[Updated] Google acknowledges Pixel 2 USB-C headphone adapter issue, says fix coming

Update (January 27):

The adapter glitch will be fixed with an upcoming update if only the problem can be temporarily resolved with a reboot. If that’s not the case, it means the problem is hardware-related, and hence you’ll have to go for a replacement. Read more here.

Original story:

In the beginning of November, we uncovered a Pixel 2 headphone adapter issue that – a significant number of users confirmed – prevented the bundled USB-C to 3.5mm dongle from working as intended. (Note: The mainstream tech media picked up the problem yesterday.)

Well the good news is, Google has officially acknowledged the problem and also promised a fix. The company updated this morning that the issue will be addressed in a future OTA update.

Google employee Orrin (who is also the Community Manager at Pixel User Community) broke the news on one of the relevant threads, saying:

We want to let you all know that the team has been investigating, and this will be addressed in a future OTA update

A little background

To give you a little background, the problem was reported by Pixel 2/2XL users on both official Pixel help forum as well as Reddit. Complaints said the adapter/dongle fails to recognize that headphones are plugged in, and ends up playing music from the phone’s speakers.

Many of those struggling with the issue also mentioned that the official Pixel support was suggesting them to get replacements for the adapters.

But even replacements didn’t help users in several cases.

Suggested workarounds like using phone in safe mode/rebooting the device (every now and then) worked for some, but were never a permanent solution.

The only relief was that soon after the problem came to light, Google started investigating it, and also asked affected users to submit bug reports.

As complaints starting piling up, many users confirmed that the problem continued to exist even after upgrading to the latest Android 8.1.

After keep mum for a while, it’s good that Google has finally promised a fix in an upcoming OTA update (should be part of the January update, if we were to speculate).

Pixel User Community 1 2

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