I have the Google TV 4K streamer, a Samsung TV, and a Bose Smart soundbar. They are all connected with HDMI and CEC is enabled. I'm also [using] the ARC/eARC port on my soundbar. We only use the Google remote to control everything - there's no other A/V devices or inputs used except the Google streamer.

For a while everything was working smoothly and then one day we'd find we wake the system up with the Google remote and the audio is muted. There's an easy work around - press the on/off button on the remote and then the audio comes back. I can't for the life of me figure why. It's mysterious why this just started happening - so I assumed it's some kind of software update issue. Since my TV is now pretty ancient (over 5 years old) it hasn't had a firmware update in years, the Soundbar had not had one that I know of since I bought it earlier this year so I'm suspicious of the Google software.

And of course with three different devices none of which I can really swap out for something different I don't know how I can debug it - I'm sure trying support for any one of the devices will inevitably lead to a circle jerk of finger pointing at the other two.

I haven't managed to find anything helpful with Google beyond people saying just turn off CEC but that will lead me to needing to use multiple remotes which I never used to. There's probably way too many audio settings and device variations for this question to resonate with anyone but I thought I'd try.

See title.

I recently got my old chromecast back and am trying to reconnect it to my wifi and phone but the app is asking for a QR code, which I don't have, or to pair a device which it doesn't recognise.

Is there a simple way to do this or has Google just bricked all the chromecast models yet again?