Firmware update bricks Samsung smart fridges, owners lose spoiled food

Some of Samsung's smart refrigerators stopped working Tuesday after a firmware update, forcing owners to throw away spoiled food days before a major Korean holiday.

What happened

Korean outlets first reported the failures, which hit Samsung's Bespoke AI fridges. Star News Korea said most affected devices were four-door models from 2024 or later. Per the outlet, the appliances "suddenly lost power and stopped functioning immediately after" users tried an update through SmartThings, Samsung's smart home platform. The SmartThings app showed the fridges as offline, and some owners said the internal display stayed stuck on the message "Checking SmartThings app during update."

Samsung's Korean community forum filled with complaints; some customers had owned their fridge a year or less. "The refrigeration functions did not work normally, so all the food had to be disposed of," one user wrote.

A ruined holiday

SBS Korea reported hundreds of complaints. Complaints appear to come only from Korea, where the timing made things worse: the failure struck right before Chuseok, the autumn harvest holiday, which starts Thursday. Some forum users said support initially told them technicians were scarce and repairs might not come before October.

"The customers who bought Samsung refrigerators have had their holidays completely ruined, while those Samsung employees are just having a good time at home," one forum member wrote.

Samsung's response

Samsung stopped issuing the update on September 23 and aims to fix some fridges by September 24, ZDNET Korea reported. A company representative posted on the forum that an error occurred "during the testing process" for a refrigerator software update on September 22, that "abnormal symptoms" hit the power and screen of some customers' fridges, and that Samsung is "taking emergency measures as a top priority" through its service centers. Samsung did not answer Ars Technica's questions about how many units and countries are affected, or what will prevent a repeat.

The trade-off of smart appliances

"Never update your Samsung refrigerator!" one forum member declared. The obvious alternative, Ars notes, is to avoid fridges that take updates at all. A dumb fridge can break too, but usually not when its hardware is healthy and it is only a year or two old. A dead fridge can also ruin medication, not just food. As other poorly handled smart home updates show, extra technology can spoil a simple product.