Thanks to its terrific camera and mid-range price point, Google's new Pixel 3a and 3a XL smartphones have been fairly well-received by the public, however, that hasn't been the case for all users.
According to numerous reports on Reddit (opens in new tab), some users have started to experience random shutdowns from both the Pixel 3a and 3a XL, with a hard reboot (sometimes requiring the user to hold the power button for up to 30 seconds) being the only way to bring the phone back, as reported by Android Police. (opens in new tab)
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"I had 3 shutdowns yesterday, including over night, causing me to miss my wake alarm," said one Redditor (opens in new tab), who also tried using the phone "in 'Safe Mode' to eliminate any chance of a third party app causing it." In this instance, the issue continued, which led the user to believe the problem is hardware related.
However, another Reddit poster (opens in new tab) with the same problem noted that the issue only seems to occur when their device is connected to Wi-Fi, and that "Leaving the phone with wifi off seems to prevent the crashing all together."
Another user who reported the issue to Google says they were advised to do a factory reset (opens in new tab) of the phone, which has so far proven an effective solution. Others have opted to return (opens in new tab) or exchange (opens in new tab) their handsets.
Google has yet to publicly acknowledge the shutdown problem, so it's unknown whether it plans to issue a firmware update to resolve it. The search giant's previous handset, Google Pixel 3, was plagued with early bugs, however, they were eventually fixed in a security update.
