More reports of Google Home speakers dying, with a potential solution

In the not so distant past, there were reports that an update pushed out by Google killed a number of Google Home speakers. It seems that – while it’s no the same root cause – it may have happened again. If the reports from multiple Reddit threads are to be believed, there may well be some consistency to the failures too.

A number of the reports online show that a number of users affected have signed up to the preview program. While for the most part, this isn’t going to cause any major issues – it does prompt a reminder.

Preview programs, Beta and particularly Alpha access to apps and updates can potentially cause functions or at times entire devices to be rendered unusable. Don’t sign up to these programs on any critical devices unless you fully understand and accept this.

The symptoms

The issues users are seeing are somewhat varied, but the end result is the same… a non-compliant speaker. The reports include the orange light flashing, still registering touch and able to have music cast to it but no response to “Hey Google”.

Users have experienced issues resetting their devices as well which resulted in the impression their device has seen its last day.

The Solution:

While it’s not a guarantee, there’s a pathway to resolve the issue found on Google Support:

1. Disable wifi to prevent the Google Home from connecting, again and again,
2. Unplug Google Home and plug it back in after a minute
3. Wait until it responds to commands that it has no connection to wifi
4. Perform a factory reset using these instructions from Google
5. After that, I was able to reconnect the Google Home to the Home app and my wifi

If you’re seeing these issues, try the above resolution suggestion and if that fails hit up Google Support. I recently did with a failed Google Home speaker and was delighted with Google’s support and the outcome.