Chromecast Ultra stopped showing the options menu for Youtube

[CAMeeks78]

Like it says above Chromecast Ultra stopped showing the options menu for YouTube. used to get a preview of stuff to choose from but it isn't there anymore. The mini says it is displayed on the screen and asks me to choose but nothing is there. If I say a number, it starts playing. Both dongles quit showing it at the same time. They both have the same firmware and I have even done a factory rest on one of them. It still isn't showing on the screen. Anyone have this issue before?

[JenniferV · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone,

We apologize for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience. Our team has identified the issue and is currently working on a fix. I'll keep this thread open and I'll let you know once we have news to share.

Thanks,

Jennifer

[Yo4]

I was adding onto another member's post to further describe the issue that somewhere in the background the videos do load. So, yes, that part works in my experience. You just can't see the options to select a video. Thought this might be more productive than simply complaining. 

[rhythmJedi]

You may be on to something there re login attachment.  Hrmm, if true that prob means this issue predominantly affects YouTube Premium (paid) users.  

[rhythmJedi]

C'mon you guys... They are 'aware'!!  That's why JenniferV has created duplicate threads, setting 3 of them to Solved under her name, with links to "See Solution in Original Thread".  You know, the Solution!!! The one that reads 'have identified and are working on a fix'; proving they understand & care by providing details like:

Issue# & Summary

Cause & Workarounds (if any)

Severity / Priority / Expected Fix 

They would never expect us to spend our time looking up Version Numbers, Model Numbers, or writing out our experiences, just to slap some cut-paste BS, pad their productivity numbers, and just outright ignore everyone affected... it's obviously just like 10 of us affected, right?

[314]

same problem here and mine has been going on since at least last April. its very frustrating when u can only randomly pick a number 1-20 and just hope its the one u would like to see , if not you have to repeat the same commands and different number till u find the vid that you like. and or rephrasing their command to hopefully bring up a different selection.. i have had too do this for so long i have figured out that if i do the ladder selections 1-3 of the 20 options in most cases seem to have better accuracy of what content you are trying to watch on youtube.. But yes it is very surprising seemingly what you would think is a simple issue that only happens with your speaker displaying youtube options on a google"XYZ.." TV that you want it to play on. That google team responsible for this could figure this out..  

[Paneerlovr]

I didn’t think it would have to come to this.

jenniferV at google, please PM me, I will join google as an employee and fix the bug once and for all.  It’s been so many months.

[Vtac]

Amazing, No solution yet? 

[lab3ll3]

I spoke with their tech. They assured me that subscribing to YouTube premium would fix the issue. Surprisingly, no it didn't... 

[Jaydem]

So disappointing, how is the functionality going backwards? 

[tappsz]

Just adding to the list - i have the same problem too. 

[RDBman]

Same problem for about three months now.

Can I get a link to how to revert to a previous version so that it will work again!?!

[MrReginald]

Also experiencing the same thing for a few months+. I'm glad it's a known issue but the way this threads gone in thinking praying to some higher power would yield better results. 

[Cakdgaf]

Rumor has it they cancelled Google stadia just so they could put more manpower into fixing this issue...

[NotSoSmartHome]

Starting to feel like more like Alphabet is canceling Google. 

[aegisgfx]

Ya Im massively losing faith in google products as more and more of them get canceled or just dont work anymore, and clearly no one is fixing them. Its all about planned obsolescence, they know eventually we'll all get sick and tired of waiting and they think we will all by their newest version of chrome or whatever, but me and the wife moved on to Amazon firesticks and we dont care about google products anymore. I dont think we will ever go back to google now for much of anything. They are a company on a slow sad decline.  ChatGPT is taking away all their search business soon, when they happens they will have nothing left. Good riddance to them.

[jrbtyrrell93]

My 2nd gen chromecast has been playing up recently, so thought I would upgrade it! The new Google chomecast with Google tv is awful!! 

Google tv is no good to me! I just wanted a plain chromecast. If I ask Google home to play YouTube it will load the Inbuilt YouTube from Google tv and then shows me options and then I have to use the remote to select. 

Would not recommend it to anyone who just wants to keep the same functionality as their old/current chromecasts! 

It also will not auto play if you request to play something on netflix! it has to open the app and then you have to click play! 

[jy12]

I'm so happy you brought this up!  I purchased the Chromecast with Google TV when it first came out so I could have 4K.  However, I quickly discovered that what I expected to be an upgrade felt more like a complete downgrade in functionality.  As someone with a disability, using voice commands is the only way I can watch content independently.  The new device requires use of the Google remote to select content, rendering the product completely inaccessible.  I was able to call Google (when I could still find a phone number) and was basically told that they would look into it.  That was years ago.  I have been using my old Gen 3 ever since, but I am very concerned that I will soon be helpless should this device stop working.

Google: What are you doing to ensure that your products are accessible for consumers like me?

[Lou89]

I am still having this issue on all of my devices has Google corrected it on their end? 

[NotSoSmartHome]

No. It's starting to look like Google is shutting down all together. Not just Stadia. 

[aegisgfx]

Yes its looking like google is a business on the way out... pretty sad but I guess it was inevitable. Seeing what I see I am not investing any anything google, no stocks, no products, no devices.

[JD1964]

You would think a billion dollar company would be able to fix an issue like this. They probably want people to start buying new products. I'm very disappointed that this issue is still happening.

[aegisgfx]

We moved on the Amazon firestick, they are amazing. I suggest everyone move on now, dont wait for google to do anything, they never will.

[Paneerlovr]

Yesterday, I asked nest mini, "Rewind the video 3 minutes", and "Rewind living room tv 3 minutes".  It's pauses as if it's sending chromecast a command, and then chromecast doesn't rewind, it just keeps playing the video as normal.  This is another thing that used to work and now does not work.

I wonder what's going on at Google these days.   It's beyond the bugs, I worry for the company.

[Darthdc]

Still an issue, what’s going on? Just brought up swapping over to amazon at this point….

[CAMeeks78]

I'm afraid the tvs I bought wouldn't work with Alexa. Not sure though.  They are Vizio

[Bobinva]

I have been experiencing The same issues listed above on a genuine Google home and Gen 2 Google home mini Chromecast standard and Chromecast ultra. But now the issue has gotten worse. The Google home Gen 1 no longer recognizes the commands to show or play videos from YouTube on Chromecast

[aegisgfx]

Lefts face it, google has abandoned the market and all their products, time to move on to a company like Amazon. They are doing it right and they take care of their customers.. something google seems to know Nothing about. I will NEVER buy a google product ever again, not hardware, software or services. they have simply lied 1 too many times.

[Firewife5]

I’ve had this same issue for months and this feature is one of the main purposes I bought this product .. to make our tv smart, be “hands free” but instead we are now blind to see options. After months of waiting for a fix I think they need to inform consumer  or pull the product until they can fix the issues or call Elon to fix it. 

[JonathanDuryea]

ha so true! I've had this issue for at least 6 months now. I'm very patient. But it's obvious now that the team has no interest in fixing this.

[aegisgfx]

Google has no interest in customers, period. Well it wont be long now and they will have none, then they'll be happy. 🙂

[Infinity_Core]

@Sundar Pichai.. This feature is not working for over few months now and many users have reported the issue but no resolution so far.. I never expected this kind of bad customer support from a company like GOOGLE. I am very much disappointed and will never recommend Google products unless this issue is resolved ASAP as many users who rely on voice assistant are being impacted.. 

[tappsz]

I have a son with learning difficulties that likes nothing better than watching videos of london tube trains and busses. I asked google to play london underground videos, it asks me to choose one, which obviously i can't see the options, so picked the first. It started playing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xsoxKrQo8 on the tv.

This is why we need this fixed, i can't trust anything it's going to play.

[MichiganGuy]

OMG that's awful !   Only thing I could think of is playing with parental control settings maybe? Hopefully that would filter your account!  A "PITA" work around though.  

[BambinoFan]

Been patiently waiting for 4 months now. What is the status of this issue? My stadia controller will be brick soon, hope this chromecast won’t.

[Rfdfler]

No, NOT resolved! 😞

Coming soon: Five google chromecast for sale or trade all for one Alexa or Echo Dot.

[zeenith]

Guess I'm adding myself to the growing list of dissatisfaction.

[aegisgfx]

Are you shocked or something? NOTHING on google works anymore, and they have never cared about customer satisfaction even from day one. I am not a fan of Amazon really, but their firesticks are amazing and we have 5 of them now. Google is rapidly going the way of the dodo.

[Eventidewolf]

Same issue was hoping to find a fix 🥴

[aegisgfx]

(fix coming in 99 years) lol as in never, its garbage like everything google.... just toss them in the garbage

[bcolins]

Adding myself to the list.  I have had the identical issue for many months.  In the past, "Hey Google show my Youtube videos of James Taylor" (or similar) would turn on my TV and sound bar, then show a lineup of various screenshots with titles of some of the choices, I could say "Show more" and it would scroll to the next group.  It would then ask "Which would you like" and after responding, it would begin playing that video.   

• Now, when I ask"Hey Google, show me youtube videos on 30 minutes of ocean waves" ( or similar) the google home mini asks which one I would like to watch,  but the TV/soundbar have not turned on,.....whe I guess,..."Play number one" it THEN turns on my TV and Soundbar, and begins playing whatever choice number one was.

[Grahamfish]

Exactly the same issue with me: ask to play a YouTube video my chromecast connected TV and my home mini says choose from options that are not displayed. So... take a guess. Broken for a few months now. Also noticed that all of my five Nest/Home minis are now less responsive and have listening errors as if they now don't hear the first few words of a command after the initial "hey Google". It's pretty obvious that there has been a pretty catastrophic update screw-up!!! Does anyone know how to roll back or restore minis (and Google Home) to firmware versions of about a year ago? As with a lot of posts here now considering competitors (Amazon etc.)