Final yr, Chromecast joined the Google Graveyard as the corporate ended manufacturing of the streaming dongles. The streaming units 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 instantly 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 old dongles, it seems that it’s really a technical downside involving the firmware.
As defined by a Reddit consumer 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 working into hassle.
In a publish on the Google Nest Neighborhood boards, Google confirmed discovering “an rising difficulty impacting Chromecast 2nd gen and Chromecast Audio units” and stated {that a} repair is coming. Within the meantime, the corporate tells customers to not manufacturing unit reset their units.
“Don’t manufacturing unit reset your gadget – we are going to hold you all up to date when the repair rolls out,” warns Google in a message. “When you have already manufacturing unit 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 help 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. Remember to test the Google Nest Neighborhood thread for updates.
