Walmart's Onn devices bricked after update

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In June 2025, Walmart began rolling out an Android 14 update for its first generation and 2021 Onn streaming devices that utilized Android 10 and 12 respectively. This forced update on older devices would cause devices to boot-loop, display error screens, and even become bricked. When users contacted Walmart support, they were told bricked devices past their one-year manufacturer's warranty could not be refunded.

Background

On 3 June 2025, it was reported Walmart was upgrading their Android 12 Onn streaming devices to Android 14, the latter being the latest version of Android. During this time, minor issues were being reported, such as the settings crashing when changing frame rate and Dolby Vision not working.

Streaming device bricking through forced update

On 13 June 2025, multiple reports were made of Chromecast and 2021 Onn streaming devices being bricked by the forced update. This would cause the rollout of Android 14 for these devices to be halted until 25 June 2025, when a majority of issues with the Android 12 devices were fixed.

Walmart's response

It was reported on 15 July 2025 that Walmart was refusing to repair or replace Onn streaming devices outside the one-year warranty. When an owner of a two-year-old Onn device requested a refund that included all necessary information (pictures, videos, questions, copy of receipt), the Onn device support agent responded with this statement:

"After thorough consultation with our after-sales service team, we regret to inform you that an exchange isn’t feasible under current warranty guidelines."

Walmart later resumed the rollout with a newer version that had fixed the bricking issue, but devices affected by the earlier problems possessed no readily available means of installing the update (effectively permanently bricked).

Consumer response

In an unboxing of the Onn 4K Plus Streaming Device by YouTuber BigC Vlogs, he described the setup as "the worst Onn experience I've ever had" and mentioned how the WiFi was "on perfectly fine before the update", speculating how "whatever was in that [...] update that ran broke something because now it just won't connect to WiFi after that update". In the next video, he noted how Walmart would only do an in-store refund card instead of a device exchange.

YouTuber UG Tech believed Walmart should have had more flexibility with refund cases and described the incident as saying "it's like if someone just reached into your device and was like, 'Fuck you, this is your last day using it.'"