Samsung update glitch leaves owners unable to wash clothes

What’s your worst update horror story? Software updates are supposed to improve our devices, patching old security holes and delivering new features. They’re such a big deal that we often consider update commitments when choosing which phone to buy. But there’s also an element of risk involved there, and any time we take a functioning device and change the software that’s running on it, there’s the chance that something might break in the process. That’s exactly the lesson some Samsung users have recently been learning — although probably not in the way you might think.

It’s no secret that pretty much everything you interact with is becoming increasingly computerized. Maybe our cars are the most prominent example there, but it’s also just as true for every major appliance in your home. We’ve already seen how updates can bring unwanted changes to that kind of hardware, like the scandal Samsung faced last year when it started serving advertisements on its refrigerators.

Now the latest incident is impacting owners of Samsung Bespoke all-in-one washer/dryer combos. These units save space by eliminating the need for a separate dryer, and use their computerized smarts to help them switch modes and perform all their functions in one spot. And for a while, that seems to have been working just fine — until this past week.

In a pair of threads on Reddit’s Samsung sub and in Samsung’s own community support forums, multiple Bespoke owners report the same tale: They received a notice that their appliance had a new update ready for it, installed the latest software, and… proceeded to immediately lose the ability to wash anything at all.

Where users previously found wash options behind a “more cycles” screen on the unit’s display, this update stripped that menu blank, leaving them without an obvious way to initiate washing.

The good news is that affected users seem to have eventually figured out fixes or work-arounds, either trying alternate display themes or performing multiple factory resets until their wash options reappear. Either way, though, this is not at all what owners of expensive appliances expect to be going through. Unfortunately, we wouldn’t be surprised to hear about incidents like this one becoming a lot more frequent as more homeowners upgrade their old, legacy appliances to smart tech. Now we just need smarter updates to match.