Google Readies Long Overdue Pixel 6 Update (Update: It’s Happening Now)

UPDATE: The January update for Pixel is now rolling out to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro. –Paul

Over a month after Google promised to fix a sweeping set of issues with the Pixel 6 series handsets, it has a new release date scheduled for the update.

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Well, maybe.

Unfortunately, Google hasn’t publicly announced a new date for its December 2021 Pixel update for the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro (which will likely be called the January 2022 update and will include this month’s fixes too). Instead, the supposed new date comes from a Canadian wireless carrier, Fido, which updated its OS Upgrade Schedule support page today. And according to that page, Google will release something called the “Jan. SMR & more” in three days, on Monday, January 17. (Thanks to Reddit for the tip.)

All Google has said officially is that this badly-needed and now long-overdue set of fixes was delayed until “late January.” Since then, it delivered the January 2022 Pixel update to all supported Pixels except the 6 series.

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Conversation 22 comments

  • _stevenelliott

    14 January, 2022 - 3:07 pm

  • ebarron

    14 January, 2022 - 4:30 pm

    <p>January 17th came early… I just checked and am receiving an update now.</p>

    • sivey42

      Premium Member
      14 January, 2022 - 4:37 pm

      <p>Same. i guess we’re the guinnea pigs.</p>

  • Paul Thurrott

    Premium Member
    14 January, 2022 - 5:00 pm

    <p>I’m seeing it too. </p>

  • mcimino

    Premium Member
    14 January, 2022 - 5:58 pm

    <p>Installing now. Taking forever. I guess that may be a good thing since it has lots to fix.</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    15 January, 2022 - 12:38 am

    <p>Installing now. Yes it downloaded fast but installing is super duper slow. Here go nothing :)</p>

  • Werd767

    15 January, 2022 - 1:54 am

    <p>Mine finished. I really didn’t have a lot of problems before, but it seems to be running even smoother now</p>

  • jimbosf

    Premium Member
    15 January, 2022 - 3:36 am

    <p><br></p>

  • jimbosf

    Premium Member
    15 January, 2022 - 3:40 am

    <p>I had already sideloaded the December update on my Pixel 6 before it got pulled. This January security update was started at 2:30 pm and finished "optimizing" around 7 pm. That message "this may take a while" wasn’t kidding! I have never had an Android update take this long.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      15 January, 2022 - 9:36 am

      <p>That’s out of control, but Android updates always take a very long time to install for whatever reason. I usually expect about an hour, no matter how small it is.</p>

      • avidfan451

        15 January, 2022 - 1:27 pm

        <p>This honestly was surprising to me. I haven’t owned an Android phone since the OnePlus 3T, but the updates were abysmal even then. I had thought over time this would improve, but I guess not…?</p><p><br></p><p>Counter this with the iPhone, where I don’t think it’s ever taken over a half hour, even on a major iOS upgrade. Well, maybe on early devices but it hasn’t been that way for years now, that I can remember.</p>

      • AwkwardSwine

        Premium Member
        16 January, 2022 - 10:09 pm

        <p>I have a Oneplus8 Pro and updates are quite fast. No more than 10 minutes from Download-&gt;Reboot-&gt;LogIn. It’s been pretty consistent for the 18 months I had this phone, and I think the OP6 I had before that was fast as well.</p>

    • winner

      16 January, 2022 - 2:08 pm

      <p>I believe that Android apps are stored in some sort of psuedocode and they are actually pre-compiled on your phone. So when an update comes, the phone re-precompiles your apps so that newer compilation updates can be applied. That’s why the "optimizing apps" step takes so long. The update itself is pretty quick.</p><p><br></p><p>From StackOverflow:</p><p><em style="color: rgb(128, 128, 128);">“Android applications are basically glorified ZIP archives. The Java code is stored in a file called&nbsp;classes.dex&nbsp;and this file is parsed by the Dalvik JVM and a cache of the processed&nbsp;classes.dex&nbsp;file is stored in the phone’s Dalvik cache. An odex is basically a pre-processed version of an application’s&nbsp;classes.dex&nbsp;that is execution-ready for Dalvik.”</em></p>

  • telecaster

    15 January, 2022 - 4:15 am

    <p>Hope to hear how the Pixel 6 performs after this update. I was about to get the non-Pro 6, but the reported issues scared me away.</p>

  • AnthonyE1778

    15 January, 2022 - 12:38 pm

    <p>Google screwing up again. I love my Pixel 6 Pro. But immediately after installing the update the fingerprint sensor would only work if the phone was awake. As someone who is used to using the fingerprint sensor from the Always On display… this was incredibly annoying. Luckily, after a factory reset everything seems to be working fine. Better than fine, actually. But even still, I shouldn’t have to do a full factory reset just to get promised functionality to work correctly.</p>

  • Pgiftos

    Premium Member
    15 January, 2022 - 11:57 pm

    <p>Installed mine today.</p>

  • lightbody

    16 January, 2022 - 6:06 am

    <p>I’m in the UK with a pixel 6 and I got it yesterday evening.</p><p><br></p><p>I wasn’t really having any problems before the update, and haven’t seen any difference yet afterwards. I love the phone and it’s far better than the troublesome OnePlus 7t it replaced.</p>

    • nappin

      Premium Member
      16 January, 2022 - 6:22 am

      <p>I’m in Australia with a Pixel 6 Pro and have had basically the same experience. No issues before the update, don’t notice much difference since the update and it’s working as I expect it to.</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    16 January, 2022 - 11:28 am

    <p>After having update a few days, no issues here. I had issues where I had to hit the power button sometimes to get the fingerprint reader to initiate but now it seems to be working fine for me. I never really had fingerprint issues as far as it recognizing my finger. As long as I got my finger there for a while. Seems fine to me now.</p>

  • bluesman57

    16 January, 2022 - 9:48 pm

    <p>I’m getting it now. I wasn’t having any problems except for the fingerprint sensor, and no fingerprint readers on any device have ever worked for me anyway.</p>

  • Genericconfig

    20 January, 2022 - 8:15 am

    <p>I sideloaded the January update the first day it came out last Friday. With a single sim and adaptive connectivity turned with good cell reception and T-Mobile… I am still seeing awful mobile network battery usage. On average 30+ % daily! One day hit around 38% in 24 hours. You have to expand battery usage to show system usage to see the category, but it seems to be a widespread issue that hasn’t been fixed. Hopefully it’s a software issue, and not due to the underperforming Samsung 5g modem..</p>

  • Genericconfig

    20 January, 2022 - 8:16 am

    <p>Oh yes, and it’s a 6 Pro. </p>

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