Google Home Speakers Consuming Hundreds of Gigabytes Daily in Firmware Update Bug
Some Google Home Speaker owners report their devices are downloading massive amounts of data in the background, potentially caused by failed firmware updates.
What happened
Starting last week, multiple Google Home Speaker owners reported their devices continuously downloading hundreds of gigabytes of data in the background. One Reddit user documented his device consuming over 200GB per day. The issue appears to be tied to failed firmware update installation attempts, primarily affecting the new Google Home Speaker model, though the full scope of affected devices is unclear. Google acknowledged the problem and stated a fix is already rolling out to address it.
Context
The scale of data consumption poses a significant risk to users with limited data plans, who could quickly exhaust their monthly allowances without realizing it unless they actively monitor their device data usage. The variation in reported impact—with some devices downloading 2GB monthly while others consume 132GB over the same period—suggests the bug does not affect all units uniformly or consistently.
What's disputed
The exact cause remains tied to a suspected but unconfirmed failed firmware update. The full scope of affected devices is unknown, with reports limited to the new Google Home Speaker model but lacking comprehensive data on how widespread the issue actually is.