Samsung’s smart fridges have run into a particularly serious software problem in South Korea, with some units reportedly shutting down completely after a faulty SmartThings update. Unlike the usual smart appliance glitch where a screen or app stops working, this one appears to have affected the fridge’s ability to keep food cold.
The issue reportedly hit owners ahead of South Korea’s Chuseok national holiday, when many households had stocked up on food. According to reports, affected fridges lost their interior lighting and touchscreen functionality, and also stopped refrigerating.
The Bespoke AI 4-Door Refrigerator appears to be the model most affected. According to ZDNET Korea, an internal testing software version was accidentally distributed through the update process. Samsung has acknowledged the mistake, paused the update and said engineers would visit affected customers to apply a fix.
For some owners, though, the timing has made the problem considerably more frustrating. Reports cited by SBS News say customers were struggling to arrange engineer visits until after the Chuseok holiday. One affected owner reportedly said they could end up having to throw away food bought ahead of the break.
A smart fridge problem that needs more than a restart
Unfortunately, the usual smart home troubleshooting tricks don’t appear to have helped. Affected owners have reportedly tried switching their fridges off and on again, removing them from SmartThings and adding them back, and attempting to roll back the update.
None of those methods has restored refrigeration.
Samsung hasn’t said how many fridges are affected, and the source material doesn’t indicate that it has announced compensation for spoiled food. It also appears the faulty update was stopped before reaching Samsung fridge owners outside South Korea.
That’s important, because a software problem disabling a smart display is one thing. A software update that leaves a refrigerator unable to refrigerate is a rather different proposition.
Smart appliances are supposed to make everyday tasks easier, but this incident is a useful reminder that adding connected features also introduces another potential point of failure.
