Gooogle has paused the Pixel Watch Wear OS 5 update [U]

Google has halted the rollout of the Wear OS 5 update for the first-gen Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 after some users had their devices soft brick.

Update 9/27: Google has confirmed to us that the rollout of the Wear OS 5 update has been paused due to an “issue affecting some Pixel Watch users.” The company is “actively working on a resolution.”

We’re aware of the issue affecting some Pixel Watch users, and in the meantime, we have paused the WearOS 5 rollout and are actively working on a resolution.”

—Google spokesperson

Original 9/26: Over the past few hours, Pixel Watch owners have been unable to download Wear OS 5. Going to Settings > System > System updates and repeatedly tapping does not yield the update like it did earlier in the week. The factory and OTA images for manual install remain listed.

Most users have successfully installed Wear OS 5 and aren’t facing any issues. However, some Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2 owners have been met with a black screen that only has a small Bluetooth logo at the bottom during the process. It’s not clear why this is happening.

The fix is resetting the device from Fastboot, with instructions available here, and setting up again. This is fortunately a straightforward process especially if you have a Google One backup.

However, it’s obviously not an ideal experience and Google pulling the update until it can figure out the problem is the right call. 

We’ve reached out to Google for more information.

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