We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Your Chromebook has an expiration date known as Auto Update Expiry Date (AUE). Essentially, this is the best-by date for Google’s official support, and after that point, your laptop will no longer receive automatic security and software updates. With luck, you may be able to keep using your Chromebook even after that cut-off date, but the lack of updates might become a problem over time. Some apps may no longer work smoothly, and the device may become more vulnerable to security threats.

Once your Chromebook approaches that end-of-life stage, you’ll probably put it in storage and upgrade to one of the best laptops you can buy right now. However, before you put it away or take it to a recycling facility, keep in mind that even an aging Chromebook is not necessarily useless.

You can keep your Chromebook useful by turning it into a digital photo frame, a security camera, and much more. This way, you’ll give your old Chromebook a new lease on life, save money, and even cut back on e-waste.

There are many ways to make your home more secure, and one of the best is investing in a video surveillance system. The downside is that some of the best smart security cameras for your home and garage can be expensive to install, especially if you want to cover every inch of your house.

Luckily, if you have an old Chromebook, you can just build your own home security camera. Key features of most smart security systems include a camera, a storage system (often with backups being sent to the cloud), a companion app, and a wireless connection. These are capabilities you’ll likely find in your Chromebook. You’ll just need to buy a standalone webcam if your Chromebook’s built-in camera is of low quality.

Your best bet is to look into using a web-based security service that works in Google Chrome, as that’s the most universal and stable way to set this up on a Chromebook. Certain Android apps, such as Camy, may also work. Keep in mind that this can’t replace a full-blown home security system, but it can still be useful if you want to see what’s going on at home when you’re away. Smart cameras come with motion sensors, superior video quality, and night vision.

You probably have hundreds, if not thousands, of photos that you rarely look at because they often get buried in albums and folders. One way to display them is to put them in a digital photo frame, but unfortunately, high-quality digital photo frames are not cheap. Larger, premium frames like the Skylight Frame can run anywhere between $134 and $300. 

If you don’t want to spend that much, you can always go the DIY route, as old Chromebooks can serve the same purpose, too. If you have saved your videos and images on Google Photos, all you need to do is create specific albums and run them as a slideshow in full-screen mode. 

To make the experience as smooth as it can be, you’ll want to make your Chromebook run faster. This includes uninstalling unnecessary apps or simply closing the ones you don’t need to run in the background, and then rebooting your laptop. If the photos are in cloud storage, remember that you’ll need consistent internet access to display them.

Even after your Chromebook officially hits its AUE date, the hardware should remain functional, but your software options change. Since your browser will no longer receive security patches, it may eventually struggle to load modern websites and web apps. If you notice the system is underperforming, you can reboot the machine, clear the storage, remove unused extensions, or initiate a Powerwash, which is essentially a factory reset that deletes all of your user data except operational or diagnostic information.

You can also consider switching from ChromeOS to a different operating system, such as a lightweight Linux distribution like Lubuntu. This way, you’ll squeeze more life out of your old Chromebook and get access to a decent operating system and new updates. This process often isn’t easy, and we don’t recommend doing it if you’re not comfortable with every step. However, doing this can give you access to a potentially more secure, up-to-date operating system than a post-AUE Chromebook.