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Android Pie is causing a major slowdown in Chrome OS, here’s how to avoid it

Chrome OS 72 Stable has been available for almost two weeks now, bringing Android Pie to a few devices, but in the past few days, some users have noticed a serious slowdown issue. Thankfully, there’s a few ways to avoid it entirely.

The slowdown, via Chrome Unboxed, seems to only affect users of Chrome OS version 72 and newer (meaning devices on the Beta and Dev update channels are also affected) who have also been updated to Android Pie.

The only three devices to receive Android Pie so far are the Pixelbook, Pixel Slate, and the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2. Users of these devices are noticing high CPU usage leading to abnormally high device temperatures.

The exact cause of the issue is still under investigation by Google, but it seems to be tied to more detailed information about the performance of your Android apps being reported to Chrome OS’s Task Manager. Specifically, with Android Pie, Chrome OS can now know how much RAM each Android app uses.

The two simplest ways to avoid this issue are to either stay on Chrome OS 71, or just not use the Chrome OS Task Manager until a fix has been released.

If you’ve already updated to Chrome OS 72 and find yourself in need of the Task Manager, you can also disable the “Memory footprint” column by right-clicking a column header in Task Manager and un-checking “Memory footprint” as seen below. This stops the Task Manager from asking Android for the latest RAM usage info.

Google is still actively investigating the issue, and we will keep you updated as the situation progresses. No timeline has been offered for when we will see a fix arrive, but it’s safe to assume that Google will not let the issue remain in Chrome OS Stable for long. We may see an update arrive in the coming days.

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Avatar for Kyle Bradshaw Kyle Bradshaw

Kyle is an author and researcher for 9to5Google, with special interests in Made by Google products, Fuchsia, and uncovering new features.

Got a tip or want to chat? Twitter or Email. Kyle@9to5mac.com