VR Hardware

Bricked Quest headsets: A four-year-old bug is to blame

Jan 20 2025 Tomislav Bezmalinovic

Image: Meta

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A software update rendered an unknown number of Quest headsets unusable over Christmas. Meta now explains the cause.

FACTS

Almost a month after the software update problems, VP of Horizon OS and Quest Mark Rabkin talks about the source of the problem.

It was a four-year-old bug that didn't cause a problem until last month.

Meta identified a rare bug in the Android file system that could cause file corruption during read/write operations. The problem was exacerbated by a security patch that prevented the operating system from rolling back. The result was unresponsive headsets. Rabkin writes that the bug has been fixed.

V72 is awesome, we paused it for a while to make damn sure it doesn't contribute to the update issues. We tracked that down btw - rare race condition in AOSP R/W ext4 filesystem that corrupts files + a key security patch that prevents OS rollback. Fixed bug and upstreaming.

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- Mark Rabkin (@mrabkin) January 20, 2025

The issue was not due to firmware update v72, but its rollout has been temporarily halted to ensure it is not contributing to the problem.

CONTEXT

It is not known how many headsets were affected by this issue.

According to user reports on forums and Reddit, the problem was most common with older Quest 2 headsets that had not been used for a long time, and to a lesser extent with Quest 3 and 3S units. When trying to update the firmware, the update would fail and the device would become unresponsive.

Shortly before the end of the year, Meta introduced a simplified replacement process for bricked headsets, which can be used to determine if a device is eligible for replacement.

At the time of this writing, the Meta Quest Help Center still contains the following note:

"We've discovered a software update issue that caused some Quest 2/3/3S headsets to be unresponsive and unable to start up correctly. We are actively working on resolving the issue for all users, but in most cases, you are now able to use your device normally. If you have a device that is still unresponsive, please click the button below for next steps. Thank you for your understanding."

Were you affected by this issue and were you able to get your device replaced? Then write in the comments.

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