Google Assistant intermittent connection to Home Assistant

Dave-G-K · January 14, 2019, 9:33pm

Update: the problem has stopped happening. My last action was to once more unlink and relink in Google assistant which I had done several times prior. However now Google has connected to my Home Assistant without any problem for 2 days. I can not think of anything else I did which may have resulted in this change. I will update if the problem returns

I am successful in setting up the Google Assistant component

and have successfully added the device to Google Home which then displays the entities exposed by my Home Assistant service. The problem is that after some time, Google Home will report that it is unable to connect to “Home Assistant” (the display name for my Google Action)Some time later I can check Google Home and the state of the entities is displayed and they can be controlled successfully.

The times between success or problem varies from a fraction of an hour to several hours.

I have tried using the Google home Android app on my phone and Chromebook and on my Google Home Hub and find they will all report either success or failure at the same time. That is, if one is successful, they all are and vice-versa.

I am running Home Assistant 0.84.6 in a Docker container in Fedora 29

I use an SSL cert from Let’s Encrypt and have a static IPV4 address with my COX business service. I see no indications of network connection problems. All of my in-house services run with no problems reported.

I see no problems reported in the Home Assistant log. I do not see how to look for problem reports in my Google Action but maybe I’ve missed something as that is a very new area for me.

Any suggestions as to what to look for to diagnose and correct this problem? Anyone else see such intermittent problems with Google Assistant?

Thanks
Dave

DavidFW1960 · January 18, 2019, 12:35am

You need to re-enable testing every now and again in the Google Dev console.

Dave-G-K · January 18, 2019, 1:08am

Thanks! I may have done that while searching for an answer and not recognizing it may have been the fix

Rodney · June 12, 2019, 7:43am

I have experienced the intermittent “I’m sorry I can’t reach Home Assistant” & variations thereof and been wondering if anyone else had this issue. It can happen once or twice in a row then the second or third attempt will work. It’s annoying having to say the same command two or three times.

I went to https://console.actions.google.com/ & ran my test app in the simulator again. Is that what you meant DavidFW1960?

Of course when I test it now my Google Home works like normal. If I don’t have any issues over the next couple of days I’ll report back.

DavidFW1960 · June 12, 2019, 8:14am

Yeah when it stops working that is what I do and it normally fixes it. Intermittent sounds like some other problem though.

Rodney · June 12, 2019, 10:21am

I think you’re right. I just got “It looks like Home Assistant is unavailable right now.” when trying to turn off my landing light. Saying the same command straight away again had it turned off virtually instantly.

Maybe it’s this Australian internet, or the Pi3 can’t respond fast enough each & every time for Google’s liking, but I’ll have to keep searching for the reason it seems.

DavidFW1960 · June 12, 2019, 10:55am

I find maybe 1 in 20 or less commands I get the no comprehende message and have to repeat it… could be misunderstanding me or who knows… we certainly have good stable internet.

seeheng · January 17, 2020, 1:18am

Hi Rodney
Just to let you know I have the same problem. I still do not know how to fix it.
Can anyone help?

mmatesic01 · January 22, 2020, 7:46pm

Same issues here. Latelly very intermittent behaviour with GA with entities in HA.

Terence_Ng · April 15, 2020, 8:59am

Same issue here.

I am using own google domain and pointing to my public ip using ddns.

Kind annoying that received unavailable error but the command still executed.

Magoo · April 15, 2020, 9:32am

Same here…

Jolanrensen · May 13, 2020, 11:07pm

Same issue for me too “I’m sorry, I can’t reach the home Assistant”. If I wait a few seconds and then ask it again it works. Really annoying.

SummerRain · May 20, 2020, 4:29am

I am having the same issue.

valepe · June 6, 2020, 8:24am

Same here

leranp · June 18, 2020, 2:10pm

Same here

KingRichard · June 18, 2020, 2:14pm

well… I believe I also got hit with a similar problem where my google home somehow intermittently can’t play my cuckoo clock perfectly especially when it goes beyond 9 o’clock. Any solutions?

swifty · August 13, 2020, 10:27pm

I’ve had exactly the same issue with intermittent “project name seems to be unavailable right now” ever since using Google home with HA, and figured it was something to do with my internet… glad it’s not just me!

Did anyone ever find a solution? - If there are any Devs around, what can we do to help diagnose this problem?

anthonykeane · August 20, 2020, 10:06am

I have the same issue, Command to Google Home is understood but when Google’s attempt to send instructions to Hassio fails.

I t wouls be great if we know what was happening tin the comms handshake

swifty · September 21, 2020, 7:20am

Anyone ever get to the bottom of this issue ? - I’m still seeing it randomly… just last night, I asked google to turn off the light, nothing happened and then a few seconds later got the ‘sorry, HA smart home seems to be unavailable right now…’

I asked a second time, and the light instantly went off!!

FiNaR · September 21, 2020, 6:26pm

Same problem here… it is very annoying