Casting to google cast very buggy

[andy_chadwick]

I have Youtube Music and Spotify. Youtube Music connects to all the speakers in my speakers' groups with no problem but Spotify seems to work some days and then not others. It always has the "connection beep" but doesn't always connect.

[Vasil]

Hey @andy_chadwick,

Does the issue occur only when your account tries to connect to the speakers or is it an overall issue with any Spotify account that tries to connect? Does it occur with multiple devices?

And when you get the connection bleep but the playback doesn't switch, which device is displayed as a playback device in your app?

In addition to these questions, please restart your router and check if there any firmware updates for your Google devices 🙂
Let us know how things go, we'll be on the lookout for your response!

[joecolorado]

Plan

Premium

Country

USA

Device

Samsung S22 Ultra, Samsung Tab 7FE,  Dell running W10 

Operating System

Android, Windows 10

My Question or Issue

I have been using Google Cast before, but none of my Google Cast devices are connecting at the moment to Spotify. Other devices, such as Echo Show work instantly and fine. But for the Google Cast devices it is trying to connect, I get the typical connect jingle and the .. nothing happens, Music stops playing and if I start playing, it keeps running on my phone or PC, wherever I started the Google Cast.

I tried this with two Android and a Windows 10 device.. same behavior

[joecolorado]

I want to add: When trying to connect to my JBL soundbar via Google Cast on Spotify, the display on the soundbar shows "Chromecast", which means that it should be connected, but Spotify does not start playing, instead, the connection just disappears again.

I logged out and in from Google Home, Spotify, unlinked and relinked both accounts.. to no avail

[AnalogMan]

Plan - Premium

Country - USA

Device - iPhone 12

Operating System - 16.4.1

Issue - 

Spotify no longer connects to my SpotifyConnect devices. I can see the devices (speakers) listed in the 'devices' menu, but when I select one to try and connect, it gets stuck with a 'connecting' message and never connects.

The iPhone has the latest OS update. I have deleted and reloaded the Spotify app, and have restarted the router several times. None of this helped. 

Help please? Thank you!

[Dian]

Hey @AnalogMan,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

What are the devices you want to use through Connect?

Have you tried changing the network connection?

Keep us posted,

Cheers!

[joecolorado]

Anybody having an idea? Still not working after weeks of issues

[Lyubka]

Hey @joecolorado,

Thank you for this post and apologies for the delayed response.

Great troubleshooting so far! What we can suggest now is that you start off by checking this page out and trying the troubleshooting steps mentioned under "Don't see your device?" & "Connect not working" parts of the article.

In case the above steps don't help, we'd recommend that you make sure you've set up Chromecast correctly and that all the devices are connected to the same network. 

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.

[joecolorado]

Hello @Lyubka

Thank you for the response.

These instructions did not help tp resolve the issue.

Here are the latest tests:

1. I tried to connect from my Android phone, Android tab (both using the latest app) and the PC using the web player.

2. I connect to Cast groups, individual Google Cast devices and an Echo Show. All of them are on the same network

3. The Google Cast devices were power cycled. Google Cast via Youtoube works fine.

4. The Echo Show connects to Spotify and plays Music

5. On Spotify the devices connect, Spotify says it is streaming to the soundbar or the connected devices (green bar ar the bottom), but no music is played - silence. After a few seconds the connection stops and Spotify is playing again on the local device (phone, PC)

Especially 3. and 4. are proof to me that this is a Spotify - Google Cast issue

Joe

[jeffkissel]

Plan - Premium

Country - USA

Device - Google Pixel 7 Pro

Operating System - 13, including latest security update (5/5/23) and play system update (4/1/23)

Description:

Everything was working fine on May 5th. I was able to successful use Spotify Connect to connect from my phone to various audio devices around my house (chromecast and google-home/nest displays) throughout the day with no issue.

On either May 6th or May 7th, something broke and now I can not longer play spotify through any of my other devices. I have checked and updated software/firmware on all of my devices, I have uninstalled/reinstalled Spotify on my devices, I have flushed the cache within the apps (both desktop and android), I've rebooted all of my streaming devices anything and everything I can, all with no luck.  

Previously, using spotifyconnect meant that I could have music playing and control it either via my android phone or my desktop app, or even my CarThing that I have sitting at my desk.

I stumbled onto a post that suggested trying to connect via the open.spotify.com URL, and using a web browser on my desktop computer, I --CAN-- connect to my speakers, however my desktop app (that resides on the same machine) and my phone will not sync up to show what I'm listening to elsewhere. I also can issue a voice command to google assistant and can get music to start, but again, no functionality/sync back to my phone. (e.g. "Hey google, play my 80s best playlist using spotify on [device name]")

To me, this points towards a spotifyconnect issue, and I would almost say it is certainly an android and ios issue, but here's another wrinkle.  My wired XBOX.

I typically will queue up some music while I play certain games, but at this point, I cannot get music to play through the xbox app. It wouldn't actually play anything, so I tried uninstall/reinstall, and now I cannot get spotify for xbox to authenticate. It defaults to wanting me to use spotifyconnect via my phone, but as stated above, that's having issues. So then I tried to authenticate via logging into the website with a code supplied by the xbox app, and that wouldn't let me progress to playing music either. I could finally get it to a place where it showed my username for logging in, but it would not let me progress past that point.  And again, this is hard-wired to the network via ethernet, it is not connected to the wifi, and worked perfectly fine until after May 5th.

[tuneage]

Plan: Premium

When: started a few weeks ago.

Pixel 6a, up to date (Android v13), Spotify 8.8.36.521: can't connect to any Chromecast device in the house (connecting... connecting... nothing happens). ANY other app with Chromecast functionality on the same phone connects fine and quickly (such as Soundcloud or Plex)

Windows 11 22H2 (22623.746)/Spotify 1.2.11.916.geb595a67: same thing, can't connect to any Chromecast device in the house (connecting... connecting... nothing happens). On the same Windows machine, Chrome 113.0.5672.93 connects instantly with no problem to any of the devices, including from Spotify via the browser.

Troubleshooting steps taken (given that it works on both phone and laptop to any device from any app other than Spotify it's quite obvious there is an issue with Spotify, but here it is anyway)

• All Chromecast devices are up to date
• All Chromecast devices have been rebooted
• Phone and laptop have been rebooted
• Both are as up to date as possible
• Cache has been cleared for the the phone app.

To get the Spotify team to pay attention to this issue, it is wise for the people with this issue to consolidate into a single thread (click the Me Too or the Like button). So while the issue is also on the Windows desktop app, I'm opening a single issue here on android because there is more activity in the Android section than the Windows section. For the same reason, I will be cross posting to the other threads I found suggesting the same issue to have them post here.

[joecolorado]

I did not change anything, but all the sudden the Google Cast works again. I have tried several settings today and yesterday and they are all operative again. Sounds like Spotify fixed their problem (at least for me)

[Lyubka]

Hey @joecolorado,

Thank you for your reply and confirmation.

We're glad to hear that everything works as it should for you again 🙂

@tuneage, @jeffkissel folks, we hope you don't mind us moving your posts here in this thread. Could you please check if you'll be able to connect your Chromecast devices now?

In case you're still experiencing this, we'd recommend that you remove access for Google form your Apps and then add it again. You can do that with the following steps:

1. Log in to your Apps page.
2. Click REMOVE ACCESS.

Hope this helps. We'll be on the lookout for your updates. 

[tuneage]

removing app access then restarting the windows nor the android app work for me.

[joecolorado]

I tried all this myself on Windows and Android, to no avail. Since it started working "out of the blue" again I presume that the problem was on the Spotify side

[jeffkissel]

@Lyubka I'm still not able to connect.  I've disconnected all google products (maps, google, and clock), rebooted my phone, as well as my router, and my android app hasn't changed.  I'll hear the "connecting" sound, but it won't actually connect. 

What HAS changed is that I can now use my windows app to connect to my google devices, but my phone is still stuck in the twilight zone.  I've rebooted it multiple times, tried clearing the cache, and even uninstalled/reinstalled the app.

I have not had a chance to test on the xbox.

[Susan_GP]

Hi @jeffkissel,

Thank your for trying the steps provided.

We understand you've already reinstalled the app on your phone, but we'd suggest doing a clean reinstall. This is a more thorough process and sometimes helps. Additionally, open Spotify only on your phone and then ask Google from one of your Speakers (casting devices) to play something on Spotify. This might force the connection via Spotify Connect. Lastly, if you can, try using a different Internet connection on your mobile device; it could be your mobile data.

Keep us posted!

[joecolorado]

I stand corrected... It workED for a couple of days and all the sudden, out of the blue I have the same problems than before.

Again, same problem from Android and Windows. It works with an Echo Show but not with Google Cast

[joecolorado]

Still not working again

[joecolorado]

I cannot help it, but the connection between Spotify and Google Cast is unreliable and a big fustercluck 🙂

Fix it Mr. Spotify