Has anyone else run into this? Last night I tried to cast some music from the music app, and the cast button would not appear. Now I've had some issues with this in the past that I could generally fix by rebooting the chromecast a few times, but last night nothing would work.
To be clear - the CC is on the network, and is specific to only some of my phone's apps:
I spent about an hour attempting to fix the problem and found that the cast button was missing for both google music and Pandora, but present for both Netflix and YouTube. I verified I could actually connect/cast in Netflix/YouTube just fine. I tried rebooting the Chromecast a half dozen times via both the Chromecast app on my phone, as well as manually by turning my AVR on and off. I rebooted my router. I used the Chromecast app to "restore to factory default" in the menu. I thought maybe it was the music app, so I rebooted my phone, cleared the cach on the music app, cleared data on the music app... Nothing. I finally gave up and watched 2 episodes of Breaking Bad, casting via Netflix.
Afterward, right before calling it a night, I checked one last time and sure as **** the icon had come back for music and Pandora.
I'm just wondering if anyone has seen this or knows how to force it to fix itself in the future. I've had this happen in the past where I just had to give up and wait and the next day I wouldn't have the problem... Google's online help offers nothing for this scenario, dealing only with the case where the CC can not connect to the network....
It's quite frustrating!
I had the same problem. Quick solution is to make sure the music app (play music/pandora/whatever) is completely closed, then launch the chromecast app. Send it to the background, and then launch the music app. Cast button will be there everytime.
SalTNutz said:
I had the same problem. Quick solution is to make sure the music app (play music/pandora/whatever) is completely closed, then launch the chromecast app. Send it to the background, and then launch the music app. Cast button will be there everytime.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll give that a try if it happens again. Though to be honest I have to think I tried that. I was force-closing music and Pandora repeatedly as well as repeatedly opening the CC app.
Just a bump that I"m still seeing this strange issue.
It occurred again last night - no cast icon for the audio apps - Google music and pandora (I forgot to try Songza). The apps w/ video (YouTube/VEVO/Netflix) all had the cast button. I have two Chromecasts on the network and tried with two devices (phone and tablet). Both devices had the same behavior and both chromecasts were present on the apps that had the cast button, so the chromecasts are correctly connected to the network, and it's not specific to the phone. I tried rebooting the router, both chromecasts, and my phone and couldn't resolve it.
Once again the fix was only to wait and an hour or so later the cast button returned to google music and Pandora.
So strange and completely frustrating. What's more frustrating is that I can't find an official support forum for help directly from Google. Tough to fix something when you can't ask the question to begin with. Though I did find a support phone number so I guess I could try that...
Interesting to see that this is such a long standing issue. Just had the exact same problem with the brand new lollipop version of play music, but it looks like the issue wasn't related to the recent update.
Incidentally, removing updates fixed the problem for me.
What brand of routers are you guys using? I have a buffalo, wonder if it's related.
Edit :
Appears to actually be related to the new play services update.
https://code.google.com/p/google-cast-sdk/issues/detail?id=314
Related
Hey everyone. I've had my chromecast for about a week now and I have some nagging issues which hopefully are just bugs which google will fix. Nonetheless, I thought I would see if anyone else faced the same issues. Ok first, most of the time when I cast something syncing works fine. I cast lets say YouTube and every other device finds the chromecast and I am able to interact with it as expected. Occasionally, I will start a video and then move to a different device and that new device does not automatically connect to the chromecast and display the queue as I would expect. Instead, I have to hit the connect button in the app and manually have it connect. Sometimes when I do this it picks up the queue fine and other-times it preempts the video queue and stops playback. I never know going into it how it's going to react and it has annoyingly killed a queue several videos long.
Much more annoying is Play music. On the device which initiates the cast I can interact as expected. However, on any other device I pick up the queue never syncs at all. Further, if I try and connect with another device it boots off the first device and goes back to the screen with the headphones. Where youtube does this occasionally, play music does it every-time without fail. What's even more annoying is that the remotecast app which was released several days ago works while casting play music. It has never once killed a queue. It connects perfectly and allows me to play and pause as expected across devices so I suspect that it might be an issue with google's code. Anybody else have these problems?
I have the same issue with play music. Owning a Nexus Q this is frustrating. The Q synced seamlessly between devices.
Google is pushing updates to both chromecast and the play music app right now so it could be fixed.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
haberda said:
Hey everyone. I've had my chromecast for about a week now and I have some nagging issues which hopefully are just bugs which google will fix. Nonetheless, I thought I would see if anyone else faced the same issues. Ok first, most of the time when I cast something syncing works fine. I cast lets say YouTube and every other device finds the chromecast and I am able to interact with it as expected. Occasionally, I will start a video and then move to a different device and that new device does not automatically connect to the chromecast and display the queue as I would expect. Instead, I have to hit the connect button in the app and manually have it connect. Sometimes when I do this it picks up the queue fine and other-times it preempts the video queue and stops playback. I never know going into it how it's going to react and it has annoyingly killed a queue several videos long.
Much more annoying is Play music. On the device which initiates the cast I can interact as expected. However, on any other device I pick up the queue never syncs at all. Further, if I try and connect with another device it boots off the first device and goes back to the screen with the headphones. Where youtube does this occasionally, play music does it every-time without fail. What's even more annoying is that the remotecast app which was released several days ago works while casting play music. It has never once killed a queue. It connects perfectly and allows me to play and pause as expected across devices so I suspect that it might be an issue with google's code. Anybody else have these problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey Haberda ! I'm the RemoteCast developer and I just wanted to let you know that the way RemoteCast has been developed shouldn't interfere with your playback in any negative way. The app is following the standards Google made available for developers, which was made for multiple connections to the device. I think the issue is on the Chromecast itself. It's still a young platform, give it a few months to catch up with expectations.
kouray said:
Hey Haberda ! I'm the RemoteCast developer and I just wanted to let you know that the way RemoteCast has been developed shouldn't interfere with your playback in any negative way. The app is following the standards Google made available for developers, which was made for multiple connections to the device. I think the issue is on the Chromecast itself. It's still a young platform, give it a few months to catch up with expectations.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remotecast works great! It's the only reliable way for me to connect across devices without fear of killing my current stream. Thanks for the good work!
On the latest update of app and CC firmware. Casting is working fine from YouTube and Netflix. Tried to cast a show I bought and no dice. I push the cast button, select my CC, wait a minute, the tv comes up with "ready", but when I select a show to play it just plays on the phone. Any suggestions? I tried power cycling both devices, clear cache and data for play movies and tv app, and a complete reinstall of said app. Nothing is working. It was working fine when I tried about a week ago
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
sherdog16 said:
On the latest update of app and CC firmware. Casting is working fine from YouTube and Netflix. Tried to cast a show I bought and no dice. I push the cast button, select my CC, wait a minute, the tv comes up with "ready", but when I select a show to play it just plays on the phone. Any suggestions? I tried power cycling both devices, clear cache and data for play movies and tv app, and a complete reinstall of said app. Nothing is working. It was working fine when I tried about a week ago
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup I'm having the exact same issue! Just sits there on the play movies ready screen.
Issue resolved with yesterday's play movies and tv app update. Hopefully it's working for you too!
Sent from my SCH-I545 using xda app-developers app
Hate to dredge up an old issue, but this is affecting me now. I get "Connected" message on my TV screen and "Couldn't play video on "[my CC name]". Touch to try again."
Netflix works fine, Pandora, Youtube. Everything except the "Play Movies & TV" app. I've contacted Google Support, but they are slow as molasses.
Everything is up to date. The only thing that correlates with it not working is upgrading my devices to Kit Kat.
embhorn said:
Hate to dredge up an old issue, but this is affecting me now. I get "Connected" message on my TV screen and "Couldn't play video on "[my CC name]". Touch to try again."
Netflix works fine, Pandora, Youtube. Everything except the "Play Movies & TV" app. I've contacted Google Support, but they are slow as molasses.
Everything is up to date. The only thing that correlates with it not working is upgrading my devices to Kit Kat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Today I got 2 new Chromecasts. First all worked well. But now I'm getting the same issue you got on both Chromecasts. So it really has to do with the App or maybe I'm blocked for Play Movies because I'm from Germany, I don't know.
But began streaming some movies from Play Movies only to test if everything works and after that I bought a new movie and watched it for about 40 minutes. I stoped it and wanted to continue later but later it didn't start anymore. :crying:
Having same issue as well. Last night streamed tv shows to both my chromecasts from my n7, and today just not loading. Chromecast shows "Connected" but Google Play Movies app just says "Couldn't play video on <name of chromecast>".
Tried my Nexus5 and same behavior. Did a factory reset on one, but still no love.
I suspect this is an issue on the server end but that's merely speculation.
I was able to stream a movie on Play Movies tonight with no problem using my Nexus 7 and a rooted ChromeCast that has the hard coded DNS servers replaced.
comcor said:
Having same issue as well. Last night streamed tv shows to both my chromecasts from my n7, and today just not loading. Chromecast shows "Connected" but Google Play Movies app just says "Couldn't play video on <name of chromecast>".
Tried my Nexus5 and same behavior. Did a factory reset on one, but still no love.
I suspect this is an issue on the server end but that's merely speculation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here, from both my Nexus 7 on KitKat and my Galaxy Nexus on Jelly Bean 4.3. The same videos play fine when cast through the YouTube app. Has anyone figured out the cause or a workaround?
same here
embhorn said:
Hate to dredge up an old issue, but this is affecting me now. I get "Connected" message on my TV screen and "Couldn't play video on "[my CC name]". Touch to try again."
Netflix works fine, Pandora, Youtube. Everything except the "Play Movies & TV" app. I've contacted Google Support, but they are slow as molasses.
Everything is up to date. The only thing that correlates with it not working is upgrading my devices to Kit Kat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here and the only culprit I can identify is Kit Kat. This didnt start on my Nexus 7 or my Moto X until after I updated to 4.4. I emailed CS and they basically told me to not expect a solution anytime soon.
Here was the final response from Google Support:
Thank you for contacting Google! My apologies that the troubleshooting didn't take.
I have learned of some developments since we last spoke. There is a known issue with Google Play movies at the moment. It appears that is what you have run into since Google Play movies is the only app that you are having casting issues with.
I apologize for any inconvenience it may have caused. Our engineers are aware of this issue, and are currently working on resolution.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I ended up factory resetting my CC and magically the Google Play Movie & TV app started streaming again without errors. I told Google and they must have closed my ticket because next I got a survey invite.
I've had this problem in the past with my old GNex, but it seems much worse on my new Moto X. i've been unable to find a solution, so it's come to asking the XDA crowd.
I use bluetooth audio to stream music from various app's through my Jeep's stereo (Using UConnect if that has any bearing on the situation).
I've had the moto x for about a month. When i first got it, this didnt seem like a big problem, but within the past week or so, maybe even since the most recent update (though i do not have solid proof of that) its become a real problem.
When my phone associates to my UConnect, it immediately opens up google music, and starts playing whatever it can get its mit's on. If it has local cached content it plays that, if it doesnt, it'll go out to google music and get something to play. Even if i have nothing queued. Its like its on a mission to entertain me (even at the cost of my monthly data allowance). If i close google music in the notification area, about 50% of the time, it'll just open itself right back up again. If i pause it, it'll start playing again in a few seconds. If i open google music, clear my queue, and close google music, it'll put something back into queue, and start playing that.
All of this would be fine, if i only listened to google music, and had something queued all the time. but i dont. Sometimes i do use google music, other times i'm listining to di.fm, or some other media app, like podcasts or whatever. or sometimes, i'm not even listening to media from my phone, rather satellite or something. In which case i may not even realize that the phone has started playing media, until i check the phone for some other reason.
I assumed that this was my UConnect asking my phone to play something. Like an auto "play" command sent to whatever bluetooth device is connected. However, i cant find any way to tell UConnect not to do this, and the more i fight with it. the more i think its something on the phone, not the UConnect.
I found this thread, while starting this one. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2564580 which is the same issue, on a different device. Unfortunately it doesnt look like it's gotten a good answer. It links to an app that is supposed to kill off media apps that start right as bluetooth does, but that seems like a hack rather than a fix. Regarless, im going to try the app. I'd like to know if there's a better fix though.
Ive tried looking through google music's settings, nothing in there about turning this off.
Has anyone had this issue? Have you found a decent solution?
Thanks!
gangrif said:
I've had this problem in the past with my old GNex, but it seems much worse on my new Moto X. i've been unable to find a solution, so it's come to asking the XDA crowd.
I use bluetooth audio to stream music from various app's through my Jeep's stereo (Using UConnect if that has any bearing on the situation).
I've had the moto x for about a month. When i first got it, this didnt seem like a big problem, but within the past week or so, maybe even since the most recent update (though i do not have solid proof of that) its become a real problem.
When my phone associates to my UConnect, it immediately opens up google music, and starts playing whatever it can get its mit's on. If it has local cached content it plays that, if it doesnt, it'll go out to google music and get something to play. Even if i have nothing queued. Its like its on a mission to entertain me (even at the cost of my monthly data allowance). If i close google music in the notification area, about 50% of the time, it'll just open itself right back up again. If i pause it, it'll start playing again in a few seconds. If i open google music, clear my queue, and close google music, it'll put something back into queue, and start playing that.
All of this would be fine, if i only listened to google music, and had something queued all the time. but i dont. Sometimes i do use google music, other times i'm listining to di.fm, or some other media app, like podcasts or whatever. or sometimes, i'm not even listening to media from my phone, rather satellite or something. In which case i may not even realize that the phone has started playing media, until i check the phone for some other reason.
I assumed that this was my UConnect asking my phone to play something. Like an auto "play" command sent to whatever bluetooth device is connected. However, i cant find any way to tell UConnect not to do this, and the more i fight with it. the more i think its something on the phone, not the UConnect.
I found this thread, while starting this one. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2564580 which is the same issue, on a different device. Unfortunately it doesnt look like it's gotten a good answer. It links to an app that is supposed to kill off media apps that start right as bluetooth does, but that seems like a hack rather than a fix. Regarless, im going to try the app. I'd like to know if there's a better fix though.
Ive tried looking through google music's settings, nothing in there about turning this off.
Has anyone had this issue? Have you found a decent solution?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had this on my GNex, Nexus 4 and my Moto X and it's very annoying. I'm not sure if it's not just related to the type of bluetooth device you are connecting to though as I don't remember this happening when connecting to a set of BT headphones or a portable radio, only in my car. I'm rooted so I have just either uninstalled Play Music or used Titianium and froze it which is what I did on the Moto X since I want to easily have a stock system for OTA's.
FSRBIKER said:
I had this on my GNex, Nexus 4 and my Moto X and it's very annoying. I'm not sure if it's not just related to the type of bluetooth device you are connecting to though as I don't remember this happening when connecting to a set of BT headphones or a portable radio, only in my car. I'm rooted so I have just either uninstalled Play Music or used Titianium and froze it which is what I did on the Moto X since I want to easily have a stock system for OTA's.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've thought of doing just that. The problem is, i use google play music. Just not all the time. I'd rather it didnt just pop up and start playing.
On my GNEX, it was Apollo player in Cyanogen that kept popping up. But all I did to solve that was delete all local music. Google play music was never a problem on that device.
Your right about Apollo player doing that also. What's so screwed up is I could be playing a podcast get out of my car for a few minutes then get back in and once I connect BT Pay Music starts even though the podcast is active and paused.
Have you noticed it happening on other BT devices other then your car?
Beamed from my Moto X
FSRBIKER said:
Your right about Apollo player doing that also. What's so screwed up is I could be playing a podcast get out of my car for a few minutes then get back in and once I connect BT Pay Music starts even though the podcast is active and paused.
Have you noticed it happening on other BT devices other then your car?
Beamed from my Moto X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im a relatively light bluetooth user. My Jeep is really the only bluetooth device i use for media output. I do have a headset (media headset, not phone headset) that supports bluetooth, that I could test with that.
I have 4 bluetooth devices (two headphones, and two receivers hooked to audio systems) and have never seen this behavior on my moto X, Nexus 4, or Nexus 7.
However, Assist has a setting to resume playback when it detects you are driving; have you checked that?
Solutions Etcetera said:
I have 4 bluetooth devices (two headphones, and two receivers hooked to audio systems) and have never seen this behavior on my moto X, Nexus 4, or Nexus 7.
However, Assist has a setting to resume playback when it detects you are driving; have you checked that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not set to do anything while driving. I dont have that profile enabled.
One thing I did do, which may or may not be related, it tell google now what to use to handle my music (and i set it to google play music) requests. Maybe i'll try turning that off to see what happens.
OK, i just tested it with my headset.
Connected bluetooth, it didnt do anything automatically.
I fired up DI.FM's app, and played some music, it played through the headset as expected (verifying that the phone and the headset were actually successfully paired).
I turned off the headset, the phone disconnected bluetooth within a few seconds.
Turned the headset back on, bluetooth reconnected, nothing happend.
So, i figured i'd try to emulate a "play" command. I pressed play on the headset, and it fired up DI.FM (the last media app i had open) NOT (this is important!) NOT google play music!
Every time i get in the Jeep, its google play music that opens, regardles of what the last app i was playing media on was. Why would this be different? Also, it only tried to start anything after I pressed play.
Is there any way to diagnose whether my UConnect is sending a play command? Some sort of bluethooth debugger or something?
Just for grins, try setting a different app than Play Music in the Assist settings to see if that app is then opened.
Solutions Etcetera said:
Just for grins, try setting a different app than Play Music in the Assist settings to see if that app is then opened.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried switching it to beyond pod, the podcast app i use. We'll see what happens next time i'm in the Jeep.
gangrif said:
Tried switching it to beyond pod, the podcast app i use. We'll see what happens next time i'm in the Jeep.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Switching didnt help.
Also, removing the google play music check from the google now search options, didnt help.
Im going to give the auto-kill app listed in that other thread a try, see what happens. Still seems like there should be a better solution here. Its not like android to make an assumption like this and not let you turn it off.
the issue is not how you're connecting. the issue here is Google Play Music if i'm remembering correctly. on an SGS4, if, for example,Google Play Music and Spotify are installed alongside each other, even if the last app i was using was Spotify, when i reconnect to BT Google Play Music takes precedence and will start playing something. this is why i do not have Google Play Music on my device.
I have looked around but haven't seen anyone talking about this issue so apologize if I missed something.
I am trying to play movies that I have on my phone. They are in the .MP4 format. I currently have tried Avia, LocalCast and AllCast (though I have not purchased the full version yet). I can start watching a video and it will play great and look great. Inevitably though it will start acting like it is buffering and then it will quite working at all. On top of this, the controls on my phone (HTC One rooted) will disappear. For instance, Avia controls will be in my status bar when I first start the movie but will soon disappear giving me no control over what is playing.
At first I thought it might be Greenify doing something but I don't have them greenified. I have tried a few different things to fix this issue but it just won't go away. Could this be a problem with the Chromecast or my phone or is there just something I am not doing correctly. I don't want to use plex or anything I have to upload and then stream from.
Appreciate the help.
srb7215 said:
I have looked around but haven't seen anyone talking about this issue so apologize if I missed something.
I am trying to play movies that I have on my phone. They are in the .MP4 format. I currently have tried Avia, LocalCast and AllCast (though I have not purchased the full version yet). I can start watching a video and it will play great and look great. Inevitably though it will start acting like it is buffering and then it will quite working at all. On top of this, the controls on my phone (HTC One rooted) will disappear. For instance, Avia controls will be in my status bar when I first start the movie but will soon disappear giving me no control over what is playing.
At first I thought it might be Greenify doing something but I don't have them greenified. I have tried a few different things to fix this issue but it just won't go away. Could this be a problem with the Chromecast or my phone or is there just something I am not doing correctly. I don't want to use plex or anything I have to upload and then stream from.
Appreciate the help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Almost sounds like your network is encountering a loop, traffic storm, or increasing packet retries.
If your router has an STP (Spanning Tree Protocol) option, try toggling that.
Also try disabling WiFi Sleep in your phone (keeps WiFi connected even when phone goes to sleep).
It could also be his device is running out of steam (overheating and therefore the OS throttles the Clock down especially true when heavy radio use like constant WiFi causes excessive heat in the unit), Starts doing some Background tasks that take priority or is generally going into a lower power state after awhile of no activity.
People need to understand while it may seem convenient to stream files off your phone or tablet they are not built for such activities.
They are meant as media consumers and not much more than that.
Too much going on inside them and Manufacturers put an extreme emphasis on saving power in all of their drivers that makes the devices just not suited to doing a long duration activity without user interaction.
Between the screen going off, WiFi going to sleep, Unit going into deep sleep mode and constant monopolizing of the Network and radios when the Device has a Pull task scheduled like getting Email....It is really not the ideal device to stream media from.
Since most media servers available today support remote (Home Cloud) streaming to a variety of devices and can transcode on the fly there is no longer any reason to store media on your device unless you have no network access at all. And in those cases the CCast won't work anyway because it needs to be able to load the player apps from the internet. Many of those same media servers also support some sort of local sync so you can store and play media locally on that mobile device when network is not available.
We need to start changing the way we think about storing and using media for Mobile...
Thanks for the advice and I will keep exploring. I have WiFi sleep disabled already.
It very well might be the device. I tried using my Touchpad and it didn't seem to run into any problems although I haven't used it enough to be sure it wasn't going to run into the same issues.
What is happening just seems like odd behavior. Like I don't understand why Avia would lose the player controls in my status bar after such a short time.
Maybe I need to think about a media server instead. Though one of the things that made me interested in the Chromecast was the portability of playing movies on large screens.
Again thanks for the response and if anyone else has any idea, I would love to hear it.
you could try y2cast from google play store, it is easy to use.
I'm getting a similar issue when try to cast Pandora. It runs fine on the tablet but won't run on the chromecast, seems like it tries but doesn't make it.
Just updated to the Samsung Note4 from a SG5 and SG4 before that with many other Android phones.
I've been running into the issue that I can't find anyone else reporting or a resolution to and hope someone here can help.
I listen to podcast or Pandora. Unfortunately this version of Samsung Android, does not allow setting any other application as default for music or media playing.
When ever I connect through earphones, or Bluetooth the Music app automatically plays. Even when another audio app is running and when using either the earphones or Bluetooth button to pause or play will automatically start up the Music app and start playing.
I've partially stopped this by adding Bluetooth Connect & Play app from the Play Store. This is just a small fix that doesn't always work.
Interestingly enough when I turn off my car after listening to a Podcast or Pandora, I turn off the radio 1st to disconnect from the Bluetooth and also stop it from starting backup when I get in, the Phone immediately starts up the Music app and starts playing from the phone speaker.
I have already done a factory reset once.
I have contacted Samsung Support, only to be told that these features are "Samsung manufacturing design."
I have couple of options from what I can tell, Root the phone and change out the ROM with something that is close to stock but works, or Return the phone and take advantage of my 1st gen version of Jump and switch to the second phone in a year, which I am seriously debating. Might just go to the Nexus 6, maybe back to the Samsung GS5 which worked great, or join the herd and go with iPhone which really annoys me to be honest. I like being able to customize my phones which is what is really frustrating with this issue.
If anyone has any suggestions, similar experiences, or general helpful comments, its much appreciated.
Rooted the Note 4 today.
Disabled the Samsung Music app.
Set Google Play as the default music player, but the issue continues as it appears to be a Bluetooth communication issue.
What ever the default music app will respond to all Bluetooth controls, regardless if there is another music/media app running at that time.
Does anyone have a suggestion other than removing all MP3's on the phone and/or deselecting a default media app?
Thanks.
L0GiX
Just to post an update that others might be able to find helpful.
I found a old forum post about this exact issue on other android devices. One suggestion was an app called Media Button Router. It so far seems to be a work around for now.