Can't cast to a Vizio smartcast soundbar

[ayalara]

Plan premium

Country  USA

Device  HP desktop

Operating System  Windows 11 24H2

My Question or Issue

After following all of the recommend steps to troubleshoot casting to Chromecast speakers, no joy.  This used to work a few years ago, then stopped working and now I'm finally trying to make it work again.  The soundbar does appear in Spotify's list of available connections but when I try to make a connection the soundbar's lights blink a couple of times and then nothing.  Spotify just says 'connecting' until it times out.  I can connect properly to several Roku devices though.  I get identical results when attempting to connect from my Android phone.

[Dessi]

Hi there @ayalara,

Thanks for reaching out!

If you haven't tried it already, I'd suggest re-pairing the sound bar and your device, as well as connecting through Bluetooth instead of WiFi, if possible, to check if that works.

I'd also recommend checking for any available firmware updates for the sound bar and testing it out with a different internet connection, such as a hotspot. You can also go for a clean reinstall of the Spotify app to make sure you're running the latest version and to remove any damaged cache.

Keep us posted.

[ayalara]

Before I sent the initial msg, the soundbar device was indeed
factory-reset and re-paired to the WiFi router via the soundbar's
Bluetooth setup interface.  In between the factory reset and the WiFi
pairing, Spotify did not show the soundbar as a connection option. 
After pairing to WiFi the soundbar again re-appeared on the connection
option list.

[OscarDC]

Hey @ayalara,

Thank you for keeping in contact. 

We're glad to know that everything is working fine now. We appreciate the time you took following the process and sharing what works for you. In case you need anything else, remember that the Community is just a post away.

Cheers! 

[ayalara]

I don't know why you interpreted my last message as "working fine".
There has been zero improvement.

[OscarDC]

Hey @ayalara,

Thank you for the clarification.

Sorry about the confusion in the last message. To continue investigating this issue, would you mind connecting your phone to your soundbar via Bluetooth and playing something in Spotify to see if it works properly?

Also, even when the router has already been reseted, to make sure this is not related to network permissions, would you mind trying with a different Wi-Fi connection? In case you don't have another one, you can use a mobile data hotspot to test it.

Lastly, include the model of your soundbar in your next response.

We'll be on the lookout. 

[ayalara]

Yes it does.

[Dessi]

Hi again @ayalara,

Thanks for getting back to us!

If we understand you correctly, playing on the sound bar via Bluetooth is working properly so in order to rule out any connectivity issues, it'd be great if you can give another internet connection a shot, as already mentioned. You can start a hotspot from your phone, for example. 

Can you also check if this happens with a different account to check if the issue might be account-related? You can ask a friend or a relative to log in their own account on your device to test if they experience the same.

Let us know how it goes.

[ayalara]

I haven't yet had a chance to figure out how to use the Vizio config app on my phone to direct the Vizio soundbar to use my phone/hotspot as its router ... while my phone is also being used as the router hotspot.

[Dessi]

Hey @ayalara,

Thanks for your reply!

If you start a hotspot from your phone, it should show up as an available WiFi network to connect your soundbar to so it should be visible in its app. Since you mentioned that the Bluetooth works, but there is a timeout when the soundbar tries to connect to Spotify, we suspect that there might be some sort of a connectivity issue and that's why we really want to check if this works with a different internet network.

We also suggested the different account to determine what's causing this, since it might be account-related and we want to make sure we've covered everything.

Let us know how it goes.