Google recently rolled out the latest version of Android, called Android 9 Pie, to all Pixel owners, but it appears the update may have done more harm than good.
According to reports, updating to Android Pie somehow disables the fast charging capabilities of the original Pixel XL.
Android Pie Disables Fast Charging Function On Google Pixel XL
As Android Police reports, the issue was discovered weeks ago by users testing the Android P developer beta. It wasn't seen as a major concern at the time, with most of the testers thinking the issue would simply be resolved once the final, stable version of the operating system is released.
However, when Android Pie was released last week, the issue was still not addressed. Original Pixel XL owners started getting frustrated with the odd retrograde. The problem seems to stem from the software itself. No matter what chargers users plugged in, including the one that came with the device, the phone still wouldn't charge at fast-charging speeds.
Some users on Reddit tried a number of third-party chargers, to no avail. They also tried restarting the device, factory resetting it, and trying all sorts of stuff just to see if fast-charging would come back. It didn't. Apparently, even booting the Pixel XL into Safe Mode didn't do the trick.
Google Apparently Won't Fix The Issue
Worse, the original bug report submitted to Google's Issue Tracker was recently closed, tagged with "Status: Won't Fix (Infeasible)." That means Google simply won't fix the issue at any point moving forward, since, as Gizmodo notes, whatever is causing the problem simply can't be addressed with a simple patch to Android.
As of writing, Android Police says the vast majority of complaints are coming from Pixel XL users, but there have been reported cases of Pixel phones from 2016 exhibiting the issue as well. At the moment, there's no telling exactly what the root cause is. Perhaps Google changed the internal logic for detecting what registers as "fast charging," or it put increased safety measures to ward off fake third-party fast chargers in the market. Whatever it is, Google Pixel owners aren't happy that a software update disables an incredibly crucial feature.
Do you have a Pixel XL? Have you updated to Android Pie, and was your fast charging somehow disabled by the software update? As always, if you have anything to share, feel free to sound them off in the comments section below!
