How to fix issues with Google Home and Nest Audio speakers not playing music

Google Home and Nest Audio products are useful things to have around your home. Whether they’re just used for setting timers and alarms, answering questions or controlling smart home products, these speakers can be really nifty.

One of our favourite features is the ability to use the speakers to play music from Spotify and other music streaming sources with ease. When the mood takes you all you need to do is “Ok Google, play my discovery weekly” and you’ll be able to bask in some new tunes while preparing dinner.

It doesn’t always go smoothly though, so if you’re finding that your Google Home is randomly not behaving as it should then follow these tips to fix the issues.

Reboot your Google Home speaker

There’s a reason every tech support person will ask you to turn it off and on again as the first port of call when trying to troubleshoot problems like this.

If you’re finding that your Google Home speaker suddenly stops playing music without any logic when you’ve been happily singing along to songs then it might just need rebooting.

The easiest way to do this is to turn it off at the wall or unplug it and turn it back on again. We’d recommend unplugging it and waiting for 60 seconds before plugging it back in.

Alternatively you can do this from the Google Home app:

1. Open the Google Home app
2. Scroll down until you find local devices connected to your account
3. Tap on the problem device
4. Tap on the cog icon on the top right
5. Select device information from the next menu
6. Tap the three-dot menu and select reboot

Wait for your Google Home speaker to turn off and on again and see if that helps.

Unlink/link your music service

Sometimes the problem with your music playing through your Google Home or Nest Audio speaker might be down the service itself. It’s worth checking your muiisic settings and either linking or unlinking and relinking your preferred music provider.

To do this:

1. Open the Google Home app
2. Click on the settings cog icon in the middle of the screen (or tap your profile image then Google Assistant settings)
3. Find the “Music” setting and tap it
4. Choose your default music service (e.g. Spotify) and link it

We’ve found that if you have problems with something like Spotify playing music on Google Home speakers then it can pay to unlink that service and reconnect it. Alternatively you can choose “no default provider” and it will play nicely where the device is shared among multiple people in a household.

Try another music source

If you’re finding there’s a problem with your chosen source of music it’s worth trying to suss out whether it’s a Google problem or a problem with a specific service. If you’re having issues with Spotify refusing to play, for example, then you could try playing a radio station via TuneIn radio to see if you have the same problems there. If you don’t then the problem might lie with Spotify rather than Google and there can be different fixes for that.

On the other hand if the problem occurs no matter what you’re trying to play then perhaps it’s a different issue and it might be something simple like the Google Home speaker doesn’t have a good enough signal. In which case you can try:

• Rebooting your home Wi-Fi router
• Moving the Google Home/Nest Audio speaker closer to your router
• Turning it off and on again

Casting with Google Home instead

If you are having issues getting Google Home speakers to play music when you’ve made a request with your voice then it’s worth exploring other options. You can, for example, cast the music from your preferred app instead.

Spotify allows this via Spotify Connect, but other apps will also let you cast music from them to Google Home speakers with relative ease. You can do it with Amazon Prime Music and YouTube Music easily.

Open your app of choice and the song you want to play then look for the little casting option on the screen. Tap that and then select the Google Home speaker from the options. This should start the music playing back through the speaker while also giving you control over the music directly from your phone.

Try clearing your cache

If casting music directly from your chosen app doesn’t work and you’re still having problems this way then it could be the app itself that’s the problem rather than your Google Home speaker. If that’s the case then it might be worth clearing your cache.

On Android phones it’s possible to clear the cache of specific apps and clear out the memory in a way that will hopefully get rid of any issues that might be causing playback problems. So if your problem is with Spotify, for example, follow these steps:

1. Open your phone and navigate to the settings
2. Scroll down through the settings list and look for the storage option
3. Search through the apps list and find Spotify
4. Tap on the app
5. Then find the button marked clear cache and tap it

You might have to sign back in again, but once you’ve reloaded Spotify try casting again and see if that works.