Android 14’s storage disaster has been fixed, but your data may be gone – Ars Technica

It’s the beginning of November, and that means a new security patch for Android. Google claims that this device fixes a major Android 14 storage bug that was preventing some people from accessing their devices. The November security bulletin contains: Regular pile Of security fixes, while Pixel is consumer-oriented Patch notes List some user-facing changes. The important line is “Fixes the issue that sometimes causes devices with multiple users to be able to appear out of space or be in a reboot loop.” A footnote says this is for “Pixel 6, Pixel 6a, 6 Pro, 7, 7 Pro, 7a, Tablet, Fold, Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro.”

We’re almost at day 33 of the Android 14 storage bug. For devices that are set up for multiple users, there is some type of storage issue preventing users from accessing their devices. Some are completely unusable, as the phone constantly turns on and never reaches the home screen. Others can turn on the device but do not have access to the locked storage, which causes a great deal of issues. Some users likened this bug to “ransomware,” a type of malware that encrypts your local storage and then demands money in exchange for your data. One solution is to wipe your device completely through a factory reset, but many users don’t want to do that.

The first reports of this are just beginning after few days Launch date: October 4. Google usually rolls out updates slowly so it can pull them back if issues like this arise to minimize the damage. But that didn’t happen here. Google failed to respond quickly to initial reports and let the bug spread to everyone. Some people even report a new infestation with just the insect Four days ago Because Google 1) allowed the update to roll out without stopping it and 2) couldn’t patch its software fast enough. the biggest Track the case Posts about the bug have reached over 1,000 likes and 850 comments from people who had their devices locked out, and it took two separate rounds of news coverage for Google to acknowledge the bug about 20 days later.

Google promised to patch the rescue, which is now starting to arrive, although the company said only “some” of the data would be recoverable. And that “This update may not enable data recovery for devices that restart frequently.” This seems to be in line with what people are experiencing now that the OTAs have stopped. People who can boot a report Pinned Deviceswhile Drivers it’s not Get Anywhere. Some users are still on the support thread hoping to get some sort of data recovery for their operating devices, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

This fiasco was a complete failure of most of the controls and protections that Google implements into Android. The company is slowly rolling out updates to stop problems before they reach a large number of users, but it has failed to pull the update when problems appear. Android has dual system partitions so you always have a backup if the device fails to boot after an update, but that system didn’t work here because Google’s “boot failure” detection isn’t accurate enough. The company shipped a hotfix patch via Google Play System Updates in the Play Store, but since those passively wait for the reboot to apply, users are still getting the error days after that patch appears. Android is supposed to have an app data backup system, but since this doesn’t work well and isn’t enforced for every app, many users don’t have backups at all.

We were given technical explanations for all of these features, but when they were actually needed, none of these ill-conceived and incomplete systems worked. This disaster is a complete technical failure of many Android systems, and many changes must occur.