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.<p>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.<p>My least charitable view (and immediate reaction) is that they're purposely ruining a viable budget phone to make more sales.<p>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.<p>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 <i>automatic global market price</i> 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.<p>While I'm here, I did briefly write about my experiences with the 4a, though I'm far from a competent tech writer: <a href="https://callmeo.live/blog/ode-to-the-pixel-4a/" rel="nofollow">https://callmeo.live/blog/ode-to-the-pixel-4a/</a>
I'm (we all are) constantly reminded to update our phones to latest available updates, but sh*t like this is what teaches users to instead disable and ignore updates indefinitely, under the premise of "if it works don't touch it" (addendum: "... because most probably an update will break it")<p>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.<p>Sucks having to choose between a potentially (even likely, seeing the trend) broken device or an unsecured one. Pick your poison.
You can revert this if you unlock your bootloader:<p><a href="https://xdaforums.com/t/undo-the-january-2025-update-without-losing-data-unlocked-devices-only.4713980/" rel="nofollow">https://xdaforums.com/t/undo-the-january-2025-update-without...</a><p>(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.)<p>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:<p><a href="https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/sunfish/" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/sunfish/</a><p>Android 15 (LineageOS 22) was just released for it.
There's a nice video about this from Louis Rossmann [1] that talks about this in detail and tries to find some reasons for it, and he seems to suggest that the update was never about improving the battery life as in getting more usage per charge out of the battery, but improving it as in limiting the battery full charge capacity to minimize potential problems with it, because he (and others) assume that they identified bad batches and are trying to fix potential problems with them by limiting it.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xboo6sV-cJU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xboo6sV-cJU</a>
This destroyed my phone, and their appeasement process was terrible too. There was no way for me to find out whether there was a supported repair shop nearby, the $50 cash was apparently through a very dodgy company, and then $100 google store credit didn't disclose that it's "upon review within three weeks" until after you irrevocably chose the option.<p>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
I received the email from Google notifying me of this "battery performance update" for my Pixel 4A which actually <i>drains the battery faster</i>, so it left me scratching my head wondering what a "performance update" is for Google.<p>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.
I'm semi homeless and the forced Pixel 4a battery update made my phone unusable and I'm in a state of tears. What can I do? Reddit deleted my post (I am hoping it's not because of Google employees)<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>Thank you all.
I'm trying to figure out what the actual latest update is doing regarding the battery. I found an update to the kernel binary but it doesn't seem the source has been updated.<p>Can I submit a GPL request to Google to get the kernel source?<p><a href="https://github.com/bmaupin/pixel4a-battery-research">https://github.com/bmaupin/pixel4a-battery-research</a>
<i>Have the battery replaced for free at a walk-in center in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Singapore, or India or take advantage of a mail-in repair program (US-only).</i><p>Whatever else you think about Google, I think you'd agree that is a much better response than what Apple did.
I have a Google Pixel 4a and planned to use the phone until it physically no longer worked. I loved it, especially with its wired headphone jack and small size.<p>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.<p>I asked Google support on what will happen if I get a battery replacement and it's still draining fast. They won't answer.<p>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.<p>This is really frustrating to be ignored by Google after they essentially bricked a fully working device that I paid for.<p>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.<p>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.
Same problem here (a few hours of battery life and it's very slow to charge now). This update makes no sense at all, excepted if you want to force your users to buy a new phone.<p>For me, it should be a RED flag on the Pixel lineup and on the confidence in Google.<p>I filled <a href="https://www.stopobsolescence.org/" rel="nofollow">https://www.stopobsolescence.org/</a>.
The pixel 4a battery life saga was what made both me and my entire extended family never even consider buying a pixel phone again (and move to Samsung or iPhones).<p>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.
Best phone I've ever used. Still going great after 4 years. Don't know how long it will last. There doesn't seem to be anything available with similar form factor.
I wonder why these "forced updates till kaputt" do not fall under (malicious) property damage.
It is not just Google: My Amazon Kindle gets less and less responsive the last years without any noteworthy functional improvements. Same for the Firestick.
Does/will GrapheneOS ship this new firmware? My Pixel 4a needed a new battery. I ordered the kit from ifixit, but was worried about possibly breaking the screen during replacement and being without a phone. So I bought a used iPhone XS to try out Apple-land. My plan was to put GrapheneOS on the Pixel 4a and decide eventually if my next phone would be a new Pixel with GrapheneOS or a new iPhone.<p>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.
Speaking as a Pixel 4a customer with this update:
I received the update, and like everyone else, my phone battery started draining incredibly quickly. However, after getting the free battery replacement, my phone's battery has returned to draining as normal (and on the plus side, has somewhat renewed the life of this phone).
It's frustrating. My phone went from 100% to 0% in under an hour. I could not rely on it for a typical workday. Thankfully my job does not require my personal phone, and thankfully the update happened on the weekend. Imagine seeing this Monday morning before work. Who has time to fiddle with firmware? And who has time to set up a new phone in the middle of a workweek, especially if you're switching to a non-Pixel phone?<p>The small credit does not cover the cost of inconvenience.
Farewell to the last sensibly-sized Pixel phone. I have been forced to the 8a, which sadly feels far too heavy and breakable compared to the simple beauty of the 4a.
Am I the only one that had the immediate thought of "this seems intentional" when they read that they're offering the credit for a newer pixel?
Contrary to was is said in the article, the 50$/100$ compensation was announced shortly before the update. It is no compensation for the mess they caused.<p>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"
Sounds like the Lishen batteries might have a safety issue when charged fully. Not sure why else they would limit the charge on them. At least they're offering free replacement or cash payment.
My pixel 4a lasted about 3 hours before the update, now its about an hour. Even with the discount in the store, it was cheaper to get the pixel 8a and some cash from a local vendor. The ticket to get the reimbursement went surprisingly fast, still waiting on money though.<p>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!
My spouse had to buy a new phone because of this issue. Neither of us got any notification about the battery issue. Even if we did, what Google is offering here isn't great. We tried to get the battery replaced, but was told that the process could likely break the screen and jack up the cost to nearly the original purchase price. Sending the phone in for repair also isn't a good solution because she needs it for auth at work. What a mess.
<i>I'm semi homeless and Google's forced update on the Pixel 4a ruined it</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42871613</a>
HN headline is misleading - it reduces battery life for <i>some</i> 4a users, not all 4a users, and anybody that is affected (and they have a procedure to verify whether you're affected) can get a free battery replacement, fixing the problem, or alternatively, cash.
if this is due to that specific manufacturer having battery fires, i don't hate it as it seems like the battery replacement option is basically the same as a recall. completely different from a random bug causing it or an across-the-board EOL update. pixel longevity isn't great, but at least they're relatively easy to maintain and the device protection program is acceptable.
I was in the market and wanted to go for Pixel8 pro. This charade turned me completely anti-google and I'm not even considering it even though camera is the most important attribute of the phone for me.
Google destroyed the battery on the Fitbit Charge 5 with an update that apparently could not be rolled back or reset. Never admitted fault, never said what the issue was, and very little was offered to affected users. Vowed to never buy Google hardware again...<p><a href="https://www.androidcentral.com/wearables/fitbit-charge-5-battery-drain-and-black-screen-issues" rel="nofollow">https://www.androidcentral.com/wearables/fitbit-charge-5-bat...</a>
Google has finally pushed the source of the Pixel 4a battery update: <a href="https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+log/refs/heads/android-msm-sunfish-4.14-android13-qpr3" rel="nofollow">https://android.googlesource.com/kernel/msm/+log/refs/heads/...</a>
Note that Google has publicly announced that the software update would reduce the battery capacity of some devices, at the beginning of the month:<p>> For some devices (“Impacted Devices”), the software update reduces available battery capacity and impacts charging performance.<p><a href="https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861?hl=en&sjid=10565134194755877440-EU" rel="nofollow">https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/15701861?hl=en&...</a><p>More details in marcan's reverse engineering of the closed-source update: <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/113914172433692339" rel="nofollow">https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/113914172433692339</a>
Would grapheneos (<a href="https://grapheneos.org/" rel="nofollow">https://grapheneos.org/</a>) help with this? I am using a pixel 4a as a "house phone" so it is plugged in all the time but I wonder if I should upgrade.
My spouse and I have the same situation but strangely but my phone seems much better while my spouse's phone drains very quickly. We just took it in for a battery replacement at the Google store and should be picking it up soon.
Has there been a single Pixel with no boot loop, battery, reception, or otherwise some other major issue?<p>What is going on at the Pixel team??? They have probably single handedly cost Google millions of dollars
marcan@ took a look at this update here: <a href="https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/113914172433692339" rel="nofollow">https://social.treehouse.systems/@marcan/113914172433692339</a><p>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.<p>What I don't get is why Google just doesn't come out and say it.
I've had software bugs / issues with various Pixel phones (original, 4, 6, now 7) for years, and I'm unsure why I'm such a masochist.<p>Anyone else have this problem? Is it well known?
I'm typing this on a 3a XL that just refuses to die. Google's valuation of that device in the Store is the same, but they haven't switched it off. Guess I got lucky.
I've been running GraphiteOS on my Pixel 4a (it is a backup phone) and obviously it doesn't have the battery update but I can attest that it works great with it.
wow. i was actually considering getting a 4a as the lynchpin for my move back to Android (as no small Android phones exist anymore).<p>anyway, iPhone 13 Mini until it dissolves into dust.
Is it possible to decline this update on the UI of an internet-connected Pixel 4a?<p>Mine has already updated, and I'm wondering if I had a chance to say no.
After Google Pixel 3 Google went really anti consumer in so many fronts that switching out of it was a no brainer and while you can be tempted by the latest shiny, their level of contempt for their core customers just keeps surfacing. They're too big to care and will keep doing it until people vote with their wallets en masse, for a sufficient amount of time.
Another Pixel 4A user here. Still haven't installed the marvelous update. But it'll be installed the next time I reboot. No way to stop it.<p>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.<p>I've requested the $50, shall be paid out within 18 days they say.<p>So sad. I really like (soon liked, probably) my 4a.
I've updated a couple of weeks ago, but I already had a battery replaced last year, so I didn't notice anything untoward with the charge. I did however start to have a vertical green line on the screen that appears for a while, then disappears for a while. (it is possible the line is just a coincidence and an unrelated screen defect).
I'd be interested in acquiring a Pixel 4a from someone who doesn't want theirs anymore. I replaced the battery in my Pixel 2 myself - it was a bit of work but not too bad overall (it's probably not waterproof anymore, though). nathan@[hn username].com
See also: <a href="https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Performance_Program" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Pixel_4a_Battery_Perform...</a>
used to be a long time pixel user. I had a pixel 2, 3 and 4a.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
If it helps, I ran my 3a on Pixel Experience up until ~6 months ago, and it worked great. It's like having the exact same phone with extended upgrades.<p>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.
Are these not the old images? : <a href="https://developers.google.com/android/images#bramble" rel="nofollow">https://developers.google.com/android/images#bramble</a>
Has anyone gone through that firmware update and seen what changed? What exactly are they doing to improve battery performance/reliability?<p>I would guess just down clocking the CPU or something.
Stuff like this is part of why I stick with iPhone. The Pixel 4A stopped receiving security updates just 3 years after release, and rather than being direct about what battery changes were made and providing reasonable pathways for people to replace batteries, this happens.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.
For me this update stopped the sim card being recognized.<p>Phone was a few months old, having bought a new from HK when I went traveling.<p>Last decent sized pixel and it was so light.
I am surprised there are even any functioning 4a's left to begin with. Google intentionally designs major components of these phones to break within a year or two of normal use, like using extremely cheap NAND that fails commonly, bricking the phone.
Can we get some unrelated coverage going for Google's persistent failure to fix their "show trending searches" toggle!? It doesn't work even on newer devices; there's no way to turn off trending search suggestions and search history at the same time. I just want to search, I don't need to know who got killed in Florida or what Trump said. It's there in the settings, but it doesn't work.
In other news: <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/30/google-issues-voluntary-exit-program-for-android-chrome-and-pixel-employees/?guccounter=1" rel="nofollow">https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/30/google-issues-voluntary-ex...</a>