My most charitable view is that Google have found a major fault with the Pixel 4a battery and want to mitigate a repeat of the Galaxy Note 7 without saying it outright and causing a panic.
My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales.
Either of these are terrible. At no point has Google came out and stated -why- they're pushing this update in the first place. And as someone who hasn't updated I'd really like to know if my phone presents an immediate threat (and I'm sure Governments and airlines would also like to know) before I remotely consider an update that'll practically destroy my device.
On top of this, within a day of being notified about this update, Google drastically raised the price of new Pixels on their store. Again if I'm charitable it could just be automatic global market price updates, but that goes out the window when Google must have prepared this update, FAQs, support plans, etc, then released it just before said price updates. The $100 discount recourse doesn't go far when the 8a jumped from £379 to £499. It's hard not to feel suspicious about it.
While I'm here, I did briefly write about my experiences with the 4a, though I'm far from a competent tech writer: https://callmeo.live/blog/ode-to-the-pixel-4a/
Unlock the bootloader, then install LineageOS, MindTheGapps, and Magisk.
Once you have Magisk stabilized, install the Advanced Charging Controller, and configure it to halt charging at 80%.
That should solve your problems, and turn the updates back on. I don't think there is a way to make Google Pay work in this configuration, which is a drawback.
I can put all the URLs here if you ask.
Edit:
[I did not remember that Lineage hosts gapps images]
https://wiki.lineageos.org/gapps/
[IIRC, the APK is renamed to a ZIP and flashed with recovery, then name it back and install the app]
qcom,max-voltage-uv = <0x43e6d0>;
As for charge limiting... limit at 80% is an okay workaround (certainly better than no limit at all!), but it's far from perfect. Namely, with this approach, charge controller chip doesn't know cut-off is coming, and will shove several amperes into the battery until last second, thus overshooting safe voltage level. This wears the battery (less so than with no limit, but still more than necessary).
Battery charging limiting should be done by voltage: this way, controller chip knows where to stop, so it makes soft taper-off at the end of charge cycle, by gradually nudging current down to stay within voltage envelope.
Charging profile could be observed from a rooted adb console:
grep NOW <$(find /sys/devices/platform \
| grep battery/uevent$ | head -1)
That will reduce future wear, but won't suddenly make the battery better. If anything it'll make the battery even worse, at least in the short term.
> https://magiskmanager.com/
[0]: https://www.xda-developers.com/psa-magiskmanager-com-not-off...
I'm not who you replied to but can you please do? I've been wanting to make a LineageOS device for a while but was being cheap (and it wasn't high enough priority). But maybe now there will be a lot of cheap Pixel 4a on eBay in the near future and I'll go for it.
Unless you have researched this and are comfortable doing these things, this is not something that's easy to do. I bricked my OnePlus Nord100 not once, but TWICE trying to install Ubuntu Touch.
It happened because the Nord100 shipped with a more current Android version (11.xx) and Ubuntu can only be installed over two very specific versions (10.xx) on the Nord. I bricked it once thinking it could be installed over the 11 version. Then I had to figure out how to reflash the phone back to the 10 version, then run the UBports installer.
I was lucky because I bought the Nord100 for like $50 on ebay so it wasn't a big deal if I wasn't able to unbrick the phone, but if you do this to a more expensive phone, the consequences are a lot more expensive.
I love Lineage OS and have it running on a Pixel 4XL, but my experience flashing and re-flashing the phone several times, and all the work I went into just to get UT running on that phone, really dampened my enthusiasm to ever do this again.
They’re not offering the free battery replacement in Aus otherwise I’d do that - hard to be sure that getting a new battery in a local repair shop wouldn’t be similarly affected by the new limits (presumably some sort of blacklist on serial numbers?).
If we install LineageOS, should we worry about Google's firmware update? Then why bother with all these steps?
As I can still remember the days of software before "updates", I am still baffled by the always unsolicited "advice" amounting to "always update" without even considering what's in an "update". This "advice" is everywhere. Software quality control is at all-time lows I guess. Then came "automatic updates", decreasing the chance of computer user discretion even more, effectively removing user choice, i.e., case-by-case decision-making.
Perhaps some computer users, the rare ones who do not routinely follow unsolicited "advice" blindly, might respond to the question of updating with something like, "What choice do I have?" That there is no meaningful choice, or perception thereof, in deciding whether to install an "update" is not a coincidence, methinks.
Maybe updating is a gamble. There are winners and losers. On several occasions, I have won by not updating, i.e., blindly installing more code from so-called "tech" company without being to peruse the code. Other times I have gotten lost by updating. It seems that quite often the "updates" include code that serves me no benefit and in fact reduces the computer's utility to me. Meanwhile, it might increase utility for others or for the so-called "tech" company that collects data and sells ad services. One size does not fit all. Sometimes the losses can outweigh the gains, if any.
Hopefully there is a lawsuit filed over this Pixel 4a "update". Through discovery we may be able to learn what happened.
There's seems to be an army of aspiring CVE bros cargo-culting this idiocy; they pretend to live in a parallel universe where state-sponsored intelligence groups are spending millions to get at the cat photos on their phones.
Obviously the premise that you should just blindly update a device where you have no recourse if the update breaks workflow/functionality/user experience (android, ios) or tries to monetize the hardware you actually own (msft) is prima facie stupid.
The cynic in me recommends that anyone contributing to Google (or really any big tech company) projects to use "bug fixes and performance improvements" or "What's new:" (with an empty body) as commit messages and refuse to update them until we get useful changelogs for app updates.
My wife was using a pixel 4 until last year and upgraded to a 7, I took her old phone and switched it over to my info and used it for like 2 days before it got a random update and refused to ever work again. Her 7 just got an update a couple of days ago and the battery went dead and it refused to boot until it'd been plugged in for an hour and then would only boot into recovery mode before finally returning to normal. I think google just has something really screwed up with their update process.
The article got it wrong - even before the update has been published, Google already sent e-mail to registered users with a note that the upcoming update may reduce battery life and offered either battery replacement or money: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861 But the results people post are way beyond anyone expected.
They don't have the culture or the integration to properly support old devices the way Apple can. Everyone vilified Apple for CPU governers that extended device life by underclocking instead of browning out... this is the kind of behavior that would have deserved the backlash they got.
But the bar is so low with Google and Android devices in general that the outrage will be limited.
Given the legal & regulatory trouble Apple got in and is currently in depending on jurisdiction for doing this, it seems highly unlikely Google would have picked now to attempt the same thing. Especially since it's literally a single device, and even the sibling 4a 5g didn't get the same treatment.
The silence is inexcusable, though.
I really hate how in subsequent generations, they faithfully cloned Apple's design decisions of removing ports and making the device gigantic.
"For customers who are dissatisfied with iphones,
Our product is a slightly different iphone-like device."
I mean come on now, what the hell...
About twice a decade google makes a good phone and the others are just iphone knockoffs
Now the Android UI is sparse and wobbly, Androids lost call recording, sideloading is limited, and they raised their prices to cost as much as iPhones.
Meanwhile, iPhones got call recording, they opened up NFC (a bit) and they support CalDAV and CardDAV and SMB natively in its built-in apps. The "control center" on iOS is customizable, to the point they do what Android's quick tiles did before 2020 or so.
It's very frustrating-- I wish they still made Androids like they used to :(
They used to have a really good human factors/ui team. I remember Bruce Tognazzini and reading his blog.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Tognazzini
I think I noticed around ios 7 things were getting bad. buttons didn't look like buttons, on-screen controls started being hidden, and form trumped function. Then like you said, ports disappeared and to me "do the wrong thing correctly" started winning.
but the worst thing is that apple sets an example. The same "simplify for sales, but not usability" technique has happened to countless other products in many industries. all laptops have elegant looking keys that have no curve to fit and center your fingers. Tesla cars have a pleasing-looking design, but when you drive them, you can't lean on the touchscreen to hit targets, you don't have drive selection or turn signal stalks to help you get into a parking space easily, and "elegant simplicity" is "cost cutting for the peons".
sigh.
Which, should it be true, would make the lack of explanation from Google horrible and asinine. If (and this is a big if, it's all speculation, because Google doesn't open their mouth) there is a hardware fault with the battery, I would very much like to know outright as a customer, no matter the PR damage for Google.
See the Fitbit Charge 5 issue from 2023 and it just happened again with the Sense and Versa...
https://www.androidauthority.com/fitbit-sense-versa-3-batter...
The numbers just don't make sense.
Users who love 5-year-old phones can easily get a cheap used phone, which are in abundant supply.
And here I am, ignoring updates on my Pixel 6a since October 2024 (there were reports of crashes or bricking, what a surprise) and planning to keep doing that for the foreseeable future.
Sucks having to choose between a potentially (even likely, seeing the trend) broken device or an unsecured one. Pick your poison.
We have immensely powerful version control and branching at developers' disposal, much better than at any past time I can think of. Yet, most companies insist on having a single release that increments, and users must take everything or nothing whenever they update.
Phone/OS manufacturers are actually better than most, and both major operating systems do provide security updates in parallel with major (feature) updates, but only for a very short amount of time.
Thankfully, I was able to get into the settings and switch to Lawnchair without a working "desktop UI", but without a second application launcher I would have been totally screwed. I checked the Play Store afterwards and saw hundreds of people with the same issue.
On Linux I can choose which "security" updates to install, and only install those. Why can't Windows and Android provide such a feature?
Windows does.
Android "can't" because the OS is a partition image with libraries not intended to be updated piecemeal, not a collection of loosely related external projects like Linux is.
I had that happen like a year ago while I was getting ready to go to a concert in another state. Luckily I was able to call my wife have her login to my gmail and forward my digital tickets to someone else in my party.
It is also why it is so difficult to recommend an android phone because of google being an advert company first.
They shuffle the UI around, or put in more ads, or recently- add some new AI feature. Genuinely can't remember the last OS or App update I've been happy about.
Makes me sad to think of all the developers working long hours just to make their users upset.
Unfortunately, that is exactly how Google rewards performance internally
My advice is to buy phones from reputable manufacturers. I have had an iPhone for over 10 years and I have been very happy. The work well, last, and the performance is always good. My current goal is to keep my current phone 7 years. I will update it when Apple stops supplying updates.
You mean those slowing down your phone on updates [0] and not providing critical security updates in time [1] while not allowing existing more secure alternative browsers [2]?
The true alternative is phones running mainline Linux. Sent from my Librem 5.
[0] https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936268845/apple-agrees-to-pay...
https://xdaforums.com/t/undo-the-january-2025-update-without...
(EDIT: Just to be clear, and which is also mentioned in that post: unlocking the bootloader will reset the device. If your device is already unlocked though, you will be able to keep the data.)
Of course, I would just advise to switch to LineageOS directly, since Google has stopped providing security updates for the Pixel 4a already in August 2023. I've run LineageOS for years on the Pixel 4a and it has worked pretty much perfectly for me:
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/sunfish/
Android 15 (LineageOS 22) was just released for it.
Videos, on the other hand...
The whole thing is ridiculous and poorly handled. Sadly, if my phone had just cracked or failed to turn on, I'd probably have upgraded happily and moved on with my life. As it is, now I feel like something was taken from me. So it goes
https://images.ctfassets.net/d9ybqgejqp0w/7hP2z3Oyn8xH4TvFJt...
You can schedule an appointment here:
A retired coworker got a 4a off eBay two years ago, and it's eligible for a free battery replacement.
I still think Google’s Android UI is the best one out there for me, and I despise a lot in the iPhone UX (such as the keyboard) but I just need a phone that works and I can get repaired or replaced easily if I need to. At least in Finland, Google’s customer service has been abysmal over the years.
After the update, my battery was depleted at an alarming rate. I applied for the $100 voucher but I've never heard back from Google. So I decided to bite the bullet and moved to iPhone instead. Apple might not be the best, but this was the last straw for me.
But yeah, I was planning to go for a Pixel 9 or 9a (when that's been out for a while), but this forcing of the hand by google is absolute BS, and the alternatives are unsatisfactory.
I don't want to get too long into what happened in my life, but I had a Pixel 4a and everything was running great. Even when I was on the streets homeless I was able to charge it. I'm still struggling in and out, and apparently there was an update that came automatically to my phone. I checked and talked to live support in the library and they said it was just a battery update and it will last a bit less. That wasn't a big deal I thought but now the update came and my battery went from many hours to maybe half an hour now and doesn't charge at all or very slowly. I have interviews and some other small jobs that I have to do and just hard life right now and I do not have any money for this. I am a bit emotional so I asked while tearing up to Google support why they did this and I can't afford this my life is in shambles but they didn't help me. Even with the battery replacement I do not live near any local shops and mailing it in would not be possible for my situation. I bought this phone when my life was good and I only like this one and want to use this one.
All my stuff is on here and I don't know too much about phones so I just want this to work. I don't have money to fix this. I feel like the phone will die any second. What can be done? I didn't know they would do this. My life just keeps getting worse... I always feared my phone getting stolen on the streets but never thought Google would steal my phone.
What can I do? I don't have much minutes or data and can't afford it, is there a number I can call Google directly? I don't want to play with the phone and do anything weird my life is on it and can't back it up.
Thank you all.
When you got enough money, buy a phone. Not Google's one obviously. And transfer everything from the pixel to the new.
Keep the pixel for the incoming lawsuit.
Can I submit a GPL request to Google to get the kernel source?
https://fosstodon.org/@marcan@treehouse.systems/113914172891...
It's possible the changes you're looking for are already listed on one of these repos: https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/sunfish-sepol... https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/sunfish-kerne... https://android.googlesource.com/device/google/sunfish/
(sunfish is the codename for the Pixel 4a)
But apparently sunfish-kernel only contains binaries.
Given there's an update to Image.lz4, that seems there's an update to the kernel. I also compared the binary to the previous version and found some new strings possibly related to battery charging profile.
Next I checked out the source using Google's documentation but the latest commit is here: https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+/refs/heads/and...
But maybe I'm looking in the wrong place.
[1] https://android.googlesource.com/platform/frameworks/base/+/...
I do have an idea about what it's checking to determine if a battery is affected, but I don't have enough data yet to know if it's just a coincidence.
Whatever else you think about Google, I think you'd agree that is a much better response than what Apple did.
She bought an iPhone.
Unfortunately, the 5G variation doesn't appear to be part of this program.
Out of luck, that’s what.
2) Request a $100 Google Store credit that you can put toward the purchase of another Pixel phone or other hardware.
3) Request a $50 cash payment.Then they announced a $29 battery replacement program for phones that were affected by this battery issue. https://www.pcmag.com/news/report-apple-is-refusing-to-repla...
It has worked for 3+ years and held a charge for 2-3 days easily until the other week when they pushed the battery patch. Now it dies in a few hours with light usage.
I asked Google support on what will happen if I get a battery replacement and it's still draining fast. They won't answer.
Google reps at a repair center said a battery replacement is unlikely to fix the drain issue since the drain behavior is attached to an OS update you can't opt out of.
This is really frustrating to be ignored by Google after they essentially bricked a fully working device that I paid for.
This is a type of move where I'm tempted to de-Google myself over this, including deleting my YouTube channel with 20k subs that I've been regularly posting to for almost a decade.
My whole business (selling courses and contract work) depends on SEO from Google and YouTube and I'm close to saying fuck it and destroying all of that out of principle on how poorly they are treating folks over this issue. I haven't made that decision yet but it's close to be honest. Close enough that I'm openly posting this message.
For me, it should be a RED flag on the Pixel lineup and on the confidence in Google.
I filled https://www.stopobsolescence.org/.
Decent summary post here: https://www.lambdalatitudinarians.org/techblog/2025/01/09/th...
There was some news at the time that the 4a would be getting a 'battery performance update' and that it would result in some users getting a warning about their battery performing poorly and some would be eligible for $50 or a repair.
When I eventually got around to prepping the phone for the kid, lo and behold, the update was ready, I did it, and the battery was bad, and it linked me to the battery performance campaign page...
Which needed the IMEI, then said I could get $50, a $100 coupon or bring it in for repair, and there was a shop reasonably near me. I brought it in and they swapped the battery in about 2 hours with no extra drama.
I don't know why you would throw your phone out from this update... Although I wouldn't be surprised if you had already thrown it out because the battery performance was an issue before the update too.
Google denied the issues existed forever, then shipped a fix that somehow made them even worse, and made the phone unusable for years. I hope we were not the only ones.
The Moto was half the price of the 4a and is still receiving updates.
Since then this whole debacle has unfolded. GrapheneOS's installation instructions say that it updates the phone's firmware to the latest early in the installation process. GrapheneOS's releases page has a "2025012701" release for Pixel 4a. But the release notes don't have any mention of Pixel 4a since version 2023100300. I'm trying to figure out if GrapheneOS has actually updated their Pixel 4a image since then, and whether it would install the battery breaking firmware.
The problem is, the Pixel 4a is not designed to have the battery be swapped and it's common to break screens and other parts of the phone in the process. You can look up what's involved and it's no surprise that this is the case.
It's basically a nice little case of hardware and software anti-consumer policies working together to break people's devices and force them to consume more.
Without legislation nothing will change.
The small credit does not cover the cost of inconvenience.
* Send from my now charging 4a
I still have not restarted my phone since the update. But my wife has and her phone does not hold charge for a day, compared to 48h before the update. Battery percentage gone completely unreliable. She's only doing slow charges since then in an attempt to have battery management chip somehow recover. Hard to see what they tried to "fix"
Yesterday I got my new 8a, installed grapheneos and it works very well! So far no massive issues. When I tried this on the 4a some years ago, netflix complained about general certificate stuff and casting was broken, microG et al was barely holding on. Now, no problems at all!
Lol, I opt out on every new pixel phone
https://www.androidcentral.com/wearables/fitbit-charge-5-bat...
> For some devices (“Impacted Devices”), the software update reduces available battery capacity and impacts charging performance.
https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861?hl=en&...
More details in marcan's reverse engineering of the closed-source update: https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/113914172433692339
Where do I find this info on my phone?
adb shell cat /sys/class/power_supply/battery/serial_number
This happened in a few stages:
Rollout of the new release (Jan 8 or so; I got it maybe Jan 16?)
Folks showed you could get the old update (I don't recall specifics) and block the OTA URLs (developer settings I think?) to prevent re-update.
Google decided to make it harder to get the old firmware.
I couldn't be arsed to wipe my phone, so am just living with the new shitty future for now.
What is going on at the Pixel team??? They have probably single handedly cost Google millions of dollars
It seems like it limits max charge voltage on one exact model of the battery to much lower limit. I bet there's a reason for it and reverting the change most likely isn't the smartest for safety.
What I don't get is why Google just doesn't come out and say it.
Anyone else have this problem? Is it well known?
anyway, iPhone 13 Mini until it dissolves into dust.
Mine has already updated, and I'm wondering if I had a chance to say no.
I have never had any battery issues. Now Google wants to effectively brick my beloved phone? And giving me $50 for the trouble. What. The. F. is going on.
I've requested the $50, shall be paid out within 18 days they say.
So sad. I really like (soon liked, probably) my 4a.
1. first one suddenly started bootlooping out of nowhere 2. second one's battery suddenly expanded out of nowhere and couldn't hold a charge more than 10 min 3. thrid one's battery started failing and woudln't turn on unless I plugged it into an external battery bank.
Sll 3 times while I was abroad and they are almost IMPOSSIBLE to get repaired. they use all csutom parts so none of teh repair shops were famiilar with them. google wouldn't do a thing till I came back to the united states to get the repairs done.
After 3 of these pieces of shit, I switched to an iphone. It just works. I've had zero issues with it and at least apple care won't force me to buy a ticket back to the states just to replace it.
I gave it away to someone who needed it more and upgraded to an 8a. My mission with this phone is to use it for 10 years.
https://web.archive.org/web/20231113025141if_/https://dl.goo...
I would guess just down clocking the CPU or something.
Apple does stupid and shady stuff too, it is certainly not perfect, but Google has always had a cultural attitude permeating their organization since the beginning that wanted to avoid doing any sort of real customer support, and preferenced boxing customers into something kafkaesque over doing the right thing.
For all the dumb shit Apple has done, I can walk into any Apple Store and talk to a person and get my problem resolved for a nominal fee (if any), their devices get 5+ years of security updates (usually closer to 7 years) and I upgrade before that ends anyway for other reasons (typically about every 4-5 years), in the interim my device "just works". I've effectively never had a problem with an Apple device since I've switched. I was an early adopter of Android, made my own customer ROMs and shared them on XDA Developers Forum, and otherwise was big on Android, but it became really clear to me very quickly that the app ecosystem is a mess (security and otherwise), the core OS has huge privacy and functional design issues, and Google as a steward and a first-party handset manufacturer is not the company you want to do business with.
This really sucks for everyone impacted, and I understand why many many people (including my wife) choose to stay on Android, but you should really give some thought to this. What do you /actually/ do every day with your phone, and what would better serve you? As someone who wants to spend as little time on my phone as possible, and I use it as a tool, that needs to actually work when I need it, and I travel often, iPhone is clearly a more reliable choice.
Phone was a few months old, having bought a new from HK when I went traveling.
Last decent sized pixel and it was so light.
I posted about it and they suggested that I keep a backup phone available at all times, thanks folks.
I only just found out a month ago that the Android update caused its performance to tank, then put LineageOS on it, and was shocked to find that 13-year-old tablet was not only still usable but actually kinda good.