This Android Wallpaper Can Turn Your Phone to Brick
There are gorgeous Android wallpapers that go around in circles and you should never set them as your phone’s background. It’s nice to look at, yes, but it can also perform soft brick when installed, especially if you’re running Android 10 on a Pixel or Samsung device. That’s why.
Photographer Gaurav Agrawal captured this image of the iconic Lake Saint Mary in Glacier National Park, Montana, which is otherwise the main subject of phone wallpaper. Agrawal tells 9to5Google that he exported a file from Adobe Lightroom in ProPhoto RGB format.
It doesn’t sound terrible, but it is the source of the soft brick problem. Android displays images in sRGB color space, but Agrawal photography uses RGB, which seems to have confused some devices and caused the glitches in question.
It is clear that Agrawal did not intend for his photograph to be the cause of the widespread collapse of soft brick, but the good news is that the problem is not permanent. Unlike a completely brick-filled device, a soft brick phone can be refurbished. Unfortunately, the only way to do this is to perform a factory reset, which will delete all your apps and saved data.
Instead, satisfy your curiosity by viewing the original full-size photo on the Agrawal Flickr page or watching this bug in action video from 9to5Google:
However, the Android color space incompatibility error may not be an issue forever. The upcoming Android 11 will convert background images to sRGB, which should prevent similar errors from occurring in the future. Indeed, some Android 11 beta devices can safely use Agrawal’s photo as wallpaper.
Google announced that it is working on a similar solution for Android 10, but it may take some time before the patch is released. However, all Android users are advised to stay away from wallpapers for now, even if they are using Android 11 beta (just in case). Or, make sure you are using a version of the image that uses a different color space, even if you have to change the original image yourself. God saves man, who save himself.