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.

Chromecast Source Not Supported? Try This!

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.

ChromeCast Source Not Supported

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.

ChromeCast Source

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.

12 thoughts on “Chromecast Source Not Supported? Try This!”

Matt says:
Youtube will cast from my laptop with it’s inbuilt cast function but my laptop won’t allow it from other devices.

The issue is that from cast y laptop doesn’t see the name I gave my TV just the make and model number.

My phone does see the name, and on my laptop bluetooth is paired with the name but cast which used to see it until recently doesn’t any more.

Kendra Ann Mason says:
I have tried ALL the suggestions and like everyone else the fixes did not work. I went from top to bottom. Reset modem, reset router, factory reset (3x) chromecast, checked network settings and tv, computer and chromecast are all on the same network (5G). Checked all of the “Enables”, “mirroring service” is not found in the “flags”. I’m at a loss. Everything worked great a week ago no it’s all fucocta. I have it on my phone but no where else.
martin says:
imo the whole idea of this chromecast or using a dongle is a scam.. windows media player can cast anything from your pc to your tv.. just right click and send to the tv over your router connection, done. But when it comes to twitch.. unless you use specific amazon products or google products ie allow advertising spam onto your phone via apps.. it just doesn’t work.

I’ve started exporting all my twitch streams to youtube, then just open my youtube on my tv via the youtube app already installed on the smart tv system, then watch my videos that way. Use twitch to record.. use youtube to watch.

Otherwise you’re just paying out money hand over fist for no rime or reason.

CK says:
i’m having this issue as well – there’s no “mirroring” when i go to chrome://flags
Juan says:
I tried all of these, it didn’t work
Carol Studdert says:
thank you, solved my issue with mirroring. I was connected to two different networks, although on the same router, one was as a guest.
Kevin Cross says:
Useless. There is no “mirroring.”
Mike Reyes says:
same thing happened just now and there is no “Mirroring” on “chrome://flags”
Elena says:
Hello,
Same happened to me. I contacted the support team and they a re not able to advise anything apart what is written on google already. I doe not see any use either of device or of their support.
Elena
Naga says:
Hi Jordan,

I can cast my phone to tv; but not able to cast from laptop- source not supported ; i contacted chromecast for trouble shoot, they arent able to fix;; I did all the reset, reboot & mirroring services enabling etc. My phone & laptop are using same wifi network frequency

Stay safe
Thanks

Tom L. says:
Exactly the same for me with source not supported” on Win10 PC w/ Chrome: iPhone works fine. PC did work on occasion(s) but did all of the above and this time to no avail. Seems like it needs periodic “resurrection,” but beginning to be a major painpoint.

Comments are closed.

Disclaimer: Some pages on this site may include an affiliate link. This does not effect our editorial in any way.

Todays Highlights
How to See Google Search History
how to download photos from google photos