PSA: My new smart plug bricked itself during a firmware update and took 4 hours to fix

I bought a generic smart plug to control a lamp, and it prompted for a firmware update last night. The update failed halfway through, leaving the plug completely dead and unresponsive. I mean, it was just a paperweight. I spent the next 4 hours digging through old forum posts, trying different reset button combos, and finally had to use a specific phone app from 2021 to force a manual reflash. The whole time I was just trying to turn on a light. Has anyone else had a simple gadget update go this wrong and lock up for hours?

2 comments

2 Comments

james_clark10d agoTop Commenter

My old robot vacuum tried to update and just started vacuuming at 3 AM for no reason.

the_seth10d ago

Wait, it tried to update and that's what happened? lmao