Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update • Hacker News Board

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#51

Post by j1elo » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:03 PM UTC

I'm (we all are) constantly reminded to update our phones to latest available updates, but sh*t like this is what teaches users to instead disable and ignore updates indefinitely, under the premise of "if it works don't touch it" (addendum: "... because most probably an update will break it")

And here I am, ignoring updates on my Pixel 6a since October 2024 (there were reports of crashes or bricking, what a surprise) and planning to keep doing that for the foreseeable future.

Sucks having to choose between a potentially (even likely, seeing the trend) broken device or an unsecured one. Pick your poison.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#52

Post by lnauta » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

My pixel 4a lasted about 3 hours before the update, now its about an hour. Even with the discount in the store, it was cheaper to get the pixel 8a and some cash from a local vendor. The ticket to get the reimbursement went surprisingly fast, still waiting on money though.

Yesterday I got my new 8a, installed grapheneos and it works very well! So far no massive issues. When I tried this on the 4a some years ago, netflix complained about general certificate stuff and casting was broken, microG et al was barely holding on. Now, no problems at all!

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#53

Post by bdndndndbve » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

red_trumpet wrote: post #46

deng wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That point is so weird: Why offer a "performance update" 1.5 years after the end of security updates?

Given the sudden urgency and pulling the old software, I'm assuming they're trying to avoid aging batteries exploding.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#54

Post by zitterbewegung » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:05 PM UTC

I've been running GraphiteOS on my Pixel 4a (it is a backup phone) and obviously it doesn't have the battery update but I can attest that it works great with it.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#55

Post by nelblu » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:10 PM UTC

tocs3 wrote: post #7

Would grapheneos ( https://grapheneos.org/ ) help with this? I am using a pixel 4a as a "house phone" so it is plugged in all the time but I wonder if I should upgrade.

I use pixel 3 with https://calyxos.org/ as a home phone to play music, record videos, pictures etc. Calyxos is still providing extended support for 4a, but microG doesn't work as well compared to sandboxed google play services on grapheneos (which i use on my 7a). So if google services are not too important go ahead with calyxos.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#56

Post by netghost » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:13 PM UTC

This destroyed my phone, and their appeasement process was terrible too. There was no way for me to find out whether there was a supported repair shop nearby, the $50 cash was apparently through a very dodgy company, and then $100 google store credit didn't disclose that it's "upon review within three weeks" until after you irrevocably chose the option.

The whole thing is ridiculous and poorly handled. Sadly, if my phone had just cracked or failed to turn on, I'd probably have upgraded happily and moved on with my life. As it is, now I feel like something was taken from me. So it goes

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#57

Post by chabad360 » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:16 PM UTC

Speaking as a Pixel 4a customer with this update: I received the update, and like everyone else, my phone battery started draining incredibly quickly. However, after getting the free battery replacement, my phone's battery has returned to draining as normal (and on the plus side, has somewhat renewed the life of this phone).

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#58

Post by netghost » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:16 PM UTC

quercusa wrote: post #11

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.

Which is just awesome when your current phone is broken.

I posted about it and they suggested that I keep a backup phone available at all times, thanks folks.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#59

Post by rwoerz » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:18 PM UTC

I wonder why these "forced updates till kaputt" do not fall under (malicious) property damage. It is not just Google: My Amazon Kindle gets less and less responsive the last years without any noteworthy functional improvements. Same for the Firestick.

Re: Google Pixel 4a's old firmware is gone, trapping users on buggy battery update

#60

Post by wobfan » Wed, Jan 29, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

There's a nice video about this from Louis Rossmann [1] that talks about this in detail and tries to find some reasons for it, and he seems to suggest that the update was never about improving the battery life as in getting more usage per charge out of the battery, but improving it as in limiting the battery full charge capacity to minimize potential problems with it, because he (and others) assume that they identified bad batches and are trying to fix potential problems with them by limiting it.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xboo6sV-cJU