We couldn't authenticate

[Sskiwisi]

When i try to connect then its showing me

 

[Phlegmish]

Wish I knew this before resetting my Chromecast today. Now it's useless like everybody else here.

[abduzzz]

But now there is a solution, so you should be fine. 

If you can't setup it using the Home app, set it up with the remote.

• Then be sure to update the Google TV/Chromecast (there is a new update available)
• Then do a factory reset through the settings menu
• You should now be able to set it up with the Home app and get remote functionality working with your TV again.

[topstan]

Unfortunately, I don't think this solution works for some of us.  In my case, if I try to set up with the remote, while it connects to the router it cannot connect to the internet although every other device I have (computers, phones and the like) can.  I am convinced that the device cannot get the network time and date and therefore will not play.  Since you cannot set it up with enter the app or remote, you are dead in the water.  You cannot download the update.  Even so, I should note that I have two other devices.  They are working since I have never reset them, but they cannot get the network time.  I have to set it manually, then they can connect to the internet.  I have a TP Link 6600 router and have gone over the settings thouroughly.  They look correct and as I say all other devices can get the time.  I have even set up the chromecast in the DMZ, so the router should not matter, but it still cannot be setup either with the app or the remote.  If anyone has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

[AndreasGr]

Is there any uodates on this? Setting up via the remote leads to me not being able to cast from my phone, which is what I really bought the thing to do. 

[MtnMinded]

Same same here. Chromecast has been working for months but within Google Home it says Chromecast was part of another home. I factory reset Chromecast and now I get "couldn't authenticate Chromecast " regardless of how I setup.

[antigeist]

Has anyone found a solution? We had a powercut for a few hours and I haven't been able to connect.

[SVENgee]

Hello all,

I now also have this authentication problem.
I have reset the Chromecast 4k to factory settings twice, unfortunately without success. I have now set up the device manually via the TV and assigned a cast name via the settings. No matter what I try, I can't cast anything to the device via smartphone. Older models are not affected and work as usual.

I use Unifi Dream routers and Nano HD access points.

Greetings from Cologne / Germany
Sven

[SVENgee]

Since yesterday the Chromcast is back home 😄
The device was again accessible via the share button in YT and could also be assigned to a room again.
I was also able to rename the 4K Chromcast again via the Home app.
Originally I had manually registered the device via the TV and hadn't done anything since.

Welcome back 😄

[abduzzz]

Great news! Has anyone else tried this again and able to confirm that it is indeed functioning normally again? 

I'm just being lazy and don't feel like resetting and setting up again if it is still not working 🤷‍

[topstan]

Nothing has changed for me.  I still get the "cannot authenticate" when trying to set up with the app and if I try to connect manually, it says "cannot find" my network, even though the network is up and every other device and computer can see it.  I am somewhat convinced that my particular problem has to do with the chromecast not being able to get the network time, even though the time on the network is correct.  This network time issue has been going on for a number of users for at least a year.  There are a number of videos on YouTube that tell you just to go to Setup and set the date and time manually to "fix" the problem when the chromecast can't access the internet.  I had this problem and the "fix" worked for me, but it never seemed right to me that the chromecast couldn't get the network time when everything else could, so I did a full reset to see if setting up again would fix the problem.  It did not.  Instead, I ended up unable to set up either with the app or manually.  I suspect the problem the device had with getting the network time has spread to the initial setup procedure.

[damithdh]

This is annoying and it is still going on. It worked out of the box few months ago. How can you not find a solution for two weeks.

[Kyle8]

Same issue, I've had the Chromecast with Google TV and last week it lost connection, so I did a factory reset. Now I can't connect with the phone (auth error), and when I enter the WiFi manually with the remote it says it "Couldn't find xxx", nothing seems to connect...

[RicoG1]

I had issue to connect the chromecast 4k after FDR. Received updates from support to try set up manually. Was able to setup manually just couldn't setup remote control volume buttons to work directly with TV volume settings. But there is an option to set up the volume buttons on chromecast setting under Bluetooth settings. Will be a little helpful but not full possibility to access full TV volume, only the volume was set by TV remote. Not easy to describe but possible someone who face same issue with setup manually the chromecast will help. 

[topstan]

What were the updates you received from support?  I would be delighted to get my chromecast working in any capacity.  Right now I can't get it working with the app and I also cannot set it up manually.  So the device is dead in the water.  I have two other devices that are working OK except they cannot get the network time and I have to set it manually.  No way I am going to do a factory reset on those, because I suspect they all would become nonfunctional.

[RicoG1]

From nest support i was advised to setup the chromecast manually and they provided me the link for this community centre.

[topstan]

Thanks for the quick reply.  Unfortunately that won't help me as I can't use the app and when I try to do it manually it can't see the internet even though everything else going through the router can see it.  I am convinced it's because the device cannot get the the date and time through the internet and so it won't play and there is no way (that I know of) to set the date and time for the device manually since it's not up and running yet.  Anyway, again, thanks because otherwise I would be holding out hope for a special link to a firmware upgrade or beta app that might fix the problem.

[Kyle8]

I almost found a solution if you did a factory reset. You can temporarily disable your WiFi's encryption, and set security to none. I used my phones wifi hotspot to get past the initial setup with the remote and no wifi encryption.

This is absolutely horrible to require, but once it finished setting up, I then connected to my home wifi and re-enabled the encryption on my phone's hotspot, but now I still can't get it to connect to my primary WiFi hotspot. If anyone gets further please let me know. 

[Kyle8]

Small update: Unfortunately I didn't check what firmware version, I was on before this but, I flipped back to my insecure hotspot and found there was a new firmware version STTE.230319.008.H1 was available, but after updating it still didn't fix anything. Both with the time set automatically or set manually.

[Pherreyra]

I had this issue a couple of days ago, so I just set it up manually. Today I factory reset it again and I was able to set up the device via the Home app without issues.

[abduzzz]

I'm one of those who has been experiencing this issue with no solution that worked.

After reading your post, I decide will try factory reseting again to see if it will finally work again.

There was a new update available, so tried updating, just incase that would fix it without the Factory reset.  Nope that didnt fix it.

After updating, I tried Factory Reseting and indeed it did work from the first try. 

So thank you for sharing and I guess they finally fixed this issue.

[abduzzz]

I'm one of those who has been experiencing this issue with no solution that worked (post somewhere above).

After reading a few of the recent posts, I decide to try factory reseting again as they mentioned.

There was a new update available, so tried updating, just incase that would fix it without having to Factory reset.  Nope the update didnt fix it in that instance.

After applying the update, I tried Factory Reseting (as previous users mentioned) and indeed it did work ...and from the first try. 

So I guess it's safe to say they finally fixed this issue.

[Brett_]

After seeing others have varying degrees of success I factory reset and tried logging in again. Setup with the Home App didn't work, but I was able to setup manually with an alternate Google account and update the Chromecast. After doing the update I factory reset again and then was able do the setup in the Home app with my primary Google account. 

[kelanfromgoogle · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

As many of you already discovered - we started rolling out a new firmware update that contains a fix for this issue. It might take a couple of weeks for everyone to automatically receive this new build, but you can manually download it by following these steps: ​​https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/6292664 

If you continue to encounter an authentication error when trying to connect your Chromecast with Google TV via the Google Home app after updating to STTE.230319.008.H1 please reach back out to us.

Thank you again for your patience. 

Best,
Kelan

[taricjain]

Hey, but in this situation we're stuck with the current firmware version that the Chromecast shipped with. At this point I cannot access the settings through the UI since the setup isn't complete. how am I supposed to force it to upgrade when I can't use the UI. The link you provided tells us how to upgrade from the settings tab of the UI. But I'm on the setup page with no way to get to the settings page 

[kelanfromgoogle]

Hey @taricjain 

Are you running into the authentication error during setup with the Google Home app? If so, you can use the Chromecast Voice Remote to set up the device on your TV (see screenshot below). 

After setup, you can navigate to settings and update to the new firmware build, following the same instructions linked above. I hope that helps!

Thanks,

Kelan