Bambu 3D printers start printing on their own overnight resulting in damaged parts and botched print jobs
In an unsettling and potentially risky development, some owners of Bambu’s desktop 3D printers woke up on August 15th to find that their devices had started printing unexpectedly during the night. In some cases, multiple copies of objects were printed over existing ones, and several printers ended up damaged. The issue affected the X1-Carbon and P1P models. Bambu has since responded stating that the cause was a cloud service outage, and that firmware fixes are underway to prevent a repeat of such an incident.
Several users have reported the issue on Reddit and X (fka Twitter) with pictures and videos showing mangled/duplicated print jobs and damaged components. Apart from the disconcerting aspect of having a machine fire up unprompted and unsupervised in the middle of the night, many have rightly flagged it as a serious fire hazard, given that printing nozzles typically reach high temperatures. However, no serious accident has been reported.
That explains this mess, which is way more spaghetti than what I had printing when I went to bed. pic.twitter.com/nPv2BDL1kf
— Denise (@stlDenise3D) August 15, 2023
The company posted an apology and explanation a day later. Essentially, print jobs sent through LAN Mode on the 15th failed due to issues in Bambu’s cloud service. Upon getting no confirmation, some users made multiple attempts. Later, the server sent out commands for all these “jammed jobs” without checking if an object was already on the print bed, causing the hardware troubles.
In a follow-up post, Bambu has promised that upcoming firmware fixes and changes to the cloud service will add two check: firstly, that completed prints are removed from the bed before starting the next one, and secondly, that the temperature of heated parts are monitored continuously, alerting the user and shutting down the heaters in case of an error. It has also assured affected users of “assistance to repair the printers” where needed, as well as spare parts and filament spools to compensate for any damage and wastage incurred.