Google Pixel Frozen Screen

Introduction

Is your Google Phone frozen? Is the screen not responding? This will go over several common occurrences when it comes to your Google Pixel freezing. The problem is caused by various software issues, so read on to determine the right solution for you!

First Steps

Perform these preliminary steps to help get your phone working again. When your phone is operating normally, check some of the causes and solutions to prevent it from happening again.

Force restart (soft reset) your phone.
- First try holding the power button for 30 seconds — If this does not help, plug your phone into a charger and try again.
- If the above does not work, perform a soft reset by holding both the power button and volume down button for 20 seconds.

Causes

Full Storage

If your phone’s storage is maxing out, this could impact the operating system’s ability to function. Additionally, having enough space is necessary to install new Android updates.

To check your storage capacity and use, open the Settings app > Storage > Free up space.
You can view each category to see what is taking the most space. From there, I suggest removing some unused apps, videos, or pictures to free up space.

The Google Pixel has the option to free up storage automatically when it nears the limit.

This is set by going to the Settings app > Storage > Free up space > Overflow menu icon ⋮ on the top right > Settings > Smart storage.

Outdated Apps

Out of date apps can caused various issues. You can manually apply updates from the Google Play Store.

To check for app updates, open the Google Play Store app, then select the Profile icon on the top right > My Apps & Games. From there, click Update All.

Multitasking Apps

It’s a good idea to close out all apps now and then to optimize your experience using the phone.

You can close out all running apps by swiping up from the bottom of the screen and tapping Clear all.

Buggy Android Version

Your phone may need to update to the latest version of Android. Updates fix known bugs in the software, which might be contributing to your phone freezing.

Check for updates by opening the Settings app, then selecting System > System Update.

Faulty Firmware

A factory reset is the last resort regarding software bugs as this will completely wipe the phone of all personal data and reinstall the phone’s operating system. Since factory resets will completely wipe your phone’s data, make sure you have a backup of your phone before attempting this. For more information on resetting your phone, check out this page.

To perform a factory reset, power off your phone by holding down the power button.
With the phone powered off, hold the power button. While continuing to hold power, start holding the volume down button.
You can release it when the screen shows “bootloader”. Navigate using the volume down button until you highlight "Recovery Mode". Use the power button to select
Press the power button and volume up button at the same time. Navigate using the volume down button to select “Wipe Data/Factory Reset”. Use the power button to select.
Press volume down to highlight “Yes” and use the power button to select.
This factory reset process will take some time to complete.
Finally, restore the backup by logging into your Google account from the Settings app.

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