Fix a Pixel phone that's restarting or crashing

Try the following steps if your phone has any of these problems:

• Randomly reboots or restarts
• Shuts down without restarting
• Restarts constantly: Go to the Advanced troubleshooting section.

Important: Some of these steps only work on Android 6.0 and up. Learn how to check your Android version.

Troubleshoot your phone

Check for Android updates

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Near the bottom, tap System  System update.
3. Your update status will appear. Follow any steps on the screen.

Check storage & clear space

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Storage.
3. See how much storage you have available. Your phone can have issues when less than 10% of storage is available. If you're running low on storage, learn how to free up space.

Troubleshoot apps on your phone

Check for app updates

1. Open the Google Play Store app .
2. At the top right, tap the profile icon.
3. Tap Manage apps & devices.
4. Under "Updates available," choose to update all apps or a specific app.

Close apps you're not using

1. Open your phone's Settings app.
2. Tap Apps See all apps.
3. Tap the app.
4. Tap Force stop OK.

Tip: To help identify which apps are causing problems, make a list of the apps you force stop.

Find out whether an app causes your problem

Restart in safe mode

Important: Safe mode temporarily turns off all downloaded apps.

Check if the problem goes away. If it does, an app is likely causing your problem. Go to the next step. If the problem doesn't go away, skip to Advanced troubleshooting.

Tip: Airplane mode is automatically turned on when you enter safe mode. We recommend turning airplane mode off in order to continue using features such as GPS, Wi-Fi, and making phone calls.

Restart your phone normally & check apps

1. Restart your phone.
2. One by one, remove recently downloaded apps. Learn how to delete apps.
3. After each removal, restart your phone normally. See whether removing that app solved the problem.
4. After you remove the app that caused the problem, you can add back the other apps that you removed. Learn how to reinstall apps.

Advanced troubleshooting

Remove cases & external batteries

If you’ve put a case, external battery pack, or other accessory on your phone, try taking it off while you troubleshoot.

Make sure that external accessories don’t cover your phone’s sensors or touch its buttons.

Consider resetting your phone to factory settings

IMPORTANT: A factory data reset will remove all data from your phone. While any data stored in your Google Account will be restored, all apps and their associated data will be uninstalled. Before you perform a factory data reset, we recommend backing up your phone.

• Learn how to back up and restore data.
• Learn how to perform a factory data reset.

Tips:

• If your phone doesn't respond or stays blank, you can use the your phone's buttons to trigger a factory data reset.
• If an app that you downloaded caused the issue and you reinstall that app, the problem could come back.

Post your question to a Google forum

For possible solutions to other issues with your phone’s reset, you can post questions on our forums to the Pixel community.

Still have issues with restarts or crashes?

If your phone still has issues with restarts or crashes, you can get help. Learn how to contact us.

Related resources

• Fix a phone that freezes or is unresponsive
• Speed up a slow phone
• Free up storage & memory