Title is super misleading. I have 3 different pixels, all different versions (4, 5a, 7a) and none of them are "unusable" after the update. I'm sure others are having issues, but this isn't something that's bricking everyone's phones.
Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
51–60 of 176 posts
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#52Loved my Nexus 5x until the high power CPU cores started failing causing instabilities. Loved my pixel 2 until the battery stopped holding a charge. Liked my 4a (it is literally a faster 2 that you can't squeeze to bring up google assistant (the squeeze was my fave feature)) until the April 2023 update that ruined the battery life. They never fixed it. Pixel 7 was suffering the same issues at the time. I made the dec…
I hear a small company called Apple is making a viable alternative.
Apple is by no means perfect when it comes to updating devices.
https://www.google.com/search?q=apple+ota+update+breaks+phon...
There isn't a single manufacturer that consistently gets this right, only different shades of gray.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#53Android is just awful in terms of reliability I find it hard to believe anyone working for Google on Android actually uses an Android phone as their personal device I suffered all of: phone reboots 50% of the time using the camera, assistant won't answer sometimes, phone calls lock up the phone, alarm clock randomly doesn't work, it just goes on and on I had the original Android phone with Android 1.0 and had bought…
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Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#54Android is just awful in terms of reliability I find it hard to believe anyone working for Google on Android actually uses an Android phone as their personal device I suffered all of: phone reboots 50% of the time using the camera, assistant won't answer sometimes, phone calls lock up the phone, alarm clock randomly doesn't work, it just goes on and on I had the original Android phone with Android 1.0 and had bought…
GrapheneOS is literally the only thing that's keeping me on android. It has been really realiable for me, way more reliable than Samsungs or Google Pixels Android ROM. Though if GrapheneOS dies my next option will probably a linux phone, as I'll never get along with iOS.
Plus one to GrapheneOS.
Switching from iOS to Graphene was a really smooth experience for me, I can install any app I've needed so far, and I don't have to deal with 200 tracking and buggy default apps.
I wish they would keep security updates going longer than the current period though.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#55Imagine when this starts happening to cars
Tesla owner here. Many stories of that with them, and the latest autosteer update was a major downgrade.
Thankfully they mostly break the UI. Though my auto wipers got really bad recently. The body control electronics are pretty solid. I mean, you could lock/unlock, drive the car without the tablet. Not that regulators would approve of it.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#56That's not the first story like this. It seems like more and more often the QA is done by users who have not signed up for it. Why can't a multibillion company do a proper QA?
I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up making them money: people will replace their devices with newer ones. Once the device is sold it no longer has a function for the manufacturer until the next sale happens to the same user. So any update that bricks a percentage of the devices (or makes them effectively unusable) may well extract some more $ from the users.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#57Title is super misleading. I have 3 different pixels, all different versions (4, 5a, 7a) and none of them are "unusable" after the update. I'm sure others are having issues, but this isn't something that's bricking everyone's phones.
6a user here. No issues.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#58Android is just awful in terms of reliability I find it hard to believe anyone working for Google on Android actually uses an Android phone as their personal device I suffered all of: phone reboots 50% of the time using the camera, assistant won't answer sometimes, phone calls lock up the phone, alarm clock randomly doesn't work, it just goes on and on I had the original Android phone with Android 1.0 and had bought…
Your symptoms are all plausibly explained by a bad battery.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#59I don't use smartphones but I find their software stack very interesting. I just investigated a Pixel 5a phone that was brought to me for "sudden death". The owner reported the screen showed an update attempt, then ended up bricked.
It's allegedly impossible, due to the A/B update mode. Yet it managed to end up bricked, so the question is how, and what can be done.
After investigation (you can do it very simply by looking at the USB ids), it's currently in Qualcomm EDL firehose mode: this is likely due to a failed attempted update https://xdaforums.com/t/fix-pixel-3-qusb_bulk_cid-xxxx_sn-xx...: "because the bootloader has been corrupted during an attempted update - it's in EDL mode because there's nothing else it can boot into. I'd speculate it has some link with that "clever" new approach of being able to update the OS in the background and switch to it on the next boot"
The "clever approach" that causes the problem is called the FOTA (or OTA, for "Over The Air") update, done by the carrier. This is known and documented on https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/248340373
To leave EDL mode, it needs to be fed a bootloader + an image matching its model, to flash the eMMC memory inside.
On Windows, it's easy to do Qualcomm Flash tool (GPST/QFIL) , which is easily available from many places like https://github.com/stanislawrogasik/Pixel5-VoLTE-VoWiFi/tree..., and the process is documented on sites like https://imobiefix.com/qualcomm-prog-emmc-firehose/
Ideally, the MBN file has to exactly match the model, brand (etc) so if you have a 5a, you need a 5a MBN (and maybe a XML file, still reading)
According to https://support.google.com/fi/thread/227549262/sm7520-or-sdm... the model SM7520 or SDM765 ; this is confirmed by https://github.com/hoplik/Firehose-Finder/blob/master/ForFil... because it's listed as a "Snapdragon 765G" / 0011E0E1
According to https://xdaforums.com/t/bricked-google-pixel-4a-5g-mbn-file-... "Google does not make QPST files available for the Pixel series" but someone else might have uploaded that somewhere
Based on https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9656-brick-5a-help it's a well known problem: "The Pixel 5A has some hardware issues. I had mine poop out on me recently. Contact Googles repair team. If you have warranty they will replace it" : It's described extensively on https://suspiciouslygeneric.com/2022/11/11/the-hidden-flaw-k...
According to https://xdaforums.com/t/ipsa-pixel-5a-extended-warranty-i.46... "Due to the Pixel 5a Black Screen of Death issue, Google has extended the warranty on 5a devices for one year beyond the original device warranty"
However, google has denied the extended warranty, even while clearly being the cause of death of the phone.
Shame on you google, for creating more e-waste by refusing to release the QPST. If anyone reading this works at google, try to do something. It's not nice to put perfectly usable phones in a landfill just because a QPST is not released.
I hope someone will leak the QPST, because for people who don't have the money, it's also serious expense.
Re: Pixel owners report problems after installing January 2024 Google Play update
#60Imagine when this starts happening to cars
You don't need to imagine: https://www.reddit.com/r/MachE/comments/18m3ne2