Google is aware Pixel 3s are bricking, but has “nothing to add”

Google has confirmed it is aware of an issue causing Pixel 3 and Pixel 3XL smartphones to brick, but said it has “nothing else to share” for now.

For those lucky enough not to know what bricking means, it essentially means your device has stopped working and can no longer function, thus turning it into a brick.

Pixel 3 owners might be overly familiar with this term, as a growing number of Pixel 3 and 3 XL users are reporting that their phones are suddenly bricking for no reason, as reported by Ars Technica.

Reports of bricking phones were also popping up on Google’s Issue Tracker and Support Forums, with some users speculating that an overnight security update caused the issue.

Some Reddit threads have also bought up the issue, with multiple users claiming the same problem, as well as some people saying that their Pixel 3 has been running slower lately.

A lot of people also said that after the phone becomes completely unresponsive, the phones won’t boot into Android and instead show a Qualcomm recovery mode called Emergency Download (EDL) mode.

Once in EDL, the phone is completely useless, and since it can’t be booted up into Android users can’t submit Android-generated bug reports that collect data on the phone.

It’s not clear why this is happening and despite some users suggesting it’s an overnight update issue, there has been no conclusive reason reported, as well as no solution for how to fix the issue past replacing the bricked phones.

We reached out to Google for a comment and were told by a spokesperson the firm is aware of the problem, but has nothing else to add for now. We’ll update this article when we learn more. The review unit we have in our labs also booted up fine when we attempted to replicate the issue being reported.

With no further comment from Google, it seems that users may need to pay for repairs or a replacement phone, as many Pixel 3 phones will likely be out of warranty or close to losing their coverage.