Persistent skipping of podcasts and more

[Ercmasse]

Premium Plan

Canada

iPad (18.3.1) & Google Pixel 6 (15) casting to Google Home Assistant

We play bedtime stories playlists for my kids at bedtime. I cast from our iPad typically to a Google Home. The iPad is in the office next to our modem/router, and the Google Home is approximate 10 feet away across the hall. We have excellent Bell Fibe internet, with super fast upload and download speeds.

About 2 weeks ago two things started happening:

- the bedtime story playlists I play start frequently skipping to the end of the story 

- a story would start glitching out and skipping ( 10 sections, 7 sections, 10 seconds to 12 seconds, back to 10 seconds, back to 7 seconds for example).

I found at first that a clearing of the queue and restarting the app seemed to reset things enough, but this week has become completely untenable with no fixes. I have tried:

- casting from my cell phone instead of the iPad

- clean re-install of app

- clearing of the caches and storage

- changing google home device (replacing the kids one with one that was working in the living room). 

The issues persist. 

I don't see this as being a common problem with my searches online, and I feel like I've tried to do the things suggested. Any insight?

[Yordan]

Hey there, @Ercmasse,

Thanks for reaching out!

Just to confirm, have you tested if the issue would still occur with another Spotify account? Are you using separate accounts for the iPad and Google Pixel? If so, the issue might be coming from the network. It's worth checking if connecting all devices to another network would do the trick. You can ask a friend or a relative to create a mobile hotspot for you.

Should the issue persist, check if changing the network frequency to 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz, as well as the broadcast channel in the router's settings help. Something else you can try is disabling DHCP and altering the DNS to one of the public DNS' listed below (if possible, do this in the Google app as well):

Spoiler

- 8.8.8.8
- 8.8.4.4
- 9.9.9.9
- 1.1.1.1

Lastly, I'd recommend power-cycling the Google Home device by turning it off > unplugging it from the power outlet > waiting 1-2 min > plugging it back in.

Hope this helps! Cheers 🤘

[Ercmasse]

Yes - I've used two spotfity accounts within my premium account: one dedicated to the kids, and my personal one (as owner). I've used both accounts from my cell phone; I haven't logged into my account from the iPad. When switching google home devices last night the new one had been unplugged for most of the day.

It's worth noting that I don't seem to have playback issues with music - just podcasts / playlists with bedtime stories.  

We actually were on a different account over the weekend and we WERE NOT casting the device, just playing it in the room. We had similar skipping taking place. I will nonetheless, intentionally test from cellular data, and investigate network frequency. I'm pretty unfamiliar with those tasks, so if anyone has simple directions to offer before I muddle through youtube, it'd be appreciated.

[OscarDC]

Hey @Ercmasse,

Thank you for keeping in contact. 

It would be really helpful if you could test it with a different Wi-Fi network or a mobile data hotspot since this seems to be caused by network restrictions. So first, if you want to know how to activate a mobile data hotspot to connect your Google Home to, just follow the steps here for your Android device or the steps here for your iPad. Keep in mind that you need to have active mobile data on your devices for this to work.

On another note, if the other Wi-Fi connection worked better, we'd recommend changing the DNS setting directly from the Google Home app by opening the Home app and following these steps:
 

1. Tap Favorites
2. Tap Wi-Fi
3. Tap Settings
4. Tap Advanced networking
5. Tap DNS
6. Choose a public DNS server or enter one of the servers that @Yordan previously shared
7. Tap Save

Hope this helps. Let us know how it goes.