How to Fix Randomly Crashing Apps on Your Pixel 10
If you’re experiencing random crashes on your Pixel 10 smartphone, you’re not alone. Over the weekend, several Reddit users complained that their Pixel 10 phones, which just hit the market in August, were already experiencing severe slowdowns and frequent crashes when loading apps. Worse yet, the problem seemed to persist across all apps and phone models, leaving users with little to do on their new devices.
“If an app opens and loads, it won’t let me touch anything and it crashes,” said user cdriese, with a number of others sharing a similar sentiment.
The unfortunate news surprised me a bit, as I didn’t encounter any such issues when reviewing the Pixel 10 and Pixel 10 Pro at launch, both of which I really liked. But it seems that the problem has only recently emerged.
Several Reddit users pointed the finger at the October 10 Google Play Services update, with some claiming that uninstalling the update fixed the issue for them. “My current theory is that the October Game Services Update somehow conflicts with the September Android OS Update,” said user PuzzleHeadedSquid, adding that there have been no crashes since uninstalling the Game Services Update. Sure enough, when I loaded my phone with the September Android OS Update and the initial Game Services Updates, October game installed, I also started having problems.
In a way, it’s still a relief. Your new hardware isn’t already broken, but uninstalling the new Play Services update introduces its own headaches. Fortunately, as of this morning, there is another solution, and it is quite simple.
If you’re experiencing apps crashing on your Pixel 10, here’s what you can do.
The official fix
Random Reddit users weren’t the only ones experiencing this problem. Android Police founder Artem Russakovskii also called out the issue in an October 12 X article, saying his Pixel 10 Pro XL was “hit” by it.
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Luckily, as a member of the press, he had a few more resources to fix this bug than the average Redditor. Over the weekend, Russakovskii quickly reached out to his contacts at Google, who he said mobilized multiple teams to resolve the issue and have since released a server-side fix.
What do you think of it so far?
Theoretically, this means that a simple reboot should get your phone back to normal, but if the problem persists, you should also make sure that you are running the most recent version of Google Play Services (which you can check under Settings > Apps > Google Play Services > App details), then do another reboot.
That’s a pretty quick turnaround for a fix and doesn’t require much on your part, but if you’ve temporarily put your Pixel aside, it’s worth restarting it to see if you’re still having issues.
The unofficial fix
That said, it’s possible that Google engineers still missed something. If you’re still having issues loading apps, you can use the community method to uninstall the Play Services October update instead. However, this will log you out of your Google accounts and will not include Google’s official fix, so I would only recommend it in an emergency.
That said, if you’re on the verge of tearing your hair out, you can access Settings > Apps > Google Play Services > App details and tap “Delete Updates” to start the process. Just make sure you memorize your Google passwords (or passwords!) first.
However, first try tapping the “Update” button next to it and then restarting your phone. That’s what I did, after initially running my tests without this morning’s update, and my apps are now as snappy as ever.
