Pixel 6 random reboot and freezing

[Newbie1925]

I purchased a Pixel 6 late last year, and with the exception of poor fingerprint scanning, it was working fine. However, since then the fingerprint scanning has deteriorated significantly, and in addition the phone now randomly reboots or freezes. Initially the random rebooting happened only in the Camera app, but now it happens during Google maps and drive apps, CNN app, Duolingo app, etc. The random reboots have increased to five each day. I tried all the troubleshooting tips and it did not make any difference.
I contacted Google Support and they said that a factory reset has to be done to resolve this issue. I am very hesitant to do a factory reset because it is a very time consuming process to re-customize the phone after the reset, and there is no certainty that it will resolve the issue. My first purchase was a Pixel 6 pro, and it had many glitches, and even after factory reset the glitches remained, so I returned it and bought the lower-priced Pixel 6. So the factory reset itself is a shot in the dark.

Can someone please help me with trouble shooting that does NOT involve a factory reset? It is very time consuming for me to re-customize the phone after reset, and I can't do it every time the Pixel 6 develops glitches with each software update. If I have to do a reset for each glitch, I will never truly be able to enjoy using the phone.
Thank you very much.

 

[mikedt]

I purchased a Pixel 6 late last year, and with the exception of poor fingerprint scanning, it was working fine. However, since then the fingerprint scanning has deteriorated significantly, and in addition the phone now randomly reboots or freezes. Initially the random rebooting happened only in the Camera app, but now it happens during Google maps and drive apps, CNN app, Duolingo app, etc. The random reboots have increased to five each day. I tried all the troubleshooting tips and it did not make any difference.
I contacted Google Support and they said that a factory reset has to be done to resolve this issue. I am very hesitant to do a factory reset because it is a very time consuming process to re-customize the phone after the reset, and there is no certainty that it will resolve the issue. My first purchase was a Pixel 6 pro, and it had many glitches, and even after factory reset the glitches remained, so I returned it and bought the lower-priced Pixel 6. So the factory reset itself is a shot in the dark.

Can someone please help me with trouble shooting that does NOT involve a factory reset? It is very time consuming for me to re-customize the phone after reset, and I can't do it every time the Pixel 6 develops glitches with each software update. If I have to do a reset for each glitch, I will never truly be able to enjoy using the phone.
Thank you very much.

Try the phone in safe-mode, that is only the system apps and processes running. And if it's still glitching, freezing, and rebooting, then it's probably a fault that needs repair or replacement.

 

[codesplice]

Try the phone in safe-mode, that is only the system apps and processes running. And if it's still glitching, freezing, and rebooting, then it's probably a fault that needs repair or replacement.

This was going to be my recommendation as well.

You can learn about using Safe Mode here:
Find problem apps by rebooting to safe mode - Pixel Phone Help

Note that you'll really need to leave the phone in Safe Mode for an extended period of time for this to be a valid test; if your phone was crashing every 6 hours or so, you'd need to wait at least 6 hours to see if there's a change.

If it still crashes in Safe Mode, like @mikedt says it may indicate a hardware fault which would not be corrected by a factory reset. If it behaves better, that might suggest that a factory reset could help .