Chromecasting from MacOS has been broken for 6 months now - no fix in 15.4

ahaynes4 wrote:

This has been an ongoing MacOS bug that started last October, there are multiple discussions addressing the issue, see below:

"To cast, give Chrome access in system se… - Apple Community

Unable to Chrome cast to my Google TV sin… - Apple Community

Chromecast not working after macOS Sequoi… - Apple Community

Local network blocks apps despite given p… - Apple Community

How can I disable "Local Network" permiss… - Apple Community

The problem with including a long list of other threads in the forums is that people might actually click on them. When they do, this is quite obviously just one of a long list of problems that affect only Google products.

The Chrome developers have concluded that it is a MacOS issue

This is standard refrain since long before Google even existed. If there is one uniting factor that brings everyone together, it's that Apple is always at fault for any issue.

There have been many workarounds posted, including installing a fresh version of Chrome, turning on and off experimental flags, toggling the firewall on and off, etc. Some of them work and some of them don't but none of them are permanent fixes, they only work until a reboot. I've tried it all and nothing is working. I can't believe this issue has been allowed to persist for 6 months now. I had a lot of hope that the release of 15.4 would fix it, but I'm starting to lose hope that it will get fixed at all and it's very frustrating.

There are some easy ways to make this less frustrating and confusing.

First of all, consider where you are. This is a user-to-user technical support forum for Apple products. You're complaining about a Google product. So right off the bat, you're in the wrong place.

But Google has assured you that this is an Apple problem. OK then. So all 3rd party apps exhibit this problem? No? Do any products other than Google products exhibit this problem? Bingo! So clearly, it's a Google problem.

One obvious solution is to simply stop using the problematic apps. I'm sure there are other apps that perform the same functions. You've tried various hacks, but probably not all hacks. I do keep Google Chrome around myself because it does have one useful trick that Safari doesn't. But I always keep Google "helper" apps like the updater disabled in System Settings. It seems reasonable that this is what causes the many duplicate instances of Chrome in System Settings > Local Networks. Google's auto-updater is buggy. So every time you fix it, Google updates the app and breaks it all again. Turn off the updater and fix it one last time.

ahaynes4 wrote:

The thing is - this is not an issue that affects only Google products. It has affected many other web browsers as well.

Yeah, "alternative" web browsers are getting to be about as popular as VPNs these days. That should be a Red Flag.

It is the access to the local network framework that is causing these issues, and that is an OS-level problem.

It's not a problem. It's by design. Apple regularly reviews technical strategies used by malware, scams, and "grey market" apps. Then they change the operating system to make those apps harder to use. It's always possible to properly use Apple's APIs to make it work, but that usually comes at a cost that those fly-by-night operators are unwilling to pay. If there is a legitimate market for a legitimate app, then you'll be able to find an app that works.

I'll just never be able to cast my laptop's screen to my tv again, which I used to use all of the time.

Isn't that what AirPlay does?

Apple products are premium, integrated products. If there is something you want to do, you can probably do it with Apple products. But it will cost you. If you want to do that same thing, with some other products, for free, then you can do that with lower-grade products and open-source software. It's not going to be a good experience though.

This is just the way the market works. You're hoping for some "sweet spot" where you can spend the minimum for premium Apple products and get the rest for free. But the people you depend on to write that free software really don't like Apple products and can't make any money from them. They are unlikely to read the latest Apple documentation and learn how to properly do it. Somebody else in the "community" has to implement it for them at a lower level. But this new pace of Apple system changes makes all of this much more difficult and unpleasant.

Not to state the obvious but it's up to Google to make sure Chromecasting is compatible with Sequoia 15.4 and any other versions of macOS in the future.

Google Support

ahaynes4 wrote:

The Google developers have stated in their bug trackers that is a MacOS issue and they are waiting on a fix from Apple.

What else would they say if they don't know how to fix it?

Just my thought, Chromecast devices were discontinued August 6, 2024. My guess is Apple would have no incentive to make Chromecast devices work with current and future versions of macOS.

Chromecast is a discontinued line of digital media players developed by Google. From: Chromecast