Did Google halt the Pixel Android 14 update rollout? Here’s what we know

It’s nearly a month since Google released the stable Android 14 update for its Pixel line of devices. But fresh reports coming in suggest some Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 owners haven’t received the new OS up to date.

For the uninitiated, major software updates usually take anywhere between a few days and weeks to reach all eligible devices. Granted, every eligible Pixel phone should have the update by now. However, this isn’t the case with Google’s Android 14 update, which now appears to have been halted for a section of Pixel users.

The official Google Pixel community forum and subreddit are filled with reports from people who haven’t received the update to Android 14. The issue predominantly affects Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, Pixel 6a, Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro and Pixel 7a devices, which gives us a slight hint of what could be happening here.

According to some of those affected, they did receive a notification to upgrade to Android 14 on their Pixel phones. For one reason or the other, they didn’t update at the time. However, the update notification has now disappeared from the phone. Not even restarting or a factory reset brings it back, which suggests Google may have rolled back Android 14 update.

The fact that the issue seems to only affect Pixel 6 and newer devices may mean something. A couple of days ago, Google released an official statement about a storage bug affecting Pixel 6 and newer devices with multiple user profiles. The update to Android 14 triggered a bug that prevents users from accessing the media storage. In some cases, the issue reboots the device with a “Factory data reset” message. Accepting this message can result in loss of data that isn’t backed up. On the other hand, declining to factory reset results in a bootloop, with the phone displaying a “Pixel is starting” message.

Google did acknowledge and confirm that a fix for this issue is in progress. But no one said anything about halting the update to Android 14. Looking at the reports from various forums, though, it’s highly likely the storage bug is the potential reason some Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 devices are still missing the update to Android 14. And indeed, several product experts in the Pixel community forum agree, at least unofficially.

If indeed Google has stopped Android 14 rollout, it’s for damage control reasons. This way, they only get to deal with fewer cases of bricked Pixel 6 and Pixel 7 devices. There’s still no official word from Google, so this remains pure speculation.