])  Set Stay awake to enabled/on.

Hope this fixes you as well! 🙂

[GinXeng]

Side effect is that even with this setting on, after 4 hours ambient mode still gets kicked off and the device remins on the home screen, but at least it still remains on. 

[FLmickey90]

I'm having the same issue as I leave both of mine on (one in living room and one in my bedroom) on for my cat when I go to work.  I just got them this past friday and I thought I had it set up to where neither would shut off, and thought I missed a few things when they were off when I got home Monday.  I checked and made a couple of changes and they went  off again yesterday!  I've looked everywhere for this "DEVELOPER OPTIONS" and I can't seem to find it in my settings.  Looks like this has been an ongoing issue for quite some time and it's now September and it's STILL happening!  

[wvgambill72]

Theres a simple fix to this stop using google products then maybe they will get the point look i know alot of dont like amazon products but like one person in earlier reply said she left her tv on for her cats I leave my tv on for my dog on when I go errends or go visit my mom in rehabiltation center thats nearly 2 hours from my house so I leave the tv on for the dog because she get really upset when she alone and with the amazon fire stick you have no issues with the tv screen going on for atleast 8 hours just my thoughts on this issue between this and the pixel phone that ended being junk I think im done with anything made by google

[Wrybread]

I came up with a workaround "fix" for the issue, in a nutshell if simulate a screen touch every 5 minutes the Chromecast will stay awake. And it still allows the screensaver to start, unlike enabling "stay awake" mode. 

I made a Python script that does that, details and link here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Chromecast/comments/16xejb8/a_fix_to_keep_chromecasts_from_going_into_stand...

[christophermcg]

You guys!!! AN UPDATE HAS BEEN RELEASED! I had to hit check for update twice but fingers crossed this fixes our issues!!!

[Chook71]

Just checked mine and nothing as yet (I'm in Australia) 

I'll check again over the next few days. 

I'll be honest not holding my breath that the problem will be fixed. They have made it pretty clear with most of their products that once they have your money they don't care about providing any level of support. 

[smity911]

Same location, same result. Wouldn't be surprised if they fixed it tho considering I found a workaround today that doesn't effect the screensaver or any other apps lol.

[MSLongIsland]

I installed this update, and I can confirm that it did not fix the issue. 😡 I'm still in the process of moving all my photos to Apple, otherwise I would have already switched to an Apple TV.

[Wrybread]

Wow, the new update that Google just pushed to the Chroecasts doesn't fix this bug. That is truly amazing. Honestly we should all be asking for refunds, this is shockingly careless of Google.

[Chook71]

Been asking for my money back via a support case. They have only offered to replace the device if it fits within their warranty terms. 

I have asked them what the point is of replacing the unit when the issue is due to a software update pushed out by Google so any replacement device will be updated during the setup process sending me back to square one. Googles response, they closed my support case. 

[kookatron]

This is a major bummer. I've already added my two star review on Amazon....not sure what else I can do. They have basically made this product worthless for me, the entire reason i bought it was to leave it on ambient mode.

[kookatron]

this is a straight up joke. Seriously disappointing. We can't be the only people experiencing this issue?

[Chook71]

You have to give google one thing. The level of support they offer is consistent across all their products, Sh!t!.

I will be receiving new none-google cameras today to replace these NEST POS that have not worked correctly from day 1 and have only gotten worse over time. 

NEST WiFi devices are just useless constaintly going offline. It was 2-3 times a week until recently when they released an update, it's now 2-3 times a day. Good work Google. 

I persoanlly will NEVER be purchasing another Google device and will be telling anyne I know or anyone who asks to do the same.