[ SOFTWARE ] Pixel phone restarts by itself
I’m an Android fan who’s owned every other Samsung Galaxy Note since they first came out but thought it was finally time for a change. I decided it was more economical to buy a handset outright rather than tie myself to a carrier, so after months of research, I got the Google Pixel 2 XL.
I set about learning the slightly different Android quirks of Oreo (version 8.0) and downloaded the two or three apps that I felt I needed. I noticed after two or three days that the phone had been spontaneously restarting without warning or reason while not in use. Fearing I had downloaded an incompatible app, I removed most of the apps on the phone, just keeping the bare bones and Sophos Mobile Security, that I installed based on your recommendation.
Much to my chagrin, this did nothing to alleviate the issue — if anything, it got worse. I keep the phone on my desk at work and sometimes see it restart three or four times in a row without having touched it for a few hours and with no apps running at all. According to online forums, I am not the only one having this problem, and Google has known about this issue for some months; however, they have not yet apparently been able to identify the root cause or apply a patch or fix.
I am now torn between putting up with the problem in the hope that Google comes up with an update that solves the issue or request a full refund and buy the newest Samsung Galaxy Note 8 instead! Any insight? [ STEVE DARK ]
Carmel Sealey replies: After Steve sent us the initial email, he decided to issue Google a bug report — like so many other users have done. Within days, a minor update was released, which, upon installing, appears to have solved the issue. His phone no longer reboots spontaneously and is otherwise performing very well. After doing a little digging online, there is some speculation that the problem could be down to the modem causing “kernel panic” when in LTE mode; however, this is yet to be officially confirmed by Google. One particular user has claimed the problem can be solved by switching to 3G only — by heading to ‘Settings > Network and Internet > Mobile Network’ and changing the preferred network type. Steve also notes that the Google forum on the issue remains active, so if you are also experiencing this problem and any recent software updates have done nothing to help, perhaps visit the forum yourself: tinyurl.com/tla73-pixel