Google’s Chromebooks are many things. They’re fast (usually), they’re typically lightweight both physically and on the software side of things, and they’re pretty affordable which makes them accessible to a wide range of consumers compared to other traditional laptops that run Windows or OSX. They’re also fairly fast at updating to newer versions of software because updates on Chromebooks are handled automatically, a feature which Google will be bringing to future Android N devices down the road. For some, the automatic updates will be one of the best things about the Chrome OS-powered laptops, but if you’re using a Chromebook which is running Chrome OS version 49, there is potentially a critical bug with the automatic updates.
Due to this issue, Google states that they have halted automatic updates for the affected Chromebooks until further notice when the bug has been fixed. While this is certainly going to be an annoyance for some, Google is working to fix the bug as quickly as possible. The issue does not extend to all Chromebooks which run Chrome OS 49, either, so not all users are going to be affected. According to Google, the bug lies within the firmware updater as noted in the Chromium blog issue tracker.
Alongside the announcement of the bug Google also highlights which Chromebooks are affected, and there are five total Chromebook models which are experiencing the firmware updater issue. Those Chromebooks include the Lenovo N22 11.6-inch Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook R11, the Sanance Chromebook 14, the ASUS C300SA, and the ThinkPad 11e. As these were the only Chromebooks listed in the blog post, any other models which are running on Chrome OS v49 should be ok and automatic updates should still be enabled. It’s worth pointing out that the disabling of automatic updates on these Chromebook models is only temporary, and Google expects to have the bug resolved in the coming days, at which point they will resume automatic updates for these laptops. While there is no exact timeframe for the bug fix, it should happen before the weekend which is a pretty quick turn around on the problem. If you have picked up a brand new Chromebook that happens to be one of these models and noticed the bug yourself, you can rest easy as the issue should be resolved soon.