Google Pixel 6 owners beware: Android 15 could brick your phone

The issue could be connected to the new Private Space feature

News By Jamie Richards published 21 October 2024

Android 15 appears to contain a bug that may brick certain Google Pixel 6 models, meaning owners may want to hold off on updating to the latest version of Google’s mobile operating system.

As Android Police reports, the catastrophic bug has caused some Pixel 6 handsets to become completely unresponsive unexpectedly, with no clear fix in sight.

Several threads in the Reddit community r/GooglePixel have noted issues after updating to Android 15, with user u/GegoByte reporting that their phone had failed after enabling the Private Space feature.

Private Space is a new feature in Android 15 that allows users to keep a selection of apps and files in a locked profile. It’s not yet clear why this would cause the phone to brick, but the feature is apparently somewhat resource intensive, requiring a phone with at least 6GB of RAM to function.

This latest bug is, regrettably, not the first bricking issue to affect the Pixel 6 lineup. In July, reports surfaced of Pixel 6 phones bricking after a factory reset, and last year Forbes reported that updating to Android 14 had cost some users access to their local files and caused boot-looping.

It’s also not the only issue Pixel users are reporting with Android 15 – PhoneArena reported problems with the back gesture on the Pixel 8 Pro.

Additionally, across several models the Android 15 update rendered the Instagram app unusable (though there is a fix on the way).

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