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Sadge @lemm.ee

Serious Android 14 bug on Pixels with multiple profiles enabled that just bricks your phone

This happened to me. My phone was acting strange so I restarted it. After unlocking, it said 'Phone is Starting' for longer than usual. Then it said 'Factory Resetting', and shut down.

It opened up a weird bootloader-like screen asking me whether to factory reset, or try again. I selected try again, which took the phone into a 'Phone is Starting' loop that never ended.

I ended up going to https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com/ and factory resetting from there.

This is what you should probably do to avoid this happening to you. (Everything I know about this is from what happened to me, and the article I linked, so idk if this will actually help)

  • If you're not using multiple users, do NOT enable it and make sure it's disabled.
  • If you are using multiple users, consider disabling it.

Also, BACK UP YOUR PHONE

Google makes it difficult to create backups, but it's really important. Even if you're very lazy, doing one at least every few months is worth it. You never know when your phone will fall into a lake, or delete itself because Google doesn't know how to make phones

  • If it's not already enabled, turn on Google's automatic backup, at the very least for apps.
  • Make sure your password manager / 2fa apps are backed up.
  • Make sure your photos are backed up. Google photos is the only option by Google to back them up, so if you don't want to use that, you copy them to your PC or any other external storage.
  • Some apps, like Signal, WhatsApp, or Aegis aren't backed up by Android's normal app backups, so you might have to turn on backup app by app.
    • For some apps (like Signal), backups are just saved to a folder on your phone so make sure you move them to external storage.
  • I don't think files on Android are backed up at all, so copy any important files to external storage.
  • If you have contacts saved on device (not linked to a Google account), copy them too.

Also, please tell anyone you know that has a Pixel about this.

17 comments

  • The article talks about users of multiple OS profiles which many use to separate work from personal data. I'm wondering does using applications like Insular, Shelter, or Island also make you susceptible to this bug?

    I've installed Insular, but have been too lazy to set it up yet, likewise I've been slow to push the 'upgrade to Android 14' notification.

  • Another update by Google:

    If your impacted device is unable to access media storage, we anticipate a system update will repair the issue and restore access to media files without requiring a factory reset. If your device is stuck in a "Pixel is starting" boot loop due to this issue, we are investigating methods that may be able to recover some data. We’ll provide more information as soon as it is available.

17 comments