Google has issued a fix for Pixel phones with Android 14 multi-user bug

Google’s November update should be coming very soon to Pixel phones, providing some relief for a critical bug affecting people with multiple user profiles on their devices. The update — spotted by 9to5Google — contains a fix for an issue “occasionally causing devices with multiple users enabled to show out of space or be in a reboot loop,” which was affecting Pixel 6 phones and later running Android 14. The update will start arriving on Pixel phones beginning today, with the rollout continuing through the next week.

This particular bug was a nasty one. In some cases, people were unable to access their media storage, while others were entirely shut out of their phones in a boot cycle that required a factory device reset. For people with the former problem, it seems that this update should restore access to the device’s media. The news is mixed for people with a phone stuck in a reboot cycle. An update last week mentioned that the fix Google was working on “may not enable data to be recovered for devices that are repeatedly rebooting.” You’ll be able to use your phone again, but hopefully you backed up your data!

The bug affected Pixel phones with multiple user profiles, which Google says includes child users, guests, and restricted profiles. It did not affect people running multiple Google accounts as the primary user on a device — which is good because my Pixel 8 review units are both logged into my work and personal Gmail accounts. As such, it doesn’t seem that the problem was widespread, but it was a real pain in the buns for those affected.

As of last week, Google advised anyone with a Pixel phone running Android 14 not to create or log into another user profile. With today’s update, that’s probably safe to do now — just, you know, back up your data before you do. Just in case.