Some Google Home Speakers downloading massive amounts of data in the background

Some Google Home Speakers are downloading massive amounts of data in the background, according to recent reports. Several users have noticed their devices consuming hundreds of gigabytes of data over a short period. One user observed that their Google Home Speaker, which had not been used in the past day, downloaded 17 GB of data within 24 hours, including a surge of 9.99 GB at 3 a.m. PT.

Another speaker downloaded 41 GB of data on October 13 alone, and over the past 30 days, the total download amounted to 132 GB. The extent of the issue is unclear, but one lightly used Home Speaker in a different household only downloaded 2 GB over the past month. Most routers allow users to monitor the data usage of individual devices.

For Google Nest Wifi users, this can be done through the Google Home app's WiFi tab, Devices section, where users can view device usage graphs for 1-, 7-, or 30-day periods. The issue has not been observed with other Google Home and Nest devices, such as Nest Hubs in the same household. Google has acknowledged the problem and stated that they are "currently working on a fix." For users with limited data plans, this issue could easily exceed their data caps.