Streaming to TV - icon missing

[mark7914]

Does anyone have any ideas that can help to work out why the apps on my phone no longer display a stream to TV icon?

We have both a Fire Stick and a Chromecast device, the latter is very rarely used, both are on the network.

Previously, I'd get the option to cast YouTube to the Fire Stick reasonably reliably, it would work maybe 8 in 10 times. At least for a while. Sometimes, for prolonged periods. Now the icon doesn't appear at all.

Chromecast would usually come to life after turning it off and on again and enabling "Location Services" on the phone.

Now, almost nothing works. No cast icon shows in the YouTube app. The Chromecast "Home" app can't even locate the TV on the network. Turning it off and on again doesn't work (phone/TV/both).

But.. the Prime Video app can indeed cast to the Fire Stick. It's the only casting function that still works.

Have worked through the complete list of "Troubleshooting" tasks with Chomecast, no joy. I think that might simply be broken.

Have also looked up all the common YouTube issues, and tried a variety of things. None of them work.

The YouTube app is very keen to update itself, but it has always worked with the current version. The Fire Stick's ability to update itself should have been killed with some router settings. The phone doesn't update itself.

So all the software is as it was when it was last working. And now, it doesn't work. Any ideas..?

 

[Rukbat]

First, make sure that both devices are connected to your router, not your neighbor's unsecured router. Neither YouTube nor Home will see the Firestick or the Chromecast if they're not on the same router.

Pull down Notifications - twice. Look for Cast. If you don't see it, hit the pencil (to edit) and scroll down. Move that icon up so you can get to it. That's your casting icon. (I don't know about Firestick, I don't own one, but that casts to my Chromecast - every single time. Not just YouTube, the whole phone screen. Whatever is on the phone is on the TV. (Yes, you have to turn the phone to landscape mode for it to look decent, unless you like looking at 1/3 of a TV picture. And yes, you have to keep the phone screen on - if it goes off, the TV goes black.)

 

[mark7914]

Thanks for responding so quickly:

I don't have a Cast icon anywhere in the top section. Neither on the first page of icons nor on the second. There's no pencil icon but there is a way to re-order the icons, but still no "Cast" icon.

If however I go into Settings > Connections > WiFi, I do see a wireless connection called DIRECT-G3-FireTV_c2d9.

If I click on that I can connect, except I don't know the password for it - I assume that's something that was "set up automatically" and the Prime TV app can "see it" - I guess - hence that can stream, but YouTube shows no Cast icon.

Neighbour's wireless connections are also visible - their Sky router and a printer - but we've never even tried to connect to those.

There's no CHROMECAST wireless network or similar.

Chromecast will show up on the TV as in - it shows photographs and a time but doesn't seem accessible to anything else. So the output from the thing works but there's no connecting to it. It last worked about two weeks ago when I went into the "Home" app on the phone and shared the screen with the TV.

I've tried resetting the router and the modem (they're separate, we have a slightly odd network but everything goes through the same router).

If I check the router it shows all the devices you'd expect as connected clients including one Amazon device which must be the Fire Stick but it doesn't show the Chromecast thing.

So the Chromecast device appears not to want to connect to nor talk to anything and YouTube still doesn't show the "Cast" icon which would normally offer a choice of "Cast to Fire TV" or "Cast to Living Room TV" (Chromecast).

Actually we almost never use the Chromecast thing, the Fire TV stick is better for casting stuff - the quality level is higher and it always worked better (it doesn't argue about needing permissions for location and microphone) but now it doesn't work with YouTube. Forgetting about Chromecast as I can live without that, YouTube > Fire Stick is the main thing I'd like to have working.

I could try updating the YouTube app but then it always worked with this version in the past and nothing has changed.

The only coincidence is a power cut about two weeks ago. I suspect that it has never worked since then.

 

[mark7914]

Right - I've managed to get the Chromecast thing working again by setting it up again.

The YouTube app now does show a CAST icon but the only available option is "Living Room TV" which is Chromecast.

What remains missing is the "Cast to Fire Stick" option. That's the one we use most.

The Fire Stick has the YouTube app installed, and it previously worked with that: but even without/before that the option was still available, it's just that the Fire Stick thing had to open a browser to show the video.

Any ideas on how to get the "Cast to Fire Stick" option back?

 

[mark7914]

.. and as if by magic, since I didn't do anything, it has returned and all is back to normal.