Chromecast Source Not Supported? Try This!

Modern smart TVs allow for seamless integration with various external devices, enabling entertainment in various ways. One of the popular options is casting videos to your TV directly from mobile devices. You can even cast content from your desktop computer as well.

If your TV doesn’t support this feature, you can use streaming devices to establish this connection. One such device is Google’s Chromecast. Loaded with many streaming applications, you can use it to cast content even from a Google Chrome browser. Unfortunately, sometimes Chromecast may not be able to detect a source you’re trying to use.

In this article we’ll review some proven tips to get your through the ‘Source Not Supported’ error commonly displayed when trying to mirror one device to another.

Source Not Supported

There can be many reasons why you’re not able to cast to your TV over Chromecast. The app you’re using could experience an occasional bug. Your internet connection might not be transmitting enough bandwidth at any given moment.

Or maybe there’s something wrong with the settings on your mobile device, router, or the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to. Whatever the reason, please follow the troubleshooting advice outlined in the following sections.

Restart the Equipment

When dealing with smart devices, a simple restart might help restore certain functionalities. Even better, you might want to turn them off completely, wait a short time, and then start them again. This way all the background processes will get a fresh start, potentially removing any crashes you’re not even aware of.

1. Turn off your TV.
2. Now unplug your Google Chromecast from the TV.
3. Next, turn off both the Internet modem and Wi-Fi router. If you’re using a modem with an integrated Wi-Fi router, then you’ll have one device less to restart.
4. Wait for half a minute.
5. Now turn on your modem. Let it do all its startup magic for at least a minute or two.
6. After that, you can turn on the Wi-Fi router. Again, allow for up to two minutes until it stabilizes the connection with the router and the other devices it serves.
7. Turn on your TV and wait some 20 seconds.
8. Now plug in your Chromecast to the TV.
9. Chromecast will now initialize, so again allow 20-30 seconds until it establishes all connections.

When all devices are online and ready to go, try casting the same content you had a problem with. This way you’ll know if the restart did the trick. If not, you can try the following suggestions.

Check Wi-Fi Networks

As some Wi-Fi routers have the ability to create several Wi-Fi networks at the same time, you might want to check which network your devices are using. For example, your router might have two networks running simultaneously – “Home 1” and “Home 2”. If your Chromecast is connected to “Home 1” and your phone is using the “Home 2” network, they won’t be able to find each other. Although both are using the same physical router, they’re actually on two completely different networks that can’t communicate with one another.

To make sure all devices are on the same Wi-Fi, check the corresponding Wi-Fi settings, and look for the name of the network they’re currently using. If they use different Wi-Fis, simply switch them over to the one your Chromecast is connected to.

Check the App You’re Using to Cast

Depending on the app used for casting, it might not be performing properly at the current moment. In this case, it’s best to restart the app itself. If you’re trying to cast from your laptop or a desktop computer, simply close the problematic app and start it again.

If you’re casting from your Android smartphone or tablet, restart the app using the “Application Manager”. Before you proceed, please note that if the app doesn’t store your user settings online, this action might reset everything to defaults. Also, once you’re done, you might have to login again using your credentials, so make sure you know what they are.

1. Open the “Apps” folder.
2. Tap the “Settings” icon.
3. Now you need to open the “Application Manager”. Depending on the version of Android you’re using, follow one of these paths:
   1. Older versions – Tap the “General” tab, and then tap “Application Manager”.
   2. Newer versions – Scroll down to either “Application Manager” or “Apps”. If you’ve found the “Apps” option, when you tap it, you should see “Application Manager” among the available options.
4. Now scroll down to the application with which you had problems casting to your TV. When you find the app, tap it.
5. Once in the app’s menu, tap “Force Stop”.
6. In the “Storage” section, tap “Clear Data”.
7. In the “Cache” section, tap “Clear Cache”.
8. Now return to your home screen and restart the app.

This should solve any issues coming from the app’s instability. If you’re casting directly from the Chrome browser and you still experience problems with the “Source Not Supported” message, try the following suggestion.

Turn On Mirroring in Chrome

If you’re unable to stream to Chromecast using the Chrome browser on your laptop or desktop computer, make sure that Chrome’s mirroring option is enabled. If Chrome has received a recent update, it might have resulted in the Mirroring Services becoming disabled by default. To sort this out, follow the steps below:

1. Open the Chrome browser on your laptop/desktop.
2. Type “chrome://flags” in the browser’s address bar.
3. Press Ctrl+F on your keyboard to bring up the “Find” field.
4. Type “Mirroring”.
5. Now you should see the “Mirroring Service” section.
6. From the drop-down menu to the right, select “Enable”.
7. Close Chrome and start it again.

If the mirroring was the reason for not being able to cast from your Chrome browser, this should definitely fix the issue.

Other Things To Try

If your attempts to cast are still unsuccessful there are a few other things to try before contacting the support team.

If you’re using Windows, some users have found it helpful to turn off Windows Defender. While you don’t want to expose your computer to viruses, Windows Defender can cause issues to arise between your computer and Chromecast.

Other users have stated that they had to set Chrome as their default browser. While we haven’t been able to replicate this fix it is worth trying if nothing else is working.

Another last-ditch effort is to factory reset your Chromecast. You can do this in the Home App on your mobile device. Just beware, any stored data or settings will be deleted and you’ll have to start over from scratch.

Chromecasting Is Great!

Streaming to your TV from any external device is a truly great way to listen to music or browse YouTube videos. With Chromecast, you can do that even if your TV doesn’t support the option by default. Next time your friends come for a visit, you can let them add their favorite songs to a TV playlist, directly from their smartphones.

Have you managed to sort the casting issues? What was the cause of the problem? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.