Google Assistant devices re-direct to random albums with similar names

[ProMataw]

Plan

Premium

Country

UK

Device

Google Home Mini

Operating System

My Question or Issue
When searching for personalized playlists, Google Assistant devices re-direct to random albums with similar names.

I've got a routine within the Google Home app to “shuffle my daily mix 3 on Spotify” 

Until mid April it worked as expected, recently it’s starting playing Daily Drive. I’ve messed around with the wording & sometimes it plays songs recommend to me (Based on the album Daily Mix 3 by Luis Masters) but will no longer play the thing I’m after.. My daily mix 3. 

This has been an issue in the past with the album by Luis masters, I got around it by changing the wording but no luck this time.  

Can this be looked into please.

[ProMataw]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the patience and apologies for the radio silence!

We wanted to let you know that this is still being worked on. In the meantime, feel free to reach out to Google Support or post on their forum to report this so it can be looked into from both teams. We can see that some of you have shared Google Community threads on the topic as well, so make sure to check them out if you haven't and thanks for your input!

We also recommend taking a look at these troubleshooting steps and trying some of them out in case you missed any:

• Perform a clean reinstall of the Spotify app
• Check for pending firmware updates
• Check with a different network
• Reset your Google device
• Update the playlist name
• Relink Spotify and your Google device

As a workaround, you can also try out @MrGlenn's suggestion here about the commands you use, since it might be helpful.

Take care.

[ProMataw]

Some posts of the last months on the thread on the Google Community saying this is fixed (or "almost" fixed") puzzles me constantly... so, i made few more tests today (something that i already did few months ago)

1) I have one standalone Nest Mini - the behaviour was, on the last few tries, almost flawless...

2) I have one STEREO pair (2 Nest Mini) - the behaviour is completely erratic, with most of the problems described here constantly

So, today, i:

1) UNLINKED the STEREO pair

2) Made a hard RESET on both devices

3) Reconfigured each device

4) Relinked the stereo pair

Et voilá! Seems it's working almost like the standalone Nest Mini!

I can now play "Discover Weekly" playlist using the command "Play Discover Weekly playlist"

I can now play personal playlists (created by me, that was impossible!)

Routines seem to work again...

I will keep testing (i use the Stereo pair everyday, hence the problems i constantly describe) and will get back to you ASAP.

[marcolopespt]

Every day i get different results!!!

Sometimes it executes my routine "sleep" and it plays the correct playlist... sometimes it doesn't!

Sometimes if i add a specific word it plays the correct playlist... sometimes it doesn't!!

Anyway, we should not need to say specific stuff or change the playlist names!!!

This should be FIXED by Google (and? Spotify)

Please comment here to get Google attention! https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Assistant-not-playing-ROUTINES-a...

[marcolopespt]

Please comment here to get Google attention! https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Assistant-not-playing-ROUTINES-a...

[chrixar]

As someone who’s been on this thread for a long time now, I wanted to make one last post with some, perhaps, helpful info. For Spotify at least. 

1) For the first time in over a decade I’m cancelling my premium account due to the continued support of the Trump administration and for playing ICE recruitment ads. I simply won’t give any more money to Spotify for this. Maybe one of the admins on here will see this and realize how many are doing the same.

2) Since I’ve started migrating from Spotify, I decided to try out Apple Music (I know Apple isn’t clean in all of this but at least they aren’t recruiting for ICE) Anyways. I’m having the EXACT same issue on Apple Music. Maybe even to a worse extent. So this doesn’t seem to be, at least to me, an issue specifically with Spotify since it’s happening on other platforms as well. Something has to be happening on Google’s end that either requires Spotify/Apple to fix something or, are at the mercy of them fixing it themselves. 

In any case, I recommend commenting on the link marcolopespt posted to Google’s help page as well, at least to add to the voices. Hopefully this gets fixed at some point. In the meantime, I’m going back to Bluetooth speakers. It’s not worth the madness!

[PureLemon]

I found a solution! (well, a duct tape solution so it’s not perfect)

Here is the setup to get your playlist to play and shuffle correctly.

1. Rename your playlist to something super unique and short. For mine, I used "Vacuum Lid Sheet".
2. Add the song "A a A a A Very Good Song" as the very first song in the playlist. It is an entirely silent track. This is necessary because the automation will always play the first song immediately, and this prevents the same song from blasting every single time.
3. Create the Automation: In the Google Home routine, create 3 custom actions using the "Try adding your own" option. Enter these exact actions (replace my playlist name with yours)

   • playlist "vacuum lid sheet" playlist

   • shuffle

   • next song

The only downside is that google assistant says, "Music will start shuffling after this track," because I couldn't find a way to fit the word "shuffle" into the first command without breaking the playlist search. A bit messy, but at least it's something until they fix it.

[jpzsports18]

Hi everyone. I want to raise more visibility on an issue that many of us have been dealing with for almost a year. Google Home and Nest devices still cannot play the correct Spotify playlists through voice commands or automations and routines.

On the Google Nest Community, and there are dozens of pages of users reporting the same long-term bug.

I was hoping that the arrival of Gemini for Google Home would finally resolve this. I received the Gemini update this week and the problem is still present. Routines/Automations still play the wrong playlist and voice commands often trigger random songs or unrelated playlists. Renaming playlists, recreating automations, unlinking and relinking accounts, and every other workaround people have tried has had no effect.

This is a basic feature that Google and Spotify have advertised from the beginning. A huge number of users purchased these devices specifically to control their music. It is honestly embarrassing that something this fundamental has been left unfixed for so long.

If you are experiencing this too, please comment or upvote so Spotify and Google see that this is still a widespread problem that needs to be prioritized.

[hydralien]

I think Gemini update just made it worse, at least before it was about 40%-60% chance for me and now I had zero success from like 20 attempts.

[marcolopespt]

I don't have Gemini, but NOTHING has changed!

Google says it made changes, but for me, it's the same or worse! https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Speakers-and-Displays/Google-Assistant-not-playing-ROUTINES-a...

[marcolopespt]

Some posts of the last months on the thread on the Google Community saying this is fixed (or "almost" fixed") puzzles me constantly... so, i made few more tests today (something that i already did few months ago)

1) I have one standalone Nest Mini - the behaviour was, on the last few tries, almost flawless...

2) I have one STEREO pair (2 Nest Mini) - the behaviour is completely erratic, with most of the problems described here constantly

So, today, i:

1) UNLINKED the STEREO pair

2) Made a hard RESET on both devices

3) Reconfigured each device

4) Relinked the stereo pair

Et voilá! Seems it's working almost like the standalone Nest Mini!

I can now play "Discover Weekly" playlist using the command "Play Discover Weekly playlist"

I can now play personal playlists (created by me, that was impossible!)

Routines seem to work again...

I will keep testing (i use the Stereo pair everyday, hence the problems i constantly describe) and will get back to you ASAP.

[marcolopespt]

Well...

Today the STEREO pair was behaving erratically (as for many months)

Checked out the standalone Nest Mini, and the behaviour was THE SAME!!!

So... it's back to square 1!

Some days are better than others!

Bottom line: IT'S not a problem of the speakers being paired or not... they ALL behave erratically.

[guymango]

I'm having this exact same issue. I did everything you outlined. factory reset, unpair, re-paired, deleted and uninstalled Spotify app from my phone. Google assistant won't play anything I ask it to on the speakers unless I cast directly from a device. This was not an issue a few months ago.

This is unbelievable that something like this would happen in 2026 for this long. Neither Google nor Spotify want to own up to this issue. These bloated billion dollar companies need to start giving a f*** about their customers.

FIX YOUR SOFTWARE!!!! WAKE UP!!!!

[marcolopespt]

Today I tried 10 different ways to play DISCOVER WEEKLY PLAYLIST!

No success! I have to listen to what Google wants! A song called discover weekly, another playlist with the same name, ANYTHING except MY PERSONAL DISCOVER WEEKLY PLAYLIST!!!

It's frustrating that this ugly bug is now present for so long that a just can't remember when it was reintroduced for the last time.

IS IT SO HARD TO GIVE PRIORITY TO PERSONAL PLAYLISTS, THEN PUBLIC PLAYLISTS, THEN LPs, THEN SONGS???

THIS WAS WORKING! IT WAS BROKEN! IT WAS FIXED! IT WAS BROKEN! FIXED AGAIN! BROKEN AGAIN! MEANWHILE, 3 YEAS HAVE PASSED WITH RECURRING ISSUES!!

WHY GOOGLE! 

WHY??