Pixel 4 Series Users Facing Issue With Face Unlock Preventing Them From Unlocking Their Phones

Pixel 4 series users are facing issues with the face unlock feature and have shared their concerns on Google's Issue Tracker, Google's product forum, Reddit, and other platforms. Some users have complained that they are receiving an error message that reads “clean the top of your screen, including the black bar” when trying to unlock their phones using face unlock. They claim that this started happening after the Android 11 update and that restarting the phone only temporarily fixes the issue. Users have been facing problems with Pixel 4's face unlock features since last year, some of which have been fixed by software updates.

On Google's Issue Tracker, a user posted about this issue with face unlock on Pixel 4 XL back in May and till today, November 10, there has seemingly been no fix, even though there have been multiple updates since. The issue is not limited to Pixel 4 XL but is affecting Pixel 4 users as well. While some users have started experiencing the issue following the Android 11 update, others have been dealing with similar problems even before that. Some users have also shared that the face unlock issue started happening after the November 2020 update.

Rebooting the phone only temporarily fixes the issue for some users. This has become a major inconvenience for Pixel 4 series users as the phone does not have a fingerprint scanner. Interestingly, the status of this issue has been listed as ‘Fixed' on the Issue Tracker, however, as mentioned earlier, users have posted their complaints even at the time of writing.

Pixel 4 series users have shared similar experiences with the face unlock feature on Reddit, Google's product forum, and XDA forums. The user complaints were first noted by Android Police.

There have been several issues with Pixel 4 series face unlock feature in the past, some of which were fixed by software updates. Back in October last year, Pixel 4 users complained about the face unlock feature unlocking the phone even when the user was looking away from the screen. Google fixed this issue in December through a software update. Then, in January, Pixel 4 users started facing issues again where the phone simply failed to recognise their face.

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