Reports of Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL devices dying early deaths have been circulating for around a year. However, Google now appears to actually be doing something about it, as per multiple reports on Reddit.
Google’s ‘Advanced Hardware Support Team’ has likely been contacting some users (via: PiunikaWeb) that had earlier fruitlessly complained about their Google Pixel 3 series device getting bricked because of getting locked into EDL mode, saying that they are offering a replacement.
“A few days ago I received an email from the Advanced Hardware Support Team saying they wanted to offer me a replacement because they were needing to look at some of these devices. I quickly shipped out my bricked 3XL and they’re supposed to be sending me a replacement device, unsure what model it will be yet,” says one user.
The move is surprising considering Google Support was previously unhelpful for such cases due to expired warranties on most affected devices. It is unclear at the moment as to what model is being offered as a replacement, although most believe that it will be a refurbished Pixel 3 or 3 XL, judging from support’s usual behavior.
The reports from users being offered replacements are few at the moment, but we should hopefully be seeing more of it happening. After all, the problem seems to be occurring randomly, likely due to some hardware fault, with the users having nothing to do with it.
For the uninitiated, the Google Pixel 3 series EDL bricking issue is a fairly widespread one with reports about it still piling up on Google’s Issue Tracker, support forums, and Reddit for a year or so. All the affected say the same thing – their Pixel 3/3 XL shut down one fine day for no good reason and failed to ever power on again. Attempting to boot up the device results in it going into the Qualcomm recovery mode called ‘Emergency Download (EDL).’ The usual tricks to flash a fresh Android ROM are unhelpful because the bricked device stays put in the EDL mode and refuses to go into the regular fastboot mode.
Google had recently confirmed that it indeed is aware of the problem but said that it had “nothing to add” at the time. However, the California-based company now seems compelled to do something about the issue, probably because mishandling of the Pixel 3 series fiasco can translate to bad publicity, which can potentially impact Pixel 6 sales. Although, we hope that it is nothing but good intentions.
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