According to complaints on Reddit and Google support forums, many Pixel 6 owners found that they unintentionally bricked their phones after factory resetting them.
The problem apparently affects all phones in the series, including the Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and Pixel 6a.
Factory reset is bricking the Pixel 6.
Now it boots into a black screen with amber/red text at the top saying
“Android Recoverygoogle/raven_beta/ravenVanillaIceCream/AP31.240426.023.B4/11882682 user/release-keys”
If I hit try again I get the same screen, and Factory Data Reset doesn’t work and gives
“ERROR: recovery: [libfs_mgr] Unable to enable ext4 verity on/dev/block/platform/14700000.ufs/by-name/metadata because /sysetm/bin/tune2fs is missing.
ArrogantSquirrelz, Reddit, June 2024
I have the same issue with my pixel 6.. No matter what I try – Flash.google, pixel Repair or Pixel flasher or adb tools or sideload, I get the same error.
scorp171, Reddit, June 2024
This of course didn’t go down well with users, who believe that the issue is software related and Google must fix it.
Google might reconsider the decision though as it’s currently investigating the problem. A Google Product Expert has said that this is a known issue, meaning a significant number of handsets have been affected.
After escalation the team informed us that this is a known issue currently under investigation. I’ll post updates here as soon as I receive them.
Detlef M, Pixel Product Expert, June 2024
Of course, just because Google is currently investigating the problem doesn’t necessarily mean it will come up with a solution customers will be okay with, but it’s still a step in the right direction.
Needless to say, if you happen to own any of the affected devices, you should avoid factory resetting them for the time being.