Ambient screensaver FAQs

Ambient screensaver allows you to personalize what’s displayed on your Google streaming device's home screen even when not casting. You can choose to display your favorite photos and art from a variety of channels. Here's more information about setting up ambient screensaver.

No, ambient screensaver can't be turned off. If you disable all customized ambient screensaver preferences, images from "Featured Photos" will still appear on your TV display when the streaming device is idle.

No, you can't control when and how often a piece of content appears on ambient screensaver.

Your ambient screensaver preferences might not be linked to your streaming device preferences. To find out how to do this, refer to Ambient screensaver for Chromecast and Google TV Streamer.

If you already set up your ambient screensaver preferences, restart your device.

One of the following error messages appears on your mobile device when trying to link your ambient settings to your streaming device:

• Android Devices: "Can’t link {streaming device name} to ambient screensaver. Please try again later"
• iOS Devices: "Oops! Something went wrong. Unable to add ambient screensaver to your {streaming device name}"

To resolve the issue:

1. Cast a video from the YouTube mobile application.
2. Stop the video and disconnect from the Google Cast session.
3. Try re-linking your ambient settings to your streaming device once the pictures show up on the streaming device home screen.

Your streaming device gets photos for ambient screensaver through the Google Photos account you linked in the Google Home app. To upload photos to use with the streaming device, upload your photos directly to Google Photos.

Only the photos from the selected albums will be displayed on the TV.