Google may have hit pause on Pixel Watch Wear OS 5 updates

Software updates are supposed to be almost like taking a sip from the fountain of youth, making our old devices feel fresh and modern again. With new features, new fixes, and sometimes even a whole visual makeover, updates keep on adding value to our gear — when they work. It only takes one bad update to very quickly ruin your day, and that seems to be just what’s been happening for a group of Pixel Watch users.

Earlier this week, Google began making Wear OS 5 available as an update to owners of the original Pixel Watch and the follow-up Pixel Watch 2.

In theory, this is great, giving those aging wearable a real shot in the arm. Problem is, though, it didn’t take long for the first stories to roll in of users experiencing problems. And now 9to5Google reports that Google appears to have stopped seeding the update for these older watches entirely.

Affected users would find their watches unresponsive or displaying a useless black screen after attempting to install the update, like MKP here shares on Google’s support forums. While this is fixable, and Google has shared a guide walking owners through the process, getting the watch into Fastboot and doing a factory reset doesn’t feel like a lot of fun.

We’re not quite sure just how widespread the problem might be, but have seen enough voices chiming in with their frustration to know that it’s far from just a one-off. In that light, Google pressing pause on update distribution might make a lot of sense, at least until it can work out the root cause of these glitches. Reddit users like Morderelk have been reporting issues trying to access the update all day, adding to suspicion that it’s really been taken down. It’s also possible we may be seeing the consequences of phased availability, so we’re still trying to get more details.

We’ve reached out to Google in an attempt to confirm this news, and check if the company has any statement to make about the issue.