[Update: fixed] Google investigating Pixel 2 random power off/shut down issue

Update (December 21):

For those of you who continue to face the issue on their devices even after upgrading to Android 8.1 (which offered the fix), following is what Google suggests you to do, to get rid of the problem:

Update (December 09):

Google says Android 8.1 is the pill, as it carries the fix for the random reboots issue. Here’s whet Google employee Orrin’s recent post says:

The fix for this issue is in the Android 8.1 Oreo update that is currently rolling out via OTA

Update 3 (December 07):

Google has started rolling out Android 8.1 Oreo, which claims to fix the random reboots issue. Google employee Orrin took to the official Pixel User community to break the news. More info here

Update 2(November 29):

Google employee Orrin recently revealed that a fix has been identified, which the company plans to roll out in the weeks to come. Here’s what they said:

We want to let you all know that we’ve identified a fix which will be rolling out in the coming weeks

Update 1 (November 28):

The matter is being actively investigated. Google employee Orrin recently posted that

The team is aware and investigating, and I might still continue to reach out privately for more information

Original story below:

It seems to be a never-ending journey as far as bugs in Google’s flagship Pixel 2 devices are concerned, especially those that result in device crashing. While you may have heard about Pixel 2 rebooting while using third party apps, Android Auto, or watching YouTube videos in PIP mode, a new issue has now come to light.

Specifically, a significant number of Pixel 2 owners are complaining about random power losses or shut downs. It was back in October, when users started chiming about the problem by reporting different scenarios. And now if you take a look, complaints are spread across Google’s official forums, XDA, and even Reddit.

To give you a quick overview, most of those affected note that their unit turns off – not reboots – while they are on a call or using popular third-party apps like Twitter or Facebook.

https://twitter.com/GarvinCasimir/status/931547719117746178

Curiously, users say they observe black horizontal lines before the device shuts off. What’s interesting is that while in some cases it takes a long press on the power button to turn-on the device, others mention that the device turns on by itself but only after waiting for about 30-45 seconds – not sure if that qualifies as a reboot.

On the other hand, some reports even indicate that system updates might also have something to do with the shut down/reboot behavior.

A few users did some debugging/analysis and shared that this random shutdown/power off issue occurs whenever their unit experiences signal losses on an LTE or WiFi connection.

https://twitter.com/nimdae/status/922520752867471360

https://twitter.com/TheMavCast/status/926572855009140736

A couple of affected users confirmed that turning off LTE resolved the issue for them.

One user even used a third-party app to log details related to these random shutdowns on their Pixel 2 unit. Here’s the screenshot of logs they shared:

With multiple users reporting power losses on different help forums as well as Twitter, Google now appears to be alarmed. This morning Orrin (a Google employee and the Community Manager at Pixel User Community) addressed the complainants and asked for bug reports to investigate the matter further.

Thanks for posting your experiences here. I’m going to reach out for bug reports and some additional information

Nothing has been confirmed officially, but Google asking for bug reports is always a very strong indication that something is indeed broken. Meanwhile, we also stumbled upon a seemingly related issue being discussed/worked upon by Google on their issue tracking website.

Basically, the issue description says the Pixel 2 reboots while the user is on a call or even when device is lying idle.

We went through the whole thread, but could not find anything concrete. However, it’s worth sharing that there were a couple of interactions where company employees seemed to agree that the problem is already known as it’s related to an internal issue.

We are keeping a close watch on the matter in question, and will keep updating all relevant developments as and when they occur.

Pixel User Community 1 2 3 | Reddit | XDA | Google Issue Tracker

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur