Finally got my old smart speaker to connect after three days of trying

I dug out an old smart speaker from a box to use in my garage. It just would not connect to my phone, even though it worked fine before. I must have reset the thing a dozen times, uninstalled and reinstalled the app, and even looked up a weird fix involving my router's guest network. Turns out the speaker's firmware was so old it couldn't talk to the new app version. I had to find an old tablet to download the older app and update it that way. Has anyone else had to jump through hoops like that with an older gadget?

3 comments

3 Comments

julia_burns92mo ago

Honestly, it's the planned obsolescence for me. They push the new app update that bricks the old hardware, hoping you'll just buy the new model. My old fitness tracker did the same thing. The company just stopped supporting it, so one day it was a fancy paperweight. It feels like a sneaky tax for not upgrading every two years.

lane.drew2mo ago

Man, julia_burns9, that's a rough one with the fitness tracker. But is it always some evil plan? Sometimes old tech just can't run the new software, it's like trying to run a new game on a ten year old laptop. They probably want to sell new stuff, sure, but keeping every old device working forever sounds like a nightmare for them too. It just feels like a lose-lose most of the time.

henry_webb6815d agoTop Commenter

Planned obsolescence" is the exact right word for it, @julia_burns9. I used to think companies were just trying to keep things simple, but after fighting with a speaker that was perfectly fine until an app update killed it, I'm with you.