Miracast stopped working on my LG3

[AC Question]

Hello, I have been using Miracast on my LG3 to connect to my tv via Screenbeam Pro dongle for over a month now with no problem. Just this week, it stopped working. Everytime I turn on Miracast, it searches for devices, the Screenbeam dongle shows up in found devices, I try to connect, on the tv screen it shows verifying security. On my phone, the screenbeam dongle disappears from the list of devices, and a few seconds later, on the tv it goes back to ready to connect.

I've tried this with a D-Link receiver as well and get the same behaviour, shows up in listed devices, attempts to connect, I enter the pin from the tv, is checking security and the device vanishes from the list of devices. So this seems to be a problem with my LG3 and not the receivers.

I haven't done anything to my phone, haven't installed anything new or any updates. Any idea how to fix this?

Thanks

 

[Daoudmbo]

An update, I did a factory reset on my phone, an LG G3 (not LG3), but still the same problem. I will try with Screenbeam support and maybe Netflix support if they have any ideas. Miracast itself doesn't have any specific support?

 

[French]

Thanks for reporting back...I also have an update. I rolled back to an earlier version of the Netflix app...early December I believe...and I'm able to stream/cast to the Screen beam again. The version from January 24th that introduces saving to SD card seems to be where it got broken. The early December version includes the downloading feature but doesn't support SD card saving.

Given this I believe it's a Netflix introduced problem. I attempted to email them and got a canned response linking me to a FAQ. I haven't had a chance to pursue further.

 

[Daoudmbo]

Ok this sounds like the cause, it was around last January that it stopped working for me. How do I rollback the Netflix app? Or get an earlier one. Since I did a factory reset of the phone, I had to install all apps again, so It would have been the latest Netflix version.

Thanks!

 

[French]

Search for apk mirror and within that search for Netflix. Interesting...I just did it myself to make sure I was telling you the right thing and now I see there are 2 more apks posted...one as recent as yesterday. So it's possible Netflix is working on this but I haven't had a chance to look into it and the t.v. that I use ScreenBeam on is at another location. I might be able to mess with it this afternoon and if I do I'll report back. But for now the version I have working is the December 9th one.

ETA: Weird, the version on the Google Play Store is 4.13.0 build 14540 (January 24th), but this site has newer versions available. I'll try to spend some time playing with it this afternoon to see what transpires...

 

[Daoudmbo]

Ok, I installed Netflix 4.12.2 from December and it works fine now! I won't update Netflix again until this bug has been fixed.

Thanks!

 

[French]

I just tested and sadly the newer 2 posted are plagued with the same problem so the December 9th version 4.12.2 is the only one that will still cast.

 

[French]

I just talked to Netflix and they are acknowledging they are hearing of issues for some Android users since introducing the download to SD card feature. To be clear, they introduced downloading prior to the downloading to SD card...the December 9th version 4.12.2 is capable of downloading however it will only download to the internal phone storage (of which I have none left).

Specifically, however, for the ScreenBeam, they are saying their system shows it is "not supported". I explained that it had been working just fine all the way up to the December 9th application and she was very nice and said she'd report it and that "you are right it doesn't make sense it would be supported prior and now it's not". I don't know if this will get anywhere or not and I REALLY hope it's just a bug and not by design, because if Netflix is purposely shutting down the ability to cast then other apps will likely follow suit. Comcast had it shut down from the beginning (jerks)...but Amazon still casts...I haven't tested HBO.

Anyway I encourage you to call it in as well. Good luck.

 

[bruzzy]

Hi,
I was struggling with the same problem, but just found out an interesting thing (by accident). This "broken" update of the Netflix app has something to do with the Android version and the feature for "window content" hiding.

I was first trying to get the screen cast working with the latest Appstore version of Netflix on a Samsung GS7 (Android 6.1). Which was not working.

But then I was playing around with screen cast on a different GS7 device which was updated to Android 7.0. Here I observed that I was able to see the content of the messanger app "Signal", although the content visibility to other apps was switched off (a data security option in the app settings which makes the contenent of this app invisible to other apps, e.g. "last apps", etc.). On the Android 6 device that option does exactly what it's supposed to (content hiding), but on the Android 7 device it seems to have no effect (I guess a bug due to some change in the Android API).

Seeng that, I desided to give another try to the screen cast with Netflix on the Android 7 device. And, what a surprise: it's working as expected!

So that meens to me that Netflix started using that "content hiding" feature on porpuse, but as of now it's not working with Android 7 (a bug from their point of view). So I'm pretty sure, they are going to "fix" that in future versions, which will forbid the screen casting of their content in future at all.

 

[French]

[snip]...So that meens to me that Netflix started using that "content hiding" feature on porpuse, but as of now it's not working with Android 7 (a bug from their point of view). So I'm pretty sure, they are going to "fix" that in future versions, which will forbid the screen casting of their content in future at all.[/snip]

If so this really annoys me. Comcast (Xfinity) at least pops up a big old infuriating message telling you they don't allow casting (they claim because of the agreements they have with the content providers but I don't trust Comcast AT ALL and am highly suspicious if it's the agreements or just their greed). Anyway, if Netflix doesn't want us casting then they should at least come clean about it and put up messaging telling the user why it isn't working.

So I REALLY hope you are wrong...