New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….
Original story (published on February 06, 2021) follows:
There has recently been a slew of complaints from Google Home/Nest owners about their devices not responding to voice commands and instead throwing a “Something went wrong” error.
Now, as everyone is already aware, Google Home devices are all powered by Google Assistant and Assistant has had a troubled history with this particular error message.
In the past, we highlighted how the Lenovo Smart Clock ran into a similar issue and giving out the same error. There was also the curious case of many Google Home devices failing verification, and of course, throwing the same error.
Coming back to the issue in question, users say that notorious error pops up on almost every Google Home/Nest device intermittently. Many have also stated that their smart home devices have stopped working completely.
The affected device list includes Google Nest, Nest Mini, Nest Hub, Google Home Mini, and quite possibly many more Assistant-enabled devices.
Moreover, the issue has been doing rounds for quite some time now with initial reports dating all the way back to September last year. It is just sad to see that the issue has still not been acknowledged.
The good news is that are a few workarounds at hand given out by the users and cherry-picked by us.
Workarounds for the “Something went wrong” error on Google Nest/Home devices
Disable IPv6: At least ten users have stated that disabling IPv6 has solved the issue for them. Hence, this should be the first thing to try if you are bumping into this problem.
Change Google Assistant language: Alternatively, you can also try changing your Google Assistant’s default language. Obviously to not something other than English, but to the same language from another region. To do so, just follow the instructions given below:
Reset Google Home devices: Unfortunately, if none of the above workarounds helped, then your last resort could be resetting your smart home device, if you haven’t already.
According to Google support, rebooting the affected Home up to 10 times apparently solves this issue, so be sure to try it.
Update (March 04)
The Google Home “Something went wrong” issue has been escalated and a fix is already in the works:
Update (April 08)
Judging from some recent reports, it seems like the issue is back again:
Update (June 08)
Google has recommended the following workaround for now:
Responding to a user’s complaint regarding the issue on Twitter, Google support suggested that the issue might be popping up due to the Nest Wifi point not being in sync with the mesh network.
Update (June 16)
To resolve the problem, Google recommends removing the Wifi point by resetting it via the Google Home app and adding it again. This appears to have done the trick for the user who was facing the problem.
In case you’re unable to reset the Wifi point, you can check out the steps here.
IST 14:02 pm: It is now coming to light that this issue also afflicts users of Android Auto as outlined in the reports from users here.
Update (June 22, 2021)
We shall continue to keep an eye on this and update as and when we get more info so stay tuned.
04:06 pm (IST): It has been more than a year since this issue was first reported. And now, fresh reports (1, 2, 3, 4) suggest that many users are again getting ‘Something went wrong’ error on Google Home/Nest devices.
Update (June 27, 2022)
However, there is a potential workaround that might help you fix this issue. You can check it out below.
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