[Updated] OnePlus 6 5.1.6 update pulled as company investigates freeze issue

Update (June 18):

OxygenOS 5.1.8 (sized 102MB) starts rolling out, fixes system stability issues and optimizes the call quality.

Update (June 15):

OnePlus 6 OxygenOS 5.1.7 arrives to fix bootloader bug, update not for India. Head here for details.

Update 2 (June 14): Looks like the OxygenOS 5.1.6 OTA listing on OnePlus website has been pulled for everybody now.

Update 1 (June 13): It’s official now. The update has indeed been pulled as you can no longer download the OTA file hosted on OnePlus’ official website. For some users, even the listing of 5.1.6 OTA is unavailable now.

Even OnePlus support is now acknowledging the update has been pulled due to glitches and a hot-fix is being worked on. Here’s a screenshot of the chat shared by the user (click/tap to expand):

Original story follows:

The latest OnePlus 6 OxygenOS update brought a lot of features users were expecting/asking for. But along with the feature-rich package, also creeped in a nasty problem – the device’s screen randomly goes black and the phone freezes.

What’s good is that the Chinese company is aware and looking into the issue. The news came in the form of a statement from one of the community experts (who are basically ex-moderators) on the company’s official help forum.

OnePlus knows this issue and is investigating.

OnePlus forum is currently drenched with complaints (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) from OP6 users encountering random blackouts/freezing on their units, where the only escape is to reboot the device. Going by reports (which are there on Reddit as well), the blackout/freezing behavior usually shows up while watching videos on YouTube, Netflix, Facebook etc or browsing the Internet.

Observations vary, with some saying the phone heats up while in use, and a blue LED light flashes, following which the screen goes black/unresponsive and has to be rebooted. Others say the device switches off by itself after the blackout. In some cases, the phone also makes a beep sound before switching off.

A quick look at the following selection of user comments will give you more clarity:

I am unable to figure out. I was watching Netflix and suddenly my screen froze with a long beep and phone display went out. Blue notification led was lit up. and none of the buttons were working and neither the finger print is responding.

I am facing a peculiar problem after this recent update 5.1.6. It happened to me many times today (though first instance is only today) when I was using my phone primarily for browsing and making some payments. All of a sudden the screen freezes, the notification light becomes cyan colour and no finger print or the switch off button would work to awaken it again. The only option is to switch off completely and then the same steps repeat after some time…

Am also facing the same issue. I updated my OnePlus 6 to Oxygen OS 5.1.6 yesterday. Since then my phone is getting freezed and I have to restart it manually using the power button. This has been happening since yesterday and around 9 times by now.

Phone is going to hang state,getting heated and switch off it self after updating 5.1.6. I can see blue light in notification led once screen goes blank. Automatically phone will lock when device is in use.

I was using Facebook on my one plus 6. A video was playing on FB then suddenly video stopped and my phone screen get blackout… Nothing was happening on it…none of any button was working…. I made long press on power button then it get restart… It has happened twice with my phone…

The phone is acting cranky sometimes, it is just switching off and with the notification bulb on (white color). and it doesn’t switch on again..the screen goes black. I have to again restart My phone by pressing volume down and power button to restart the device..

https://twitter.com/A143Kumar/status/1006145599962378240

One of the complainants was even suggested by OnePlus support to downgrade

Same issue. Support team told me to downgrade to 5.1.5

Has the update been pulled?

Going by latest reports pouring on OnePlus help forum, Reddit (1, 2), and XDA, the Oxygen OS 5.1.6 update has been rolled back by the company. Many OnePlus 6 users who received the update notification say the notification disappeared after a while, and now they get the message their system is up-to-date with OS 5.1.5.

Many users including me got the system update notification. I didn’t updated it then. Now the notification is not there any more and system update says you’re phone is up to date with 5.1.5.

I got an update file downloaded it as well but because of battery being below 15 % the update did not get installed.
Post charging the update file seems to be missing from the phone and now the system seems to say it is update and the Verizon is 5.1.5.

Yesterday I had got an option to update my phone to Oxygen OS 5.1.6 so I started the update but then I couldn’t complete it because of some network issue. So today I went in the settings and then system updates and searched for new updates and it showed that my phone is up to date. but the os is still 5.1.5

There’s no official confirmation from OnePlus about the update being pulled back yet. A user who approached support got to hear the usual ‘staged roll out‘ explanation:

It’s worth mentioning that recently a OnePlus 6 bootloader vulnerability also came to light, which the company confirmed will be fixed with an update. So it’s quite possible the Oxygen OS 5.1.6 update has been halted for fixing the bootloader glitch as well as the screen black out/device freezing problem highlighted here.

Whatever the case, we hope they fix up both the issues soon, and until then, at least come up with a statement giving clarity not only on these problems but on the availability of update as well.

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur