Announcements
The Spotify Stars Program: Celebrating Values Week!

Help Wizard

Step 1

NEXT STEP

Google home keeps stopping to buffer

Solved!

Google home keeps stopping to buffer

Hi, I just recently got a Google Home and I can't seem to get a consistent stream when playing spotify through the device. Spotify works flawlessly when I play through a device on the same network. Is there a way I can change the streaming bitrate for Google Home in order to get a smooth playback?

Reply
122 Replies

Happening to me as well. Annoying.

same here. buffering. it seems it works fine after the initial setup.

Yeah this is still not working ..ridiculous if you ask me...thinking of switching to tidal or Google music

hmmn.. it seems giving a feedback helps. my GHome Mini now is all okay. 

not working  same problem, no issues with my r3 wifi speaker so looks like google problem

Yeah, I tried this and it did nothing. I thought it might be because I was using my PC on web player to skip songs, but after ending Spotify in task manager, it still skipped on the home. 

After trying everything that was suggested on this board, my google home was still cutting out the music.

 

I realized that this issue was due to wireless connectivity merely. I played with my wireless connectivity and I think I found the solution for this common issue.

 

What I did was very simple. I switched from 5g wireless to the regular one (2g) on the google home app, and now the music from spotify is playing with no issues.

 

Try it, it worked for me !

This is still happening and is extremely annoying. I'm a premium spotify member and having it buffer for my google mini is ridiculous.

Brother, I tried everything and was about to give up on Google Home and Mini altogether...but I realized the issue ONLY happened when I was streaming from my Android (BlackBerry KeyOne). It started happening after a recent update. It was TOTALLY the notifications issue. Thanks so much for suggesting this. It made total sense as soon as I read it. Even before making the adjustment, I knew it was going to fix the issue because the notification tab has been intermittent. 

 

Thanks so much!!

Don't know if you're still having this issue, but I believe it's a notifications issue. I blocked notifications from Spotify and Google Home. Worked like a charm. Inconvenient, but works. Am sure future updates will resolve. Could also be an issue with how certain wi-fi networks handle the constant communications back and forth. 

This is far from being marked solved. 

 

I recently encountered this issue with no previous changes on my end to network or anything else.

 

I've tried every combination from re-linking, rebooting, joining the Google Home preview program, turning off device controls, other family Spotify accounts, etc.

 

Since I've made no changes prior to this issue spontaneously happening and I've tested any reasonable solution that I can do from my end, I'm inclined to think it is an issue between Google and Spotify.

 

If it persists for more than a month I'm going to have to switch everyone to Google Play Music...

My daughters got me Spotify for my birthday and I linked it to my Google Home device and immediately had this problem.  I'd been listening to the free Google Music service ever since getting my Google Home device post-Christmas.  I hever had a problem with the Google Music service, but the problem started immediately with Spotify.

 

I've tried unlinking and relinking and after that two songs might play without any buffering but by the third song I get short buffering gaps, and by the fourth song the hiccups get to be ten to fifteen seconds long and it only gets worse from there.

 

Basically Spotify with Google Home is unusable.  Given the number of users who have this problem this should be fairly easy to solve.

 

I have excellent Internet service, high download speeds and low latency, top-quality routers - I work in IT - and a well-designed home network.  Plenty of devices work without fail.

 

My best guess is that whichever server Google Home uses in my local area has a lousy link to Spotify so it's a problem that varies based on one's location.  I live in a suburb of Toronto, a reasonably decently-sized metropolitan area, if that helps.

 

Come on, Spotify and Google.  Fix this problem!

 

Interesting you point out your location mfraser. I'm also in a suburb of Toronto...wonder if it is a location specific problem.

I'm on Rogers. After doing a little more digging, I think my router, particularly the 5G band, is exacerbating things. Try another frequency on the router/phone, and failing that, switch out the router.

I agree. This shouldn't be a 'thing'. However, I also believe it will go away with future phone, firmware and wifi upgrades.

As an experiment, I tried taking my phone and Google Home to my almost unusable 2.4Ghz band on my home wifi. I don't use this band for anything. It has worked flawlessly since.

While I am sure there are integration issues behind all of this, the switch will serve as a stop-gap in the meantime.

I will give that a try when I get home but I just don't see how that could possibly make a difference for so many reasons....

Neither do I. But it worked...

I'm also on Rogers, but I don't use the Rogers router for this wifi.  I have another high-end Asus AC router to service the location where my Google Home is located.  I typically use the 2.4GHz band and this router is set for channel 11 which is lightly used otherwise.

 

I'll try switching Google Home to use the Rogers router on its 2.4GHz band which I've set to channel 1.  Logically I can't see how it would make much difference, plus the Rogers router is a Hitron device that requires me to reboot it every now and then when it gets hung up.  I never have to do that with my Asus routers.

 

I'm still betting on the regional Google service not playing nice with Spotify.  That's probably why linking and unlinking work for some people.  They establish a connection with a better regional server.  Doesn't work for me though.

mfraser just like you I am on Rogers and also have a high end asus router (rt-3100) as my main networking device.

 

A lot of coincidences there.... LOL

 

I am not sure if I can manually assign devices to the 2.4ghz band on my asus router...I think they auto-select. Unless I disable my 5ghz band which is not really an acceptable solution to me....and again I just don't see how it can possibly affect anything, unless Google's own code somehow makes a differentiation between 2.4ghz and 5ghz networks in how it handles streams.

I should mention that Google's official answer is to immediately submit feedback from the Home app after encountering this problem with the keywords Spotify Cutting/Skipping (I think those were the words) for them to review. As if they are fixing this on a case-by-case basis because of a provider network problem.

Suggested posts