Google pulled its Wear OS update for old Pixel Watches to fix a big problem

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Pixel Watch 1 and 2 owners will have to wait to update to Wear OS 5 to avoid the possibility of turning their watch into an expensive friendship bracelet.

By Umar Shakir, a news writer fond of the electric vehicle lifestyle and things that plug in via USB-C. He spent over 15 years in IT support before joining The Verge.

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Pixel Watch 2 on a nightstand

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Google is working on a fix for a buggy Wear OS 5 update. The company says it paused the OTA update rollout on September 26th after people, including my colleague Richard Lawler, reported their Pixel Watch 1 and 2 devices were stuck on a blank screen due to the update.

Google plans to resume the Wear OS 5 rollout for older Pixel Watches “later this year,” as previously reported by Droid Life.

If the update bricked your watch, there are ways to get it working again. Google’s support site has a bunch of general troubleshooting steps for getting out of a frozen watch, as well as instructions on how to factory reset from Fastboot if you can’t get to the usual settings.

If your Pixel Watch is healthy and working, Google also just rolled out a neat new feature that pops a notification on your phone once your watch is fully charged up — and you don’t need Wear OS 5 for that.

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