After over a week of the Chromecast (2nd Gen) and Chromecast Audio being completely nonfunctional, Google is finally rolling out a fix for the streaming devices.
Here is the full email that hit the inboxes of owners today:
Update regarding your Chromecast device
Thank you for your patience as we worked to resolve the issue with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices. As of today, this disruption has been fixed.‌
If you did not perform a factory reset, your device should now function normally. If it is still not functioning as intended check the firmware version of your device by following the instructions here. If your device is not on the corresponding firmware version, please try rebooting your device to start the update process.
For users who have performed a factory reset, you will need to update your Google Home app to the latest version (3.30.1.6 for Android and 3.30.106 for iOS) to set up your Chromecast (2nd gen) or Chromecast Audio device again. The app roll out is beginning today and may take up to a few days to roll out to everyone. Updates will be posted in the Google Nest Community.
We sincerely apologize for this disruption and any inconvenience it may have caused, and we are committed to ensuring all users are back up and running as quickly as possible.
The issues first popped up around March 9th, with users of the Chromecast (2nd Gen) and Chromecast Audio facing an “Untrusted Device” error when trying to cast content from their phones. The error message appeared any time people would try casting a video or audio to their TV. Google quickly acknowledged the issue on March 10th, but it was still happening a couple of days later.
Last week, Google sent out emails to all owners of the affected devices, again saying they were working on a fix, but no timeline was given. From the start, Google urged users not to factory reset their devices, which complicates the process, as seen in the message above.
The good news is if you’ve been patiently waiting, there’s nothing you need to do to get the fix. However, if you did perform a factory reset, you’ll need to update the Google Home app and set up the devices yet again.
It goes without saying that this was a pretty major outage. Typically, something like this would only affect a portion of the user base, but all owners of the Chromecast (2nd Gen) and Chromecast Audio were facing the same problem. And for these devices to be totally unusable for a full week is pretty wild. For some people, these devices could have been their only way to stream content on a TV or speaker.
Again, it should be noted that these Chromecast devices shouldn’t be confused with the discontinued Chromecast with Google TV.
Related
The Chromecast is Officially Dead
Google has officially discontinued its Chromecast with Google TV (4K and HD) streaming devices. The devices currently show up as “no longer available” on the Google Store, which all but means that the company ran out of stock and will not replenish it. This move was previously announced by Google, so it doesn’t exactly take us as a surprise. You’re not completely left without options as Google has just launched the Google TV Streamer, a higher-end streaming device also powered by Google TV.
