Music Randomly Stopping on Google Home (Casting from iOS)

[cwilli40]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

(iPhone 12 Pro)

Operating System

(iOS 14.6)

My Question or Issue

Over the last few weeks, I have been experiencing a severe upswing in issues with my Google Home devices randomly pausing/stopping playback. This happens consistently across all of my devices including 3 Nest Minis, 1 Nest Audio, and 1 Chromecast Audio. This happens both when casting via voice command and via the Spotify app. Sometimes the music will pause mid-song, other times a song will fail to start playing after a prior song has ended. I have tried the following to combat the issue:

1) Cleared Spotify cache

2) Deleted and re-installed Spotify app

3) Deleted and re-installed Google Home app

4) Unlinked and re-linked Spotify app in Google Home settings

5) Removed and reset all Google devices

6) Restarted Wi-Fi router

7) Tried multiple ISPs and router combinations

8 ) Tried other phones using Google Home app

From my research, I have seen many similar complaints, but these were from several years back with no recent updates being discussed. My music streaming worked fine until approximately two months ago. No changes were made to my configuration when the issues started. 

[Eni]

Hey @cwilli40, 

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Great troubleshooting so far, we can add a few more steps to make sure we've covered all bases.

You mentioned that you've already reinstalled the app, but would you mind going through the steps of a clean reinstall, as it's more thorough than a normal one?

If this doesn't do the trick we suggest that you check if the firmware of your devices has any pending updates as well as the OS of your phone. 

Additionally, could you let us know if this started happening after a specific event such as an update?

Keep us posted.

[cwilli40]

Hi Eni, thanks for the quick response and continued suggestions.

I can confirm that I tried the clean reinstall and the issue persists.

I can also confirm that call devices and applications are up-to-date. 

The problem randomly started (to my knowledge) with no software or firmware changes. There was no iOS update or Spotify update that aligned with the issues. I am not aware of the timeframe in which the Google devices updated, simply because they do not update on my command and they do not all update at the same time. The Google Home/Assistant apps did not update during the time when the issue began.

[Eni]

Hi there @cwilli40, 

Thanks for getting back in touch and for the info you sent. 

Would you mind letting us know if you could replicate the issue using a different phone?

On another note, we'd suggest that you ask a friend or a relative to log in to their account in your phone and check if the issue persists with a different account. 

Keep us in the loop.

[cwilli40]

I have had a chance to follow your instructions. I tried using two other phones and the issues persist. Please note that the issue does not only occur when using a phone to control the streaming. It also occurs while using voice commands.

I can also confirm that signing into a different account on my device makes no difference, either. My wife signed in using her account and the music continues to randomly stop itself.

I am currently working from my home office and having to restart my music constantly because the Google devices are stopping playback. This is extremely frustrating. 

[Novy]

Hey @cwilli40, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

In case you're willing to, we'd recommend performing a factory reset on your devices following these steps.

You can try it with only one device at first to see if you notice any difference. If nothing new happens, let us know and we'll see what we can suggest.

We'll be on the lookout.

[cwilli40]

Hi Novy,

Please refer back to number 5 on my list of troubleshooting steps in my initial post. With respect, I will not continue factory resetting devices after I have already done so before now. It is quite a pain to do this continually. 

I have reset every device multiple times and the issues continue. 

[Novy]

Hi again @cwilli40, 

Thanks for your reply. 

Just to confirm, is this happening with all of your playlists or just with certain ones?

It's also a good idea to check if there are any third party apps that have access to your Spotify account and removing the unnecessary ones. You should be able to find that info here.

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[cwilli40]

Hi Novy, this is happening with ALL of my playlists. Also, I have already confirmed there are no third-party apps with access to Spotify except for Google. 

[Eni]

Hi @cwilli40, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

Could you let us know if this only happens with Spotify or with other streaming apps as well?

Additionally, you mentioned that you've already tried with multiple ISPs, but would you mind creating a hotspot on your phone and using that to check if that makes any difference?

Keep us posted on how it goes.

[cwilli40]

Hi Eni,

Spotify is the only streaming service that is acting like this. All other streaming services are fine.

I did try a hotspot on my phone and the issue remained the same.

As of this morning, the issue has actually gotten worse. Now, instead of a few songs playing and then abruptly stopping, a song now only plays for about 10 seconds before shutting off. If I say “hey Google, skip”, then the next song will start playing for 10 seconds and then it will also stop.

I’ve seen reports of this 10-second shutoff in the past with no clear indication as to what the cause is.

This is ridiculous at this point. I’m paying for a premium subscription through Spotify and it doesn’t work as advertised.

[Eni]

Hey @cwilli40,

Thanks for keeping us in the loop and for all the info you've sent so far. 

We're aware of the intermittent connection and playback issues and the developer team is working on this is continuously trying to optimize net code and API integrations to make these disruptions occur as little as possible. 

Also, in this case we'd recommend reaching out to the folks at Google support so they can also look into this on their end too. 

Keep us posted.