The year that Google attempted to own its first-party Android products is the same year where it feels like everything is falling apart for our perception of the company.
No Project Ara, no Andromeda, the Nexus 5X and 6P are bootlooping and shutting down (okay, well, a few of them, but the reporting sample is big enough to worry us) while the Pixel is also having a dandy ‘ol time with its cameras not working right one way or the other and speakers clipping sounds and other such things.
Now this. The Pixel and Pixel XL are freezing up. Touch input is naff and buttons don’t button.
The instances are random and the length of the uselessness varies, though that’s usually between two and fifteen minutes. Some have sourced the problem out to be a certain app, Life360 Family Doctor, though for others without it, nothing has worked: cache dumping, restarting, safe mode, factory reset and such.
Google has told at least one customer that these freezes could well be a hardware problem and that return merchandise requests may be required.
I have been in touch with Google, and they have looked over this thread. The guy I have spoken to has indicated that some Pixels have a hardware issue, so RMA is the only way to slice this. He has also acknowledged that some have received replacements, but have the same issues and said that although this could happen, the chances are very slim. In short, Google don’t know what is causing our phones to freeze…
— Ryan Pallett
One person called up support and got what he considered to be an incredible response.
Spoke to support today. They claimed that they had no reports of the pixel freezing. I mentioned this thread and I then got the “run it in safe mode for 48 hours, then start removing apps and follow up with the app developers ” at the end of the call they suggested to go my mobile carrier to start a warranty replacement. Pretty sad they won’t even asmit the problem exists
—Scott Herron
The same question has plagued many customers heads: “How does Google run its darn customer service?” We haven’t got any answers and Google has yet to give us any.