Google forced to shut down Wear OS 5 update for Pixel Watch

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What you need to know

• Google has confirmed that it has paused the rollout of Wear OS 5 to the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 following serious user reports.

• The update caused damage to the devices of users performing the update, resulting in a loss of functionality.

• Google is working on a solution, but in the meantime, users can try some restart steps to free their devices from the problem.

Two previous-generation Google Pixel watches experienced unsightly issues after the Wear OS 5 update. For this reason, the company has reportedly paused a major software update for the original Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. Google confirmed this to 9to5Google today (September 27). According to the post, the company claims that the software update damaged some users’ devices.

A Google spokesperson told the publication, “…in the meantime, we have paused the WearOS 5 rollout and are actively working on a solution.”

We’ve heard about such reports courtesy of members of the Android Central forums. One user, goombah88, stated: “I just got an update that crashed my PW2. I have a black screen with the Bluetooth symbol at the bottom and a line through it. The user continued by saying that he had lost the swipe function and that long pressing the crown to restart/shutdown did not help.

Another user’s follow-up comment stated that Tuesday’s (September 24) Wear OS 5 update took his OG Pixel Watch about four hours to complete. It doesn’t appear that their device was locked after the patch, which 9to5 also found.

Not every device suffers from this problem; however, for some, its existence is sufficient cause for concern.

While Google is working on a potential fix for the Wear OS 5 issue, the publication cited Google’s support page for fixing a “blank or frozen” Pixel Watch. This should free your device from all software related problems. If this doesn’t happen, your next step will be the Google support line.

This situation, which has occurred over the last three days, is unfortunate considering that previous-generation Pixel Watch users have been waiting for Wear OS 5 all year long. Google released an update on September 24 that included the monthly security patch. This was a major patch for devices running OS 3.5 or OS 4, fixing numerous bugs on previous generation devices.

More importantly, the star of the big update was Wear OS 5. Google teased that there would be “new features,” but didn’t specify them in detail. The post alerted us to updates to the grid view app launcher, camera controls, and Pixel Recorder functionality.

The Wear OS 5 update was originally scheduled to be available on the watches over the next week. However, with the devices that plague devices today, this is no longer the case. We can only hope that Google will address the issue and resolve it quickly. Right now, Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 owners trying to update their devices won’t find anything available.