Google Nest Hub Not Showing All Photos: How to Fix [2023]

written by

Doug Stevenson

updated August 04, 2023

Recently, I took time and curated an album of memories to display on my Google Nest Hub, and weirdly out of my 150+ photos, only a select 20 or so were being displayed.

The displayed photos were completely random photos from that album that repeatedly showed up and the rest were not being displayed at all.

How do you fix Google Nest Hub not showing all photos?

To fix Google Nest Hub not showing all photos via its Photo Frame feature, change the Personal Photo Curation settings from All Albums to Live Albums only. Then favorite the photos to be displayed and select the favorites album for Photo Frame. If issues still persist, perform a power cycle and factory reset.

Toggle the 'Live Albums Only' Option

One of the fixes that a user eventually came across via trial and error and messing with the Google Home settings was by enabling the Live Albums Only option.

This settings option exists to narrow down the photos to display on the Photo Frame feature of the Google Nest Hub.

Since the feature to display all photos of your Google Photos account is broken, the only fix was to personally curate an album and specifically select that to be displayed.

Do note that this fix alone doesn't solve the problem, as the Google Nest Hub gets confused after a while and goes back to its old habits.

In order to enable the Live Albums Only, follow the steps below:

Connect your Google Nest Hub to your Android or iOS device using the Google Home app. Make sure the pairing is successful and the link is active.
Select the Google Nest Hub device from the home screen of the Google Home app.
Select the Photo Frame option.
Tap on Personal Photo Curation.
Change the All Albums option to Live Albums only.

Alternatively, you can also set up the feature without using the Google Home app and instead rely on Google Assistant to do the work for you.

In order to enable the Live Albums only mode using Google Assistant, follow the steps below:

Connect your Google Nest Hub to your Android or iOS device using the Google Home app. Make sure the pairing is successful and the link is active.
Invoke the Google Assistant from the Google Nest Hub, by simply giving the following command: "Hey Google Change photo frame".
From the list of options provided by the Google Assistant on the Google Nest hub, select the Live Albums only option.

This successfully sets the Personal Photo Curation option to Live Albums only, making sure Google has a defined set of photos to work with.

Do note that this doesn't follow a particular order in displaying the images, but the feature works nonetheless.

Set the Favourites Folder to Play On the Screen

Set the Favourites Folder to Play On Screen

This is the second fix that helped solve the problem of the Google Nest Hub not displaying all photos via its Photo Frame feature.

Essentially, the feature is used to pick out your favorite photos from your vast list of photos in order to save them as a separate album for later viewing.

But users who experienced the Photo Frame issue with their Google Nest Hub have come to the conclusion that setting the favorites folder to play on the display works for many.

But then again, this isn't a one-stop solution, and some users have claimed this fix too only lasts for a while, and they'd have to keep applying the setting again.

In order to add the photos on your Google Photos library to your Favorites folder, follow the steps below:

Open the Google Photos app on your Android or iOS device.
Navigate to and open the photo you want to favorite.
Tap on the star icon on the top right corner of the screen.
Do this to all photos that need to be displayed on your Google Nest Hub.

This will add the photos to the favorites folder.

The next step is to enable the Google Nest Hub to play the photos from your favorites via the Photo Frame feature.

In order to make the Google Nest Hub display the photos from your favorites, follow the steps below:

Connect your Google Nest Hub to your Android or iOS device using the Google Home app. Make sure the pairing is successful and the link is active.
Select the Google Nest Hub device from the home screen of the Google Home app.
Select the Photo Frame option.
Select the Favourites album to display the photos for Photo Frame.

This will successfully push the favorites album to be displayed on the Google Nest Hub.

The most reliable method is to enable the Live Albums only option and the Favourites album at the same time. This fixes the issue for most users.

Google Nest Hub Still Not Showing All Photos: How to Fix

If the above steps fail and you still face issues with your Google Nest Hub displaying the photos from the album you selected, then this could be a device-specific issue.

If that's the case, then worry not for there are a few steps you can take so you can ensure your Google Nest Hub hardware is running properly and seamlessly.

Perform A Power Cycle

A power cycle, simply put is a reboot for the hardware of your Google Nest Hub.

It basically resets all charges inside the internal components of the Google Nest Hub, making sure that no misbehaving charges are left inside the system.

A faulty charge inside the system after a discharge can cause an imbalance in the internal circuits, leading to many issues within the hardware of the Google Nest Hub.

But before you start with the hardware reboot, you should always do a safe software reboot too, in order to experience the best results.

This is because a software reboot can wipe out any temporary bugs that might have stuck onto the system during a firmware update or even the daily functioning of the Google Nest Hub.

In order to perform a software reboot on your Google Nest Hub, follow the steps below:

Connect your Google Nest Hub to your Android or iOS device using the Google Home app. Make sure the pairing is successful and the link is active.
Select the Google Nest Hub device from the home screen of the Google Home app
Tap on the Settings option.
Select the menu button designated by a hamburger menu on the top right corner of the screen.
Tap on Reboot.

This will begin the software reboot process.

Now that the software has been safely rebooted, now let's move on to safely rebooting the hardware of the Google Nest Hub.

In order to perform a power cycle or a hardware reboot on your Google Nest Hub, follow the steps below:

Unplug the Google Nest Hub from power.
Let the device sit idle for a full minute turned off.
Long press the buttons on the device to get rid of any remaining charges within the system.
Plug the Google Nest Hub back into power.
Let the device sit idle for a full minute turned on.

This will complete the hardware reboot or power cycle process.

Perform A Factory Reset

If all else fails, the last resort is to simply perform a factory reset on your Google Nest Hub.

This will wipe out all user data from the Google Nest Hub, along with any bugs that hug onto the system even after a software reboot.

This will also help immensely if you are facing other issues with your Google Nest Hub, such as the device restarting randomly and black screen issues.

Do note that it will wipe everything. So you might need to link your Google account again from scratch after the factory reset, just like when you first bought the device.

The process is also fairly time-consuming, with factory resets taking up to 30 minutes in extreme cases.

But thankfully, Google Assistant still saves your personal preferences, routines, etc across all devices, so you can still recover all those data after the factory reset.

In order to perform a factory reset on your Google Nest Hub, follow the steps below:

Connect your Google Nest Hub to your Android or iOS device using the Google Home app. Make sure the pairing is successful and the link is active.
Select the Google Nest Hub device from the home screen of the Google Home app.
Tap on the Settings option.
Select the menu button designated by a hamburger menu on the top right corner of the screen.
Tap on Factory Reset.

This will begin the factory reset process.

Final Thoughts

Unless Google officially pushes a fix for this bug, more users will face issues with the Photo Frame feature on their Google Home devices.

Google hasn't officially pushed a statement claiming to work on this bug, but since the thread is still active on their forums and gaining popularity, they are bound to fix this.

If you still face issues after all the steps I mentioned in this article, it is best to wait for a firmware update or consult Google's service team directly for professional help.

I hope my troubleshooting article on the Google Nest Hub refusing to show all photos on the display has been a helpful read and has aided you with the same.

Have a good day!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Is it possible to use multiple Google Hubs in one home?

Google allows you to use multiple Google Home devices, including multiple Google Nest Hubs in a single home without any issues.

Is the Google Hub being discontinued?

The Google Home Hub was launched in 2018 and the 1st generation Google Nest Hub has been officially discontinued by Google. But they will still continue to function as intended.

Can Google Photo Frame be used on a tablet?

Google Photo Frame cannot be used on a tablet and is supported to work only on a Smart Display, Smart TV, Nest Hub devices, and Chromecast-enabled devices.

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Doug Stevenson

Hey! I'm Doug, My passion for tech started by fixing phones and computers for my friends and family.

I started Blinqblinq to give reliable tech advice to anyone who needs it, for free! If you have questions on anything tech-related, feel free to contact me.

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