yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] i n f a m o u s:
Just out of curiosity, is it possible for developers to dig thru the Pixel source code to see if Google is planting some sort of malicious code to brick Pixel phones? This is happening to far too many owners and Google isn't even addressing this issue.

Maybe I'm just being paranoid but I feel safer using custom ROM's knowing I'm not using Google's bugged firmware.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
I doubt google would put anything in the source, even if they wanted to do as u imagine. If it were true (which I don't believe), they'd use the OTA to do something it shouldn't, rather than have it be found in source.

I'd bet it's something in the ota process, that is inadvertently doing something like overwriting the gpt table, or corrupting some other part of the boot process.

Just as an fyi, I don't do ota's. I download the zip and flash it with the flashall.sh script. I won't do an ota. Maybe it's crazy, but it's out of an abundance of caution.

cheers
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] xtafan1:
If the keys can't be dumped somehow or some other method to backup the phone in a working state and restore it back to that state, what about irreversible methods to retain access?

I am talking about destructive, dangerous, and extreme software and hardware methods. For example jumpers or desoldering titan chip. Setting great deal of efuses in the trust zone to get a known key and signing something that could be uploaded by EDL with it, rolling over monotonic counters, etc.

I know some phones models that seemed difficult were jailbroken due to efuses.

I'm not saying that these are good solutions, but it seems something along these lines might be necessary as more and more models have issues. The Pixel 4 , while at a lower rate are now starting to be reported going into EDL mode, and for Pixel 3 it started out at a low rate as well).

For all we know custom roms of Android 12 or those that include security and other updates from Google's recent versions of Android 11 might be contaminated with the issue. I've seen plenty of reports of phones EDL bricking while playing music. Thus anything to reflash a phone if a person doesn't want to throw it away whenever google decides to brick it and not take responsibility and wants to charge $400 to fix it would at least seem like a better option.

I'd love to be able to know the answer myself and come up with a solution for everybody, but my time and abilities are probably not enough to do so, but even if they are poor, I am trying my best to read about Quallcomm trustzone in my free time and come up with ideas.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] kbmcruiser:
Well I havent been near wifi for a week, off camping and yesterday morning between 5-7 a.m. my Pixel 3XL died. I know the battery was beginning to drain quicker but this was while sitting on charge and idle. Tried everything suggested here including an hour in freezer... nothing...except when plugging in laptop QUSB_BULK_CID:0402_SN:498BAE32. A business phone with a lot of info....this will be costly.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] BootloopedMillennials:
I sort of recall a LOS developer saying it's a hardware issue. Something related to ufs storage failure.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
This actually makes a lot of sense. Most people who've indicated having this issue have had the device for quite some time, coinciding with the amount of time necessary for the flash drive to fail.

**If** it were an OTA issue, then it should have been happening right from the beginning, which in the case of the p3, p4a (and now hearing of the p4), it has not. And, it doesn't happen to every device, which if it were the fault of an OTA, you'd think that would have a uniform result.

This is a great report about how apps can quickly destroy your mobiles flash. And if u add the reputation google has for sometimes having hardware issues with their devices, and their lack of response to this (if it **were** as simple as releasing the firehose they'd probably do it), well, having thought about it more, I'd bet money this is the problem.

cheers
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] xtafan1:
While this may be a dead end, or be struck down as a bad idea, and not result in anything being outputted, since there hasn't really been any progress, perhaps somebody with a failed phone can grab parts for a debugging cable.

The interesting possibility comes out when you wire it as a "Suzy-Q" because the postmarketos debug cable article and a graphene os chatroom member alluded or even discovered the below:

>

While reported online that a "Suzy-Q" cable can be used for Android-based Pixel devices

, the cable available from Sparkfun, the SuzyQable, is not the right cable for debugging Pixel phones. They are using a different incompatible scheme[How?]. On Pixel 2 devices they will not work at all, and o

n Pixel 3, it is reported they show the console of the Titan M chip only.

Since the Titan M is its own chip, there is a chance that it could help put out diagnostic data if for example it is failing or detecting a bad configuration and offer insight on what is going wrong. I wonder if it may even be related to the cause of the failure, as the Pixel 4 has a Titan M chip as well and there are reports they are EDLing as well.

Sources on how to make a cable:

How To Make Your Own Pixel 2, Pixel 3 or Pixel 4 Debugging Cable

Google's Suzy Q make your own cable guide

Spoiler content hidden.

Spoiler content hidden.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] zeroid:
Looks like you can add me to the list. Happened overnight, I had NOT installed the 12 update yet but the popup messages were getting more persistent!
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] mecea04:
I am having the same issue as well, it happened overnight last night. I had the 12 update installed.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] royalewihcheese:
Same here with my 3XL, QUSB. I was on 12 with stock ROM, and had gotten the final security update right after it came out, weeks ago, so unless there's a new update I don't think updates are related to my phone failing. I did notice the day before it got EXTREMELY hot one time in my pocket, while doing precisely nothing at all, which was out of the ordinary. But it was fine the rest of the day, night, and most of today.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] xtafan1:
Android 12 Release 14 & 15 came out November 16th, the people above this post might of been updated by it without realizing it. I don't see OTA or Factory downloads for it though, and the security bulletin just mentions Security patch levels of 2021-11-05 for Pixels.

refs/tags/android-12.0.0_r14 - device/google/crosshatch - Git at Google

refs/tags/android-12.0.0_r15 - device/google/crosshatch - Git at Google

But regardless, even if that isn't the update people are getting, it might be good not to get the updates as it seems that most phone bricking occurs after an update has occurred.

On the other hand, there is a Titan-M vulnerability that was fixed so if that ends up being related to the bricking, perhaps there might be a way back into the phone. https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=2021-1044
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] nehmia:
Happened to my unlocked, vanilla Pixel 3 (ordered 1/20/2019), in EDL mode and non responsive to any button combo, shows in device manager QUSB.

I believe I was at the most recent version of 12, non-beta. Last night, I was in Play Store and updated Messages app to latest, along side a Carrier Update and some others (can not recall). I also uninstalled a selection of apps to free up space. This morning, I woke up to a bricked phone.

I have been on Android 12 for a couple weeks, no issues until today. Curious about the Carrier Update (and/or possibly another one). As much as I am willing to believe this is some major neglect on Google's software... even possibly planned obsolescence, I have a feeling it (great source, I know!) that it may have to do with the flash storage reaching it's limits. Not trying to excuse, just searching for an explanation like us all.

I have the device protection plan with Google Fi. Spoke with their support, the first go around we went through the obvious steps. I even sent a screenshot of the device showing up in device manager, including S/N. When that went no where, the support rep said we could skip the device repair and go straight to replacement. He mentioned that the replacement would be "with whatever they had in stock" and I had some hope of getting a new/refurb 4 or higher. Unfortunately, I got the replacement email and it was for the exact same model Pixel 3, storage and color, refurbished. I contacted support again, and asked to cancel my RMA as I did not want another Pixel 3. I also shared how this issue seems to be common, sent them the Google Issues link, and that Google needs to make the firehose file available to end users to allow them access to their phones stuck in EDL mode. The rep said there was nothing they could do. The RMA cancellation had to be raised to their next tier of support, and that I would be contacted via email by said support. Still awaiting that email as of this post. I will also broach the topic of making the firehose available to end users.

I starred the issues tracker, since no more comments can be entered.

I also filled out the class lawsuit form, any pressure is good so long as it ends in Google releasing these firehose files. Arbiration opt-out be damned, if it takes hold that will likely not have much weight in the matter (IANAL).
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
Sorry to hear, don't blame u at all being rather pissed, I'm not happy either having a pix 3.

One important thing though, the firehose would give us access in EDL mode, but **if** the problem is failed hardware, then there's nothing that could be done even with the firehose.

That may be why google is approaching this as they are, they may prefer to leave this as a *mystery*, rather than have it be known as hardware failure. Additionally, I"ve read of this now starting to occur with the 4a and the 4.

I'ts a pretty big mess really. I'm personally switching back to my LG preference for daily driver. Last thing I'd like to have happen is to need to make an emergency call or something, and find the device is dead.

cheers
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] nehmia:
I am certainly playing devils advocate regarding it being a hardware failure. But from what it seems, this is consistent enough to be linked to OTA updates which, when paired to Google's history of poor end-user support, seems to be a form of planned obsolescence. It's the shopping holiday, the Pixel 5 and 6 went on sale at various retailers.... yea. My Pixel 1 also died in the same fashion after 2-3 years. I replaced it with this Pixel 3.

I highly recommend people fill out the class action lawsuit form. I am not emotionally "pissed", I am tired of having to be forced to upgrade every few years due to an OEM in one way or another manipulating me to do so. I am not alone, either. If Apple can support a phone from 2015 with their latest software release, then so can the giant that is Google. Phone sales are not their bread and butter, data collection is. If they want to harvest me like a corn stalk for ad information, then they need to keep me on a phone for ~5 years, no less.

I am not a fan at all off Apple's UX and ecosystem personally, but their customer support is seemingly the defacto standard all others should strive to make their minimum.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] degooglified:
It is not related to OTA updates, my Pixel 3 was de-googlified and was running Lineage OS for a year now, and bricked just the same. It is unlikely that it is a hardware failure -- I design this type of hardware for living. It would be trivial to include a piece code which intentionally bricks the phone at some pseudo-random time. That would be consistent with the phones bricking whether in use or idling.... So whoever mentioned planned obsolescence is probably right, but it may be built right into the phone.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
Well your having expertise with hardware like this is helpful. But isn't the ufs hardware very similar to say usb drives we're all familiar with?

And we all know usb drives vary in reliability / quality. Sandisk Extreme drives always score high when compared to some cheapo drives that only last with just a few usages.

of course it could be planned obsolescence, but it seems it could also easily be low quality flash memory. And flash memory *does* fail, with higher and higher r/w usages right?

cheers
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] vikvikrantverma:
Same thing happened yesterday on my Pixel 3. Only thing changed recently was that major OS update few weeks back. Phone was working normally yesterday, and all of a sudden its dead. None of the steps worked. Device manager shows QUSB_BULK_CID:<id>_SN:<id>. Google is asking us to go to uBreakiFix. What a waste of money and time. Has anyone able to solve this problem?

From my personal experience, Google phones do not seem to have a long life, and Google does nothing about it, even for the known/common problems.

I do not want to trust buying another Pixel phone and go through same crappy experience in an year or two. No choice but to move to iPhone 13. :-(
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] bendy123:
well, mine P3 died tonight, grrr, latest A12
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] vikvikrantverma:
I have another P3 running on A12 and I am now scared. Is there a way to downgrade to A11 ? (i didn't like A12 from day 1 and now I have more reasons).

Btw going to uBreakiFix was waste of time. All they did was showed a lot of attitude, and just gave the battery and display repair prices, without even diagnosing the phone.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
If your bootloader is locked - no.

If your bootloader is unlocked, you can either flash the factory A11 release via ADB, or you can use Android Flash Tool. In either case, make sure you wipe /data; downgrading without a data wipe will cause corruption and crashing.

**********

For those of you trying to recover your devices from this issue, I would suggest using the Pixel Repair Tool, although I'm not sure if this works outside of Rescue Mode.

Edit: fixing this requires proprietary software, see post 152
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] mrtumnus:
Joining the unfortunate club here, as of yesterday. I had the Android 12 OTA update for about 3 days on my Pixel 3 before this happened. I wish I had stumbled across this thread first.

Why is this thread marked [FIX] when there is no solution yet?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] mrtumnus:
Yeah, it doesn't recognize the device outside of Recovery Mode.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
Just to be clear: devices that exhibit this are practically unusable, nothing appears on the screen, the only indication of life is the QUSB device appearing when it's connected to a PC?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] mrtumnus:
Correct; that's the only way I was able to diagnose the issue and find this thread.

EDIT: I can also press & hold Power + Vol Down and it will do some sort of power cycle or mode change where the device goes away and comes back in Windows 10 Device Manager. But nothing whatsoever shows on the screen, let alone getting into recovery mode.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
Seems like the issue is pretty common. Maybe try letting the battery die completely? When it's plugged into the computer and appears as a USB device, unplug it and let it discharge until it dies; of course, there's no way of telling when it actually does, so give it a few days.

The actual fix for this requires the Qualcomm Product Support Tool (QPST); you'd also need the NAND binary image to rewrite the memory devices at the hardware level. Unfortunately neither of these are freely available.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] SupaStevo:
My girlfriend's Pixel 3 joined the brick club while she was at work today. Same symptoms, same QUSB thing in Device Manager. We actually both have 3's that we purchased together in early 2019, so I am now very worried about my own phone.

Both our phones were completely stock, no custom OS or anything like that, and they're well-maintained with screen protectors and cases. My phone has been on Android 12 for a few weeks now and, aside from the awful amount of bugs, it has been going just fine. Hers was still on 11 because she didn't want to deal with all of 12's bugs.

We were hoping to hold out for the 6A but now I'm seriously doubting whether we'll stay in the Pixel family.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] interface35:
Pixel 3, on Android 12. Just listened a 2.5 hour podcast, still had plenty of battery. Pulled the USB-C earbuds that came with in the box from the phone and then it turned into a paperweight.

Same USB messages as detailed in this thread is all I can get.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] sportynyc:
Just happened to my Pixel 3 yesterday. It was purchased new from Google just 2.5 years ago. Had problems with every Google phone I've owned from 5x, 1, 2 and now 3. This may be my last Google phone. None of them have lasted more than 3 years with the 5x not even lasting 1 before the boot loop.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] kk_sensei:
I am the newest member of this unfortunate club. My Pixel 3 XL died couple of hours back.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] 478144:
hey guys, count me in for the same issue, my pixel 3xl ( bought in jan 2019 )died friday morning, I was scrolling tiktok till 2 am had 35% battery left, went to sleep to find dead phone upon waking up, I thought I might have drained the battery so I plugged it in but no response on screen, left it to charge for last whole day and night, today I plugged it in my windows pc and saw Qusb device detected in device manager, googled that and stumbled upon this post to discover I'm not the only one. contacted google support they said since the phone is outside warranty they can't do anything, and asked me to take it to their "repair partner", which I'm going to do on coming monday. I'm only afraid of lossing my data cause as a noob oversmart ignorant crypto investor I saved all my recovery seed phrase and authenticator keys in my phone's internal memory (not even on cloud). Is there anyway I can recover that data before I make the "repair partner" visit? I downloaded qpst from this thread but its not detecting my phone. cause if I lose that data I might endup loosing a hell lot more. :( :'(

p.s. as a last resort I'm thinking of opening up my phone's back cover just to disconnect and reconnect the battery with the hopes it starts working again, has anyone tried this? ( cause 2 yrs ago I tried this on my lenovo zx2 when it was showing similar symptoms was able to revive the phone again but ended up breaking power button cable, got frustrated and bought this stupid pixel 3xl )
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
Wow. Afraid to tell you, but I don't think there's anything the repair shop can do. You might want to ask them, before going, if they have the google programmer firehose for the specific device, and they'll probably respond with 'they have no idea what you're talking about'.

And that's really the problem in a nutshell. Without that firehose, there's no way to access the device. And even with it, the flashdrive may be corrupted and even qfil wouldn't be able to access it (due to the corruption - my bet is that's why it's in edl mode now - it can't read the boot info).

Maybe explain the significance of getting access (to device) to google might help, kind of doubt it though, sadly.

good luck
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
So hang on, I just ordered a P3XL for my daughter to use and heard about this issue after ordering it. I purposely got the Google edition to unlock the bootloader so that we can use custom roms after Google's final update.

This bug is scaring me and I'm thinking about sending the phone back as soon as we get it, but if the bootloader is unlocked can it be recovered with a custom rom? Like, is this only a problem for those with locked bootloaders?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
No, there's not really any clear cause, and it seems to affect everyone. The problem itself is more or less the bootloader becoming corrupted, and the device getting stuck in a hardware level rescue mode similar to JTAG. Since the bootloader doesn't start, it can't load a boot image, so a custom ROM makes absolutely no difference. The best thing I can recommend is make sure you flash the latest factory image.

The only way to recover a device stuck in this mode is with proprietary software called the Qualcomm Product Support Tool, which is not publicly available; neither are the binary files that would be needed to re-image the memory devices.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
Holy crap. So should I just send this phone back and get her a moto or something? I'm so upset about this.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
There was apparently a software fix in one of the updates so if you make sure it's on the latest firmware you should be fine.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
Oh! So staying stock is good then? Or at least going stock to latest first?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
I don't know exactly how the fix was implemented but I imagine it would be in the bootloader, so it shouldn't matter what firmware you run as long as the bootloader is the latest.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] AsItLies:
Is that so? Would love to see a changelog or reference to that 'software fix'?

Many of the people mentioning this problem in this thread were on the latest and greatest.

If there was a "fix", why didn't they get it?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
I must have been reading something else, my mistake.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
Hold up, so there isn't a fix?

I have about 30 days after receipt of this phone to determine if it is a ticking time bomb or not. 😬
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
Where are you getting it from, and for how much? You may be better off getting your daughter a 5a.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
No, I wish. It's from Swappa and it's $120. She keeps breaking phones so I never spend a lot on them for her. She went through 2 Nokia 7.1s and an LG G5 in the last couple of years.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] V0latyle:
Dang. Maybe she needs an Ulefone.
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
Honestly I'd give her my LG G7 I don't use anymore but she likes the camera of the pixel series and the unlimited (compressed as of now I guess) photo storage. This is the first phone she was excited about since I saw how cheap they are now.

Maybe I should dig deeper and go with pixel 2?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dcarvil:
I believe all pixels have the problem. https://xdaforums.com/t/bricked-pixel-2-qusb__bulk.3776464/
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dishe2:
I haven't seen such an influx of people reporting the same problem on any other model, however. Maybe it happens occasionally on others, but it seems to have suddenly happened to a LOT of Pixel3 users all around the last couple of months mostly.

I'm wondering if something in a recent update made it more likely to happen.

I would actually like to hear how many people are running custom roms and finding it vs those on stock. I wonder if it is the same percentage?
[Google Pixel 3 Questions & Answers] dcarvil:
Yes, it seems to be more prevalent on the P3s, but I have seen reports on both the P2s and the P4s. The majority of reports in this thread are on stock, but there are a couple of reports for LineageOS. It is difficult to say what percentage of P3s have encountered this problem, but the number of reports in this thread would be a very small percentage of the P3s out there. Also, the majority of P3s out there are running stock, not custom ROMs.