Spotify won't play in Chromecast Audio Groups with Vizio Soundbar

[imzac]

I've contacted Google and Vizio for this issue and both were clueless. 

I purchased VIZIO SB3821-C6 2.1 Channel Sound Bar with Chromecast built in. I created a group to a speaker in my kitchen using a standard Chromecast Audio. 

I can cast to each fine invidually, but when they are grouped together only the kitchen speaker gets any sound while using Spotify. It works perfectly if I use another source. e.g., Pandora, Google Play, etc. 

Greatly appreciate the help!

[cprimous]

Having exact same issue.  Only Spotify exhibits this behavior.  Other music apps play to the Chromecast Audio Groups just fine.

[ndebniak]

Dont know what the fix is, but i too am having the EXACT same issue. I cannot get spotify to go to the kitchen and my vizio soundbar at the same time. Independently yes. Other apps will do both. Just not spotify. Super annoying. 

I have an iPhone. Not sure if its an iOS thing.

[imzac]

I'm just glad to hear it's not just happening to me. Was worried it was a soundbar issue. 

[MGMCKENZIE]

Same exact problem here when using my Vizio Soundbar and Vizio Crave 360 speaker. When streaming to a chromecast group from Spotify, it will only play to one speaker at a time, even though when I use my phone's volume buttons it is picked up by the soundbar and the LEDs light up to tell you that volume is changing, even though music isint actually playing.....ALL other APPS work fine and stream to both.

Dissapointed Spotify hasn't responded to this thread as the problem is definately on their end, maybe its time to switch services.....

[Mikevan2004]

Same here. Sound bar and Chromecast audio plugged into a studio monitor. I've noticed occasionally when I switch from one device to the other (individually) I hear a message from Spotify on one of the speakers "we're sorry but Spotify has stopped play because it is playing on another device". I have premium, so I assume this is a Spotify glitch where it considers the grouped devices as separate. It's weird that when the group is selected that I can see the volume lights changing up and down but no sound is coming out of the speaker.

[magnusholmqvist]

Hey,

Sorry about this.

For grouping to work you need Cast firmware 1.20 or newer in your speakers.

/magnus

[ndebniak]

Any idea how to do that on the soundbar? My firmware is up to date. Thanks

[MGMCKENZIE]

My software is up to date on all speakers being used.....Still a problem.

[cprimous]

Can you please elaborate?  My soundbar is up to date. Is there a specific Spotify fix in a different firmware version?

[magnusholmqvist]

Hey, 

What Cast FW version do you have in the Soundbar and the other Cast devices?

If any device has 1.20 or higher then, sadly, our Spotify app won't support grouping with devices that has Cast FW 1.19 or lower. 

[cprimous]

The only device I have that is lower than1.20 is my Vizio Soundbar SB3821-D6 which is on 1.18

However, the Vizio SoundBar is up to date.  

So are you saying that Vizio needs to push out new firmware for grouping to work with Spotify?

My devices:

Chromecast Audio (4) - 1.22.78337

Google Home - 1.22.78295

Vizio SB3821-D6 - 1.18.60243

[ndebniak]

See the response above. Mine is exactly the same. I have a Chromecast audio device and a sound bar. 

Chromecast Audio - 1.22.78337
Vizio SB3821-D6 - 1.18.60243

Vizio is not past 1.20. 

Is there no update. This is really annoying 

[magnusholmqvist]

"So are you saying that Vizio needs to push out new firmware for grouping to work with Spotify?"

Yes, they need to push out new firmware based on Cast firmware 1.20 or above. I know that they (Google, Vizio etc) are working on this.