Some Google Home Speakers, Google’s $99.99 smart speaker with Gemini built in, are quietly downloading huge amounts of data in the background. One Reddit user reported more than 200 GB in a single day. Google told 9to5Google it knows about the problem and has started rolling out a fix, so if your home internet has a data cap, it’s worth checking your speaker now.
What’s going on with the Google Home Speaker?
According to Android Police, several owners noticed the problem when they looked at per-device traffic on their routers. The speaker was pulling data around the clock even though nobody was using it. One person reported over 200 GB in a day, another about 35 GB a day. Spanish site ProAndroid collected more numbers: a 9to5Google unit that nobody touched used 17 GB in 24 hours and 132 GB over a month, while another speaker in the same test used only about 2 GB. Some Reddit posts mention up to 3.3 TB a month, and one unit kept downloading a 460 MB update every 20 minutes without ever installing it.
Not every speaker is affected. The Verge’s Tom Warren said his unit was fine.
What’s causing it?
Google hasn’t said. Android Police and ProAndroid both suspect the same thing: a firmware update (the speaker’s built-in software) that gets stuck, downloads again several times a day and never finishes installing. ProAndroid points to a detail that fits. The Home Speaker was still listed on firmware 3.78.538897 from June, while the Nest Audio and Nest Mini had moved to 3.78.540761 in July. According to 9to5Google, the release notes for that July build only say it “improves network traffic.” The unit looping on 460 MB downloads was on the older build.
Keep in mind that this is the sites’ reading of the evidence. Google hasn’t confirmed the cause or said how many devices are affected.
How do you check if your speaker is affected?
The steps are the same for any model:
- Log in to your router’s admin page and find the list of connected devices with their data usage.
- Compare the speaker with everything else on your network. A speaker sitting on a shelf shouldn’t use tens of gigabytes a day.
- In the Google Home app, open the speaker’s page, tap the gear icon and go to Device information to see the firmware version, as 9to5Google describes.
- If you use Nest Wifi, the Wifi tab in the Google Home app shows traffic per device, according to ProAndroid.
What should you do until the fix arrives?
Android Police suggests unplugging the speaker for at least a few days if its usage looks far above normal. ProAndroid adds a catch: an unplugged speaker can’t receive the fix either, so plug it back in once Google confirms the patch is out.
The real risk is for people on a capped plan, such as a mobile hotspot or a fixed-wireless home connection with a monthly limit. ProAndroid worked out that a speaker using 35 GB a day would burn through a 300 GB plan in under nine days. On an unlimited connection, the only effect is a busier router.
Is it still worth buying?
The speaker launched in June at $99.99 in the US, 119.99 euros in Spain and £99.99 in the UK, in nearly 20 countries including the US, Canada, the UK, France and Spain. This is the third notable issue in four months, after response delays of up to a minute right after launch and a setup loop in July. The hardware itself isn’t the weak point, but if you’re not in a hurry, waiting until the fix has reached every unit is the calmer choice.
If you’re building a connected home with devices from several brands, our explainer on the Matter smart home standard covers what to check before you buy. And if your home Wi-Fi is the bottleneck, our guide to setting up a smart bulb with Alexa shows how to add devices without overloading the network.
Google hasn’t given a date for when the fix will reach everyone. Once it confirms the rollout is done, checking your router remains the surest way to see whether your speaker is back to normal.
