Some Google Home Speaker owners are reporting a severe software glitch causing their devices to download hundreds of gigabytes of data in the background. The issue, highlighted by 9to5Google and numerous Reddit users over the past week, appears to stem from a failure to properly download and install a firmware update. In one documented case, a single speaker consumed over 200 GB of data in a single day.
Google has acknowledged the problem. In a statement to 9to5Google, the company confirmed that “a fix is already rolling out that should address this for users.” While most reports center on the latest Google Home Speaker model, the full scope of affected devices remains unclear. We have contacted Google for further details on the root cause and a definitive list of impacted hardware.
The disparity in data usage is stark. While one unaffected unit in a separate household used roughly 2 GB over a month, an impacted device racked up 132 GB in the same timeframe. For subscribers on capped data plans, this runaway consumption poses a significant risk of exceeding monthly limits, often without the user’s immediate knowledge unless they actively monitor per-device network traffic.
