Google started rolling out a fix for its broken second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio devices on Thursday. The issue temporarily bricked thousands of streaming dongles due to an expired license earlier this week.
Here’s what the Google support team said on the Google Nest Community forum:
Hey everyone, thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue. Here’s the latest:
We have started to roll out a fix for the problem with Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices, which will be completed over the next few days. Your device must be connected to receive the update.
If you performed a factory reset during initial troubleshooting, you may still be experiencing an issue where you cannot re-setup your device. We are working to resolve this as soon as possible. Please continue to check the Community page here for updates and next steps.
We’ll update this post again when Google shares more updates.
[The original article follows below.]
Tech. Entertainment. Science. Your inbox.
Sign up for the most interesting tech & entertainment news out there.
By signing up, I agree to the Terms of Use and have reviewed the Privacy Notice.
Last year, Chromecast joined the Google Graveyard as the company ended production of the streaming dongles. The streaming devices themselves are still usable (for now), but this week, thousands of Chromecast second-gen and Chromecast Audio owners discovered that their TV streaming dongles had suddenly stopped working. Thankfully, they haven’t been turned off for good, as Google acknowledged the issue and began working on a fix.
Anyone who tried to connect their phone to the 10-year-old Chromecast models this week saw an error message indicating that it was an untrusted device or couldn’t be authenticated. While some users suspected that Google was quietly bricking the aging dongles, it turns out that it’s actually a technical problem involving the firmware.
As explained by a Reddit user in a busy thread (via Ars Technica), Google built a certificate into the 2015 Chromecast models that expired on March 9, 2025. That just so happens to be exactly when all of these Chromecast users started running into trouble.
