Aussies melt down over Chromecast malfunction

Australian Chromecast users are fuming after the tech suddenly stops working, possible due to this reason.

Chromecasters are freaking out that they may not be able to keep up to date with their favourite shows, as the hardware device is experiencing a strange global “casting” outage.

The outage seems to be only affecting second-generation Chromecast devices, and Google is aware of the issue and currently working on a fix.

Chromecast is a plug-in adapter by Google that allows users to stream music, movies and TV shows on a digital television.

Since Sunday, many Chromecast users were stopped from binge watching by an “untrusted device” error preventing casting to their chosen devices.

Chromecasters around the world are melting down as they have to pause streaming their favourite shows as the casting system faces an outage that is yet to be fixed.

Reddit sleuths have surmised that the devices may be failing to connect due to an expired security certificate authority.

This is because a Google-owned intermediate certificate authority actually lapsed on March 9, 2025, which is when the issues were first reported.

Models that rely on this certificate no longer work due to the expiry, which means widgets cannot authenticate themselves as genuine Chromecast products, which is causing the trust issues.

In an update, Google let users know that if you have tried to reset your device – you may have messed up even more.

“Do not factory reset your device – we will keep you all updated when the fix rolls out. If you have already factory reset your device, we will provide instructions to set your device back up as soon as possible,” the company wrote on the Google Nest community site.

Internet sleuthers think it may be because a Google-owned intermediate certificate authority lapsed on March 9 2025, which is when the outages were first reported. (Photo by Josh Edelson / AFP)

There is a glimmer of hope.

Tech-savvy ‘netizens’ noted a hack: If you set your phone’s date to before March 9, when the certificate authority expired, you may be able to hack the glitch.

However, this does not work for everyone, and can disrupt other subscription based applications.

Some are concerned that Google is deliberately attempting to encourage Chromecast users to update their devices, after the product line was discontinued and replaced with the Google TV Streamer, however there is no evidence to support these claims.

“We’re aware of an issue with Chromecast (second generation) and Chromecast Audio devices. We will share an update once we have more details about the issue and the fix,” a google spokesman said to News.com.au.