Firmware update bricks Google Home and Google Home Mini smart speakers

OK Google, why aren’t you working anymore?

A recent firmware update for Google’s Home and Home Mini smart speakers seems to be bricking multiple devices, rendering them inoperable. 

The firmware update was pushed out earlier this month. Soon after receiving the update, multiple users flocked to Reddit and Google’s support forums stating that their devices were no longer responding to any input. Power cycling (turning it off and on again) has not worked, although some users have found success in factory resetting the device. For the most part, though, it seems that the affected devices are now dead in the water. 

The worst part about the debacle is that, despite being the root cause of the issue, it doesn’t seem that Google is replacing out-of-warranty Home or Home Mini devices. This has drawn the ire of several users, but Google has stated that they are working on a resolution.

Rachel Chambers, a Google employee, posted the following on the Google Nest Help forum:

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. 

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. 

We appreciate your patience as we work through this.

Do you have a Google Home or Google Home Mini? Has it suddenly stopped working? Let us know in the comments.