Multiple phones with random, continuous restarts until crash to Android Recovery screen

[ktbonefish]

Starting with a Pixel 9 Pro I bought back in December the phone worked until it started restarting itself and going into a restart loop. It would restart as soon as it came to the unlock screen and in a few seconds restart again until after however many loops of this it crashes to the Android Recovery screen. Factory resets on the phone help for a few days but eventually the problem always comes back. I returned the 9 Pro and went back to my 7 which worked fine. Months later I got the 9a when it released and it started doing the same exact thing. Two warranty replacements later I gave up and went back to my 7 again. Google support said it was a hardware issue each time and did a warranty replacement, though they did no actual troubleshooting. My Pixel 7 has been great for a couple years except now within the past few weeks it started experiencing the same problem too.

I have now had this issue happen on multiple different Pixel devices.

• Pixel 9 Pro
• 3x Pixel 9a
• Pixel 7

Symptoms:

• Phone becomes extremely sluggish where you can barely enter your PIN at times.
• Apps like System Settings or Digital Wellbeing will crash within seconds of accessing and display a "This app has stopped working" alert.
• Phone will randomly restart until it gets to a point it continually restarts as soon as it hits the unlock screen or a few seconds after.
• The issue happens in Safe mode, airplane mode, and normal mode.
• Happens whether i'm actively using the phone or not.

Here's a 3x sped-up video of the issue:

https://imgur.com/a/XaNeHVj

Screenshot of the Android Recovery screen:

https://imgur.com/a/XaNeHVj

I'm pretty sure there's a memory leak in some service since when I look at the debug logs I have taken from the various phones I see almost all the services are crashing with Out of Memory dumps like below.

2025-07-10 10:02:59 system_server_crash (text, 1625 bytes)
SystemUptimeMs: 24345230
Process: system_server
Timestamp: 2025-07-10 10:02:59.360-0600
Build: google/panther/panther:16/BP2A.250705.008/13578956:user/release-keys
Crash-Handler: com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$KillApplicationHandler
Loading-Progress: 1.0
Dropped-Count: 0

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 10939392 byte allocation with 10221344 free bytes and 9981KB until OOM, target footprint 536870912, growth limit 536870912

2025-07-10 01:00:14 system_app_crash (text, 3106 bytes)
SystemUptimeMs: 8643153
Process: com.android.settings
PID: 23807
UID: 1000
Frozen: false
Flags: 0x38cbbe45
Package: com.android.settings v36 (16)
Foreground: No
Process-Runtime: 1617222
Timestamp: 2025-07-10 01:00:14.204-0600
Build: google/panther/panther:16/BP2A.250705.008/13578956:user/release-keys
Crash-Handler: com.android.internal.os.RuntimeInit$KillApplicationHandler
Loading-Progress: 1.0
Dropped-Count: 0

java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: Failed to allocate a 80 byte allocation with 974848 free bytes and 952KB until OOM, target footprint 268435456, growth limit 268435456; giving up on allocation because <1% of heap free after GC.


Does anyone have any suggestions on what could be causing this and how to fix it? Or how I could troubleshoot it further?

 

[ktbonefish]

Anyone have any ideas on what I could do to fix this? The issue continues to plague me to the point I have to factory reset my phone every 4-7 days. Google support continues to be unhelpful. I'm trying to hold out for the Pixel 10 in a few weeks but I'm very worried this issue will follow me there too like it has my other devices.

 

[mustang7757]

Hi welcome to AC!
It sounds like something follows your device like a corrupt app even though you mentioned safe mode and still happening, any antivirus or applications similar?

Running out of storage space on your can cause system instability and crashes?

Faulty Backup: Transferring data and settings from an older device during setup can sometimes introduce instabilities, leading to crashes and other problems?

Few things to check

 

[ktbonefish]

Hi welcome to AC!
It sounds like something follows your device like a corrupt app even though you mentioned safe mode and still happening, any antivirus or applications similar?

Running out of storage space on your can cause system instability and crashes?

Faulty Backup: Transferring data and settings from an older device during setup can sometimes introduce instabilities, leading to crashes and other problems?

Few things to check

Definitely feels like something that follows me around and I'm thinking related to my google account since that's the only factor that seems consistent since it's tied to my Google Fi service.

This will happen whether i install any additional apps after a factory reset or not. I've also had it happen when I don't restore from a backup. I've tried various configurations, leaving settings to defaults, not enabling any extras presented at setup. Various combinations at this point. Storage is definitely not a problem, I have tons of space. I really don't install many apps on the phone since I do most stuff on my computer. Definitely no games or social media apps. No AV installed at any point, just the default security Android gives.

 

[mustang7757]

Hmm
Have you tried without putting a Google account or apps at all ?

 

[ktbonefish]

Hmm
Have you tried without putting a Google account or apps at all ?

I've definitely tried without installing any additional apps that don't come with the default install. The account I haven't since it's tied to my Google Fi service. I can certainly try no account for the short term but if I discover it is the account I still have no clue what I would fix with it. I've tried clearing all possible data from it. Next step is essentially deleting it which I'm not willing to do just yet.

 

[mustang7757]

I've definitely tried without installing any additional apps that don't come with the default install. The account I haven't since it's tied to my Google Fi service. I can certainly try no account for the short term but if I discover it is the account I still have no clue what I would fix with it. I've tried clearing all possible data from it. Next step is essentially deleting it which I'm not willing to do just yet.

Do you have a back up phone?

 

[ktbonefish]

Do you have a back up phone?

My Pixel 7 I'm currently using was the backup phone . It's what I went back to between all the RMAs for the Pixel 9s since it worked great but then it got "infected" too by whatever is going on when Android 16 dropped around April.