Hub stuck on grey ‘g’ screen, Nothing happens not possible to hard reset.

[rmmr111]

I bought a home mini when i was travelling to Poland, from an authorized retailer.

There was some sort of update with Google, it stopped working.

It is now stuck in a never ending reset loop with the G key over and over again.

I tried resetting it and force a manual reset but nothing works.

Google says there's nothing to be done, and I feel like i threw my money away.

I see this is a common issue with lots of people reporting it on a post now closed, so im starting the conversation again to see if anyone knows of any solution.

[Jasein]

Here's the deal. They know they bricked everyone's device and at one point not too long ago, they were willing to replace them. Granted they had you jump through some ridiculous hoops, but they said they'd replace them.

I managed to talk to someone in Chat Support and after about 2 hours of doing things like recording a video of me resetting the device, taking pictures of the serial number (which is white on white and so hard to see it takes a dozen or so pictures to get it right). 
So I figured we were all done and disconnected the chat window and went to bed. When I got up the next day, there was a message asking me to confirm the replacement again. I had 24 hours to follow this link to verify my account. When I clicked on it, it said that there was no order. I tried to get in touch with the woman who was helping me and no response.

A week later and I finally get ahold of her and she left for vacation. Now, she is going to send the verification link again, but it still didn't work. I think this is Google's attempt to frustrate people to the point that they don't return the device THEY BRICKED.

I think the only thing that could possibly help in the future is to convince Congress to pass a law stating that assholes like Google and Microsoft are not allowed to automatically update software or firmware without the expressed approval of the customer. That's they only solution that would work. But that's not gonna happen so lube up. 

[Muddi]

Hey rmmr111,

Thanks for reaching out, and apologize for the late response.

I understand how it feels when your device is not working. This is related to a similar trending issue on this link. Rest assured that our team is aware of this and is already looking into it. I'd like to gather some details:

• Have you tried plugging the device to a different power outlet?
• When was this issue (stuck on gray G logo) first noticed?
• Was the device already in this state when you first discovered it?
• If no, were you in the middle of interacting with the device when it happened? If so, what were you trying to do?
• Did you unplug the device or was there a power outage shortly before you discovered this issue?

Please try these steps below that may help us fix the issue:

1. Place the device in Recovery Mode (unplug the device then hold down (long press) the volume up and volume down buttons while you plug the device back in. Release the volume button once the device turns back on.)
2. Attempt a factory reset once the device boots into Recovery Mode (hold down (long press) both volume up and volume down buttons at the same time.)

@Jasein: I'm sorry you had such an unpleasant experience with our customer support. Upon reviewing your case, I saw that a return has already been processed. Your feedback is highly appreciated and this will help us to make our product and services even better.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey folks,

Just wanted to check if the troubleshooting steps shared help? Let us know if you still need help with your Google Nest Hub, and the community will be happy to assist ypu.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Jasein]

I find this post to be incredibly insulting. I'm gonna lay it on the line and I'll provide line numbers next to each issue that needs to be publicly addressed. Whether you can speak for Google or specifically, the Nest Hub (first generation when it was called the "Home Display") or not is your business. I am asking you to take the initiative to find these answers and find whoever is responsible for this product to make a public statement that answers these questions.  

What I predict will happen is that you will once again close this thread and every other thread like it to make it seem like you are totally being helpful when you know that the steps you are suggesting are nonsense because of the scope of the issue. Thread after thread with 1000s of complaints has been closed with no resolution. This is a dishonest and terrible business practice. As a community specialist, I apologize that you have to suffer through this, but something really has to happen.

Intro; At some time in the last 3 months, the Google Nest Hub pushed an update to the first-generation devices that rendered them useless. Though no explanation of what actually caused the failure on these specific devices, thousands of devices restarted after applying the update and could get no further in the boot process than the grey Google G logo. Those of us familiar with electronics tried the standards steps of resetting the device. Unplugging and hard resetting. Entering into Emergency Mode and resetting....absolutely nothing worked.

When contacting support at Google over this issue, we were subjected to a series of very strange requirements necessary to replace the device that Google broke. Whether it is under warranty or not, Google updated the device and broke it. If Toyota or Apple had done the same thing, they would fix/replace the device regardless of the warranty. Google should do the same or they should not be allowed to apply automatic updates. A law restricting the automatic application of updates to devices out of warranty should be addressed if Google is too irresponsible to replace these devices purchased by die-hard Google fanboys and early adopters.

When you fill out the paperwork to return the device, you have to do things like taking a picture of your device with your hand in it after having written a secret code given to you by support..you must be able to read the serial number of the device, identify the device, identify your hand, and have the number written in your handwriting in order to satisfy that one aspect of the RMA. This is after recording a video of you unplugging the device, and plugging it back in, a video of you hard-resetting the device, a video of you entering the Emergency Boot mode first, then resetting it, and a video of you taking the device to multiple outlets of different kinds throughout your house that show that it is stuck in every outlet. Best if you have a GFCI, a 30 amp, 20 amp, circuit, a UPS and a power strip to help ensure the problem wasn't your outlet. seriously.

REQUEST: I would like to know the following things:

• Were these items intentionally or knowingly bricked to trigger an end-of-life status since they were not consistent with the rest of Google Nest Hub branding?
•  It would have been about 200 dollars cheaper for me to just go buy a new one once you calculate the cost of my time spent playing this game. Were the return requirements made knowing that most people couldn't afford to spend that many hours jumping through that many hoops to get the item replaced? 
• Why hasn't Google announced that this happened and answered questions asked by journalists regarding this situation?
• Why hasn't Google streamlined the replacement of these devices as a customer service to its loyal customers, 
• Why haven't they reached out to every owner of every device that suddenly stopped working after they pushed an update?
• Why doesn't Google have a piece of software designed to unbrick these devices? Were they trying to get people to return them because of a security problem with these devices or just because they conflicted with the rest of Google's brand strategy?
• Why does Google remove all of the lengthy threads where people have tried to resolve the issue to no avail? Threads usually last about 1 week before they are removed, amassing thousands of replies made by people who have the same problem?
• Why aren't there backup copies of every Google device stored before they are updated?
• Who is responsible for this mess?
• When are they going to resolve this issue?

Thanks in advance for your reply unless it's a canned reply that asks if I remembered to try standing on one foot, chewing watermelon flavored Hubba bubba while wearing an orange jockstrap over my jeans and signing I pledge allegiance to the flag (only replace "the flag of the United States of America"  with simply "Google") and reminding me to do this in front of the camera on the device at exactly twilight so the developers can be sure you really want it replaced. We've already tried that, I assure you.

[Muddi]

Hey Jasein,

Thanks for sharing those details about your experience. My apologies for the delays.

I can confirm that we haven't removed any community threads about this issue. We actually want to make trending issues even more visible to relevant audiences in the community-- that's why we occasionally merge smaller threads into larger ones, so everyone affected by an issue can get updates in one place. It may appear that these are deleted, but I can assure you that all the info is moved over to the larger post. See the main thread about this issue here.

While I don't have the answers to address your other concerns, I certainly want you to get the help you need. Please fill out this form with all the needed information then let me know once done. Also, I've escalated your questions to a higher tier of support, and they should be reaching out via email shortly to help you from here. 

We kindly remind you to please be respectful of others’ opinions here in the community, and stay polite and assume good intent as per our community guidelines.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey Jasein,

Just bumping in to make sure that you saw our responses. I hope I was able to answer your questions. Let me know if I can assist with anything else, and were glad to help.

Cheers,

Muddi

[Muddi]

Hey Jasein

Just wanted to make sure that you saw our responses. I'll be locking this thread if we won't hear back from you again in 24 hrs. Should that happen, feel free to create a new one if you have more questions or have other concerns in the future.

Cheers,

Muddi