Google Pixel 6 Pro users report random reboots after Android 16, and a Tensor thermal sensor may be the cause
Google’s early Tensor-powered Pixel phones have long been associated with heat-related complaints, especially during demanding tasks, charging, gaming, navigation, or extended camera use. But a newly reported Pixel 6 Pro issue suggests that overheating may not always be the real reason behind sudden shutdowns or restarts.
A Pixel 6 Pro owner has discovered that the phone may reboot unexpectedly because of what appears to be a false thermal trigger from the Tensor GS101 chip’s Thermal Management Unit, also known as the TMU. The issue reportedly appeared while running Android 16, and the strange part is that the phone was not hot when the reboot happened.
According to the report, the Pixel 6 Pro’s TMU is designed to trigger a thermal reboot if the chip reaches an extreme temperature threshold of 115°C, or 239°F. That is far beyond normal operating temperatures and would usually indicate a serious overheating event. However, in this case, the recorded temperatures were only around 56°C to 57°C, which is well below the shutdown limit.
Despite those much lower temperature readings, the device’s bug report showed signs of a thermal-related reboot. The boot reason appeared as “reboot,thermal,tj,” with “tj” referring to junction temperature, a term commonly used when monitoring processor heat levels.
The report also included an error code showing “RST_STAT: 0x40000 – PIN_RESET,” which points toward a hardware-triggered reset. This suggests that the phone may have believed it crossed a critical thermal limit even though the actual sensor readings did not support that.
This is important because many Pixel 6 Pro owners who experience random restarts may assume the cause is a battery problem, Android 16 instability, a faulty app, or general overheating. If this report is accurate, the real issue could be a misfire from the Tensor chip’s thermal monitoring system.
How Pixel 6 Pro users can check for the same issue
Users who experience sudden reboots can generate a bug report shortly after the phone restarts. To do this, go to Settings, then About Phone, and tap Build Number seven times to enable Developer Options. After that, go to Settings, System, Developer Options, and select Bug Report.
For more detailed information, users can create a bug report from a computer using adb bugreport, which may capture extra crash data, including board-level logs.
After generating the report, users can search for several key terms that may indicate the same false thermal trip problem:
reboot,thermal,tj in the boot reason or boot reason history
Thermal (TMU) HW Trip in the RAMDUMP_MSG block
Reboot reason: 0xcdca, which is linked to an Exynos-style thermal trip reboot code
RST_STAT: 0x40000 or RST_STAT: 0xc0000, which may indicate a TMU-related PIN_RESET
S2MPG10 OFFSRC 0x20, which may show that the power management chip detected a thermal shutdown
persist.sys.boot.reason.history to check whether repeated thermal reboot entries appear with timestamps
[SLIDER] [TMU:0] and [SLIDER] [TMU:1] in the LAST KMSG section, especially if temperatures are under 80°C shortly after the reboot
getCurrentTemperatures in the thermal HAL dump to compare throttling status with the actual reported temperatures
S2MPG10 OFFSRC and S2MPG11 OFFSRC under PMIC registers, where values such as 0x20 or 0x21 may confirm a thermal shutdown path
The report also notes that other boot reasons point to different problems. For example, “androidboot.bootreason = reboot,bootloader” may indicate a bootloader crash, while “androidboot.bootreason = reboot,watchdog” may suggest a kernel watchdog issue instead of a thermal shutdown.
The Pixel 6 Pro owner reportedly sent the findings to Google Support. However, the response indicated that random rebooting is not currently recognized as a known widespread issue. That said, multiple Pixel 6 Pro users have reportedly experienced similar behavior after installing Android 16.
At this stage, it is not clear whether the issue is limited to the Pixel 6 Pro or whether other Tensor-based Pixel models could also be affected. Since the Pixel 6 Pro uses the first-generation Google Tensor GS101 chip, the problem may be tied to that hardware platform, Android 16’s thermal management behavior, or a combination of both.
For now, Pixel 6 Pro owners dealing with random restarts should collect bug reports immediately after a reboot and contact Google Support with the findings. If enough users provide detailed logs showing the same thermal trip pattern, it could help Google identify the cause and release a software fix more quickly.
The key takeaway is that a Pixel 6 Pro random reboot after Android 16 may not always be caused by actual overheating. In some cases, the phone’s thermal monitoring system may be incorrectly triggering a shutdown, even when the device is operating at a much lower temperature.
