The Google Home, Google’s version of the smart speaker, brings cool features to your household. It can help you make the perfect dinner, answer your silly questions, and be your translator.
But despite its perfect features, it has its fair share of flaws that you’ll likely go through as you use it. Here are some of the most common Google Home issues and how you can fix them.
1. Restart Google Home
The first thing to need to do is try restarting your Google Home. You’ve probably heard that restarting seems to fix many computer problem, and the same advice holds true here, too.
Below is how to reboot from the Google Home app:
1. Download Google Home.
2. Launch the home tab by clicking the icon of a home on the bottom left corner of the app.
3. Choose the Google Home device you want to restart.
4. Click the settings/gear icon at the top right.
5. Choose the three-lined menu at the top right of the next page.
6. Select Reboot, and then confirm with OK.
If rebooting this way doesn’t solve the problem you’re having, unplug the power cord from the back of the Google Home and let it sit like that, unplugged, for 60 seconds. Plug the cord back in and hold on for another minute for it to fully power on, and then check to see if the problem goes away.
2. Issues With Responsiveness
It is very frustrating when you say a lot of Google Home commands and your smart speaker won’t respond. But there are various reasons why this happens, and here are some of the troubleshooting techniques you can do:
1. Ensure your device is connected to your home network. If you say the wake words and see that the indicator lights are running instead of steady, it typically means your device can’t reach the internet.
2. Make sure your speaker’s mic is on. If it shows four red/orange indicator lights, your mic is turned off. You can simply switch it on with the switch on the side of your speaker.
3. Speak louder. Sometimes, your device can’t hear you because of too much surrounding noise. If you can’t do anything about the noise in the room your speaker is in, place it somewhere quieter and see if it makes a difference.
4. Increase the speaker volume. If you see the indicator lights flashing, it’s probably responding to your command, but you can’t just hear it. To increase the volume on your speaker, just tap repeatedly on the right side until it reaches your desired volume.
5. If the steps above doesn’t solve the issue, just reboot your device.
You might also be having issues with the opposite situation, where Google Home randomly responds even without you saying the wake words. This typically happens when it hears some variation of “OK Google” or “Hey Google” in the background. See if you have anything playing that could start it up like a TV show or a YouTube video mentioning the wake words.
3. Wi-Fi Google Home connectivity issues
Google Home connects to the internet directly through your home Wi-Fi network. It also make use of Wi-Fi to communicate with your other smart devices at home. Therefore, It stands to reason that the most common Google Home problem reported both to Puls technicians and on online forums is Wi-Fi connectivity issues. Here are the main Google Home connectivity problems and how to solve them.
4. Wrong Location Information
If Google Home has the wrong location set up, you’ll definitely get some strange results when you ask about the current weather conditions, request traffic updates, want distance information from where you are, etc.
Fortunately, this is an easy fix:
1. Launch the Google Home app while on the same network as your Google Home.
2. Make sure you see the correct home name listed at the top (change it if you need to), and then click Settings.
3. Select Home information, and then either Set address (if you’re entering a new one) or Home address (to edit an existing one).
4. Choose Add home address to input an address, or Edit if you’re changing it.
5. You can make use of your app if you need to change the location set up for your work.
6. Select the account icon from the top right of the app.
7. Make sure that the account you see at the top is the same one associated with your Google Home. If it isn’t, tap to change it.
8. Select Assistant settings.
9. Click Your places, and then Work.
10. Input the correct address and then click OK to save.
