Over the weekend, Google Chromecast 2nd generation and Chromecast Audio devices gave up the ghost, much to the concsternation of many Chromecast owners.
Users across the globe found that the Chromecast couldn’t be authenticated when trying to connect. Google appeared surprised by the issue, but spokespeople confirmed to Tom’s Guide and on Reddit and that a fix was in the works.
More recent Chromecast 3rd Gen and Chromecast Ultra devices appear to have been unaffected by the issue.
Google is now saying that a fix is ready to go, with the patch rolling out in the next few days.
Though Google isn’t saying why the Chromecasts suddenly self-destructed, there is speculation that the devices’ certificate expired, which caused the inability to authenticate when connecting.
“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,” a community manager wrote in a thread dedicated to the issue.
No luck with a reset
There is a slight catch to Google’s fix.
When the issue first popped up a number of Chromecast owners reported that they had factory reset their devices, a common trick for dealing with borked tech. However, on Monday (March 10), Google insisted that people refrain from doing that.
Unfortunately, if you did factory reset your Chromecast, there’s no available fix yet. Those devices cannot reconnect in their current state, which means they can’t receive the update.
“You may still be experiencing an issue where you cannot re-setup your device,” the Google thread reads. “We are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”
We saw some Reddit posters and commenters on the official support thread saying they were able to manually change their smartphone date to last week or earlier, before the outage.
Allegedly, this lets your phone connect to the Chromecast and reconfigure it as needed. It’s a potential fix you could try if you did do a factory reset. Otherwise, keep an eye on the support thread for when an official Google fix comes through.
