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Chromecast Update Bringing Grief For Many Users
An anonymous reader writes: Last week, many Chromecast users were automatically "upgraded" to build 32904. Among the issues seen with this update are placing some users on the 'beta' release track, issues with popular apps such as Plex, HBO GO, (more embarassingly) YouTube, and others. Google so far has been slow to respond or even acknowledge the issues brought by customers, save for the beta release mishap. If you're a Chromecast user, what's been your experience?
I work for a pretty large video streaming company out of Hollywood. Our chromecast implementation for our streaming player has been doing crazy stupid shit for the last two weeks. Maybe this is why. Knew I read slashdot for some reason.
My two ChromeCasts are working great.
I love a good hysterical conspiracy and am disappointed not to be part of it.
Go on, keep on making up stuff. Perhaps some of it will turn out to be true!
E
I am a Chromecast user, and I report that my Roku is working fine.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Looks like Chromecast has gone the way of Google Chrome: Arbitrary and random A/B testing that you're never notified of, and no way to opt out of.
This seriously pisses me the fuck off with Chome. The browser works great on like 20 machines, and then fucks up on one. You think it is the machine's fault, until you dig and dig and dig into vague forum posts on Google's boards. Then it turns out to be a hidden A/B test, where you have to go into the hidden Chrome settings to force enable/disable some very specific feature to get out of the that one and only that one particular test.
This is EXACTLY what happened to my primary development machine. Chrome had a hidden A/B test for ASync DNS requests. This feature is bugged to shit and back during the test. It would lock the entire browser session (all tabs) for 30-60 seconds at a time while making only certain DNS requests.
Another example is with the internal cache system. There was a bug for a while which would also lock up Chrome for 30-60 seconds at a time just waiting to see if a URL resource is locally cached. There was no fix for this that I could find. My resolution was eventually to have the installers handy for both Release and Beta Chrome laying around. Sometimes Release was the broken build, sometimes Beta was the broken build. So when shit got fucked up, I'd just toggle between the builds.
The OP includes a link to an IRAQ user saying he can't set up his Chromecast...
and a 9 day old post from someone saying they're now on the beta track and google saying they'll fix it.
Are we really to believe there's a great google conspiracy to disrupt chromecasts, and
in a week and a half NOTHING has been discussed, but now the only two links are
an IRAQI WINDOWS USER and someone who accidentally got into beta.
My money is on hoax.
Ehud
Amen. I really need a solid alternative to Chrome, that's all.
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
Among the issues seen with this update are placing some users on the 'beta' release track, ...
Google has a non-beta release track for something?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
This update hosed casting Youtube from my Android phone. It constantly loses the queue. It constantly plays audio only with no video. If another user connects to YouTube the queue is lost. Users constantly booted from being connected. The currently playing box in the lower right disappears preventing any way of controlling the remote device you're casting to. There could not have been any testing prior to this release.
Dustin - A different story...
It has become a running joke at the office. They are buggy, shitty, and mostly sitting in drawers.
Whether or not you approve of the über-casual dress code, that's still not a very nice thing to say about your co-workers.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
...so I doubt this update will make things any worse.
My Number One problem with Chromecast was the dumb setup procedure - the bloody thing is forever losing it's connection with my WiFi, with the only recourse being to do a hard reset and then wade through the interminable setup process again and again...
Of course, Google provides no customer support for the thing - they just send you to a web forums full of raving fanbois who get offensive when you suggest that it's possible for any google product could be anything other than perfect.
</rant>
Not everything that can be measured matters; Not everything that matters can be measured.
Looks like Chromecast has gone the way of Google Chrome: Arbitrary and random A/B testing that you're never notified of, and no way to opt out of. This seriously pisses me the fuck off with Chome.
Amen brother. I used to have our company use Chrome but there was so much flakiness after updates that it became impossible to use. In our particular case weird behavior with PDFs was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. We use a lot of PDFs and Chrome just couldn't handle them in a sane manner, kept changing things and then it would randomly break for a user. It was always a pain in the ass to figure out why there was a problem and then then behavior would change a few weeks later. We don't have the most sophisticated group of users here and random changes in behavior are NOT helpful even if they are made with the best of intentions.
So we're using Firefox which is the best of the alternatives. (Safari has issues and IE is just a nonstarter) Firefox has its issues too but it don't create needless tech support issues for me which is what I really care about.
Amen. I really need a solid alternative to Chrome, that's all.
I keep using all the various browsers and despite its warts I keep coming back to Firefox as my primary browser. Chrome keeps "fixing" stuff that didn't need fixing and breaking it in the process. Safari has some behaviors I find annoying and (surprisingly) I run into a fair number of website that break on it. Plus Apple never seems to do Windows software very well and you can't get it on Linux. And IE isn't available on anything other than Windows even if I wanted to use it (I don't) so it's a non-starter.
Firefox isn't perfect by any means but it is cross platform, generally stable, generally predictable, and fits my particular work style. Basically it pisses me off the least of the major browser options. It's been my daily driver (so to speak) for quite a few years now. If something better came along I'd drop it without a second thought but none of the alternatives really seem to be meaningfully better.
Related to chormeos autoupdates are chrome browser updates. A couple of months ago I woke oneday to find that all my bookmarks where gone in chrome when I was logged in as myself on google. Furthermore they did not just vanish but rather they were all merged into my wife's account. So basically both of us had wrecked user accounts in chrome. Considing I had many hundreds of book marks carefully curated for more than 15 years across browser changes and computer systems, this was a staggering loss. I was able to export her book marks so I didn't lose them and re-import them into Safari (that was the last day I used chrome forever.) but now they are all out of order, have lots of her book marks, and have many duplicates with my old safari bookmarks. I'm still slowly organizing it.
I'm still puzzled how that could have happened. The only clear link between these two accounts is that on at least one of 7 computers in the home, one of them we share. So obviously that must be the source. But how this mode of failure happened I'm puzzled. Without knowing that I will never use chrome again.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
I'm the Chromecast Community Manager; I noticed your thread and wanted to respond.
I don't know if you saw my response in our forum, but we posted the below around the Beta issue some users were seeing:
"We've recently updated Chromecast and a small percentage of users received a debug message on the home screen. This update should not have any material negative user impact. We are pushing a fix to those impacted users shortly. If you would like to update immediately, please reboot your device (you do not need to factory data reset your device)."
The OP posted links to our forum but if you have specific issues with the release not being addressed, please post in our forum.
Jacky