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Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful

Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. 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/ https://callmeo.live/blog/ode-to-the-pixel-4a/

Suppafly 2y ago
>My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales. 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.
- Rastonbury 2y ago
  Google pixel software is horrendous, shocking honestly for a company with Google capabilities. Bought pixel 6 at launch, could not take calls after an update (the speaker would just emit a high pitch tone 15s after connecting, I had to ask people to call me using messaging apps for a while, lucky I did not rely on my phone for work) and wifi would switch off by itself randomly and needed to restart phone to get it working again. Had to update to beta build to get these fixed. For my model and others, it seems like every update or 2 there are populations that hit the forums with battery drain issues. I will never buy a pixel ever again.
kristopolous 2y ago
I am still on a 4a. 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
- silon42 2y ago
  Also the OS is copying Apple, making it worse.
  - brailsafe 2y ago
    Nah the OS is way better than iOS, unless you're joking about the update retroactively degrading the device.
- lynndotpy 2y ago
  I feel this a lot. Android's used to differentiate themselves from iPhones by having useful technical features at a competitive price. I used to be die-hard pro-Android, but now I can find very few reasons to buy one. 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 :(
  - homebrewer 2y ago
    This comment equates Android with Google phones for some reason. The complaints have nothing to do with Android — side loading is light years ahead of Apple (and third party application stores can finally automatically update applications). Call recording works fine on my friend's Xiaomi 14T (I think) that he bought just a couple of weeks ago, and it works fine on my own device that's on latest Lineage (Android 15). There's lots of choice in UI depending on which vendor you're going with; I'm fine with stock Lineage (i.e. stock Android). There's lots of choice price wise (even the homeless have smartphones these days), while the cheapest iPhone costs about two median monthly salaries here. Just don't buy anything from Google, they've always screwed something up.
chasil 2y ago
Unless your Pixel 4a is from Verizon (locked), keep it. 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: https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ [I did not remember that Lineage hosts gapps images] https://wiki.lineageos.org/gapps/ 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] https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/tag/v28.1 https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/tag/v28.1 https://magiskmanager.com/ https://magiskmanager.com/ https://github.com/VR-25/acc/releases/tag/v2023.10.16 https://github.com/VR-25/acc/releases/tag/v2023.10.16
- gruez 2y ago
  >Once you have Magisk stabilized, install the Advanced Charging Controller, and configure it to halt charging at 80%. 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.
  - chasil 2y ago
    Installing Lineage by itself will drastically reduce power consumption on many devices, as vendor bloat is wiped. A net gain is possible, even with ACC 80% in place. With a Pixel, there is less bloat, so it is less of a factor with this particular device. However, you don't get the full suite of Chrome/Maps/Gmail/Drive/Photos/etc. installed by default, and what you have not installed will not drain your battery. In any case, one would hope that Google's safeguards are equaled by ACC.
  - JudasGoat 2y ago
    My 4a went from 3 day battery life to less than a day, immediately after the "update".
    - 2y ago
KORraN 2y ago
Great comment, even though I'm concerned whether my Pixel is a ticking bomb now. The update has been downloaded to my device, but before installing it, I decided to check Reddit and found out the battery issues. Since then, I'm dismissing the update prompt, praying to not miss-click. 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 https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861 But the results people post are way beyond anyone expected.
- ChoGGi 2y ago
  The Dev options have a setting to not apply updates on reboot. I'm hoping that'll work if I forget.
  - OliveMate 2y ago
    I can say from experience that it doesn't. I get daily notifications & popups telling me that I'm X days out of date.
    - throw-the-towel 2y ago
      If you're rooted you can turn (most of) these off.
    - KORraN 2y ago
      Supposedly, I've removed downloaded update using instructions from https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Performance_Program#Restoring_battery_functionality https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Perform... - hopefully this will stop popups: >Users can delete an already downloaded (and not yet installed) update: Settings -> Apps -> All Apps -> Google Play Services -> Storage and cache -> Manage Space and from there on delete all data through the "Clear all data" button.
    - rjmorris 2y ago
      > I can say from experience that it doesn't. No, I don't think you can say that. If you're getting daily notifications about being out of date, then you clearly haven't gotten the update yet. There are two possibilities: (1) You have rebooted. In this case, the dev option must have worked, because you rebooted and didn't get the update, exactly what the dev option promised. (2) You haven't rebooted. In this case, the dev option doesn't apply, because it specifically refers to what happens after you reboot.
QuantumGood 2y ago
The repair places have been overwhelmed; I've had three apppoints to replace my wife's 4a battery that have been cancelled because they ran out of stock due to huge unexpected demand.
lupire 2y ago
There is no way Google is making software update plans based on the revenue opportunity for breaking phones that are already 2 years past end of life. 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.
- ikiris 2y ago
  Your incredulity is misplaced. They’ve admitted in depositions this is a basis for decision making like this.
mathstuf 2y ago
> At no point has Google came out and stated -why- they're pushing this update in the first place. 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.
computehyper 2y ago
Hello I'm not sure if you can help but I made a post on here as well as a topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613
schroeding 2y ago
I also own a 4a - the amount of hoops Google performed to explicitly prevent downgrades for (only) the 4a by removing all old Android images (and only for it) leads me to fear your charitable view is true. Only the tinyest sliver of customers would ever try to downgrade / reflash their phone, it IMO doesn't make sense to do this if they just want to increase sales a bit. And then again, why only for the 4a. 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.
1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago
"Either of these are terrible. At no point has Google came out and stated -why- they're pushing this update in the first place." 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.
- pxmpxm 2y ago
  > always update 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.
  - Gigachad 2y ago
    There have been quite a few real world examples of malware scanning the internet and just infecting every vulnerable device it can find. Though this mostly only affects things directly exposed like routers or servers.
hnburnsy 2y ago
>Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. 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-battery-fix-3519157/ https://www.androidauthority.com/fitbit-sense-versa-3-batter...
Gee101 2y ago
My Pixel 4a battery started swelling up recently. I assume it's a Note 7 problem they are trying to avoid. Google did pay me $50 for my phone which is not too bad.
kllrnohj 2y ago
> My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales. 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.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Apple did not “do this”. Apple ole didn’t ruin a perfectly good phone with an update. The throttling they did on phones with old batteries kept them from shutting off completely.
  - jpalawaga 2y ago
    They basically did the same thing, which is why there was a lawsuit. It's also why Google preemitively offered users free money--it was informed by the lawsuit against Apple for the same shit.
    - scarface_74 2y ago
      The purpose of the throttling was to keep the phone from shutting off when the battery was old. That feature is still in iOS.
pxoe 2y ago
If they were trying to "purposely ruin a viable budget phone", what about the rest of now obsolete and just as budget Pixels? (like 3a, 4a 5g, 5a, etc.)

Suppafly 2y ago

>My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales. 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.

Rastonbury 2y ago
Google pixel software is horrendous, shocking honestly for a company with Google capabilities. Bought pixel 6 at launch, could not take calls after an update (the speaker would just emit a high pitch tone 15s after connecting, I had to ask people to call me using messaging apps for a while, lucky I did not rely on my phone for work) and wifi would switch off by itself randomly and needed to restart phone to get it working again. Had to update to beta build to get these fixed. For my model and others, it seems like every update or 2 there are populations that hit the forums with battery drain issues. I will never buy a pixel ever again.

kristopolous 2y ago

I am still on a 4a. 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

silon42 2y ago
Also the OS is copying Apple, making it worse.
- brailsafe 2y ago
  Nah the OS is way better than iOS, unless you're joking about the update retroactively degrading the device.
lynndotpy 2y ago
I feel this a lot. Android's used to differentiate themselves from iPhones by having useful technical features at a competitive price. I used to be die-hard pro-Android, but now I can find very few reasons to buy one. 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 :(
- homebrewer 2y ago
  This comment equates Android with Google phones for some reason. The complaints have nothing to do with Android — side loading is light years ahead of Apple (and third party application stores can finally automatically update applications). Call recording works fine on my friend's Xiaomi 14T (I think) that he bought just a couple of weeks ago, and it works fine on my own device that's on latest Lineage (Android 15). There's lots of choice in UI depending on which vendor you're going with; I'm fine with stock Lineage (i.e. stock Android). There's lots of choice price wise (even the homeless have smartphones these days), while the cheapest iPhone costs about two median monthly salaries here. Just don't buy anything from Google, they've always screwed something up.

chasil 2y ago

Unless your Pixel 4a is from Verizon (locked), keep it. 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: https://lineageos.org/ https://lineageos.org/ [I did not remember that Lineage hosts gapps images] https://wiki.lineageos.org/gapps/ 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] https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/tag/v28.1 https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases/tag/v28.1 https://magiskmanager.com/ https://magiskmanager.com/ https://github.com/VR-25/acc/releases/tag/v2023.10.16 https://github.com/VR-25/acc/releases/tag/v2023.10.16

gruez 2y ago
>Once you have Magisk stabilized, install the Advanced Charging Controller, and configure it to halt charging at 80%. 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.
- chasil 2y ago
  Installing Lineage by itself will drastically reduce power consumption on many devices, as vendor bloat is wiped. A net gain is possible, even with ACC 80% in place. With a Pixel, there is less bloat, so it is less of a factor with this particular device. However, you don't get the full suite of Chrome/Maps/Gmail/Drive/Photos/etc. installed by default, and what you have not installed will not drain your battery. In any case, one would hope that Google's safeguards are equaled by ACC.
- JudasGoat 2y ago
  My 4a went from 3 day battery life to less than a day, immediately after the "update".
  - 2y ago

KORraN 2y ago

Great comment, even though I'm concerned whether my Pixel is a ticking bomb now. The update has been downloaded to my device, but before installing it, I decided to check Reddit and found out the battery issues. Since then, I'm dismissing the update prompt, praying to not miss-click. 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 https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861 But the results people post are way beyond anyone expected.

ChoGGi 2y ago
The Dev options have a setting to not apply updates on reboot. I'm hoping that'll work if I forget.
- OliveMate 2y ago
  I can say from experience that it doesn't. I get daily notifications & popups telling me that I'm X days out of date.
  - throw-the-towel 2y ago
    If you're rooted you can turn (most of) these off.
  - KORraN 2y ago
    Supposedly, I've removed downloaded update using instructions from https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Performance_Program#Restoring_battery_functionality https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Perform... - hopefully this will stop popups: >Users can delete an already downloaded (and not yet installed) update: Settings -> Apps -> All Apps -> Google Play Services -> Storage and cache -> Manage Space and from there on delete all data through the "Clear all data" button.
  - rjmorris 2y ago
    > I can say from experience that it doesn't. No, I don't think you can say that. If you're getting daily notifications about being out of date, then you clearly haven't gotten the update yet. There are two possibilities: (1) You have rebooted. In this case, the dev option must have worked, because you rebooted and didn't get the update, exactly what the dev option promised. (2) You haven't rebooted. In this case, the dev option doesn't apply, because it specifically refers to what happens after you reboot.

QuantumGood 2y ago

The repair places have been overwhelmed; I've had three apppoints to replace my wife's 4a battery that have been cancelled because they ran out of stock due to huge unexpected demand.

lupire 2y ago

There is no way Google is making software update plans based on the revenue opportunity for breaking phones that are already 2 years past end of life. 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.

ikiris 2y ago
Your incredulity is misplaced. They’ve admitted in depositions this is a basis for decision making like this.

mathstuf 2y ago

> At no point has Google came out and stated -why- they're pushing this update in the first place. 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.

computehyper 2y ago

Hello I'm not sure if you can help but I made a post on here as well as a topic: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613

schroeding 2y ago

I also own a 4a - the amount of hoops Google performed to explicitly prevent downgrades for (only) the 4a by removing all old Android images (and only for it) leads me to fear your charitable view is true. Only the tinyest sliver of customers would ever try to downgrade / reflash their phone, it IMO doesn't make sense to do this if they just want to increase sales a bit. And then again, why only for the 4a. 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.

1vuio0pswjnm7 2y ago

"Either of these are terrible. At no point has Google came out and stated -why- they're pushing this update in the first place." 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.

pxmpxm 2y ago
> always update 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.
- Gigachad 2y ago
  There have been quite a few real world examples of malware scanning the internet and just infecting every vulnerable device it can find. Though this mostly only affects things directly exposed like routers or servers.

hnburnsy 2y ago

>Hi, (soon to be ex) Pixel 4a user here. Regardless of why this update has happened, the way Google have went about this update is sketchy at best, and deceitful at worst. To be plain: this phone has been EOL for 1½ years now. This update has appeared out of the blue and specifically decimates the battery + charging capabilities. 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-battery-fix-3519157/ https://www.androidauthority.com/fitbit-sense-versa-3-batter...

Gee101 2y ago

My Pixel 4a battery started swelling up recently. I assume it's a Note 7 problem they are trying to avoid. Google did pay me $50 for my phone which is not too bad.

kllrnohj 2y ago

> My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales. 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.

scarface_74 2y ago
Apple did not “do this”. Apple ole didn’t ruin a perfectly good phone with an update. The throttling they did on phones with old batteries kept them from shutting off completely.
- jpalawaga 2y ago
  They basically did the same thing, which is why there was a lawsuit. It's also why Google preemitively offered users free money--it was informed by the lawsuit against Apple for the same shit.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    The purpose of the throttling was to keep the phone from shutting off when the battery was old. That feature is still in iOS.

pxoe 2y ago

If they were trying to "purposely ruin a viable budget phone", what about the rest of now obsolete and just as budget Pixels? (like 3a, 4a 5g, 5a, etc.)