Why Pixel 6 Users Should Disable Google Photos Automatic Updates Right Now
The Pixel 6 is Google’s best smartphone so far, but the first few months of its life were full of bugs and users are reporting another instability affecting the Google Photos app. After the latest app update, some users are experiencing crashes when using the Magic Eraser tool in Google Photos. While this means that the bug only affects Pixel 6 devices, the Magic Eraser tool is one of the best features of the new phone.
As the name suggests, the Pixel 6’s Magic Eraser can remove elements from photos, such as unwanted objects in the background, and uses the phone’s powerful Tensor AI chip to fill in gaps believably. It’s probably the best and most desired photo-editing tool the Pixel line has ever seen, but the latest update to the Google Photos app breaks it. It’s unclear exactly what the problem is, but it’s definitely localized for the new update; users who didn’t update seem to be spared.
If you can still use the Google Photos Magic Eraser tool on your Pixel 6, you should disable automatic updates to avoid the problematic fix before installing it:
- Open the Google Play Store app on your Pixel 6.
- Search for “Google Photos” in the search bar, or tap your profile picture in the top right corner and select ” App & Device Management” > “Installed” > “Google Photos ” to open the app’s store page.
- On the Google Photos store page, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner.
- Disable “Enable Automatic Updates”.
- Also, don’t manually install pending Google Photos updates.
If you catch this in time, you can safely continue using the Magic Eraser, and if it’s too late, you’ll know if you try to use the feature and it will fail. Unfortunately, you can’t go back to previous versions of the app to fix this issue.
You should disable automatic updates and avoid manual updates for Google Photos (or not use Magic Eraser if you already have a bug) for a few days. Chances are Google is investigating the issue and will release a patch as soon as possible to fix it since this is such a serious and widespread problem.