[Updated: June 29] Google Home app paused devices can't be unpaused, disappearing from list in recent update? Here's how to fix it

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on June 29, 2021) follows:

The digital age is upon us and with that, we see many of the big tech companies investing heavily in building their respective ecosystems, ecosystems meant to offer users seamless connectivity and interoperability of their devices.

With the rise in home internet, our homes are increasingly growing connected as our phones can now talk to our TVs, computers, light bulbs and so on.

Google Home as a service allows users invested in the Google ecosystem to perform various tasks and control their home devices through their phones or through any of the available supported devices.

Of course, these devices and integrations are only useful to users when they actually work. While they do work consistently and predictably most of the time, sometimes like any tech product, they fall a little short.

A few weeks ago, we saw Google getting rid of the Google WiFi app and sending these app users to the Google Home app. Now, it is coming to light that these users are facing an issue that renders them unable to control some of their connected devices.

According to affected users (1,2,3,4), they lose access to their connected devices once they pause them using the Google Home app. This makes it impossible to regain access since it won’t show up on the list.

Every time I pause a device in the Google Home app it doesn’t show up it disappears from the device list I can’t unpause the paused device from the google home app but I tried downloading the Google Wi-Fi app and there’s an option to unpause all devices so I don’t know what’s going on but that is a bug and I cannot figure out how to fix it.
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Paused WiFi for a device in Google Home and now I am not able see the device to unpause.
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This issue has since been extensively brought to the attention of Google by affected users on various platforms including the Google Play Store and in return, Google has been asking them to update their router firmware and Home apps to the latest versions.

From the reports on the community forums, the Home app was reportedly fine a few weeks ago and the issue can be narrowed down to the most recent update to the Google Home app.

I actually recall pausing and unpausing a device just fine a week or two ago. I’m guessing this was a bug introduced by the recent firmware update. Either way, it’s really pissing me off now.
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A workaround that has been fronted by users in the community forums involves creating a family group of devices in the Google Home app, pausing and unpausing all the selected devices.

Go to WiFi Set up Family group An option to select devices will pop up Select all the devices that were paused. THEN On the WiFi landing page WITHIN FAMILY button area (at bottom of screen) click “pause devices” then unpause. Everything comes back online right away.
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Another suggested workaround involves using the older Google WiFi app as it is reportedly unaffected by this bug. It is still unclear if the previous releases of Google Home app offer relief.

I have the same problem. My workaround is the old Google Wifi app. I go to the 3rd tab I believe is shortcuts > Family Wi-Fi (this will show how many devices paused) > then devices > then I tap the : in the upper right corner and tap end all paused devices.
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That said, we shall continue to keep an eye on this issue that causes pausing devices on Google Home to make them disappear, and update as and when we get more info so stay tuned to PiunikaWeb for more.

IST 1:13 pm: Google through the official Made by Google handle of Twitter has come out to acknowledge this bug, asking users to use the Google Wi-Fi app in the meantime. However, iOS users don’t have this option.

Hi Shantanu, thanks for the tweet. While our team is aware that the paused device isn’t showing in the Google Home app and working on a fix, you can try unpausing them in the Google Wifi app as a workaround. You can check this link for more details: https://bit.ly/3rpU5po
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NOTE: We have these and many more Google Home stories in our dedicated Google section.

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