4w ago

My Pixel phone reboots randomly on its own

What the title says. When it reboots, the screen just turns black without any warning or pop up windows. (Though I think I have seen a very dim flash of a red warning strip across the screen one time when using it in the dark.)

I also have a suspicion that the power button might be failing. I generally have to click it harder for it to lock the screen now, and sometimes it opens up the power menu when I only clicked it once.
Would a failing/stuck power button also cause this rebooting behavior?

Thanks!

Edit: Thanks for the help, guys! I think I'll get my phone checked for a stuck power button some time. Shame I use it often for the camera shortcut.

17 comments

I had the same problem with my pixel 3, it had a faulty power button that would keep stuck on pressed and force a reboot
How I "solved" it:
Use a TPU cover
Only block the screen with double tap on empty spot on launcher
Only wake up with double tap on screen
Symptoms that I had:
If I enabled the emergency mode that sounds alarms when the power button is pressed 5 times in a row very fast, it would accidentally sound the alarm if my finger touched the button
I could not easily turn on the phone if it was turned off
The phone would sometimes bootloop until I gently smashed the phone on the side on the corner of a table (to unstuck the button)
If during the "bootloop", I pressed the volume button, it would go in recovery, which indicates the power button was stuck
Without the TPU phone cover I could lock the screen with a very very light touch on the power button
I didn't get to ask how much money was required to fix it because shortly after I accidentally dropped it and got green hair lines on the screen, so I just sold it for parts on ebay
- Fuck I'm an idiot. I was like what emergency mode and clicked my power button 5 times. You get like 4 seconds to cancel it lmao
  
  imagine me, at 4am, watching the phone at 4am, touching the power button to see what time is it, and accidentally triggering it, panic for everyone lol
- Thanks! I think I'll get that checked soon. Shame that I press it often for the camera shortcut. Maybe that's the reason why it broke.
  
  i killed mine by binding double click to turn on the torch on a custom rom lol

A faulty power button can 100% cause what you're describing. It's mandatory for the power button to reset the phone if pressed for some time, and you say that some times when you try to lock it it shows the power menu which indicates that the button is closing the circuit on its own. So if it does that for about 20 seconds it can just reboot the phone.
- Thanks! I think I'll get that checked soon. Shame that I press it often for the camera shortcut. Maybe that's the reason why it broke.

(Though I think I have seen a very dim flash of a red warning strip across the screen one time when using it in the dark.)
does it has texts on top of it?
- Yes, but it was only a flash, so I didn't get to see what was on it.

How old is your battery, does it drain fast? If it’s an old battery then it might not be able to supply enough power during above average load
- It's just over 2 years old now, and I've been using Accubattery to limit charging to 80% from the start. Battery health is still 97% according to it.
  
  Sounds unlikely in that case

- No. The power button very much can override the software function by being pressed for an amount of time. It's mandated by law that the power button resets the phone even if the software is not responding.
  
  In which country is it mandated by law?
- Ah, that could also be the problem too. I remember it rebooting one time when I plugged it in to charge.
  Does the phone get hot when it is cutting out?
  Not really. It gets warm after it reboots and when it's charging, which I think is normal?

17 comments