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Why Does Chromecast Stop When My Phone Sleeps? (Curious Causes!)

Does your Chromecast stop when your phone sleeps?

While it might be tempting to blow it all up with a factory reset and set it back up from scratch, this process will most likely wipe out your saved preferences.

Therefore, before you resort to that option, it might be best to check the settings on your phone first for a less invasive solution.

With a bit of tinkering around your phone settings, you can keep Chromecast running smoothly!

This guide will show you the reasons for (and the solutions to) this problem.

On top of that, you’ll also learn how your Chromecast and phone work together, so you’ll be able to solve future hiccups more quickly!

Why Does My Chromecast Keep Stopping When My Phone Screen Turns Off?

turned off android smartphone

Chromecast is a feature that’s controlled from the Google Home app on your phone.

Your phone treats Google Home just like any other app- meaning that it may automatically stop the app to conserve battery power, or prevent the app from running in the background.

Because of this, there’s a chance that Google Home will disconnect from your Chromecast whenever your phone is idle in order to save energy.

Unintended Side Effect Of Battery-Saver Mode

Nowadays, most phones have a Low Power Mode that- as the name suggests- makes the battery last longer!

Some apps drain battery power faster than others because they utilize more of a phone’s available resources.

Your phone may regard Google Home as one of those apps that drain your battery fairly quickly.

Therefore, if you have the Battery-Saver feature active, it may then disable Google Home- subsequently disconnecting Chromecast.

If this is the case, the solution is as simple as turning off any Battery-Saver feature that might be on, or excluding Google Home from the list of apps that the feature targets.

Disabling Background Apps

person using an android phone close up

The other reason for your Chromecast stopping is that your phone may be disabling any and all background apps from running in order to save power.

Some apps run in the background even after you’ve closed them. For example, you might open your Facebook Messenger app, scroll around for a few minutes, and then exit the app.

However, in these cases the app actually may continue running in the background so that when you go to relaunch it, it’ll start up faster!

The same may apply to the Google Home app.

Therefore, the best and quickest solution therefore might be adding Google Home to the exclusion list of the “Disable background apps” feature.

In some scenarios, your phone can potentially put some restrictions on Google Home when it’s in Battery Saver mode.

For example, some of these limitations can disconnect Chromecast after 10 minutes of background activity.

The phone may also prevent the app from performing an autostart. As a result, the app won’t start even when you reboot your phone!

Consequently, once the phone goes to sleep or is locked, Chromecast will then disconnect.

How Do I Stop My Chromecast From Disconnecting?

person downloading google home application

Every Chromecast issue has a different solution, depending on the root cause.

When Chromecast stops once your phone “goes to sleep”, it’s more likely the result of a phone battery issue rather than anything else.

We’ll also cover other potential problems and their solutions, but for now let’s try optimizing your phone battery settings first and see if that’ll solve the problem at hand!

Before getting into the possible solutions for each scenario, first ensure that you charge your battery to 100%.

Ready to go? Good!

First things first: Check if your phone’s Battery-Saver feature is active!

If it’s in fact on, the feature might automatically close the Google Home app- so you’ll definitely want to disable it. Simply follow these steps to do so:

  • Go to Settings

  • Go to Battery

  • See whether the Battery Saver is active
  • If it’s active, deactivate it!

Now, if you happen to have a lot of power draining apps on your phone, it might be in your best interest to keep this feature active.

In that case, you can simply exclude Google Home from this function.

Follow the steps above and exclude Google Home from the battery saver feature (rather than outright deactivating).

The settings might be slightly different for each device, but the function is universal and should be similar enough.

As a last resort, open the Background App Settings in the Battery menu.

Look for Google Home and choose the “No restriction” option. This way, your phone won’t turn off the app even when it goes to sleep, and the app will keep running in the background uninterrupted.

Did you know that you can actually change the display settings so that the phone will never go to sleep?

Try to be careful though, because this will definitely drain your battery faster than usual!

Why Does My Chromecast Keep Disconnecting From Wi-Fi?

google chromecast dongle

If you’ve tried the fix above and are still being met with Chromecast disconnection issues, the problem could then lie with your Wi-Fi connection.

Luckily, there are several Chromecast Wi-Fi fixes you can try without having to resort to a factory reset.

Older models of Chromecast have been known to carry some connection bugs. If you have one of those older iterations, try one of the following fixes:

Reboot The Device

Sometimes, the solution may be tied with a simple firmware upgrade.

Your Chromecast device may have recently updated to new firmware, and may now need a quick restart to install it.

The most straightforward fix in this situation is simply restarting your device, which should be enough to get the Chromecast working smoothly again!

Fix Your Wi-Fi

If you’re still experiencing the same issue even after rebooting your device, check if the problem is with your router.

Try placing your Wi-Fi router as close to your Chromecast as possible to ensure it’s within a good operating range. Then, check to see if the connection is working properly!

If you still can’t get your Chromecast to remain connected to the network, you may need to try changing your router’s settings.

Log in to the admin dashboard and check the Quality of Service (QoS) checkbox. The QoS feature will optimize your Wi-Fi to better connect to your Chromecast.

Additionally, make sure that all your devices are on the same Wi-Fi network.

Chromecast and the paired device need to be connected to the same internet source in order for it to work properly, and some users forget this and connect to mobile data instead!

Last Resort Solutions

google home application close up on an android phone

If you’ve tried everything above and are still having no luck, finally try reinstalling the Google Home app.

If you’re still having trouble establishing or keeping a connection going, try a hard factory reset on your Chromecast.

This will restore your device to its original state, where you can configure it again from scratch.

If it still doesn’t work after this, perhaps your Chromecast is a bit too outdated- meaning it’s time for an upgrade!

In Conclusion

When Chromecast stops abruptly after a phone sleeps, it’s usually because the phone has automatically closed the app to save power.

Therefore, the best way to fix this issue is by excluding the Google Home app from any Battery-Saver feature that might be present.

Furthermore, it may also be beneficial to actively allow the app to always run in the background.

That’s the best way to have your Chromecast constantly connected to enjoy all the Netflix shows and YouTube videos you like!

In conclusion, it makes it much easier to make Chromecast work smoothly for you when you understand the technology.

You don’t have to force it to get it to work! All you need is to have a little patience to find a solution that’ll work best for your situation.

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