Why is my Google Mini's sound level changing?

Hmm....might be on Google's end. Did another test. Had my speakers volume drop to 45 after a TTS, raised them back to 100 and left them alone for a few hours to idle. From my phone's Spotify, it saw the Google speakers as a castable speaker on my wifi, I selected the mini speaker which loudly played the google connection sound, but when I found a song and pressed play on it the speaker immediate dropped to 45, much like our issue but not involving Hubitat at all. Same happened when trying with my google home speaker.

Might be a Google problem when connecting/playing media at night, (maybe just 3rd party media sources?) despite me not have any night modes or routines set up

Okay. I looked a bit more and found how to block Internet access for the Google Home Mini on my Netgear Nighthawk router. Now it is restricted to my home network only. I'll know tonight whether it makes a difference or not.

Change the time of your mode change as well... Then you'll see if it has anything to do with changing the mode...

Good idea. I'll do that now.

Following this thread. Have the same Volume 45 problem. I am reinitializing 4 Google mini home speakers every 15 minutes with Chromecast helper. Tried a work around with adding a setVolume custom command on my Rulemachine 4.0 rules that output through the speakers, they still reset. This has been going on for I guess a month or more now. Very interested in getting back control of my volumes. Just glad it doesn't reset to 10% !

@bobbyD

since @bravenel did not chime in on this, I hope someone on the Hubitat staff can help figure out why with the recent updates, Google Home Mini's volume is changing since it worked fine without changing for so long.

Changed router to keep Google Home Mini confined to home network and changed time of mode switch to night to 5 minutes later than before.

Results:
Google Home Mini volume changed at the new time to 45 so it isn't that it is reaching out to Google to change. I set the change to 23:05 and at 23:05.07.429, the volume changed to 45.

So, this seems to confirm that it is happening within the Mini or within the Hubitat environment.

Do you have a rule firing at Mode change?

I have simple automation events set for the same time, but they do not use mode change. They just use the time instead. I have a notification set to announce the mode change. It is set to fire at 23:00 and the message is, "Mode changing to %value%" and no other parameters set.

I added a command to my thermostat settings which fire at mode change to first set the volume on the Mini to 80%. I don't know if that will help or not.

I dont know, I'm half thinking this might all be a hidden Google update issue. Not involving Hubitat at all, selecting Google speakers in Spotify and playing music during these night hours auto drops the volume from 100 to 45 once music is sent to play and connects. Much like Hubitat selects the speaker to connect and play TTS.

This 45 volume problem might trigger on Google's devices from any 3rd party media sent to the speakers during overnight hours, Hubitat included. I believe Google did updates regarding their new Nest speaker releases about a month ago....could be related.

I wonder if there is any way to undo that particular change. Does Google have an API for the mini (not that I would know what to do with it)?

Not sure if Google allows much user access to their speakers like that. Based on my bit of googling, it seems the answer is straight up "No" on all the threads I see asking if you can revert to previous firmware. And even Google doesnt actively post on their site the most current firmware and date since its definitely old from what version it says I'm running.

This issue is making me consider buying and switching to Ikea/sonos SYMFONISK speakers, seems hubitat users are happy with those with added plus of no Mic too that might 'accidentally' listen lol

+1 for this Google Mini issue with volume. I have 3 and all default to volume level 45% when night mode is set by MM. I have used RM to get around it for now but would be good to have the option to set volumes on TTS devices for mode changes.

This is the rule I created. It seems to be working although It does mess a bit with the announcement that triggers the change to 45. However, it does get the volume back to 80 which is where I want it.

Ugh, yeah, I changed nothing - and this started happening on my Lenovo speaker that uses Google. Hoping there will be an answer soon!

Anyone? Basically I destroyed my speakers in HE, now HE can't discover them all and still the same issue with the ones HE discovered.
@bravenel @mike.maxwell
Please let us know if this is an HE issue or external.
Thanks.

It sure looks like a HE issue. Whenever I go to bed, I set the alarm and put the house into night mode. The device that announces the alarm is set always goes to 45% within a few seconds of entering night mode. Devices that aren't announcing in night mode are not touched. I created the rule to change my volume back too. Why the HE is screwing with the volume in night mode makes no sense but it is.

Just so you know, I'm getting the exact same issue using home assistant (hassio). Volume resets to 45%
It's driving me friking insane.
Here is what I've deduced.

Kind of random, more likely to happen at night.

Happens on Google home, and Nest mini devices
You guys are saying it happens on other cast enabled devices too like lenovo etc. Cast firmware v1.50.229149 is on mine, what cast firmware version do you have on other devices?

Hassio is different to the platform you're using so that could rule out and hubitat

I'm using the google TTS platform on hassio to do my announcements, and these specific home/Nest mini devices are used in my house only for announcements.
I also have them set to not listen (microphone turned off)

Also have them set to not do night mode etc

I made a google routine to set the volume at 90% at 8am every morning and sometimes during the day I find them reset back to 45% but mostly at night. Mostly.

I was thinking did I set some routine or automation some place and forget about it? Spent two days looking through every place I could but didn't find anything so now I've discovered you guys with the same 45% problem I can cross that off the list.

Hope this gives some more areas to narrow this down.

Has this prompted any ideas?

It does help me. I was thinking that it was HE but, now I'm thinking it's Google doing it if a notification is sent during the night since you are seeing it on another platform. That's the only thing that makes sense to me since the volume reduction only happens on the device that I'm sending notifications to at night. I would like this to STOP too.

I might try turning on night mode and then back off again. After working in IT for 15+ years that was a good trick to fix things.
Sometimes when something is on or off, it might only be partly on or off due to a code change.
Activating the feature and then turning it off again might fully turn it off.

Even though you're on a different platform, it might be similar code in your home automation system causing it so don't 100% rule that out either.

The command I use to announce is alone the lines of:

action:
    - service: tts.google_translate_say
      entity_id: group.bullhorn
      data_template:
        message: 'System Initialisation.'

That's in hassio by the way.
Perhaps it's the TTS routine?