Google’s 10-year-old Chromecast is busted, but a fix is coming

Google recently killed the Chromecast brand, but the dongles live on—mostly. Owners of the second-generation Chromecast and Chromecast Audio have noticed this week that their beloved streaming gadgets are no longer working. It appears that Google configured the devices with a single 10-year certificate that has now expired, and updating it is no simple feat. Google is looking into a fix, and there's nothing you can do in the meantime. In fact, trying to fix this yourself might only make things worse.

Beginning this week, attempting to connect your phone to a second-gen Chromecast or Chromecast Audio results in untrusted device or authentication errors. The unhelpful popup suggests this could be due to outdated firmware, which is technically true. Some wondered if this was simply Google's way of putting the decade-old device out to pasture.

One industrious Redditor has identified the dongle's certificate chain with a ...