Google Home FAQ

OldMrBrennan83

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Grab one of these before they disappear

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/01/google-kills-the-chromecast-audio/

Have one somewhere but never used it very much at all, especially once I put some form of home in every room.

The high horse brigade

Patww79 wrote: »

Have one somewhere but never used it very much at all, especially once I put some form of home in every room.

Yeah but the sound from a Google Home doesn't compare to the sound from my 19 year old 1000W separates. I also have a Google Home in the room and use it to tell the Chromecast audio what to play

OldMrBrennan83

The high horse brigade wrote: »

Yeah but the sound from a Google Home doesn't compare to the sound from my 19 year old 1000W separates. I also have a Google Home in the room and use it to tell the Chromecast audio what to play

An Anker bluetooth speaker I can hold with one finger and a thumb is all I have in the line of speakers, my Pixel 3 is nearly louder :P

Steve F

What extra functions will you get by changing it to US English as opposed to UK or Ireland?

EagererBeaver

Steve F wrote: »

What extra functions will you get by changing it to US English as opposed to UK or Ireland?

LMGTFY

Pussyhands

EagererBeaver wrote: »

LMGTFY

Can't find it.

Link?

BionicRasher

So my Google homes have gone dolally.

It started over Christmas when I moved a mini to another room (both physically and in the app)

Now all units (5 Google homes in total) have different voices on them and some respond to some commands but others don't.
Example.
I can say turn off the living room lights and the living room speaker will respond with
'ok turning off 3 lights'
If I say turn on living room lights to the kitchen speaker it responds with. 'ok turning on 4 lights'

I actually only have 2 Hue lights in the living room

It's stopped playing my favourite radio station from TuneIn (soft classic rock radio) and now plays a weird classical playlist from Spotify

The kids room mini will say 'ok playing sleep music' when I ask it but plays nothing

It will turn on the main TV via an attached Chromecast but it will no longer turn off the TV when commanded

Strange too say the least
It's like someone is controling the whole set up.

Is my only fix to do a full factory reset and delete the home on the app and start again?

I may also have to reset Hue, ewelink and broadlink accounts as they are misbehaving too. My ifttt sunset routine no longer kicks in for example

The wife and kids are getting frustrated that they can't control stuff via voice as easily as before
What a dose

dulpit

Steve F wrote: »

What extra functions will you get by changing it to US English as opposed to UK or Ireland?

I switched language yesterday, it unlocked a series of games you can play, which was nice. I asked it to play YouTube video for the smallie just now, whereas with default uk/Irish language it would just play, the US language offered me a choice on screen that I could pick from.

illdoit2morrow

BionicRasher wrote: »

So my Google homes have gone dolally.

It started over Christmas when I moved a mini to another room (both physically and in the app)

Now all units (5 Google homes in total) have different voices on them and some respond to some commands but others don't.
Example.
I can say turn off the living room lights and the living room speaker will respond with
'ok turning off 3 lights'
If I say turn on living room lights to the kitchen speaker it responds with. 'ok turning on 4 lights'

I actually only have 2 Hue lights in the living room

It's stopped playing my favourite radio station from TuneIn (soft classic rock radio) and now plays a weird classical playlist from Spotify

The kids room mini will say 'ok playing sleep music' when I ask it but plays nothing

It will turn on the main TV via an attached Chromecast but it will no longer turn off the TV when commanded

Strange too say the least
It's like someone is controling the whole set up.

Is my only fix to do a full factory reset and delete the home on the app and start again?

I may also have to reset Hue, ewelink and broadlink accounts as they are misbehaving too. My ifttt sunset routine no longer kicks in for example

The wife and kids are getting frustrated that they can't control stuff via voice as easily as before
What a dose

While not being able to account for most of your issues, the lack of music in the kids room might be down to you having one Spotify account linked, you can only play music on one of the devices at a time AFAIK (i.e. you can't simultaneously use Spotify on different devices to play different output.)

Also, have a look in the TuneIn app to see if that channel (soft classic rock) still exists, I've had channels disappear from TuneIn.

ixoy

dulpit wrote: »

I asked it to play YouTube video for the smallie just now, whereas with default uk/Irish language it would just play, the US language offered me a choice on screen that I could pick from.

I've been given such choices before and I'm setup under the UK option.

BionicRasher

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

While not being able to account for most of your issues, the lack of music in the kids room might be down to you having one Spotify account linked, you can only play music on one of the devices at a time AFAIK (i.e. you can't simultaneously use Spotify on different devices to play different output.)

Also, have a look in the TuneIn app to see if that channel (soft classic rock) still exists, I've had channels disappear from TuneIn.

Thanks for the feedback - however the Radio station plays without issue on other GH Minis and a regular GH in the kitchen. Its just the kids room that has stopped playing this station. It will play other stations without issue

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback - however the Radio station plays without issue on other GH Minis and a regular GH in the kitchen. Its just the kids room that has stopped playing this station. It will play other stations without issue

Do you perhaps have the content filter settings set on the kids mini? It might be blocking that station because it is rated too old for them.

BionicRasher

bk wrote: »

Do you perhaps have the content filter settings set on the kids mini? It might be blocking that station because it is rated too old for them.

There is a YouTube restricted setting but none for Spotify.
I will try another similar station and see if that works. However it's weird that it plays a Spotify playlist when I am specifically asking for a TuneIn radio station

bk

BionicRasher wrote: »

There is a YouTube restricted setting but none for Spotify.
I will try another similar station and see if that works. However it's weird that it plays a Spotify playlist when I am specifically asking for a TuneIn radio station

Ah, perhaps try: "Hey Google, play <station> on tunein"

alta stare

alta stare wrote: »

Night time stories on the home are great for the kids. A nice way to fall asleep for them although i feel like iv lost my job

Sorry to be dense but how do I activate this? Asked Google "tell me a story" but I get a jokey reply. I suspect it's the usual problem of setting the language to US or something like that. Have mine set to Ireland for the RTE News bulletin.

OldMrBrennan83

Deleted User wrote: »

Sorry to be dense but how do I activate this? Asked Google "tell me a story" but I get a jokey reply. I suspect it's the usual problem of setting the language to US or something like that. Have mine set to Ireland for the RTE News bulletin.

I get the RTÉ News with mine set to US.

bk

Patww79 wrote: »

I get the RTÉ News with mine set to US.

How do you do that? I can't seem to find it?

Bored Accountant

bk wrote: »

How do you do that? I can't seem to find it?

I think if you set your language to Ireland, configure your news feeds for RTE and then change it to US, RTE should stay configured in your news feed.

bk

Bored Accountant wrote: »

I think if you set your language to Ireland, configure your news feeds for RTE and then change it to US, RTE should stay configured in your news feed.

Nope, no luck, I'm assuming because I've a Google Home Hub, that only has English (US) and won't allow me to select English (Irish) there, so it is hiding the news source! Silly...

BoardsMember

illdoit2morrow wrote: »

While not being able to account for most of your issues, the lack of music in the kids room might be down to you having one Spotify account linked, you can only play music on one of the devices at a time AFAIK (i.e. you can't simultaneously use Spotify on different devices to play different output.)

Also, have a look in the TuneIn app to see if that channel (soft classic rock) still exists, I've had channels disappear from TuneIn.

I've a Spotify family account and I can play different Spotify stuff on different home devices. Just an fyi.

JoeA3

Hi guys,
Has anyone had much success getting these to work consistently with the Logitech Harmony Hub?

I have mine all setup and linked, and some of the time it works, but often it doesn't work at all, or works badly!

E.g. I say "Hey Google, turn on the TV". GH replies with "Sure, turning the TV on".

5 or 6 times out of 10 this will work and TV, etc, turns on immediately, as expected. The other times, it doesn't work at all, or bizarrely, it will happen several seconds or even several minutes later!

I've searched around and it seems it's not an uncommon problem and the root cause appears to be the WiFi router. I'm with Vodafone, using their crappy router...

This page suggests a fix by telnet'ing into the router and adjusting some timeout value. I've tried telnet'ing to mine (telnet 192.168.1.1) but unsurprisingly, it doesn't let me connect...

I don't have this issue with the few HUE lights I've hooked up, so its got to be either a problem on the Harmony side or the aforementioned router.

The high horse brigade

JoeA3 wrote: »

Hi guys,
Has anyone had much success getting these to work consistently with the Logitech Harmony Hub?

I have mine all setup and linked, and some of the time it works, but often it doesn't work at all, or works badly!

E.g. I say "Hey Google, turn on the TV". GH replies with "Sure, turning the TV on".

5 or 6 times out of 10 this will work and TV, etc, turns on immediately, as expected. The other times, it doesn't work at all, or bizarrely, it will happen several seconds or even several minutes later!

I've searched around and it seems it's not an uncommon problem and the root cause appears to be the WiFi router. I'm with Vodafone, using their crappy router...

This page suggests a fix by telnet'ing into the router and adjusting some timeout value. I've tried telnet'ing to mine (telnet 192.168.1.1) but unsurprisingly, it doesn't let me connect...

I don't have this issue with the few HUE lights I've hooked up, so its got to be either a problem on the Harmony side or the aforementioned router.

You need a good signal, mine is working fine and the commands work. i'm using it every day without issue and have a few routines I regularly use.

Hue isn't wireless, the bridge has ethernet. You most likely need to improve your wifi

JoeA3

Cheers yeah, perhaps that's it, but as crap as I think the VF router is, it is located fairly close to the Harmony Hub, so it should have OK wiFi.

Poor Wifi doesn't really explain why a harmony activity I ask for is executed several minutes after I asked for it either. Not sure if going to the expense of replacing the router will help?!

The high horse brigade

JoeA3 wrote: »

Cheers yeah, perhaps that's it, but as crap as I think the VF router is, it is located fairly close to the Harmony Hub, so it should have OK wiFi.

Poor Wifi doesn't really explain why a harmony activity I ask for is executed several minutes after I asked for it either. Not sure if going to the expense of replacing the router will help?!

Try Stringify, make up some command and then create a routine in Goole asking Stringify. See if those commands work quicker

Anyone been able to get their LG tv to work with google assistant? Does setting the region to UK work?

postsnthing

MAXFANTANA wrote:

Anyone been able to get their LG tv to work with google assistant? Does setting the region to UK work?

It works set up as uk on TV and uk address in Google home if you change the address to Irish address home won't turn on the TV or do any ask Lg stuff - Lg is not available in this region

donspeekinglesh

My Harmony activity called Shield TV works consistently from Google Assistant, but my one called Watch TV just tries to play music from YouTube...

Haven't figured out how to use voice to change the volume or pause whatever is playing.

sioda

Had to unlink my harmony account last weekend to get it to work since the last hub update all working normally again

adox

So my usual morning question of "hows my commute?" has stopped working out of the blue. "I dont know how to help with that" is the reply I`m now getting.

I now have to ask " How long to get to <insert name of my workplace>" to get an answer.

Anyone else having any issues with this? Its something I ask every morning so really missing it.

Bored Accountant

adox wrote: »

So my usual morning question of "hows my commute?" has stopped working out of the blue. "I dont know how to help with that" is the reply I`m now getting.

I now have to ask " How long to get to <insert name of my workplace>" to get an answer.

Anyone else having any issues with this? Its something I ask every morning so really missing it.

I got a notification on my phone yesterday about updating home & work locations. Looks like its added what days & time you travel so you can set just to give it on Monday to Friday. So won't be notified any longer on a Saturday that its 22 minutes to work