[Moto G6 Questions & Answers] GedBlake:
Hi, Peabody424...

It's always a bit tricky making recommendations to someone, based on one's own experiences, such as with an OTA update, and particularly when there's such a seemingly wide range of reported user experiences, ranging from the good to the bad to the outright atrocious! And like yourself, I'd also read similar (nightmare) accounts over on the Lenovo forums about the Pie update - so I was similarly cautious when I received the notification towards the end of March that a system update for Pie was awaiting my confirmation to go ahead and install it.

One of the major issues I'd read about Pie, was people's inability to access their device after the update, due to their password/lock-screen pattern not being recognised. And the only solution was to perform a factory reset via the stock recovery - not a good result at all!

This was obviously a significant concern to me, along with other reports of sluggish and poor screen responsiveness, with various solutions being proffered, such as using a custom launcher - I use Nova Prime anyway, so I've never actually used the stock Moto Launcher - and disabling Motorola's own background data collection processes (Android Settings>>System>>Advanced>>

Motorola privacy>>[DISABLE EVERYTHING THERE]), apparently is also reported to have helped make the device more responsive.

Anyhow, I'd prepared in advance of Pie, by ensuring everything on my device was backed up somewhere else, should I need to perform a factory reset in the event of possible problems after the Pie update.

So... after about an hour of downloading and installing Pie... Everything worked perfectly:) - in fact, Pie managed to resolve some long standing screen glitches I'd been having with Oreo, ever since I bought my G6 back in July of 2018.

Since the March 2019 Pie update, I've subsequently received two further OTA updates - in August and September.

The one in August was a security patch update for 1 June 2019, but it also included Google's Digital Wellbeing App, which for some strange reason had been omitted in the original Pie update back in March. Although this OTA update installed without any noticeable problems, I decided immediately afterwards to perform a factory reset... It just seemed a prudent measure to take - to clear the decks, so to speak, and begin afresh with a clean slate.

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Here's a list of my Pie/Security patch updates, so far this year...

(Yeah, I know... I'm a bit OCD, keeping a detailed record of such things:))

Moto G6 OTA (PPS29.55-24) Android 9.0 Pie Update (from Android 8.0 Oreo) with 1st January security patch. Notified: 01:05, Tue 24 Mar 2019. Downloaded: 01:43 to 02:02 (17 mins to download 1431.2Mb). Commenced installation at 02:02; Completed at 02:37 with no problems.

Moto G6 OTA (PPS29.55-37-4) with 1st June security patch. Notified: 21:41, Mon 5th Aug 2019. Downloaded: 21:42 to 21:54 (12 mins to download 818.6Mb). Commenced installation at 22:00; Completed at 22:28 with no problems.

Performed a factory reset after this OTA, just to clear the decks and begin afresh.

Moto G6 OTA (PPSS29.55-37-4-3) with 1st August security patch. Notified: 04:15, Thu 12th Sept 2019. Downloaded: 04:17 to 04:20 (3 mins to download 155.4Mb). Commenced installation at 04:20; Completed at 04:46 with no problems.

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In conclusion then, I'm afraid I cannot give any assurances that the Pie update will NOT give you any problems - there are no guarantees here, unfortunately, and whilst my Moto G6 has been improved with Pie, there's no denying that there have been many reports of Pie OTA related problems with this device. I would strongly recommend that if you do take the Pie update, prepare for a possible factory reset, by ensuring everything in the internal storage that is important, is safely backed up elsewhere first.

With regards to possibly reflashing the G6,

maybe back to Oreo, I'm afraid I can't help or advise you there. I haven't reflashed or rooted a device for about two years now - the benefits of doing so seem to me to be fairly marginal these days - so my knowledge about such things is a little out of date. My own Moto G6 will likely be my first device who's bootloader will probably never be unlocked.

As far as Lenovo fixing anything... Well, I wouldn't put money on it! They don't seem to be overly concerned with the kind of problems that I've seen reported on their forums.

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Apologies for my somewhat non-committal response to your implied question ("Should I update to Pie?"), but as I mentioned at the beginning, my own experiences of Pie may not be reflected by others. Indeed, when reading through the posts on the Lenovo forums about Pie, a few months ago, I was very surprised by the largely negative response that the Pie OTA had engendered, and when the time came for me to update to it, I was even more surprised when everything went perfectly, with none of the problems that had been reported there.

All I can say then, is that Android 9.0 Pie on my Moto G6 has been problem free, and is an improvement over its predecessor, Android 8.0 Oreo.

Hope this helps - and apologies for this rather long post - I do go on a bit sometimes:)

Kind Rgrds,

Ged.