This is a troubleshooting guide on how to fix a Google Home that is now not responding or has become slow to respond. As great as this new technology is, it is not always up to our expectations and there’s a little bit of tweaking to be performed every once in a while, just like with anything in our lives; fridges, clocks, and cars.
Why Google Home Is Not Responding or Slow to Respond
The most popular offender: Connectivity issues
It happens to all of us once in a while, no matter how good your internet is; you might be facing some connectivity issues. You should first power cycle the speaker, the modem, and then the router to rule out connectivity issues right in the bud!
Another good thing to try while you’re at it is to try to reboot the Google Home speaker. To do this all you need to do is to remove the power cable for a few seconds and plugging it back in, easy peasy lemon squeezy right? Another way you can reboot the Google Home speaker is by restarting the Google Home speakers through the Google Home app.
If you are sure that it might be connectivity issues above all else, you should try placing the Google Home as close as possible to the router, especially if your little robotic assistant isn’t the only device in your home that is experiencing connection issues.
Why Google Home is not responding
There are a lot of reasons why Google home might be not responding whatsoever to any of your commands. If the speaker is placed near a noisy appliance or behind an item such as a vase, that could be a major obstruction for the device and interfere with the speakers’ microphone and be unable to hear you properly. If this is the case for your situation, well the best option would be to move the Google Home speaker as far away from those obstructions (decorations, walls, and other devices).
Check the microphone
Another reason why the Google Home might be ignoring your vocal commands might be because your mic is not on anymore for whatever reason. There is a mute button for the microphone on the back of the speaker, if the microphone is off, there will be four little yellow lights that will appear on the ring of the Google Home. So of course, if this is your problematic situation, all you have to do is make sure that your microphone is not muted anymore and give it a try by saying “Ok, Google” and see if the device has recognized your voice.
If this does not help, and the device still will not answer to you even after rebooting, and ensuring that the microphone is on – you can always try to perform a factory data reset.
Incorrect home location
If your Google Home has stopped answering questions like the weather, traffic updates, and news; it might be because the location is not set correctly. You must have your home or work address set correctly so the weather and other local information that the device will provide will be as accurate and helpful as possible. If you have not set your home and work locations yet, here are the steps.
Begin by opening the Google Home app on your phone
Click the hamburger icon in the top left of the application
Select more settings
Scroll to the bottom of the menu and select “Personal info” under the Google Account settings.
Tap “Home & work locations”
Enter your home address and click “OK”
You can also enter your work address and then click “Okay”
This should fix up any localization issues.
Can’t get the weather with Good morning routine
If you are used to saying “Ok, Google, Good morning” and then receiving the weather for the day and it suddenly is no longer working – you might be a little puzzled and wanting to fix this issue as fast as possible. For those not in the know, the Good morning routine usually tells you your upcoming calendar events, reminders, traffic, and weather. If this function is no longer working for you, there’s another step-by-step that you can do to fix this issue.
Begin by opening the Google Home application on your phone
Go to settings and select “Routines”
After selecting “Routines”, you should look for “Good morning” and make sure that the “Tell me about the weather” is checked
While you are at it, ensure that your localization is set the right way with the help of the previous step-by-step guide
If this still does not address your issue, Google has acknowledged that this might be an issue for some users at the moment and they are trying their best to fix it as fast as possible. Meanwhile, your solution to this is to simply as the Google Home speakers directly for the weather.
Ask other questions
If you are in the situation that your Google Home seems to be unresponsive, you should always try to ask simpler questions such as the weather or traffic before you ask it anything more complex or demand it to perform two actions at once. This is simply to ensure that the keywords that it is programmed to respond to are working as intended and it is not a situation of a simple lack in programming that might be giving you troubles.
Is your Google Home plugged in?
You should check that your Google Home is plugged into a reliable source of energy. If you are the kind of person that does not always use their device and is not too technologically savvy, you might have actually not even realized that the device was unplugged. Sometimes, if you live in a shared space, someone can unplug devices without realizing that they needed to be plugged back in – and thus leaving someone else puzzled as to why the device is not working.
Last resort
You can always send a support ticket to the Google Home forums and have other people try to troubleshoot along with you. You might be experiencing an error that Google is not yet aware of and will be thankful for your report.