Google Pixel & Fold Alert: Will New Android 14 Update Brick Your Phone?

The term ‘bricking’ in cybersecurity usually refers to malware that has damaged the smartphone’s operating system. However, what if the operating system has corrupted itself, and you become the threat actor without realizing it? In the last 24 hours there have been widespread warnings on the internet that updating a Google Pixel or Fold smartphone to the latest Android 14 version will result in the device being accidentally bricked. Is this true?

What Exactly Are Google Pixel & Fold Users Being Warned About?

The warnings that have appeared online relate to the newly released Android 14 Quarterly Platform Release 3 Beta 2 version of the smartphone operating system. The QPR releases are a regular entry in the diary, as the name suggests, dropping every quarter with important functional updates for Android users. Following the release of Android 14 QPR3 Beta 2, developers and journalists alike discovered that installation was causing Google Pixel and Fold smartphones to lock at the Google logo appearing stage, effectively bricking the device. For example, at 9to5Google it was found that “three devices, including the Pixel 8 Pro and Fold” were bricked after the update.

As with all such reports, the devil is in the details. Unfortunately, as with much internet chatter, that detail often gets lost along the way once the original reporting is published. That appears to be the case with this alert.

Is It True That The Next Android 14 Update Will Brick Your Google Pixel Or Fold?

No, it’s fake news. How so, when so many respectable publications are carrying the story? Simple, they are not. What they are reporting is that a very specific Beta version of the QPR3 Android 14 release is causing issues under very specific circumstances.

The next Android 14 QPR release, slated for March 11, is QPR2 not QPR3. There are no reports that this is bricking anything.

That an early QPR3 Beta is causing problems should come as no great surprise to any who has Beta-tested software; it’s what the testing process is there to reveal before the final release is rolled out to the general public. But wait, it gets even sillier that people are spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt about this Android 14 update: it only applies to users of specific models of smartphones (Pixel and Fold) and then only if the Beta is installed in a particular way. If you install it the approved way using the over-the-air update, then there appears to be no issue. If you sideload it, however, that’s when the bricking party begins, and only then.

I would expect any such bugs to have been ironed out by the time the release version of Android 14 QPR3 drops in June. So, don’t panic and carry on updating.

I have reached out to Google for more information regarding this issue and will update this article if any is forthcoming.