Has your Google Home or Home Mini stopped working suddenly? Google is investigating the problem

There seems to be a widespread issue with 1st generation Google Home and Home Mini speakers. Users are reporting that their devices suddenly stopped working sometime this month.

Instead of turning on and booting up as usual, affected Google Home and Home Mini speakers seem to be bricked. The lights on both speakers appear to be stuck, showing four dots that don’t blink or animate as usual.

Both the original Google Home and Home Mini have now been discontinued. They’ve also stopped receiving any major software updates but are still on Google’s schedule to receive critical security updates. That said, if you still own one of these speakers, they should ideally continue working. It’s unlike Google to brick perfectly good devices for no reason. Fortunately, it seems the company has taken note of the problem and is working on a solution.

Google acknowledged the ongoing issues with 1st generation Google Home and Home Mini speakers in a post on its community forums.

“Thanks for reporting this in the community. We are currently investigating this issue,” a Google community manager wrote in the post.

The expert has advised affected users to share a device report and feedback with Google through the Google Home app. “Please make sure that Send device usage data and crash reports to Google is turned on before you submit the report,” they said.

The company has also asked users experiencing the problem to comment under the community post with answers to the following questions:

• Are lights solid or strobing?
• Are lights stuck on before a reboot is completed? Or do they turn on after boot and stay on?
• Can you cast music to the speaker from a mobile app?
• Videos or photos of the behavior are also appreciated.

Google says you can keep an eye out on the thread for future updates on the issue.