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Configuration and management

After you set up the integration, you can change how often it checks your devices, add and remove devices, reach devices on another network, and remove the integration. If Home Assistant asks you to sign in again, see Sign in again.

Change the update interval

The integration checks your devices for changes every 15 seconds by default.

To change the interval, go to Settings > Devices & services > Google Home and select Configure. Shorter intervals update alarms and timers sooner but send more requests to your devices.

If a speaker or display with alarms and timers often shows false in the available attribute of its device sensor while it's on, or its entities become unavailable for a moment while it restarts, increase the interval, for example to 180 seconds, the default before version 1.16.

Configure shows the interval in use. If you saved these options in version 1.15 or older, for example to add known hosts, it's the interval you saved, which was 180 seconds unless you changed it. To use the new default, enter 15 and select Submit.

To update immediately, use the Refresh devices action.

Add a device

When you add a speaker or display in the Google Home app, the integration adds it without a reload:

  • If Home Assistant receives the device's mDNS announcements, for example because it's on the same network, the device appears about a minute after it joins your network, if Google lists it by then. If another Cast device that the integration didn't know, such as a TV, appeared shortly before, it can take up to 5 minutes.
  • Otherwise, or if Google doesn't list the device yet by then, it appears within about 20 minutes, when the integration next asks Google for your devices.

To add the device straight away, reload the integration: Settings > Devices & services > Google Home > ⋮ > Reload. The integration then asks Google for your devices. The device appears only once Google lists it, and some of its entities only once Home Assistant can reach it; see Entities.

If the integration finds your devices only through known hosts, add the new device's IP address there instead. Saving it reloads the integration, which then reaches the device at that address.

To add back a speaker or display that you removed from the Google Home app:

  1. Wait until the integration has noticed the removal, or reload it; see Remove a device.
  2. Delete the old device in Home Assistant: open the device's page, open the ⋮ menu and select Delete. If you skip this, the new device's entities get IDs such as sensor.kitchen_alarms_2 instead of sensor.kitchen_alarms.
  3. Factory reset the device. Restarting it isn't enough.
  4. Set it up again in the Google Home app. Give it the same name to keep its entity IDs.

Google gives the device a new ID, so the integration adds it as a new device, as described at the start of this section.

If you deleted a device in Home Assistant and the Google Home app lists it again without a factory reset, the integration doesn't add it back by itself: reload the integration.

Add devices on another network

The integration finds your devices on your network with multicast DNS (mDNS). mDNS usually doesn't reach other networks, such as a separate VLAN for smart home devices, or a Home Assistant container that doesn't use host network mode. Those devices then have only a device sensor and a reboot button, and both are unavailable.

For devices on another network, Home Assistant needs:

  • A way to find the devices. Choose one:
    • Give Home Assistant a network interface on the devices' network, such as a second network adapter or a VLAN interface. Home Assistant usually uses only one interface for mDNS, so go to Settings > System > Network, clear Autoconfigure under Network adapter, also select the interface on the devices' network, select Save and restart Home Assistant. With this interface, Home Assistant also connects to the devices directly, so a firewall on your router doesn't need to allow TCP 8443.
    • Set up an mDNS reflector or repeater between the networks, for example on your router.
    • Add the devices' IP addresses as known hosts, as described below.
  • TCP port 8443 on each device. The integration connects to the devices over HTTPS on this port. If a firewall is in between, allow these connections from Home Assistant and their replies. A rule that allows only the Google Cast port, TCP 8009, isn't enough. The devices don't need to connect to Home Assistant.
  • Internet access for Home Assistant. The integration gets the device list and the devices' access tokens from Google when it loads, and again later, for example when the tokens expire.

To add devices as known hosts:

  1. Go to Settings > Devices & services > Google Home and select Configure.
  2. Under Known hosts, add the IP address of each device that the integration can't find.
  3. Select Submit. The integration reloads, asks each address which device it is, and uses the address for that device.

After that, the integration asks your known hosts only when it asks Google for your devices, and only for devices that still have no address. For example, a device that was offline when the integration loaded is looked up at your known hosts at the first update 20 minutes after the integration last asked Google. With a network interface on the devices' network or an mDNS reflector, the integration gets a device's address as soon as the device announces itself, as on the same network.

Give these devices fixed IP addresses in your router, so the addresses don't change. For a speaker pair, add the addresses of both speakers. Only the speaker that leads the pair reports it, so the integration uses that one and ignores the other.

Remove a device

When you remove a device from the Google Home app or factory reset it, the integration normally notices within about 20 minutes, when it next asks Google for your devices, and the device's entities become unavailable. Removing a device from the Google Home app doesn't reset it: it stays on your network, and the integration keeps updating it until it next asks Google for your devices. After a factory reset, a device forgets your Wi-Fi network and usually stops answering, so its entities can become unavailable sooner, once it hasn't answered 5 updates in a row, before the integration has noticed. Before you delete the device, reload the integration so that it notices straight away: Settings > Devices & services > Google Home > ⋮ > Reload. Then open the device's page in Home Assistant, open the ⋮ menu and select Delete.

Home Assistant offers Delete for every device of the integration, but you can't delete one that Google still lists in your home, even if it shows as unavailable: it would come back the next time the integration loads. Until the integration has noticed that Google no longer lists a device, you can't delete that one either. Home Assistant then shows "Failed to remove device entry, rejected by integration".

To use a removed device again, factory reset it first; see Add a device.

Remove the integration

  1. Go to Settings > Devices & services > Google Home, open the ⋮ menu and select Delete. Home Assistant deletes the master token it stored.
  2. If you installed with HACS, open HACS, select Google Home, open the ⋮ menu and select Remove. If you installed manually, delete the custom_components/google_home folder.
  3. Restart Home Assistant.

To use another Google account, delete the integration as in step 1 and add it again.

Deleting the integration doesn't stop the master token from working, and the integration can't revoke it. If the token might have been copied, for example from a Home Assistant backup:

  • If you created a separate Google account for the integration, delete that account.
  • Otherwise, change the Google account's password. Google then signs you out on most devices and apps, but it lists exceptions, so this isn't guaranteed to stop the master token.