Philips Hue has confirmed that a recent software update has rendered some Bridge Pro devices inoperable, and the company will now replace all affected units free of charge, regardless of warranty status.
According to the company itself, this update, numbered 2071353020, was delivered to Bridge Pro devices in late June and added some small operational improvements rather than major new features.
Instead of these improvements, affected devices became completely unresponsive, and reports of the outage began surfacing publicly within days of the update reaching Hue’s wide user base across multiple regions.
Bridge Pro is at the center of the Philips Hue ecosystem, controlling lighting, sensors, and automation throughout your home. This explains why a single failed update can disrupt your entire smart home setup at once.
In a statement given to Ars Technica, Philips Hue explained that the bug only occurs in devices whose owners disabled automatic updates and continued to use older firmware versions for a long time.
The same owner then caused an outage by manually installing the update more than 10 days after it was first downloaded to Bridge, well beyond the normal installation period.
The same statement added that less than 100 Bridge Pro units were affected worldwide, a relatively small number that means all owners involved will face the sudden loss of a working smart home hub.
Philips Hue has now confirmed that all affected Bridge Pros will be replaced free of charge regardless of warranty status, saving owners who would otherwise have to pay for a new unit themselves.
The response has drawn praise across Reddit’s ownership community, with several threads highlighting the replacement policy as an example of manufacturers standing by their hardware without hesitation or additional cost.
Replacing a bricked Bridge Pro requires affected owners to reconfigure their lights, scenes, and automation from scratch, and even though the hardware itself arrives for free, this process is a pain.
Philips Hue recommends owners who experience delays installing updates and suspect their Bridge Pro may be vulnerable to contact the company before attempting a manual firmware update themselves.
The company did not provide details on its rollout schedule for free replacement units, but it continues to process affected cases as further reports of Bridge Pro device malfunctions come in.
