The Moto G was one of the best budget phones on the market and it delivered an experience that was better than its price suggested. As great as it is, no phone delivers perfection. Now it’s time we turn our attention to Moto G’s known problems. Every phone has bugs, and here is how to deal with the Moto G’s most common.
This is a really common bug for Moto G owners, but it’s not confined to this model of phone. For some people, the message pops up fairly randomly, others have it pop up specifically when they receive an incoming call, which is obviously very inconvenient. There are some things worth trying, but backup your contacts first.
Quite a few people seem to have run into a problem where the keyboard randomly disappears when it shouldn’t. It might happen in the browser, during a call, or at some other time.
There are a couple of potential issues here. Some Moto G owners report a very pale screen that makes it tough to see what’s going on. Others report a blank screen that doesn’t seem to respond to touches.
A lot of Moto G owners have experiencd a problem with loss of signal. The cell signal seems to drop randomly, sometimes the connection to the SIM card dies, and users can get messages related to airplane mode being on, even though they never turned it on. While the signal is lost they can’t connect to the network or make calls.
A lot of people have encountered an issue with making calls where the volume seems to be very low. The speaker volume will be loud as expected for music or video, but when making or taking a call it can be difficult to hear the caller. Some people have even experienced a complete loss of audio. (Note: Motorola released update 174.44.1.en.US. last year that addressed this issue.)
A few people have run into a problem where the Moto G simply refuses to turn on. It seems to be completely dead and doesn’t respond to key presses.
A lot of people have been having trouble with the Moto G screen freezing and the phone rebooting at random times, sometimes when the screen is off. This could occur with a specific app, the phone dialer, or without an obvious pattern.
You may find that the remaining battery percentage on your Moto G jumps around erratically. It may surprise you by dipping down to 1 percent overnight, but then when you charge it the percentage suddenly jumps to 50 percent or more. This seems to be a calibration error and it might be related to a software update. (Note: This was apparently an error in the calibration system and Motorola has since identified a problem and released a fix for it.)
Some people have found that the Moto G is unable to detect their SIM card. It may also inexplicably drop service, or detect the SIM correctly only to drop it later.
A lot of Moto G owners have encountered a camera error upon trying to launch the camera. It simply won’t start up at all.
A number of people have run into a bug with the notification LED on the Moto G. Their notification light won’t ever turn on, regardless of incoming texts, emails, and calls. As best we can tell, this is caused by restoring settings from a Google account, which could include an instruction from an older phone where the LED was disabled, or nonexistent.
We’ve seen this complaint pop up a lot more for a range of phones. The problem is perceived as an excessive rattling sound when the vibration motor goes off or when the phone is shaken. Some people link it to haptic feedback on the keyboard. For the most part this is harmless; it doesn’t affect the functioning of the device at all, but it may annoy you. The most likely cause is a loose button. You have a couple of options.
The Moto G offers good sound quality for the price, and you never expect much from the speakers, but some people have been disappointed with the quality of the audio when using headphones or earphones to listen to music.
To keep costs down, Motorola shipped the Moto G without a charger; you just get the standard USB cable. It will work with pretty much any standard charger you may have lying around, but some people have reported problems with the phone rebooting when they plug it in, or refusing to charge when the battery runs down. There have also been reports of the Moto G just turning itself off and not charging.
If you want to install an app from an alternative app store, or anywhere but Google Play (or side-load something), you usually start by going to Settings > Security and scroll down to tick the box next to Unknown sources. However, you may also need to untick the Verify apps box. With the Moto G there have been a lot of people reporting that, even after doing that, when trying to install an app they get a parse error message.
It’s very common to run into Wi-Fi issues with any new phone. Some Moto G owners have encountered issues with connecting to various routers. There are some reports of excessive battery drain when changing between routers. Some people can’t get it to connect to their network at all. There are also several reports of the connection just dropping, even at close proximity to the router. There are an awful lot of potential causes for Wi-Fi problems, so try working through the suggestions below and hopefully you’ll find a fix that works for you.
Sometimes you need to reset your phone to the way it was when you first got it, maybe because an unknown app is causing issues or an update wasn’t installed correctly. A factory reset is your last option to deal with a problem when nothing else works. Sadly, some Moto G owners have been unable to reset their devices using the normal method, which involves navigating through menus. Thankfully, there are other ways to get the job done.
The Moto G may offer a ton of features, but it’s still a phone that needs to be able to make calls and receive texts messages. Some have reportedly been unable to do both, and, over time, this has become less of an annoyance and more of an actual issue. However, there are a few things to try and look into before all hope is lost.
As useful as vibrate/silent mode is, there are plenty of people out there that don’t want their phones silenced. Sadly, a few of those same users have noticed their phone entering silent mode on its own, without any interaction from the owner.
When attempting to access the SD card, the user is met with a message stating the card was removed. The SD card works as intended, but it’s not being recognized by the Moto G.
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.