It’s virtually laborious to consider that is occurring again, however Pixel customers are reporting that an OS replace has locked them out of their phones’ inside storage, inflicting app crashes, non-functional phones, and an actual chance of information loss. Over within the Google Pixel subreddit, consumer “Liv-Lyf” compiled a dozen posts that complain of an “inside storage entry problem” and blame the January 2024 Google Play system replace.
In October, Pixel phones confronted a nightmare storage bug that brought on bootlooping, inaccessible gadgets, and information loss. The latest publish says, “The signs are all the identical” as that October bug, with “inside storage not getting mounted, digicam crashes, Files app reveals no information, screenshots not getting saved, inside storage reveals up empty in ADB Shell, and so on.” When requested for a remark, Google advised Ars, “We’re conscious of this problem and are trying into it,” and a Google rep posted successfully the identical assertion within the feedback.
In the October bug, customers had been locked out of their system storage attributable to an odd permissions problem. Having a telephone attempt to run with none consumer entry to your individual storage is a multitude. It breaks the digicam and screenshots as a result of you may’t write media. File Managers learn “0 bytes” for each file and folder. Nothing works over USB, and a few phones, understandably, simply fail besides. The problem in October arrived as a part of the preliminary Android 14 launch and solely affected gadgets that had a number of customers arrange.
Picking via the posts, it is unclear if there is a sure sort of consumer that must be extra cautious of the January 2024 Google Play replace. Some customers say they have not enabled the multiple-user performance, however a number of point out having a piece profile enabled. Work Profiles aren’t fairly “a number of customers,” however the system leverages plenty of multi-user options to let customers have duplicate “private” and “work” copies of the identical apps. Many customers do not say if they’ve a piece profile or not.
The “January 2024 Google Play system replace” is not the standard OTA system replace however is a Project Mainline or APEX module. These take core system elements and wrap them up into simply distributable packaging the place they are often delivered by way of the Play Store, very like an app, however with far more permissions (solely Google could make Play system updates). Google posts launch notes for Play system updates, and there is nothing within the January 2024 replace that jumps out because the potential explanation for a storage entry drawback. You can test your present model on a Pixel telephone by going to Settings, Security & Privacy, then “System & updates.” At the underside, you may see a month and yr on your “Google Play system replace” stage. DO NOT faucet on this part as a result of that can deliver up the replace display screen.
Google’s “we’re trying into it” assertion would not give customers a lot steering on how they need to deal with this within the meantime. A very good first step, at any time, is to make sure you have backups of all of your essential telephone information. Obviously, avoiding the January 2024 Google Play system replace is really useful for now, however I do not assume there is a manner for customers to try this. Google Play system updates do not supply customers any controls, so that you’re largely hoping an automated replace would not brick your telephone. The excellent news is that the Google Play system usually fails to test for updates. They get put in on reboot, so attempt to not energy cycle your telephone. Disabling a piece profile and every other multi-user options seems like a good suggestion in case you can handle that. There are directions right here.