Google begins seeding January 2024 Play System update to a wider audience

After a hiccup during its initial rollout, Google has resumed a wider release of the January 2024 Google Play system update for Pixel devices. This update is now broadly available, addressing a known issue, and promises improvements across core system functions.

The January 1, 2024 update first went live in mid-late January, however, as we reported, the update introduced a storage access issue for some users. This prompted a swift rollback of the update while a fix was developed. In fact, Google did share a manual fix that involved a couple of adb commands. But now, it appears the company has finally sorted out the root issue and is confident enough to release the update for the masses.

We’ve received the update on our Pixel 7a and the Pixel 8, both on the Android 14 QPR3 Beta 1 build. It weighs 80MB and brings the following fixes and improvements according to the release notes:

• [Phone] Updates to system management services that improve Device Connectivity, Network Usage, Security, Stability, and Updatability.
• [Phone] Bug fixes for System Management & Diagnostics related services.

You can check for the January Play System update manually on your Pixel phone by following these steps:

• Open your phone’s Settings app.
• Navigate to ‘Security & privacy.’
• Tap on ‘System & updates.’
• Select ‘Google Play system update.’
• If the update is available, follow the on-screen instructions. Once done, tap Restart.

Hopefully, this time around Google has done thorough testing to ensure no bugs make their way over to Pixel phones.