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.
ContentsProblems with contacts, keyboard, signal loss, and more
Bug: Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped
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.
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Problem: Keyboard keeps disappearing
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.
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Issue: Blank or pale screen
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.
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Bug: Loss of signal
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.
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Glitch: Call volume too low
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.)
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Problems with freezing, battery life, camera, and more
Problem: Moto G won’t turn on
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.
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Problem: Freezing and rebooting
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.
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Glitch: Battery life erratic
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.)
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Problem: Can’t detect SIM
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.
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Bug: Camera error
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.
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Problems with LED, rattling, rebooting, and more
Bug: LED notification not working
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.
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Annoyance: It makes a rattling noise
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.
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Problem: Poor audio quality
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.
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Glitch: Moto G reboots when charging, or won’t charge
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.
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Bug: Problem parsing the package
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.
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Problems with Wi-Fi, reset menu, calls, and more
Glitch: Wi-Fi won’t connect or drops inexplicably
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.
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Annoyance: Unable to get to reset menu
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.
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Problem: Unable to make/receive calls or messages
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.
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Annoyance: Phone enters vibrate/silent mode when it shouldn’t
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.
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Problem: SD card error
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.
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