Contributor I

Unable to turn on/off TV through voice command (chromecast)

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
October 5, 2022
36 replies
3113 views

Hi

I have a weird issue. For years I have been able to turn on/off my TV through voice command using google assistant on my Sonos One. Suddenly this has stopped working, and the google assistant in Sonos says “Sorry unknown error has occured on [name of my chromecast]” (this error might not be precise, I have translated it from my native language).

I am able to for example pause/unpause the chromecast using voice command.

If if say the exact same turn on/off command using the Assistant app on my phone the TV turns on/off.

I have tried unlinking/removing my assistant both in Google Home app, and in the Sonos. Linked it again, and went through the setup process, but the same error occurs. I have also tried renaming my Chromecast (found that advice in a similar thread), but same result.

Both my Sonos One and Chromecast has newest firmware.

If i go to https://myactivity.google.com/ and filter on assistant, I can see the command, and here it also says that unknown error has occured.

Anyone else experienced this problem, or have any advice on how to debug this?

TIA

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J

jtwall

Lyricist I

Same issue here. Can't use the Chromecast to turn the TV on or off through a voice command issued to the Google Assistant on Sonos One anymore. Used to work fine, but stopped all of a sudden.

Maybe see if the suggestions in this Google support link may assist you to fix it:

https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/7498991?hl=en

Unfortunately not. I can control TV power using Google Assistant from any other device, just not my Sonos One. Used to work, but stopped within the past month. Tried removing and relinking Sonos to Google Home again, but to no avail.

T

thomassonos

Lyricist III

Same issue here. Can't use the Chromecast to turn the TV on or off through a voice command issued to the Google Assistant on Sonos One anymore. Used to work fine, but stopped all of a sudden.

Maybe see if the suggestions in this Google support link may assist you to fix it:

https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/7498991?hl=en

I agree with “jtwall” – if I type “Turn off TV” in the Google Home app it turns off the TV just fine. Only Sonos products has issues turning off the TV. We have 9 different Sonos products with Google Assistant. It is the same with all of them. Has there been any feedback or commitment from Sonos at all?

Ken_Griffiths

I agree with “jtwall” – if I type “Turn off TV” in the Google Home app it turns off the TV just fine. Only Sonos products has issues turning off the TV. We have 9 different Sonos products with Google Assistant. It is the same with all of them. Has there been any feedback or commitment from Sonos at all?

I’ve not seen anything, but you can perhaps chat with Sonos Support Staff via this Link about the TV control issue, that’s if you are unable to resolve it. I’m beginning to wonder if Google may have withdrawn the feature from 3rd-Party devices, like Sonos. It would be nice to know if anyone currently has this working?

K

Kokie

Lyricist I

Same problem here! First I thought it was a ghost Chromecast or TV that it tried to control, but it actually seems to be the Chromecast Ultra. Don’t have the problem with Google Home Mini or GA on the phone.

T

thomassonos

Lyricist III

Same problem here! First I thought it was a ghost Chromecast or TV that it tried to control, but it actually seems to be the Chromecast Ultra. Don’t have the problem with Google Home Mini or GA on the phone.

It’s also interesting to know if it’s only an issue with Chromecast Ultra. Can anyone confirm with the older regular HD Chromecast or perhaps the latest Google TV?

K

Kokie

Lyricist I

The Sonos actually says it has problems with TWO TVs. I assume one is the Chromecast Ultra, the other one I don’t know. There is a ghost Chromecast among the Google Assistant units, but not in Google Home. And again, the Google Assistant is not complaining on other devices than Sonos.

T

thomassonos

Lyricist III

I have borrowed a Google TV and it’s exactly the same issue. Very frustrating!

S

Sbd

Lyricist I

Bump.

Same issue. Hope this gets fixed as it is one of the most used command/feature in our household.

In general the assistant has become worse over time as well, but I guess that is somewhat Google's fault.

Sad that the product is now a lot worse than it was when I bought it. Doesn't make me motivated to buy more if this is what happens.

H

HansDP

Contributor I

I have the same issue. I was able to ask Google Assistant on Sonos to turn off a Chromecast, which then in turn used CEC to turn off the TV. But, suddenly it stopped working.

Troubleshooting the issue led me to believe that it has something to do with the version of Google Assistant SDK that the Sonos system is using. If I ask the command “Hey Google, turn off <name of chromecast>” on a Google Nest Mini or the Google Assistant app on my iPhone, the command works. If I ask the same command to my Sonos One, I get an error message back in the line of “Sorry, something went wrong with <name of chromecast>” (this is probably not the exact message, since I’m translating it from Dutch). If I then go onto https://myactivity.google.com/ to find more debug information (which can be found by clicking on “details” shown at the end of each command), I do see that

Asking the command to a Google Nest, the source is “Google Home”
Asking the command to the app on my iPhone, the source is “Google App”
Asking the command to Sonos One, the source is “Google Assistant SDK”

I also have an instance of Home Assistant running on my network. This piece of software can be configured to control Google Assistant as well, which also uses the Google Assistant SDK. If I execute my command via this route, the voice command is being executed without an issue. This means I can build a work-around, but it is not a perfect solution (have a look at Home Assistant and their Google Assistant SDK integration if you want more information: https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/google_assistant_sdk/).

All the above led me to believe that the problem lies in the version of Google Assistant SDK that Sonos is using in their System. But, of course, this is only a hunch. Only Sonos knows.

I already contacted Sonos about this issue. The first support engineer did not believe me that this command worked in the past. The statement was made that “Sonos does not support this command”. And he stated that if it worked, it was by accident. Obviously, this is incorrect, because Sonos does not control the feature set of Google Assistant (since they are using Google Assistant SDK). Also, the response is clearly an error message, not a message stating that the command is not supported. When Google Assistant does not support a given command, it will tell you explicitly, not via an error message. He then just put a bunch of statements to get rid of me.

After I was very negative in a survey by Sonos, they reached out to me again to solve this issue. This next support engineer I had on the phone was a lot better and more knowledgable. She told me that Sonos is aware of the issue, and that Sonos is looking into a solution for this problem. She was not allowed to disclose any information about this issue until (or even if) it gets resolved. Fingers crossed!

B

bstAuthor

Contributor I

Thanks for your very detailed answer HansDP :)

Let’s keep our fingers crossed, it is a function we used all the time at our place.

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