My wife was affected by this. When she applied for the $100 credit, she was told it could take up to three weeks to get the credit form.
Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
11–20 of 370 posts
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#12You can revert this if you unlock your bootloader:
https://xdaforums.com/t/undo-the-january-2025-update-without...
(EDIT: Just to be clear, and which is also mentioned in that post: unlocking the bootloader will reset the device. If your device is already unlocked though, you will be able to keep the data.)
Of course, I would just advise to switch to LineageOS directly, since Google has stopped providing security updates for the Pixel 4a already in August 2023. I've run LineageOS for years on the Pixel 4a and it has worked pretty much perfectly for me:
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/sunfish/
Android 15 (LineageOS 22) was just released for it.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#13Am I the only one that had the immediate thought of "this seems intentional" when they read that they're offering the credit for a newer pixel?
No, this is obviously an illegal scam.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#14Are these not the old images? : https://developers.google.com/android/images#bramble
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#15Why don't they build a rollback "update" if they wiped the old firmware?
First they have to wait for the maximum number of people to buy new phones.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#16Best phone I've ever used. Still going great after 4 years. Don't know how long it will last. There doesn't seem to be anything available with similar form factor.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#17This needs more coverage. Perfectly good phones are getting thrown out because of a software update.
Google ended security updates for the Pixel 4a in August 2023, so running this as your daily driver was already problematic. Fortunately, LineageOS officially supports the 4a, and v22 (aka Android 15) was just released for it.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#18This needs more coverage. Perfectly good phones are getting thrown out because of a software update.
There's been a lot of activity on Reddit and Android tech news websites. /r/Pixel4a has been absolutely busy with activity lately, lots of people asking for help.
Decent summary post here: https://www.lambdalatitudinarians.org/techblog/2025/01/09/th...
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#19It's frustrating. My phone went from 100% to 0% in under an hour. I could not rely on it for a typical workday. Thankfully my job does not require my personal phone, and thankfully the update happened on the weekend. Imagine seeing this Monday morning before work. Who has time to fiddle with firmware? And who has time to set up a new phone in the middle of a workweek, especially if you're switching to a non-Pixel phone?
The small credit does not cover the cost of inconvenience.
Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update
#20Same problem here (a few hours of battery life and it's very slow to charge now). This update makes no sense at all, excepted if you want to force your users to buy a new phone.
For me, it should be a RED flag on the Pixel lineup and on the confidence in Google.
I filled https://www.stopobsolescence.org/.