How to set up a Chromecast without logging in to Google Home?

Question

I have a Chromecast audio and the Google Home app now requires location access and for you to log in. I don't want to give it either, and therefore it does not help me set up the device. There is no way to bypass the requirements, unlike previous versions.

I can't think of a reason to require both of them, save to send back to Google HQ for analysis.

Is there some other method I can use to set up the Chromecast?

This isn't an android or iOS specific question, but those are the usual platforms to use the chromecast, followed up by the PC. If this doesn't fit SuperUser, I can move it.

Answer 1

I had no luck with @Jozef's answer, because I could only find Linux builds of Chromium, not Chrome, and Chromium seems to never have implemented chrome://cast.

However, I did find some documentation of the Chromecast's API at https://rithvikvibhu.github.io/GHLocalApi/, and I noted that if you're doing initial setup, none of it needs any authentication. There was also some useful information at https://github.com/rithvikvibhu/GHLocalApi/issues/68#issue-766300901 about how you need to encrypt the WiFi password with a public key from the device before submitting it.

So, I put together a Bash script, which I've published at https://gist.github.com/interfect/5f68381d55658d334e2bc4619d796476, which can do the Chromecast initial setup and connect it to WiFi without Google Home or an Android or iOS device. All you need is a Linux or (probably) Mac environment, or (probably) WSL on Windows.

To use it, you need to get your computer on the same network as the Chromecast somehow, either with an Ethernet adapter for the Chromecast (which I tested) or by somehow finding and joining its setup hotspot (which I have not tested).

If you're a big fan of the curl | bash school of system administration, you can:

wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/interfect/5f68381d55658d334e2bc4619d796476/raw/1d16ead908a92742d5f22231a2611242d673654f/castanet.sh
chmod +x castanet.sh
CHROMECAST_IP=192.168.0.100 WIFI_SSID="foobar" WIFI_PASSWORD="hackme" ./castanet.sh

I don't want to copy-paste a whole script in here, since I don't think that's what StackExchange is for, but the important steps are:

1. Get the device RSA public_key from the JSON available via TSL 1.2 HTTPS to port 8443 at /setup/get_eureka_info. (My curl defaulted to 1.3, and that was too new for the device and I had to dissuade it.)
2. POST to /setup/scan_wifi
3. After a bit, get /setup/scan_results, find your network, and grab the wpa_auth (always 7?) and wpa_cipher (always 4?)
4. Encrypt the password to the device's public key using RSA_PKCS1_PADDING and an oaepHash of sha256 (the nodejs crypto module can do this, if you wrap the key in BEGIN and END lines), and base64 encode the cyphertext.
5. JSON post the ssid, wpa_auth, wpa_cipher, and enc_passwd to /setup/connect_wifi.
6. JSON post a flag keep_hotspot_until_connected with value true true to /setup/save_wifi before the Chromecast decided to drop off the new wifi network.

Answer 2

PC Solution working as of 2019-Mar-15

I just came across this frustration when trying to setup Chromecast from my PC since Chrome deprecated the possibility to do Chromecast setup for Mac and PC with Chrome 72.

A simple solution I used successfully is to:

1. Download an older portable version of Chrome (not sure about direct links posting rules here, a search for "portable chrome 71 stable" should get you there
2. Extract and run this portable version
3. Navigate to chrome://cast
4. Setup should work

Answer 3

Well, the easiest would be to just not give location & make another google account.

But if you don't want to:

• Go to Play Store, find Google Homepage -> 3 dots in the top right corner -> Disable Auto Updates.
• Uninstall Google Home
• Get the latest version, what doesn't those permissions from here
• You are good to go.

A note about it:

• Google Home (and other Google apps) have a tendency to be annoying with prompting auto updates, so I suggest, that after setting up everything with your cast devices, uninstall the app. (Chromecast functionality will still work and devices will update themselves, to latest non-beta (even if you are in it) automatically)

3rd Way (Chrome computer needed):

• Install the non-beta (the one with no other text) Google Cast as an extension from the web store.
• Visit this page
• Set up your Chromecast and you are good to go!

Note: It sometimes steals your logged in to Chrome Google account. That's not Ideal. How to make it not: - Go to Chrome Settings (click here for fast link) - On Google Cast select "Allow in ignoto" - Open an Ignoto tab and do the steps for "3rd Way" (the computer version)

That's all my brain has to offer. I highly suggest just creating another account for the Cast thing, since if you get to beta with that, it is totally worth it. (Haven't seen a single bug in the beta of my Chromecasts, only one: I get my features earlier than others ;) )

Answer 4

Yes, it's possible to set up the Chromecast using Chrome on your PC, assuming you meet the minimum OS requirements (Mac OS X 10.9 and higher or Windows 7 and higher) and are running the latest version of Chrome (confirmed working with version 59).

Simply to go www.google.com/chromecast/setup and you should see Or, you can set up your chromecast using this computer:

Keep in mind that when I tried this on an unsupported platform (Linux) the text and the link were simply not there and the page only offered the Android and iOS apps.

Answer 5

Location access is a technical requirement for scanning for wifis in android, which is what happens when setting up a chromecast. So I consider it techically impossible to do without on Android.

As for the Google Account:
I was able to configure wifi for Chromecast 3 and Audio via Version 10200090 of Google Home App (installed via Aurora Store).

That was about it. Multiroom or any other options for the Chromecast failed.

As soon as the Chromecast was online, it updated itself and I could no longer configure anything without an account.

I presume this is a lost cause for privacy-conscious folks. Especially regarding the fact that newer Google Home devices also contain a microphone. Let's just hope Google won't activate the kill switch on the classical Chromecast devices at some point (similar to Sonos "recycling mode").