Google still has no answer for the Pixel 4a boot loop bug

Google no longer sells the Pixel 4a, and software updates have expectedly stopped, aside from an early 2025 battery-related update. Despite these factors, it shouldn’t be a surprise that many owners still rock the Pixel 4a, even today. But now there’s some bad news impacting some of those Pixel 4a die-hard fans.

On the Google Issue Tracker, multiple Pixel 4a owners report their devices being stuck in a boot loop, beginning back at the start of June. We are also seeing a handful of reports of the same glitch affecting the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4XL. Most of these experiences appear identical, with the lock screen showing up briefly before the Google logo and the progress circle reappears.

Complaints about this same problem have also been popping up on Reddit since the issue first surfaced three weeks ago.

A Google representative acknowledged the problem on June 4, writing, “We have passed this to the development team and will update this issue with more information as it becomes available.”

Although Google hasn’t responded yet, a couple of user-identified solutions on the Issue Tracker page appear to have worked for some. One person claims their phone booted normally after turning off their Wi-Fi router and entering safe mode by holding the volume down button when the G appears on the screen.

Once you’ve entered safe mode, it is recommended to turn off the phone’s Wi-Fi and enable cellular data and location. The user also mentions how accidentally enabling Wi-Fi in safe mode brought back the boot loop issue, following which they discovered a screenshot trick “by accident” that got the job done.

However, this requires you to take a screenshot as soon as the lock screen appears, which means you have no longer than a split second or two.

For people who have had trouble taking a screenshot during that short time, another affected Pixel 4a owner found that wrapping the entire phone in two layers of aluminum foil helped.

The logic here is that even though their router was off, Wi-Fi signals from nearby routers reached the phone. So by wrapping it in aluminum foil, there is little chance of Wi-Fi reaching the device. Even in this case, you will have only about 10 seconds to quickly disable Wi-Fi from the lock screen after unwrapping your foil-clad Pixel 4a.

While helpful, these remedies may not be viable for everyone, making it doubly important for Google to react with some haste.

We have reached out to Google for a comment on the matter and will update this article with anything we hear back. Until then, all you can do is wait patiently or try some of the fixes we touched on above.

If not for this incident, the fact that a six-year-old phone like the Pixel 4a is still used today is a testament to the Pixel’s longevity. The same can be said about my trusty Pixel 6a, which remains perfectly capable and operational even today, despite some setbacks in its nearly four-year run.