A firmware bug is bricking Google Home devices

If you’ve got a Google Home or Google Home Mini in your house, you may want to check it’s still working. A flurry of complaints have arrived on reddit and Google’s official channels saying a firmware update has bricked the smart speakers. 

The symptoms are the same in each case: unresponsive devices with all four LEDs on top of the device lit up. And while some users have been able to resurrect dead speakers with a reboot, mosts haven’t been so lucky.

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The problem seems to have been something of a slow burn, presumably due to the staggered way in which updates are distributed around the world. 

The thread on Google’s support page is nearly a month old, and initially a Google representative told owners that “the team [is] still working on a fix”, while recommending a three-step fix: enable mute, unplug the device for ten seconds, reboot and turn the mic on and off. The majority of users claim this doesn’t work. Follow-up advice of a factory reset also didn’t help the majority of users.

This morning, another Google representative has finally chipped in to an increasingly angry thread. “We wanted to provide an update here — as others have noted in this thread, the team is aware of these specific issues with both Google Home Minis and Google Home devices becoming unresponsive and we’re actively working on a fix,” wrote Google’s Rachel Chambers.

“It has been very difficult for our team to diagnose this issue and we understand why many of you have been frustrated with this ongoing process. Our support team will be reaching out to customers on this thread via private messaging to further address this issue and come to a resolution.”

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With many owners originally turned down for replacement thanks to being out of warranty, it’s not clear whether this is a change of heart or not. We’ve reached out to Google to seek clarity, and will update this piece if and when we get a response.

Have you got an unresponsive Google Home device? Let us know on Twitter: @TrustedReviews.

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