Google Asks Pixel 6 5G Owners Who Have Connectivity Issues To Help Test A Fix
The latest Google Pixel phones have provided many of its owners an aggravating few months since its launch. Many Pixel 6 and 6 Pro owners experienced an issue with the under-the-screen fingerprint sensor. The sensor has been less than willing to work on a consistent basis and has been a point of contention for its owners and a fix was supposed to be included in a December update.
Another issue some owners have been having is when it comes to connectivity when making phone calls. It seems that more than a few are experiencing a bad connection while trying to talk to someone, even though they are showing a solid signal from their phone carrier. Yet others are complaining that they are not getting a signal in many places they were before.
A Reddit user recently posted that they had received communication from Google regarding the signal issues they had reported to the company. In the image provided by the user on Reddit, Google states that its engineers have identified a possible solution and Google would like to "push a change" to their phone to see if it helped the situation. Also in the response, Google requests the users IMEI and asks a couple of additional questions regarding where they were when they experienced the issues.
Once someone provides the IMEI of their particular device, Google pushes a targeted update to Carrier settings on the user's device. It will appear to look different from a system OTA and is something that your carrier can push out in the background. One user in the UK said that even after receiving the update, their signal was "still completely unusable at home." Other users have indicated the same thing. So, at this time it is not clear that Google's engineers have actually identified the issue, but hopefully the information Google collects will help them to do so.
If you receive the memo from Google to send your IMEI and are willing, you can find it by going to Settings -> About Phone -> IMEI. You will also want to start taking note of your location when the connectivity issues occur. Be mindful of if you are indoors, outdoors, at a major intersection in town, or in an office building for example. Google did state that it does not need to know your precise location, however.
If you happen to be in Europe, the Carrier settings version on phones that have not received the update should be 48, while the update brings version 49 21-12-20 to the device.
If you own a Pixel phone right now, you can rest assured you are not alone in your frustration if you are experiencing issues as indicated by the many responses to the Reddit post mentioned in this story. Many have still not received the latest update that began rolling out the first part of December and was to suppose to include a multitude of fixes for the phones. Hopefully Google will find the answers to many of the issues Pixel owners are having soon, because more than a few are already considering abandoning Pixel altogether.
