Samsung fridges suddenly stopped working

Thousands of Samsung Bespoke AI fridges lost power and went offline on September 22 after a firmware update through SmartThings, Samsung's smart home platform. Most affected units were four-door models from 2024 or later.

Fridges stuck mid-update, food spoiled

Affected fridges displayed a frozen message saying "Checking SmartThings app during update" and lost all refrigeration function. Users reported having to throw away all their food, with some owning the fridges for less than a year.

“[T]he refrigeration and refrigeration functions themselves did not work normally, so all the food in the refrigerator had to be disposed of.”

Timing made it worse: Chuseok holiday

The failure happened during Chuseok, Korea's major autumn harvest holiday starting September 26, when families prepare large amounts of food. Repair availability was limited, with some customers told technicians might not arrive until October.

“Customers only trusted Samsung Electronics and made an official update, but it is so absurd and embarrassing that they can't even use refrigeration and refrigeration functions before the Chuseok.”

Samsung blamed internal testing error

Samsung said the September 22 afternoon failure resulted from an error during its internal testing of a refrigerator software update. The company immediately suspended testing and activated an emergency response protocol but did not say how many units were affected.

Smart updates can break simple products

The incident shows how connected appliances can fail in ways traditional fridges cannot. A bad update can spoil not just food but also medication, and frustrated users are now warning others to avoid updating their Samsung fridges.

“Never update your Samsung refrigerator!”