It has been reported that Google Pixel users are randomly experiencing their phones freezing, becoming unresponsive for anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. This first arose in November, according to the Pixel User Community on the Google Product Forums, and has been happening since.
We’ve actually experienced this too, but hadn’t attributed it to a wider problem until reading of this in a few other places. The issue arises essentially at random, and the Pixel will become almost completely unresponsive. The on-screen buttons for back, home and multi-tasking do nothing, the power button will usually turn the display off and back on, but it doesn’t lock, and the volume keys sometimes work, and sometimes do nothing. I’ve noticed this probably three or four times in the last month or so, and while most times it resolves fairly quickly – less than 30 seconds – the longest was over a minute, and showed no signs of un-freezing, so I rebooted the phone with the key combination.
Some users have attributed this to particular apps; it was believed that the Live360 Family Locator was one culprit, but just as many have had the issue without using this app (I’m in this boat, never installed it). It seems that it’s not an app issue, but something more general. The impression I had was that the phone had run out of free RAM and seized up, but that seems fairly implausible these days.
Have you noticed this issue on your Pixel? From what we understand, the issue is not widespread, and even though it’s annoying, it doesn’t happen anywhere near often enough for me to consider replacing the Pixel with anything else.
Let us know in the comments if you’ve been affected.
In fairness I’ve had this pop up a few times over the years on many different android devices running various Android versions. My guess is it’s an underlying OS issue.
Yep I’ve had this often. The worst is when I’m multi tasking while on a work phone call to get some info from mail or messages and the phone completely locks up disconnecting the call too. Have to hard reboot and a few minutes before getting back on a call.
Completely random though – above example is when it impacts me badly.
TBH I’m back on an iPhone for the moment until I’m notified the problem is fixed – it became that bad for me.
Shane.
This happened to me a couple of times in November but haven’t noticed it recently.
Before 7.1.1 was available for the Pixel XL, I used the app ‘Ambi-Turner’ to make the Ambient Display function of the phone useable. With this app installed my phone exhibited the exact same problem (about 3 times over 2 weeks) that this article desribes where the phone becomes totally unresponsive and all you can do is turn the screen on an off, apart from restarting it with a long press of the power button. After uninstalling the app I’ve never had the problem since. Considering the wider issue across different apps, it could be some combination of issues that causes… Read more »
I’d just put this down to Android being Android. I’ve had this happen on every phone I’ve owned for the last several years. Resetting the device seems to temporarily address the issue (not that I’ve done that on my Pixel yet.. I just reboot and it goes away for a while).
I’m affected by this on my XL. I spoke with Google and went through their troubleshooting guide including a factory reset. They said it needed to be replaced but because I purchased it from Telstra I had to take it back to them. Took it to Telstra. They said “2 to 3 business days”. I shouldn’t have believed them. I heard back that the phone was sent to the store on Friday and should arrive Wednesday with the fault undetectable. Of course it is undetectable unless you’re going to use it all day every day and have it happen two… Read more »
It’s Nougat. My 6P does it once every few weeks. It’s happened a lot more frequently since the 7.1.1 update as well.
I’m having the same problem on my 6P. Tons more freezing.
This is a strange development… could be the platform, not the device.. wow.
I’ve never had this on my Pixel XL, but it happened regularly on my Note4. That phone had a removable battery however!
I too am experiencing this on my 128GB XL
Yeah, same thing here. A lot of problems for such premium phone.