Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL Users Are Experiencing Random Shutdowns

 

Google’s Pixel 3a and 3a XL smartphones were received very well by the public upon release, thanks to a mid-range price tag and pretty good cameras. Unfortunately, a few users apparently did not have a good experience with their smartphones, if the numerous reports that started to pop up on Reddit recently are to be believed. 

Some users have started to report that both the Pixel 3a and the Pixel 3a XL have been randomly shutting down, hard reboots and all as well: some users stated that they had to hold the power button for up to 30 seconds to get it to power back up again after which they can use it as normal, until their device shuts down by itself again. 

Of course, the users started testing for problems, with some thinking that it was the fault of third-party apps but the devices still shut down, even when put in Safe Mode. Others blamed it on the Wi-Fi and, while this seemed to be the cause for a few users, they have so far proved to be specific, isolated cases.

“I haven’t had any issue with my phone while my gf also got the same phone and had hers randomly shut down for no reason.” One Redditor said “Her dad also got the 3a XL and that phone was buggy as hell until I rebooted it which fixed the issue. The only problem now is not being able to get the people & options even though I switch back to light mode.“

Another user contacted Google support and was subsequently advised to do a factory reset on their device, which, at the time the post was written, had proved to be a good solution. According to the user, their phone had not experienced any random shutdowns for about 15 hours. 

However, other users chose to exchange their phones while a few decided to return their devices for a refund altogether. 

For now, Google has not publicly acknowledged the problem so we don’t really know what the company’s plans are, if this is a more widespread issue than it seems or if only a limited number of units or a certain batch was affected. 

It’s worth noting that the Google Pixel 3 was full of bugs when it was released as well and that all of them were eventually fixed via a security update. If this has set up a precedent for the Pixel 3 devices, that remains to be seen.