Samsung halts SmartThings fridge update after appliances stopped working

Samsung has stopped rolling out a SmartThings software update for its smart refrigerators in South Korea after owners reported that their appliances had stopped working. The company confirmed the fault and says it is taking emergency measures through its service centres.

What owners reported

ZDNet Korea first reported the problem. On Samsung's Korean community forum, owners wrote that their refrigerators had stopped working altogether and that the food inside had spoiled. Other reported faults include the automatic door-opening function failing and the interior lighting no longer turning on.

The update that caused the trouble was, by Samsung's own account, still in testing. ZDNet Korea attributes the rollout to a "system error", and a Samsung representative told the outlet that distribution of the update had been stopped.

Samsung's response

A Samsung representative confirmed the issue in a post on the company's own forum: "Yesterday (9/22), an error occurred during the testing process for a Samsung refrigerator software update. Abnormal symptoms have been observed in the refrigerator power and screen of some customers. We are currently taking emergency measures as a top priority through Samsung Electronics Service Centers."

Affected customers have been advised to contact their local service centre. Owners also report that technicians are replacing the mainboard inside the faulty refrigerators, while many are asking Samsung to compensate them for the food they lost.

Why it matters

The timing could hardly be worse: South Korea celebrates the Chuseok holiday on Friday, one of the year's biggest cooking periods. The incident also underlines a familiar risk of connected appliances, where a software fault can disable hardware functions that once worked without an internet connection.