Chromecasts are still broken – but Google tells fuming owners not to factory reset their devices

LovabledanielsMarch 12, 202551 Views

Older Chromecasts have been unusable for several days
Google now says it knows what’s wrong and that a fix is coming
In the meantime, don’t factory reset your device

A couple of days ago we reported on issues affecting older Chromecasts and the Chromecast Audio device, preventing them from casting. Google has now provided another update for affected users – though it’s not particularly helpful.

As per a post to the official Google Nest support forums (via 9to5Google), Google engineers are “working to resolve this as soon as possible, and will keep you updated when there is more to share” – and there’s the usual apologies for inconvenience.

Apparently the cause of the issue has been identified, but Google hasn’t shared what that is yet. What it is reiterating is not to factory reset your Chromecast if you’re affected (a message we got on Monday too) – as this will lock you out of the device completely.

Instructions to factory reset Chromecasts are still on display in the official Chromecast Help Center, as it’s (usually) such a helpful troubleshooting approach – but you shouldn’t do it this time. Google has intimated it will help those users who have done a factory reset with specific instructions in due course.

What’s gone wrong?

The Chromecast Audio has also been affected (Image credit: Future)

If you’re new to this issue, it prevents users from casting anything: all they get is an “untrusted device” error, and the option to dismiss it. The only models that seem to be affected are those launched in 2015, the 2nd-gen Chromecast and the Chromecast Audio.

As Google hasn’t provided any details about why this is happening, we’re left to speculate. If you go back to the Reddit thread where this was first reported, there is some investigation there that points to a server-side issue (so a problem at Google’s end).

The blame can apparently be assigned to an expired certificate authority validation – a security process that guards against hacks and snooping (and which needs to be regularly repeated). It seems the affected devices are no longer recognized as being genuine Chromecasts, which is in turn preventing any casting.

It’s an incredibly frustrating bug for users, who continue to be unable to send their audio and video streams to bigger screens, and remain in the dark about when a fix might arrive. We will of course keep you posted here.