Google admits that a bug is bricking some Pixel phones – here’s what to do
The update to Android 14 hasn’t been particularly smooth for some users, especially those who have multiple profiles set up on their Pixel phones – and Google has now officially acknowledged the issue and promised a fix is on the way.
We reported on this issue a few weeks ago, when it seemed to mainly affect Pixel 6 owners. Users who had more than one user profile configured on their phone would find that the Android 14 update crashed their devices, locked them out of local storage, or caused several other issues.
Since then, people using other Pixel devices – including the Google Pixel 7 and the Google Pixel Fold – have come forward saying they also experience problems (through Ars Technica). Some users report that they cannot get into their phone at all and get stuck on the home screen or in a boot loop.
Now community manager Has taken the official Pixel Phone Help forums to say that Google is “aware of an issue” caused by multiple profiles, including guests and child users (though not multiple Google accounts on the same phone). Moreover, engineers continue to “work on solutions” to solve all this.
What to do now
According to the forum post, Google has already released a Google Play system update that “should help prevent this issue from triggering on additional devices.” If you can access your Pixel device, open Settings and go to Security and privacy, System and updatesand then System update from Google Play to see if you have it.
At the same time, the official advice for those not yet affected by this bug is to avoid setting up secondary users until a full Android 14 update is released. That makes us suspect that the Google Play system update isn’t exactly a guarantee that multiple users won’t cause problems on Android 14.
If you’re already experiencing issues and the Google Play system update doesn’t fix them, there’s not much you can do other than wait. Google says that an upcoming system update should be enough to restore access to local storage without any data loss, and that it is working on data recovery options for those who see boot loops.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience this has caused, and we appreciate your patience,” it continued the forum post, which also states that more information will be released “as it becomes available.” It’s not much comfort to those who can’t access their files or their phones, but at least the problem is now being worked on.