Something is bricking Nest Hub smart displays, and users aren't getting much help from Google
TL;DR Owners of the first-gen Nest Hub report recent device failures, freezing up during the boot process.
Attempts to factory reset the hardware have not been successful at restoring operation.
It's possible a recent firmware update may play a role, but Google has yet to confirm anything.
How long do you expect your devices to last? With something like a phone, you've got the threat of physical damage hanging over it basically all the time, need to worry about its battery deciding to go all explosive on you, and had better make sure your manufacturer is keeping up with security updates to keep hackers at bay. But for smart home tech that plugs in, doesn't leave the safety of your house, and has only limited access to your accounts, is it really that wrong for consumers to expect their devices to largely just keep on working? A growing number of Nest Hub users are grumbling about that just now, as a wave of failures appears to be hitting the smart display, and Google does not seem to be doing much about it.
The Nest Hub debuted as the Google Home Hub all the way back in 2018, and it's been reasonably well supported over the years, getting a major software refresh as it moved to Fuchsia and continuing to act as an affordable solution for controlling your smart home. But over the course of the past week or so, we've been spotting reports of first-gen Nest Hub models getting stuck on their boot screen, and failing to operate. Hub owner Angela Hopkins got a thread running in Google's Nest Community, and Reddit users like Gabi_Social have been reporting the same issues on the site's Google Home sub.
Affected units appear to hang on the Google 'G' when booting, and attempts to factory reset the hardware seem to be fruitless. In that Reddit account, the owner contacted Google support for help, only to be turned away because their Nest Hub warranty was four years expired.
There are lots of different ways that old, no-longer-supported products can die. If devices rely on connection to an external server, for instance, the company running it may eventually decide to power things down. And while it sucks when that happens, at least that's a conscious decision that affects all users equally. What Nest Hub users are experiencing here, however, has more of the hallmarks of a firmware update gone wrong, which while equally ignoble, is a much more frustrating way for a product to die.
On Google's Nest firmware page, the company shows version 26.20250116.103.2900 as being the most recent release for the Nest Hub, and it appears this software started heading out within the past month.
We've reached out to Google in the hopes of learning more about what could possibly be causing these problems, and to see if there's any way for owners to get their smart displays operational again. We'll update you with anything we hear back.
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