Oops: Google sent Pixel users a huge, useless update

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Sure, you probably have Android 12 on your Pixel phone by now, but what if you put it on there a second time?

That's basically what happened to a bunch of Pixel users yesterday. They had the latest Android 12 build on their device, and the phone's automatic update system prompted them to download nearly the same build through a whopping 1.8GB download. After questions on Reddit popped up, the official Google account responded to users, saying, "We're sorry for the alert you received. Not to worry, we've resolved this issue and you can disregard it."

We have no way of knowing which builds users were updated to, but the examples we've seen online all involve a Verizon build of the Pixel software going out to non-Verizon users. Devices running Android 12 with the November security update were updated to the Verizon version of that update. As far as we can tell, the differences between the normal build and the Verizon build are about what you would expect: the Verizon version contains extra code that helps the phone work on Verizon's network. The affected devices seem to include many older Pixel devices but not the brand-new Pixel 6.

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