Android 8.1 beta OTA failing to install on Pixel phones, Google's investigating [update: fixed]

Update (October 31):

The issue has been fixed. Here’s what Google employee Orrin said while breaking the news:

Original story below:

Google seems to be going through a rough phase. It’s new Pixel 2 flagship smartphones are fraught with bugs, and the company has already received a lot of bad press because of that. As if that wasn’t enough, another Pixel-specific issue has now come to light.

The issue in question is installation failure of Android 8.1 beta update. As some of you might already know, Google already acknowledged that OTA sideloads are broken, but what we’re seeing here is that the regular OTA update which the company has pushed out is also failing to install.

While the roll out was still in its infancy, people started complaining about issues related to the installation of Android 8.1 Oreo beta update. What’s being put across by users is that while installing the OTA update after receiving a notification, the installation hangs up in between, flashing Google logo two/three times with a black screen, following which the device boots back to 8.0.

Following is the actual sequence shared by a Pixel user:

Uers add that the failed installation also displays persistent notifications like “Couldn’t update. Installation problem”, “Something went wrong when installing update. Please try again” or “Couldn’t install system update”.

It’s been only a couple of days since the 8.1 beta roll out began, and the reported number of use-cases – both on Pixel User Community as well as Reddit – are going up like anything. Sensing the urgency of the matter, Google is now asking the users to share what they actually encounter, presumably to help figure out the root cause of the problem.

Here’s what Google employee Orrin (who is also the Community Manager at Pixel User Community) posted a few hours back:

So as it currently stands, you’ll have to wait till Google fixes the glitch, and the solution reaches your device. Meanwhile, following is a user suggested workaround that you can try hands on:

Pixel User Community | Reddit 1 2 3