TheGoogle Home Miniwas one of the best budget smart assistant speakers of its time. Launched in 2017, the $50 speaker delivered average sound quality but made up for it with Google Assistant integration. During major sale events, the speaker was heavily discounted to as low as $20, making it a great impulse buy. If you love your Home Mini and use it daily, you might want to ensure the speaker does not install the latest update to avoid bricking it.
Over the last few weeks, several Google Home Mini users have reported onGoogle’s forumsandRedditabout their speakers suddenly not turning on (via9to5Google). Trying a hard reset does not work either, essentially turning the speaker into a brick. The four lights on the top of the Home Mini will turn on, but nothing happens after that.
Seemingly, the issue is caused by a new firmware update from Google, and while the problem appears widespread, it does not affect all Home Mini units. There are also reports from some original Google Home owners about their speakers bricking themselves, though they are not as widespread. The issue does not appear to affect Google Nest speakers.
AGoogle community managerhas somewhat acknowledged the problem, saying the company is investigating the matter. Affected users are encouraged to file a feedback report with the “Send device usage data and crash reports to Google” option enabled to help diagnose the problem.
In some cases, the bricked units automatically started working after being plugged in overnight, but not all affected users have been so lucky.
Since the Home Mini is a few years old, contacting Google’s support for a replacement will not work. Affected users who reached out were denied a replacement as the device is no longer covered by the company’s one-year standard warranty.
So, if your speaker is bricked, you need to wait patiently until Google (hopefully) fixes the bug and rolls out an update. And if your Home Mini is working fine, consider disconnecting it from the internet to ensure it does not auto-update and brick itself.
We’ve reached out to Google for comment and will update this story once we hear back.
This is not the first time a firmware update has inadvertently bricked Google Home Minis. Asimilar incident occurred in September 2019, and Google eventually offered free replacement to all affected customers. But the Home Mini was still officially on sale then. That’s no longer the case, though, so it will be interesting to see what Google does if it cannot recover the bricked Mini units with an update.
If you can’t wait for Google to resolve the issue, check out our list of thetop Google Assistant smart speakersfor some alternatives. If you need an exact replacement for your Home Mini and don’t mind trusting Google again with your money, consider buying theNest Mini (2nd gen).
