Google Deploys Fix As Home Speakers Secretly Download Gigs Of Data

Smart devices have been making headlines lately for being traffic hogs capable of generating several 100GBs of unnecessary traffic that can, in some instances, overwhelm home networks. The Google Home Speaker, which we reviewed earlier this year, is the latest device guilty of causing a headache for users after it began to download far more data than expected.

The first signs of this issue began to appear on the /r/googlehome subReddit, where users shared network logs indicating their speakers are attempting to download quite a lot of data. A user by the name of /u/Bekkenes posted an image of their Unifi dashboard, where their three speakers were devouring 140GB, 81.7GB and 65.3GB of data respectively, with all of this traffic happening in just one day.


Another user, /u/Protxch, posted a screenshot from their router that showed their lone speaker had managed to download 695GB of data and additionally uploaded some 19.1GB of data, for a total of 714GB of bandwidth over the course of about 30 days. Protxch says the only solution was to “set a speed limit,” likely from within the router’s settings, to try and get the situation under control.

Luckily, it seems as if this issue is only affecting a portion of Google Home Speaker owners. A best guess as to what’s happening is that the speaker is attempting to download an update of some kind, but the process is failing at some point. Of course, once this happens the speaker will just re-attempt to download the update, creating a loop where this insane amount of traffic is generated.

Users who have been affected by this bug won’t have to wait long the problem to be nipped in the bud, as Google released a statement to 9to5Google where it says, “a fix is already rolling out that should address this for users.” With Google having released a fix for this, it makes the smart speaker a solid addition to any Google-friendly smart home for just $99.99.