This has been a frustrating week for many Google Chromecast users, who have found that an outage has rendered their devices temporarily useless. Google has now shared an update that it has identified the problem and is working on a fix, but has also warned users not to try to fix the issue themselves by performing a factory reset on their device.
Reports of the outage began last weekend, and only second-generation Chromecasts are affected. Those with first or third generation Chromecasts seem to be unaffected by these problems. Google said at the time that it was working on a fix, but now the company has shared more information via its Google Nest support forums:
“An update on the situation: the team has identified the cause of the issue impacting Chromecast (2nd gen) and Chromecast Audio devices,” the official Google Nest team wrote. “We’re working to resolve this as soon as possible, and will keep you updated when there is more to share.”
The company did not specify what the issue was or how they were planning to fix it. It did, however, advise against what might seem like an obvious home fix — performing a factory reset.
“Please do not factory reset your device,” the team wrote. “If you previously performed a factory reset during troubleshooting, you may also be experiencing an issue where you’re unable to re-setup your device. The team has identified the cause for this as well and is currently working on a fix.”
Users might have to wait quite some time for the upcoming fix, however. According to The Register, device owners have received an email from Google apologizing for the issue, and Chromecast hacker Tom Hebb has analyzed the problem and found it is to do with an expired device authentication certificate authority.
Fixing this issue isn’t simple, and will require either a significant Chromecast update to deal with these expired certificates, or a quicker app-side update which may take around a week or so.
