One of the best things about premium Spotify is Spotify Direct and the ability to swiftly change the playback device — from a phone to a PC and then to a smart speaker. For many of us, Spotify is the go-to music service on Google Home/Google Nest smart speakers or displays and, weirdly enough, works much better than YouTube Music. The integration is simple and voice commands, while being hardly reliable, get the job done with simple tasks. However, some users report that Spotify is not connecting to Google Home for some reason.
Some of them run into problems when trying to add Spotify for the first time. Others report that Spotify stopped working even though it was working fine some time ago. And the third group can’t seem to find Spotify as an option in Google Home although they have a premium account and the Android app installed.
Table of contents:
- Restart the Google Home speaker
- Choose the default music provider
- Re-link Spotify to Google Home
- Reinstall the Google Home app
- Reset Google Home to factory settings
Why is Google Home not playing Spotify?
If you get the Something went wrong feedback when trying to play Spotify on your Google Home speaker or display, make sure that Spotify is linked to your Google Account. Also, try reinstalling the Google Home app or re-linking Spotify. Learn more about it below.
1. Restart the Google Home speaker
Let’s start by restarting the Google Home/Google Nest speaker. Unplug the speaker from the power source and try giving it commands to play music on Spotify. Also, ensure that the speaker is connected to a stable Wi-Fi network.
A crowded network with many devices and bad placement of the speaker (far from the router) can result in connectivity issues and this might, of course, lead to Spotify problems. Probably not the case here but it’s worth mentioning.
Of course, to use Spotify on Google Home, you don’t need a premium subscription but this is a must if you want to use Spotify Direct and want to pick tracks and artists. If restarting didn’t fix the problem and Spotify is not connecting to Google Home, make sure to move to the next step and check the default music provider in the Google Home app.
2. Choose the default music provider
Google Assistant settings apply to Google Home so having a default music provider. It’s important to have Spotify as your default music provider. Even if you don’t see Spotify in the list of default apps, you should choose No default provider. That way, the Assistant will default to the one linked, and that’s Spotify.
Here’s how to choose the default music provider in Google Home:
- Open Google Home.
- Tap on the plus sign at the top left corner and select Music.
- Set Spotify as the default music provider or choose No default provider.
3. Re-link Spotify to Google Home
You can also try to remove the Spotify link with Google Assistant/Google Home and add it again. There are a few ways to go around this but we decided to recommend the one that will most certainly be available to all users. Namely, ideally, one would navigate to Google Home > + > Music and unlink Spotify. However, there are many reports that Spotify is just not available in Music.
Luckily, you can use Podcasts where Spotify seemingly appears for everyone. Whether this strange omission is caused by region limitations or something else, we can’t say.
Here’s how to re-link Spotify to Google Home:
- Open Google Home.
- Open Podcasts.
- Tap Unlink next to Spotify.
- Tap the link icon and confirm. Accept the terms on the next page.
If Spotify is still not connecting to Google Home, make sure to reinstall the Google Home app.
4. Reinstall the Google Home app
You can try clearing data instead of reinstalling the Google Home app on Android, but that’s not available on iOS. So, uninstalling and installing the Google Home app again is what we recommend in this scenario. More so because there are a couple of reports online stating that this actually fixed the problem for them.
To reinstall the Google Home app, open the Play Store (App Store on iOS), locate Google Home, and uninstall the app. After a quick restart, get back to the Store and install Google Home again. Enable Location and Bluetooth, grant necessary permissions to the app, and check if Spotify is working on the Google Home/Google Nest speaker or display.
5. Reset Google Home to factory settings
Finally, if none of the previous solutions worked, you can reset your speaker or display to factory settings. The reset procedure is different on different devices but, on speakers, you usually have a button on the bottom that you can press and hold. After you get verbal feedback, release the button to factory reset the speaker.
This won’t delete anything but setting up the speaker again with the Google Home app can be a bit tedious. Follow the instructions closely and choose Spotify as the default music provider when prompted.
Some users forwarded the problem to Spotify as Google claims that the problem is on their side. You can send a report yourself in the Spotify app and ask for help.
With that said, we can conclude this article. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts with us. Were these solutions helpful? Tell us in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in April 2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
