Scared of Samsung bricking your soundbar? Turn off auto updates

Samsung recently made a mess of some of its soundbars. It rolled out a faulty firmware update that led to some models, including the Q800D, Q990D, and Q995D, becoming useless giant paperweights.

Now, the good news is that Samsung appears to be taking full responsibility for the faulty firmware (version 1020) and wants to repair or replace all the soundbars that were bricked by this update.

You, on the other hand, might want to play it safe and avoid automatic soundbar firmware updates, at least for the time being, and especially if you own one of the affected Samsung soundbar models. Here's how you can do it.

If you want to disable auto firmware updates for your Samsung soundbar, the SmartThings app is the way to go. Follow these few steps, and you'll be good to go in no time:

Now, while you will be safe from potential faulty firmware updates to your Samsung soundbar, the one issue with turning off automatic updates in SmartThings is that it affects every smart device on your SmartThings network that lacks independent firmware update options. You may also have to perform app updates manually for SmartThings.

Some devices, like Samsung's smart TVs, have independent auto update settings in their on-device settings menus, and they can still receive automatic firmware updates regardless of whether or not they're synced with your SmartThings app. Soundbars, however, can only receive new firmware through SmartThings or manually via USB.

By turning off automatic updates across SmartThings, you will have to manually update most of your SmartThings devices, from your Galaxy SmartTag to your Samsung soundbar and so on. Then again, this is a small price to pay for some peace of mind if you don't trust automatic updates and don't want to wake up one day to a bricked soundbar or other issues.