Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL Users Are Complaining of Bricking Issue, Company Yet to Offer Fix

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL say their devices are booting in a recovery mode called Emergency Download (EDL) mode.

By Nithya P Nair | Updated: 6 September 2021 13:08 IST

Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL Users Are Complaining of Bricking Issue, Company Yet to Offer Fix

Google Pixel 3 (pictured) and Pixel 3 XL launched in October 2018

Highlights

Users say Pixel phones are bricking with no warning
Google is yet to acknowledge the issue
Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL are flagship phones of 2018

Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL users are complaining that their phones are bricking or becoming unresponsive out of nowhere. As per user reports on the company's support forums as well as Reddit, a growing number of Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL owners have had their devices bricked after a random shutdown. Their devices seem to be booting in a recovery mode called the Qualcomm "Emergency Download mode" (EDL) instead of Android that effectively renders their handsets useless.

Some Google Pixel 3 owners say that a total shutdown occurred after an overnight security update, while some say it came out of nowhere. Multiple affected users say that Google Support is not of any help to them since their phones are out of warranty.

The Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL were launched in October 2018 and many of the devices sold are either out of warranty or are about to lose support soon. Google has not acknowledged this to be a widespread issue yet and users are worried that they might have to pay for repairs or get a new device.

Responding to a similar case earlier this year, Google had extended the warranty of Pixel 4 XL in some regions to cover a few known issues that were causing the devices to shut down frequently for some users. Certain power-related issues, including problems with wired and wireless charging, faster-than-expected battery drain, random restarts, and unable to power on the phone were reported by users that led the company to extend warranties for another year. The repair programme is available for Google Pixel 4 XL purchased in the US, Singapore, Canada, Japan, and Taiwan.

Google Pixel 3 XL price in India starts from Rs 39,990 for the 4GB RAM + 64GB storage variant.

What is the best phone to buy right now? We discussed this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: Google Pixel 3, Google Pixel 3 XL, Emergency Download mode, Google, Pixel, Google Pixel 4 XL

Nithya P Nair

Email Nithya P Nair

Nithya P Nair is a journalist with more than five years of experience in digital journalism. She specialises in business and technology beats. A foodie at heart, Nithya loves exploring new places (read cuisines) and sneaking in Malayalam movie dialogues to spice up conversations. More