More Pixel 2 Owners Report Fatal Error With Camera After Android Pie Update

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It appears the Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error, which first surfaced last year after the handset’s launch, is still haunting users. If the latest reports are to be believed, the number of error reports has increased since the Android Pie update.

What’s happening with the Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error?

The Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error has troubled some Pixel 2 users since the launch of the second-generation Pixel handsets last year. The error results in the phone’s camera becoming unusable. When they try to open the camera app, affected users get an error message saying, “The camera device encountered a fatal error.”

At the time, Google initiated an investigation into the issue and asked users for their bug reports. However, there were no developments on the issue until earlier this year, when reports suggested Google was offering replacements to affected users. Google’s decision to offer replacements suggests it has no fix for the issue or that it could be a hardware fault.

In the meantime, new affected users continues to report the Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error. Google officially acknowledged the issue in July via a tweet, saying it was aware of the issue and was looking into it. However, there has been no update from Google since then — even as more users continue to join existing threads to complain about the error.

In the meantime, Google has continued to replace affected handsets. The support team also offered workarounds, but in most cases, the error persists. And if a recent update from tech site Piunikaweb is to be believed, the number of users facing the Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error has increased since the Android Pie update.

“Ever since the update to Android Pie on my Pixel 2 XL, I have been having intermittent camera failures… The camera was perfectly fine in Android Oreo. Google is supposedly aware of this issue but has nothing to address it yet,” one user complained.

There are many more complaints like this, in which users blame the Android Pie update for the fatal camera error. Such users want to downgrade to Oreo again.

Workarounds that may or may not work for you

As of now, there is no official confirmation on what is causing the Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error or if it is a software glitch or a problem with the hardware. However, users have come up with their own theories. Some report that they experience the issue more when the cellular network in their area is weak.

Such users also came up with a temporary fix due to the connection between the cellular network and the camera app. The fix is to set the phone on airplane mode and then take the photo. Such a fix worked for some, but not for all, suggesting the issue is not just related to the cellular connectivity.

Another suggested workaround involves clearing the camera app’s cache and then launching the device in safe mode. This fix helps identify if the issue is with any third-party app.

Users have suggested other workarounds as well, but they are kind of odd. One user, who claims this method worked 100% of the time, says that when the camera throws up the fatal error “close it, and rotate the phone. While rotated, launch the camera app.”

The camera is undoubtedly the best feature of the Pixel phones, but if it starts to trouble you, there is no point in holding onto the device, and Google needs to understand this.

Other Pixel 2 issues

The Google Pixel 2 camera’s fatal error is not the only issue owners are reporting. Since the launch of the handsets last year, users have reported several issues. Some have been fixed by Google releasing a software update, while others continue to trouble users.

Many Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL users have reported a bug that automatically triggers battery saver mode on the device. The bug enables battery saver mode even when there is sufficient even 100% of the battery charge left. Such an issue has also been reported by users of the Essential Phone, OnePlus 6 and Nokia 7 Plus.

Google has acknowledged the issue, saying it was due to an “internal experiment to test battery saving features that was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended.”

Other issues reported by users include clicking and high-pitched sounds, screen burn-in, blue shift on Pixel 2 XL, a Pixel 2 XL display issue, a Pixel 2 XL swipe issue, speaker output issue, fingerprint sensor lag, Pixel 2 XL audio recording bug, slowdown with the January security patch.

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