Google Casting to Smart Speakers constantly interrupted/stopped for no reason

[MrGlenn]

Plan

Premium

Country

Netherlands

Device

Google Pixel 6 Pro

Operating System

Android 14

App Version

8.8.92.700

My Question or Issue

Since there is no specific place for feedback/issues about Assistant/Google Casting integration I will put it here:

Since a while now (longer than a month) Google Casting to any Smart Speakers in my house is constantly being interrupted for no reason without any audible warning. It happens both on single Speakers and also in Speaker Groups.

Specifically the following things are occurring often:

• The sound just stops midway through a song, Spotify and Google Home app still show the music is active but there is no longer any sound coming from the Speakers.
• Playback just stops at the end of a song and it refuses to skip to the next song. Spotify and Google Home app show the song is active but goes beyond the maximum duration (screenshot attached).
• The music playback stops entirely. Spotify app no longers shows Speakers as active, but Google Home still shows them as Casting...

Resetting Speakers, App, WiFi, Rebooting does not make a difference at all. What is going on? I constantly have to restart playback this way which is super annoying!

[Sohaibahmadu]

• One reason could be that your Wi-Fi network is not stable or strong enough to support the streaming. You can try to improve your Wi-Fi signal by moving your router closer to your Chromecast and speakers, or by using a Wi-Fi extender.

• Another reason could be that your Chromecast or speakers are not updated to the latest firmware version. You can check for updates in the Google Home app on your phone or tablet, and follow the instructions to install them if available.

• A third reason could be that your Google Home app or your casting device (phone, tablet, or laptop) are not working properly. You can try to restart your app or device, and make sure they are connected to the same Wi-Fi network as your Chromecast and speakers. You can also try to clear the cache and data of your Google Home app, or reinstall it if necessary. 

• If none of these steps work, you can try to reset your Chromecast and speakers to their factory settings, and set them up again using the Google Home app. This can help fix any corrupted settings or data that might interfere with the casting. However, this will also erase any personalization or preferences that you have set for your devices, so you will need to configure them again after the reset

[MrGlenn]

Thanks for the suggestions, unfortunately none of those steps made a difference for me I had already ruled them out as the cause.

Especially the bug from my screenshot where Spotify keeps counting even after a song is finished (notice on my screenshot the song is 2 minutes 22 seconds, but Spotify says it is playing this song for 15 minutes 49 seconds???).

I have reset these devices and the connection between Google and Spotify without any effect.

Even using only the Voice Assistant to start playing music on these Speakers has the same issues, and then the Phone is not even involved. Very unreliable.

[Vasil]

Hey @MrGlenn,

Thank you for the detailed info!

I can see you've gone over the usual troubleshooting steps, sadly to no avail.
In this situation, I'd first contact the Google support folks to see what they can say on the matter.
We did some digging and noticed this is something that has already been asked in their forums, so it's worth to see what they'd have to say.
And, of course, we'll be on the lookout in case anything on our end is required.

Many thanks! Fingers crossed this will get resolved quickly for you.
Keep us posted on how things go 🙂

[MrGlenn]

Hi Vasil,

Any chance you could add the Google Support link to where you found this issue being talked about? I have not been able to find this issue being reported there. I'd love to check it out to see if that is related to my issues.

Also did you see my screenshot from the Android Spotify App from my OP? The Spotify app occassionally doesnt go to the next song at the end but keeps counting time forever (2:32 song, but timers says it is playing 15+ minutes???). That doesn't really seem like a Google issue does it?

[MrGlenn]

Unfortunately this issue still persists, and I cannot seem to find the "Google Support" thread that was referenced by the moderator. I cannot seem to find any rhyme or reason what can cause these sudden disconnects or audio drops or whatever they are. But it is super annoying.

[Vasil]

Hey again @MrGlenn,

Thanks for getting back to us 🙂
The main two threads we were referring to can be found here & here.
They do include some troubleshooting steps in case what's happening is a network-related issue.

What I'd first advise instead though is taking a look at the steps here to make sure you're connecting your Smart Speakers with Spotify the correct way.
If the issue continues to persist, judging from the fact that it occurs with or without an active connection between your device and the speaker, I'd also advise factory-resetting one of the speakers to see if that would make a difference. You've mentioned that you've already done a reset, so, if a factory reset is what you have been referring to, you can skip this step.

You could also try performing a complete clean reinstall of the app on your mobile device so that we can completely rule out any local app-related issues. The timer continuing after the song ends is bugging me as well and it seems it hasn't been mentioned on the forums so far.

Aside from these suggestions though, your best best would be to get in touch with Google by heading over to this page.
Hopefully they will know more about this.

Let us know how things go. We'll be on the lookout 🙌🏼

[MrGlenn]

Thanks for the links Vasil,

Unfortunately those specific threads on the Google Support forums are already locked, without a clear solution. I will have a look around there to see if there are any suggestions I have not tried yet.

As for right now, the situation remains: Spotify Casting to speakers/soundbars randomly stops even though Spotify Player still thinks it is playing. Strangely enough this only happens on dedicated speakers (i.e. Harman Kardon, Philips FB1), but not on Home/Nest Mini speakers.
As a workaround I put all my speakers on a separate 2.4Ghz WiFi network now and that seems to have improved the stability. However that shouldn't be necessary, most dedicated speakers/soundbars even prefer a 5Ghz or dual-band Wi-Fi setup so I cannot explain why the connection keeps dropping in that scenario.

[ListenerOmusic]

Replying to add I have the same issue, with a Google Pixel 8. The moment I connect to a wifi speaker the Spotify app becomes completely unusable. Music randomly stops, it won’t play more than one or two songs at a time, and if I change the order of the queue it just messes it up completely. Hope to get a solution for this!

[AR_44]

Having same issues, seems worst on speaker groups, but now even a speaker pair is an issue. I have no issues with other providers, radio and podcasts don't have same issues which is why I am looking here. Spotify support topics don't seem to exist even though history of issues? Used to work, is meaning I can't use the platform how I want and considering other providers, even though other than this very happy!

[MihailY]

Hey @ListenerOmusic,

Thanks for reaching out.

Please share the model of your speaker and your exact app version and let us know if you've tried any of the troubleshooting steps mentioned in the thread.

Cheers,

[funkycolours]

Same issue here also on Pixel 8. Have you found any solution so far?

[MrGlenn]

Unfortunately no. It's become a little more stable since switching the speakerst o 2.4Ghz Wifi, but still randomly stops playing new songs and frequently has to buffer during songs interrupting the playback.

[funkycolours]

Somehow it always stops for me with newer music. Older albums or playlists play with less disturbances. 

[ChrisAhlund]

@MrGleen I've recently noticed the same issue, and only on my Harman/Kardon and JBL speakers. This appers both with Spotify and TuneIn so I think it's more of a speaker/network issue since Nest speakers run a different Cast version then the other brands. I've contacted Harman/Kardon about this and I suggest you to the same (If more people report this then perhaps they take this issue more seriously). What type of router do you use? I got a TP-Link Deco X60 Mesh and I just fixed my Harman/Kardon to one of the nodes so it doesn't roam to see it that fixes the issue.

[MrGlenn]

Thanks for the suggestion.

In my case I have 3 different "brands", all on the same network behind a Synology RT6600 router with a very basic WiFi setup (no APs):

• Google home mini speakers: plays Spotify uninterrupted
• Harman Kardon Citation speaker: plays Spotify uninterrupted 
• Philips Fidelio FB1: constantly appears to be buffering songs and dropping playback entirely

I have reached out to Philips as well, but their support options are a bit of a dead end for everything that doesn't get resolved after a reset. That's why I ended up here instead, hoping to find at least some reasonable explanation.

In the end it seems like parts of the issue I was having (weird issues with the progress bar), have gone away. But the random buffering/dropouts during playback is still there.

[browri]

So I have a Bose Smart Speaker 500 WiFi connected and a Bose Soundbar 700 Ethernet connected. I usually leave the speaker group between them configured, but I've found that not only is the speaker group itself very unstable, I'm also unable to get a stable connection to the individual speakers if I don't need to cast to the group. So I actually went into Google Home and deleted the speaker group and bam the individual speakers both start cooperating. Sure I can't use a Google Cast speaker group anymore until they fix it, but I can still pair the speakers in the Bose app each time I need the group.

[funkycolours]

Removing my Google Chromecast groups worked for me as well. Now the music just continues to play without interruptions.

[MrGlenn]

Worth a try, but that didn't help my situation unfortunately. I'm using speakers of different manufacturers so there is no way outside of the Home app to connect them.

In the end it shouldn't be such a hassle to troubleshoot, but because you're dealing with so many different parties it's difficult to get one to take ownership...

[PatrickS22]

Same here, casting to group not functioning in the Spotify app, problem started 2 weeks ago. Casting to group works in Tidal...

Using S22 Samsung and Samsung tablet S9 with Riva speakers. Restarted everything, did not resolve issue.