Why Does My Chromecast Keep Pausing (How to Fix)

As an owner of a Chromecast, I was getting frustrated with the problem of it randomly pausing for no apparent reason. After doing some research and testing, I’m here to share my experience and solutions that I’ve discovered on how to fix this issue. In this blog post, I will discuss the possible causes of why your Chromecast keeps pausing, and how you can go about resolving it.

Chromecast keeps pausing mostly because of connectivity issues. The device could be too far from the Wi-Fi source, or the Wi-Fi source itself may be unreliable.

Tips for Resolving Chromecast Pausing Issues
Chromecast pausing is mostly caused by connectivity issues
Keep Chromecast within 15 feet of the router for better connectivity
An unstable network or too many people using the same connection can cause the Chromecast to pause
Check if the remote is faulty
Clear cache if it’s full
Try restarting Chromecast if none of the above work

Table of Contents

Why does my Chromecast keep pausing?

Below are the most common causes of Chromecasts frequently pausing and what you can do about them.

Chromecast Is Too Far From the Router

Google Chromecast doesn’t have the best connectivity range, and it sometimes shows. You may have changed the location of your router, your TV, or both.

The further you are from the router, the less stable the data will become and the seemingly slower your Chromecast will be. This will manifest itself as buffering or pausing of your videos.

It’s best to keep your Chromecast within 15 feet of your router for the best connectivity.

Unstable Network

Sometimes the problem has less to do with your Chromecast device and more with your connection itself. The connection may be experiencing a few hiccups that could affect any device that’s relying on it.

Additionally, one or more people at home may be using the internet bandwidth to download or stream something. The more people who use the same connection, the less speed each of them is going to get.

To rule out the unstable network problem, try to use your phone to go online and see if seemingly fast services like YouTube and Facebook are slowing down as well. If so, then the problem is currently in the connection.

Faulty Remote

This is a rare occasion, but sometimes the TV remote may keep repeating the last order you gave it randomly.

Let’s say, for example, that you paused the stream to go get something to drink and came back to unpause the stream. The remote may resend the pause signal to your TV and make it pause again.

We’re not talking about video buffering because of slow connections here. We’re talking about actual video pause as if someone has intentionally paused your video.

If you doubt it’s your remote, you may want to try removing the batteries and resuming your stream once more.

The Cache Is Full

We can simply define cache as temporary storage for files, scripts, and images. The cache temporarily stores some files to make it much faster to open apps and pages that you repeatedly use.

Let’s say that you’re watching a short YouTube video, for example. The first time you load that video, the gray loading bar will take a few seconds to load the video fully.

Now try refreshing the page and you’ll notice how the video loads back instantly. That’s the cache in action.

The cache is supposed to readily empty the data that you don’t often use anymore. Sometimes, however, that stops happening. A full cache would then slow down your streaming experience and may cause random pauses in your Chromecast stream.

To clear the cache, you need to follow these simple steps:

Go to your profile icon and select Settings > System > Storage > Internal shared storage > Cached data
Select “Clear cached data for all apps,” then click Ok

Keep in mind that this may also reset your suggested search queries and some login credentials of some websites, a small price to pay in exchange for a steady stream!

Soft reset the Chromecast

Often, an easy solution is to simply restart your Chromecast device.

To do this, open the Google Home App, Touch and hold the device’s title, tap settings, more settings then reboot.

Alternatively, you can simply unplug the Chromecast for at least 60 seconds which will reboot the Chromecast.

I’ve Tried Everything But My Chromecast Keeps Pausing

If none of the solutions we mentioned works for you, you can try restarting your Chromecast device.

While the device is plugged into the TV, hold down the power button for around 25 seconds. The device would flash red, then white. Once it flashes white and your TV goes blank, release the button.

This should restart your Chromecast and hopefully fix the problem. Doing this fully resets the Chromecast to its factory defaults.

Final Thoughts

The issue is often caused by slow Wi-Fi, limited bandwidth, or simply a distant connection. Sometimes it has to do with a faulty remote as well.

Once you rule out all other causes, you can attempt to restart your Chromecast. It has a good chance of fixing the pausing issue.