Some Google Home Speakers are downloading hundreds of gigabytes of data in the background, and Google says a fix is on its way.
Owners have reported the problem on Reddit in recent days. One user found his speaker consuming more than 200GB per day. The likely cause is a firmware update (the device's built-in software) that the speaker fails to download and install correctly. That would leave it stuck fetching the same data again. That cause is a suspicion, not a confirmed diagnosis. Most of the reports are tied to a newer model of the speaker rather than the whole Google Home line.
In a statement, Google said "a fix is already rolling out that should address this for users."
The scale is what makes this more than a curiosity. A speaker pulling 200GB a day would move roughly 6,000GB in a 30-day month. That is far beyond what a smart speaker should ever need, and it can exceed the monthly data caps some home internet plans carry. A runaway device like this costs the owner, not the manufacturer, and an owner would only notice by checking router statistics or getting a notice from their provider.
Retry loops are a familiar failure for connected devices. Small gadgets that update themselves usually do so quietly, which is the point, and also why a stuck update can run unnoticed. A cheap safeguard is to cap retries or back off after repeated failures.
Google's statement leaves open how many speakers are affected, and whether the fix stops a download already in progress or only prevents new ones. Owners who saw unusual traffic may want to check their network usage after the update lands.