audio drops on nest mini

[jacksnead]

Spotify (Premium account) keeps stopping randomly when I play through Google Nest Mini.  I have determined it is only a spotify issues.  Sometimes it can play several songs, sometimes it will stop after 1 song, sometimes mid-song. Sometimes after 30 seconds. It's very random. I have had this issue since day 1 of buying my Google Nest mini
After the connection drops to google nest mini, I get the error message from "sorry, something went wrong, please try again later".  I have contacted google support. They helped me determine it's only a Spotify issue and that they are aware of it.

• I tried to clear the cache of Spotify. Both in app and in Android.
• This did NOT resolve the issue.
  
  
• I tried re-linking Spotify to my Google Nest mini AND clearing Spotify cache.
• This did NOT resolve the issue. 
  
  
• I upgraded my apps to latest versions (Spotify + Google Home).
• This did NOT resolve the issue.
  
  
• I reset the Google Nest mini. 

[Zemos]

Same issue, still not fixed.

[Ver]

Hey folks,

Thanks for getting in touch with us 🙂

We'd suggest you give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. This is more thorough than the usual reinstall. If that doesn't help, it's a good idea to restart the router.

Does the issue occur with another device? That way we can check if it's a device-related issue.

Keep us posted! We'll be right here if you have any further questions.

[Ed_Kean]

Hi,

I ran through the steps to do a hard uninstall and nothing has changed. This is really frustrating. I play music to help my kids sleep,so when it cuts out all helll breaks loose. 

(Also, please don't censor my minor curse words...)

It happens on my phone and my wife's. 

PLEASE RESOLVE THIS ISSUE. 

[Jeremy]

Hey there @Ed_Kean,

Thank you for your post in this thread. We're happy to help.

Can you relink your Spotify to Google Nest mini?

It's also good to make sure that both are running the latest versions.

If that doesn't do the trick, can you let us know which version of the app you have?

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[DerFern]

Even though I am not the creator of the opening post, but I do have the same issue and tried all of the hints above. Additionally, I also contacted @SpotifyCares on Twitter who cleared my offline cache, but that didn´t help, either.

So, to sum it up:

Playback on my Nest Audio stops occasionally without any replicateable pattern. It works perfectly fine on both of my Google Home Mini, a Chromecast Audio and the integrated Chromecast on my AndroidTV.

It stops no matter what device I´m streaming from: Android Smartphone, Tablet, straight from a voice command or Windows10 LaptopPC.

It happens with Spotify only. Various other streaming apps work fine without any disconnections.

Some technical informations:

Spotify Family Premium Account

App Version (Android): 8.6.12.986

App Version (Windows): 1.1.55.498.gf9a83c60

Nest Audio Firmware: 231584

Cast-Firmware: 1.50.231584

[Jeremy]

Hey there @DerFern,

Thank you for your reply and for letting us know all of the troubleshooting steps you've taken so far.

Can you log in with another account - such as a friend's or a family member's to see if the issue persist?
 

We'll keep an eye out for your reply.

Take care!

[DerFern]

Yes, I´ve tried it with my daughters account (streaming from an Android smartphone) which is linked to my premium family account. Apart from that I don´t have access to another one.

[Jeremy]

Hey again @DerFern,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

Can you confirm if you also hear "I get the error message", "sorry, something went wrong, please try again later", or if the music just stops playing?

It would also be great if you can give us more info on what exactly happens when it does and when this started happening?

Also, have you noticed if this happens when you use Connect and start playing from the app on a phone for example? Or, does it happen more often when you ask the Google Nest to start playing something?

Keep us posted 🙂

Take care!

[DerFern]

Before answering your questions, something that might be interesting: the problem only occurs while playing music. I´ve been listening to podcasts on and on for several hours without any interruptions. After that I started playing music again and playback paused again for several times.

Can you confirm if you also hear "I get the error message", "sorry, something went wrong, please try again later", or if the music just stops playing?

The music just stops playing without any further information. When I look at the Spotify App on my Android Smartphone, the song keeps playing according to the "progress line" (sorry, I can´t seem to find the right word). If it keeps running, sometimes the timestamp is something later than the actual length of the song. 

It would also be great if you can give us more info on what exactly happens when it does and when this started happening?

As previously mentioned, nothing special happens. Playback just stops and sometimes continues after a pause. However, other times I need to restart playback on the device or skip the song in order to start playback again. It looks like my devices always keeps the connection, as I don´t need to chose the Nest Audio device as the playback device again.

I started using the Google device on february 15th and it worked well for at least a week. I alway keep my apps and devices up to date, so the versions should always have been up to date.

Also, have you noticed if this happens when you use Connect and start playing from the app on a phone for example? Or, does it happen more often when you ask the Google Nest to start playing something?

As I use connect most of the time and chose my music on my smartphone or laptop PC, this is what I have most information from. Starting music from my voice command works and I use that occasionally as well, but not that often. I´ll keep an eye on this question and opt to start music that way. 

[DerFern]

Sorry for double posting, but here is a screenshot of what I was trying to explain. 

[Jeremy]

Hey there folks,

Thank you for your replies in this thread.

We frequently receive reports about issues with Chromecast and other Cast devices, but they all seem to be intermittent.

From what we understand, Google is aware of this, but we do not have any other info at the moment.

On our end, we're continuously making improvements and optimizations to the app, including the Connect functionality, so this could improve with time, but at the moment we cannot offer a direct solution.

We understand this can cause frustration. Thanks for understanding.

Take care!

[DerFern]

Well yes, this is heavily frustrating and disapponting. I just made an account on a competing streaming service for further testing purposes and so far (three days in) everything works perfect. 

I am a spotify customer for years and really love the huge collection of content I can choose from, but I really rely on this special device working perfectly, as it is located in the one room where about all of my family life happens. That being said, until this problem seems to be solved, I´ll use another streaming service. Too bad, as all of the other services don´t offer that variety of podcasts and obviously lack the exclusives, which are great. 

[lionhomestay]

I am still having the same problem with my Google Nest Audio speakers streaming via Spotify (Premium):
Music silences after playing 3-10 songs via Spotify Connect no matter from what device I am streaming to the speakers.

I've already tried all of this, nothing has changed anything:
- Disconnect the speakers from the power (I do this every day anyway, as they are switched off by a light switch)
- Install updates: I am using an iPhone 7 Plus with iOS 14.5.1 with the latest Google Home app
- Spotify logged off on all devices and completely removed and reinstalled on the Mac (where I mainly use it) including caches
- Google Home App: Reconnect Spotify account or link another Spotify account
- Google Home App: speakers set up again / rooms renamed / deleted / home deleted and set up again
- Google Home App + Google Assistant App removed and reinstalled
- Both Google Nest Audio speakers have been reset to factory settings
- Restart Routers / Repeaters / even change WiFi Frequencies of 5GHz signal (with dedicated SSID for 5GHz) The Wifi Signal is strong enough so that shouldn't be the problem. I use both a FritzBox Router Model 6490 and a repeater Fritz 1750e.

- Router: Automatic Port forwarding for all speakers including my Mac / Also tested "Exposed host" feature with one speaker (opens all incoming ports for a single device)

- Router: Unlimited access profile for alle devices (speakers + Mac)

- New Google Account (see below)

- Unpairing the stereo pair and testing single speakers / group instead of stereo pair ect.

Really frustrating, since the Google speakers explicitly advertise with Spotify, but that way it's really annoying.

Another problem that I thought could be related to it (but it isn't, see below)

When I deleted all home profiles in the Google Home app, you could also see that the app was still listing old speaker names (had created 3 different names as a test). I have no idea whether this is saved locally on the iPhone or in the Google account and it loads it again after a new installation. That also seems to be a well-known problem, but I haven't found a solution for the Iphone on the internet.
Is there a way to delete the Home App including all data (offline and online)? So far I haven't been able to do this because the app still had certain data stored somewhere.

Update: I even created a brand new Google Account just for the Nest Audio devices.
The problem seems to be gone at first since it was playing for several hours without interrupting. But then it came back again and it's not better than before.

I actually intended to keep the speakers, but it's difficult that way.

Report the issue to Google:

If you are experiencing the same problem and already did some basic troubleshooting I can only recommend to report this to Google.

Here is what Google answered me via Facebook Support Chat:

While our team is aware of this and is working on a fix, best to submit a feedback report with these keywords"GHT3, Spotify stop playing". Here's a guide: https://bit.ly/3gPfjbM

[Novy]

Hey @lionhomestay, 

Thanks for reaching out about this, and welcome to the Community 🙂

We appreciate the detailed report and all the troubleshooting you have already tried. As we mentioned, both us and Google are aware of this, but the issues seem to be intermittent and there are often long stretches of usage without difficulties.

The best educated guess we as moderators can make at this point with the information available to us, is that it is some sort of connection, home network setup or server load issue based on different factors, including actual region location.

We're also receiving more reports of this happening with the FritzBox brand of routers. We're constantly optimizing our code to alleviate this being caused by server load.

Also, keep in mind that if you uninstall an app on iPhone, all saved data should be automatically removed. If you still see old names, it seems speaker configuration is saved either locally on the speaker memory itself or in the cloud, but this is something that Google would be able to answer in a better way.

Lastly, many of us also personally use the Google Home speakers and definitely understand why you chose and like them. From time to time, the same thing happens to some of us as well, although it usually is just for a short while and then it's all good for long periods of time. We hope this will only get better in the future, especially for those who are having bigger issues.

Don't hesitate to let us know if anything else comes up. We're always a message away.

Have a good one.

[lionhomestay]

Hello Novy,

thanks for your reply. I have tested a few more things (also added them to my previous post) but unfortunately with no result in the end. Some changes were promising but it always came back to a state where it's interrupting every 3-5 songs, sometimes a few more, sometimes less. I also ordered new speakers to see if the problem is related to the Google speakers (although I already saw here on the forums that other speakers brands are affected too). If the new speakers solve the problem I can post it here. Best wishes

[Eni]

Hi @lionhomestay, 

Thanks for the troubleshooting steps you've tried and for all the info you've sent us so far. 

Take your time to test with the new speakers and let us know how it went. 

Have a great day 🙂

[DerFern]

An odd thing I realized lately:

Following my last reply I´ve cancelled my Spotify premium family membership but still use it occasionally with a free account. So far I had no problems while streaming Spotify from this free account.

So as soon as the payment period on YT Music is over, I´ll give Spotify another try and hope that the problem is solved in general. Otherwise it´d seem like it is only a problem if you´re using a premium account, which would be the worst promotion for that kind of service. I´ll report as soon as I have some more insight.

[lionhomestay]

I can also confirm that the issue seems to be gone now 🙉 (unfortunately not, see below)

Streaming music yesterday and today for several hours without a single interruption. That was definitely not possible before.
Could have sworn that it was related to the final change with my WiFi connection I made yesterday (relocated the repeater much closer to the speakers and also set it up as a LAN bridge). But as I placed it back to its original location (to see if I can reproduce the issue) everything continues to be just fine throughout the whole day. So that makes me skeptical if it's related to any of the changes I made. Or maybe my repeater just needed a final restart again after all the minor changes I did before? No idea. Anyone else who can confirm the issue is gone?

It would be interesting to know if there were any very recent updates by Spotify resolving this issue?

Edit: I noticed that there was an update of the Spotify app on my Macbook on May 21st. So maybe shortly before that there was an update for the Spotify app installed on my speakers? IDK 
Changelog / Release notes  for the app would be helpful sometimes.

🙈The issue came back unfortunately:

Maybe it's really just a WiFi issue (and Spotify Connect needs a more reliable connection than other audio streaming services).
Back with my repeater LAN bridge setup (WiFi access point connected to a Ethernet cable in the same room) the issue seems to be gone right away. Let's see, I will monitor it further.

[lionhomestay · Accepted solution]

After testing audio streaming with my Google Nest Audio speakers via Spotify Connect for many days I am very sure now that at least in my scenario the cause for those audio drop outs is only related to WiFi quality (signal strength and also data rate in Mbit/s).

I figured out that for whatever reason Spotify needs a much more stable connection than other audio streaming services (Youtube Music Premium worked perfectly right away). I also tested low audio quality setting with Spotify at the beginning but there were interruptions too. Also the bitrate for the nest audio devices shown in my router (300 Mbit/s roughly out of 433 Mbit/s) seemed ok to me since it was just for audio streaming I thought.

🥁Solution:
After switching back to my repeater LAN bridge setup (WiFi access point connected to a Ethernet cable in the same room) the issue was gone right away and stayed that way. Signal strength was -72dBm before and -55dBm after switching to LAN Bridge setup (+ full 433 Mbit/s data rate). Also WiFi antennas of those smart speakers are probably quite weak, Nest Mini might be even worse.

Different tests with repeaters:
Since I needed to put the repeater back to the original place (1 floor below) my plan was to replace the existing repeater Fritz Repeater 1750E by the new 2400 model. Unfortunately that didn't work out. WiFi range was only slightly better and not enough for Spotify. Also using the 2 repeaters in a row did not work out. Signal strength was better but data throughput / latency was not good enough).

So if you live in a house with several floors with the router in the basement and you want to stream music via Spotify to your smart speakers in the top floor it's probably not a good idea 🙂 As long as you don't mind spending some extra time and money for repeaters / access points. Not sure how I decide but I don't want to have / buy some additional access point in my room just for listening to Spotify via my speakers. Maybe good old headphones again.