Android 14’s user-profile data bug seems indistinguishable from ransomware
arstechnica.com
Users with multiple profiles are getting locked out of local storage and losing data.

This happened to me. My phone was acting strange so I restarted it. After unlocking, it said ‘Phone is Starting’ for longer than usual. Then it said ‘Factory Resetting’, and shut down.

It opened up a weird bootloader-like screen asking me whether to factory reset, or try again. I selected try again, which took the phone into a ‘Phone is Starting’ loop that never ended.

I ended up going to https://pixelrepair.withgoogle.com/ and factory resetting from there.

This is what you should probably do to avoid this happening to you. (Everything I know about this is from what happened to me, and the article I linked, so idk if this will actually help)

  • If you’re not using multiple users, do NOT enable it and make sure it’s disabled.
  • If you are using multiple users, consider disabling it.

Also, BACK UP YOUR PHONE

Google makes it difficult to create backups, but it’s really important. Even if you’re very lazy, doing one at least every few months is worth it. You never know when your phone will fall into a lake, or delete itself because Google doesn’t know how to make phones

  • If it’s not already enabled, turn on Google’s automatic backup, at the very least for apps.
  • Make sure your password manager / 2fa apps are backed up.
  • Make sure your photos are backed up. Google photos is the only option by Google to back them up, so if you don’t want to use that, you copy them to your PC or any other external storage.
  • Some apps, like Signal, WhatsApp, or Aegis aren’t backed up by Android’s normal app backups, so you might have to turn on backup app by app.
    • For some apps (like Signal), backups are just saved to a folder on your phone so make sure you move them to external storage.
  • I don’t think files on Android are backed up at all, so copy any important files to external storage.
  • If you have contacts saved on device (not linked to a Google account), copy them too.

Also, please tell anyone you know that has a Pixel about this.

Rant

This situation has been handled horribly by Google. This is a serious bug; wiping your entire phone isn’t something that can be shrugged off as a minor issue. Even in the best case scenario where someone has a full backup and loses nothing, you can lose access to your phone for hours or days.

There are articles about this bug going back to the 17th. Google could’ve put out warnings, Stopped rolling out Android 14, Added a warning when enabling multiple users, or Mentioned they’re working on fixing it.

What have they done? Nothing. According to the article, they haven’t even acknowledged it in the bug tracker. If they even just warned people, I probably wouldn’t have lost anything.

I didn’t have any backups for photos (I know, my fault), but luckily I send most of the important ones to my girlfriend or family so I hope I’ll be able to get them back soon.

Also just want to mention how bad backups on Pixels are. The fact that there is no way to back up your phone onto a PC or something and you can only do it with a Google account is ridiculous. Backups don’t work for some apps for seemingly no reason. Why are photos only able to be backed up with Google Photos, and not as part of the normal backup? Why is there no backup at all for files?

I won’t be buying a Google product ever again.

  • cheeseburgerEnglish
    6·
    1 year ago

    The article talks about users of multiple OS profiles which many use to separate work from personal data. I’m wondering does using applications like Insular, Shelter, or Island also make you susceptible to this bug?

    I’ve installed Insular, but have been too lazy to set it up yet, likewise I’ve been slow to push the ‘upgrade to Android 14’ notification.

    • Free Palestine 🇵🇸@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Note, that’s before Android 14 was rolled out to GrapheneOS users on the stable update channel. If you were using GrapheneOS with regular updates, you never got that bug. GrapheneOS is just superior to any other mobile OS.

  • kmartburrito@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    Is this caused by having more than one Google account added, for example in Gmail?

    I have two Gmail accounts I can switch back and forth on within Gmail, and also a work account that has separate work apps.

    I’m not using profiles though to my knowledge. Am I safe? I think for safety’s sake I need to read more into this.

    Thanks for posting, OP, sorry that happened to you.

    • Sadge@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      Thank you. Settings > System > Multiple users, if you want to make sure, but it’s pretty much impossible to enable it without knowing it’s on. AFAIK using multiple Google accounts is fine.

      • kmartburrito@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 year ago

        Thank you!

        Mine is set to disabled, so I should be good. Appreciate you detailing how to check it. So, a work profile and multiple Gmail accounts aren’t equivalent to multiple users functionality on the pixel, in case anyone else has a similar question.

        • Sadge@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          The article I linked mentions work profiles, but I’m gonna be honest, I have no idea what a work profile is, or how it’s related to Multiple users, so I can’t say anything about that.

      • random65837@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        1 year ago

        So it’s an issue with multiple users, not profiles? I’m not running stock so may not even apply to me, but do have two profiles with 2 goog accts.

        • Sadge@lemm.eeOPEnglish
          2·
          1 year ago

          I don’t understand what you’re saying. What I gather is that this bug happens because of the Multiple users feature, which I assumed was synonymous with multiple profiles.

  • AlmightySnoo 🐢🇮🇱🇺🇦@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    31·
    1 year ago

    Another update by Google:

    If your impacted device is unable to access media storage, we anticipate a system update will repair the issue and restore access to media files without requiring a factory reset. If your device is stuck in a “Pixel is starting” boot loop due to this issue, we are investigating methods that may be able to recover some data. We’ll provide more information as soon as it is available.

  • allywilson@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    513·
    1 year ago

    This posts sounds like you’ve been aware of your options and never done anything about it, then decided to blame Google?

    Apps like Signal and WhatsApp encrypt their data purposefully so that Google (or any other actor) cannot read it. This is why backups for them need to be managed separetely.

    • Sadge@lemm.eeOPEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      I know that. I don’t really care about my signal or WhatsApp data. That was just to make sure people know how to not lose any data. That is not the part I am blaming google for.

      The main point of this post is to warn people so they don’t make the same mistakes as me, and so they know that having multiple profiles can cause your phone to factory reset itself.

      I have never needed to load a backup so I didn’t think it was going to be necessary (this was a mistake and I acknowledge that in the post, I am not blaming google), but I do think the fact that you can’t do a full backup onto your own hardware is silly, and definitely the reason I never did a full backup. (Again, my fault).

      I put almost all of the Google blaming in a section marked as spoiler and labelled Rant. If you disagree, that’s ok, that part isn’t the point of the post. But I think it’s reasonable to expect that the software in my phone has been tested, at least to the point where it doesn’t do random factory resets, and that if something like that were to happen there should be at the very least an acknowledgement by the company, if not a warning/taking back of the software update that caused it/a fix.