ChromeOS 119 release returns a week after being pulled
The ChromeOS 119 release is again available, a week after the update was removed. As of Wednesday morning, most Chromebooks and ChromeOS devices can again upgrade to ChromeOS 119. While this is good news, we still don’t know what the issue was. And the situation shows that Google could improve its communication when this happens.
How to get ChromeOS 119
More than likely, if you go into your Chromebook Settings and select About ChromeOS, you’ll see the ChromeOS 119 update available.
It’s possible that your device has already downloaded the release. In that case, a restart will apply the update. You can always check here to see what the most current software is for your device.
What was the problem with ChromeOS 119?
I mentioned previously that I spent hours looking through the Chromium bug reports. I never did find the specific issue, or issues, that caused this release to be pulled. This morning, I looked through the change log between the original and current versions. Again, I came up empty.
It’s entirely possible the reason ChromeOS 119 was pulled is in the change log and I simply don’t see it.
However, several Chromebook owners in the ChromeOS subReddit have reported a range of issues from the original update, including:
- “The update took really looong, machine rebooted at least twice, showing some cryptic firmware screen in between and then hang for a minute with a black screen and no signs of life (that’s when I got worried)”
- “Update 119 crashed and damaged my Chrome os. I had to reverse the update just to get it working again. Now every time I shut off my Chromebook, it updates and crashes and I don’t know how to stop the updates!
- Couldn’t restart after trying to update to 119. Immediately enters recovery mode on startup. Only fix I found was to enter Powerwash move (Ctrl-Alt-t-restart) but the login screen comes up instead, everything is still on 118, and all is good until I try to download and install the update again.
One reader here also noted issues, saying “I work at a school, when we came back from the break today, I had 3 devices that are on 119. Those were now unable to connect to wifi, unable to be power washed, and unable to be properly enrolled. Doing a full system wipe and running them back to 118 fixed them.”
Where’s the communication from Google?
I noted on Monday that Google’s official Chromebook Community still showed the original ChromeOS 119 release post from November 21. As it should.
However, where are the official updates when a ChromeOS update has to be pulled? You can’t even ask about it on the official announcement because replies are locked. That’s not good.
I can understand why Google doesn’t want replies to official news bits. Announcements are simply that: announcements.
But when a release is pulled, I think that announcements should have a brief update to indicate that. And a single thread by Google could be started to share additional details or get more data from users.
That’s not the status quo today, however. I think it should be.
I completely understand that software updates can go wrong. I don’t have a problem when they do. But radio silence on the problem is a poor look. It erodes trust. And it sends a message of “We don’t care” without even sending a message.
The issue I was having (not sure if this new update fixed yet, haven’t had time to test) since the 119 update the other week was when going between windows the graphics was very slow to focus in on new window. Things also did seem slow on the whole. This sucks but still not as bad as my windows experiences…… it is strange how no one seems to test things properly before releasing ….. and loads people on Chromebook websites suggests all these flags and beta channel etc, do you guys like pain or something? Apart from security updates I’d prefer slower updates that didn’t cause issues. Where’s the release channel for that path? right now we just all beta testers….
I have an Acer Chromebook 516 GE (CBG516-1H) and stable version 119 since November 15. The update was done in a completely standard way and the Chromebook’s behavior is absolutely fine.
I have noticed the same thing, a few times a day when I use alt-tab to switch windows, the window I switch to is blurry, it takes about a second to focus, but as I said, it’s only a few times a day, meaning it’s not always.
James, thanks for describing this error. I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed. Today’s update 119.0.6045.192 didn’t fix it.
Yes this focus issue still persists, if anything now worse. Doesn’t seem to really want to Focus until move mouse i.e interact with window moving to. Which of course is annoying because so often you switch window because you want to read data or something from another window rather than interact. You know a quick switch back and forth.
Hopefully this gets fixed, really sloppy that allowed through updates and not picked up. Been using this Lenovo Chromebook for over 2 years and not seen it before. Amazing how no one is testing at Google, this kind of thing shouldn’t get through to stable channel update.
This 119 update caused such varied issues across so many devices, whatever testing process they have is just not working. Surely they have one of each device they test with at least? Have they passed Chrome OS to a couple of interns or something? The cost of doing proper testing is so little, especially when there are so many out there willing to use beta and dev channel.
Over-communicating can backfire terribly on you. Having myself been in the midst of a situation where you’re still trying to diagnose what problem or problems are at the root of a range of symptoms, I can understand not wanting to expend a lot of effort communicating an issue or prematurely imply a diagnosis or fix, only to later look totally inept after inadvertently misinforming and misleading your customers. I think that Google acknowledged that there were problems by immediately pulling back the release and they seemed to have solved the problems relatively quickly. That’s all that really matters.
Personally, I think that I much prefer smaller, more incremental, but also more frequent and continuous releases over gargantuan releases ala MS Windows. So far it’s been working. And, when there is a glitch, it’s less significant and relatively fewer people are affected for a comparatively shorter period of time. I say, stay the course and avoid knee-jerk reactions.
Ever since ChromeOS 119 was applied to my Chromebooks I am continually being asked to create a new GMail or Calendar account. The only way around it I have found is to click sign in then when the new account window opens click next the close the window and click sign in again once again close the window that appears. I can then select my google account and get GMail to open. This did not happen on 118 only 119, even with the new update. It also is appearing in the 120 beta version. Frankly I am getting very frustrated (being polite here) with it
I get that sinking feeling, that when the person at Google assigned to review popular blogs like yours (not sure what to call AboutChromebooks?) they are simply thinking “the poor cusses, they complain and keep buying”. They will care when sales drop… I’m already in boycott mode!