Why You Might Want to Opt Out of the Latest Chromecast Update
Chromecast as a brand has gone through this. Chromecast and second-generation Chromecast Audio are suffering from a strange glitch that essentially renders these devices unusable. Users are unhappy. Google, for its part, advised against factory resetting devices as a workaround, saying the company is working on an official fix.
Meanwhile, Google released an unrelated update for Chromecast with Google TV. The company no longer sells the device, but has still released the long-awaited Android 14 update for Chromecast with Google TV. The release notes say that with this update, “Google TV Streamer Voice Remote supports Find My Remote and a custom button,” which should be a welcome addition for users of the remote. In addition, Chromecast users with Google TV now have security updates until January of this year, as well as various improvements and system stability improvements.
At first glance, this update seems minor, but it is really useful, so it makes sense to install it right away. However, Google may have been a little overconfident with its “stability and improvements” claims. Chromecast users with Google TV are complaining that this update is breaking important features on their devices. In a 9to5Google news post about this update, one commenter says the update broke their local media implementation, saying the device was using too little power, even though their setup should handle a lot of input and run Android 12 without issue. Other users say it broke their USB drive detection: no matter what they do, their drives are identified as “safely removed” but won’t be read. One user explicitly stated that they would avoid this update due to the experiences of other commenters.
The r/AndroidTV update post contains other complaints. Some users’ devices crash when scrolling through the “Display and Sound” settings. Another user can’t connect to Chrome on their desktop after updating.
Chromecast has a tricky situation with Google TV users: on the one hand, they now have access to a couple of months’ worth of extra security updates, which are always important to install when they’re available. On the downside, the update breaks key features that you might often use Chromecast with a Google TV device for, including casting, USB storage, and running media locally. The update is still fairly new, so there may still be bugs that have yet to be discovered.
If you need to update
As it stands, you may be better off waiting to install this update until Google resolves these issues. If you feel like you need to update, or are reading this at a time when Google has released a new update, you’ll find this option in Settings > System > About > System .