Motorola Moto G6 Android Pie (9.0) update triggered lag/freezing issue, say users

Moto G6 is Motorola’s 2018 low-end device fueled by a Snapdragon 450 processor. The phone originally shipped with Android Oreo and was due to get to taste the Pie. Among the US carriers, Verizon was first to roll out Android Pie (PDS29.118-14) to Moto G6 variants.

Few hours back, even the unlocked models of Moto G6 in the US and the Amazon variant also began receiving Pie. The update bears build number PDS29.118-11-1. Unlike the Verizon update (that brought the April patch), Pie update on the unlocked variants (US) brings the May security patch.

But Android Pie hasn’t had a good start on Moto G6 devices. For over months now, Moto G6 users have been reporting the device has become slower, lags, gets unresponsive, and very often freezes randomly for some seconds, irrespective of the app in use. And all this started after installing Pie.

Take a look at how some of the complainants word the issue at the company’s official help forum:

Just adding my name to the list of people who have lag and unresponsive phone issues since the android P update. Phone worked fine before, its been terrible since. I regularly feel like throwing it against a wall. Hoping Motorola gets this sorted soon. I suspect its a vaain hope.

Same for me: G6 is repeatedly sluggish during scrolling and app switching, freezes frequently for 2-4 seconds when typing and I have apps crashing regularly (especially chrome). All since the Pie update.

I consider the phone barely usable right now – even looking up weather is a test of patience. It can’t be lenovo just lets it go like this – fix or push a rollback update! Will not buy Motorola again.

One of the complainants even shared a video clip showcasing the glitch on their Moto G6 device:

Some users suggest disabling Moto apps (as they can’t be uninstalled completely) as a temporary workaround as it reduces the lag/freeze problem. Others say, replacing Moto launcher with Nova launcher appears to reduce the frequency of lags or device unresponsiveness.

Even factory resetting or using the phone in safe mode doesn’t help as the problem continues to persist. It’s worth mentioning, while majority of complaints are from Moto G6 users, some Moto G6 Play users also report of encountering the same behavior after installing Pie.

Coming to what Motorola has said and done so far, one of the MotoAgents (at the official community) has been actively addressing all user complaints since they began pouring back in April.

By May-end, the MotoAgent informed the complainants the team is working on it, and asked the affected users to share IMEI details and bug reports for better diagnosis.

Thank you for your patience, our team is actively working on this. We request you all to update your profile with device IMEI and share us the Bug Report. The more reports we have will help us investigate this further.

The same MotoAgent also told users that the devs haven’t been able to find any lags, and that’s the reason why they’re asking users for bug reports, so that the team can investigate the root cause of the problem. However, after keeping silent for a while, as of today the concerned MotoAgent said:

Please be advised that we will see improvements in the future update as confirmed by our product team.

Also, for some users–if you are just having lags on the Phone dialer—request you perform clear cache/data on the Phone app and make sure the app is updated to the latest version available on the Play Store to see if it helps as few users reported it working.

It appears the devs have caught hold of root cause and may be offering a fix for the same in the future update. However, there’s no ETA for the update that’ll fix the problem. Here’s hoping the promised update arrives soon. Rest assured, we are keeping a tab & will let you know as and when that happens.

NOTE: For more Motorola-related bugs/issues, news and updates interested readers may head here.

Follow @PiunikaWeb

PiunikaWeb is a unique initiative that mainly focuses on investigative journalism. This means we do a lot of hard work to come up with news stories that are either ‘exclusive,’ ‘breaking,’ or ‘curated’ in nature. Perhaps that’s the reason our work has been picked by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and more. Do take a tour of our website to get a feel of our work. And if you like what we do, stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) and other social media channels to receive timely updates on stories we publish.