Google began rolling out a repair for its damaged second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio gadgets on Thursday. The difficulty quickly bricked hundreds of streaming dongles on account of an expired license earlier this week.
Right here’s what the Google assist crew stated on the Google Nest Neighborhood discussion board:
Hey everybody, thanks in your endurance whereas we work to resolve this situation. Right here’s the most recent:
We’ve began to roll out a repair for the issue with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio gadgets, which will probably be accomplished over the subsequent few days. Your gadget have to be related to obtain the replace.
When you carried out a manufacturing facility reset throughout preliminary troubleshooting, you should still be experiencing a difficulty the place you can’t re-setup your gadget. We’re working to resolve this as quickly as attainable. Please proceed to verify the Neighborhood web page right here for updates and subsequent steps.
We’ll replace this put up once more when Google shares extra updates.
[The original article follows below.]
Final yr, Chromecast joined the Google Graveyard as the corporate ended manufacturing of the streaming dongles. The streaming gadgets themselves are nonetheless usable (for now), however this week, hundreds of Chromecast second-gen and Chromecast Audio homeowners found that their TV streaming dongles had all of the sudden stopped working. Fortunately, they haven’t been turned off for good, as Google acknowledged the difficulty and commenced engaged on a repair.
Anybody who tried to attach their telephone to the 10-year-old Chromecast fashions this week noticed an error message indicating that it was an untrusted gadget or couldn’t be authenticated. Whereas some customers suspected that Google was quietly bricking the getting older dongles, it seems that it’s truly a technical downside involving the firmware.
As defined by a Reddit person in a busy thread (by way of Ars Technica), Google constructed a certificates into the 2015 Chromecast fashions that expired on March 9, 2025. That simply so occurs to be precisely when all of those Chromecast customers began operating into bother.
In a put up on the Google Nest Neighborhood boards, Google confirmed discovering “an rising situation impacting Chromecast 2nd gen and Chromecast Audio gadgets” and stated {that a} repair is coming. Within the meantime, the corporate tells customers to not manufacturing facility reset their gadgets.
“Don’t manufacturing facility reset your gadget – we are going to preserve you all up to date when the repair rolls out,” warns Google in a message. “In case you have already manufacturing facility reset your gadget, we are going to present directions to set your gadget again up as quickly as attainable.”
Whether or not Google will proceed to assist these older streaming media gamers for the lengthy haul stays to be seen, however on the very least, the corporate is dedicated to fixing this downside. You should definitely verify the Google Nest Neighborhood thread for updates.
