AirDrop is giving Google’s Quick Share, the latest theirs-but-better foe to Apple’s proprietary file sharer on Android, a run for its money as Pixel 10 owners are finding it unusable with the Google app update that should have fixed that. Simply opening the drop-down Quick Share menu can cause the phone to lose its Wi‑Fi connection, clearing a list of available networks until the user is either allowed to go back or reconnects.
What Pixel 10 users are seeing with Quick Share issues
Pixel 10/Pixel 10 Pro owners posting to the relevant threads in Google’s Issue Tracker have a similar story to tell: installing the Quick Share extension that enables AirDrop support leads to some tap-tap-wait combo in the system share sheet, then all of a sudden your phone has disconnected from Wi‑Fi.
Occasionally, the Wi‑Fi panel is empty when Quick Share is opened and nothing can be seen.
Threads in the Pixel Phone Help forum and on the Google Issue Tracker describe similar behavior. Infuriatingly, one forum thread ended with it being closed and being advised to file a bug on the tracker only for an entry to be tagged ‘won’t fix (obsolete)’ there and send users back to the forum. Community moderators and product experts have not provided a solid mitigation other than rolling back the extension update.
Why this might be happening with Quick Share on Pixel 10
Quick Share uses a combination of Bluetooth for discovery and Wi‑Fi Direct for high-speed, local transfers. On current phones the Wi‑Fi radio can hold a conventional network connection running while spinning up a peer-to-peer link for sharing. Opening the share interface can momentarily tear down the client connection if concurrency isn’t dealt with nicely, and unless you’re careful, that’d look just like a Wi‑Fi dropout.
That would make sense within an active transfer where the device might want to use a direct, high-throughput channel. The odd thing is that the disconnection seems to occur without a file having been selected and transferred yet. That suggests a software regression with how the Quick Share extension or associated services condition the radio for AirDrop-capable sessions.
Who is affected, and how much of a problem is it?
Currently complaints are around the Pixel 10 series, after users installed the Quick Share extension for AirDrop‑level features. Not everyone’s affected and some claim their Wi‑Fi remains robust during transfers, which indicates potential issues with builds or regions or router situations. Since the bug occurs on menu open and not in the midst of a transfer, it’s easy to replicate but tough to overlook if you use AirDrop frequently for sharing screenshots, photos, or links.
Aside from this, the only telemetry comes in anecdotal observations of scale. On the other hand, they are all general symptoms that have been described across community posts, so it seems unlikely these symptoms are simply isolated quirkiness on my router. Similar issues also arose with Wi‑Fi Direct concurrency on previous Android versions and they were typically fixed with Play services or firmware updates.
Temporary workarounds to avoid Wi‑Fi drops with Quick Share
According to multiple users, the disconnects cease when they uninstall the specific Quick Share extension update that brought in AirDrop support. That would fix the Wi‑Fi stability, but you lose the very feature most folks are excited to experiment with. If you rely on Wi‑Fi for calls, streaming, or enterprise apps, that could be a trade-off worth making until a fix is in place.
Other low‑impact actions that have been said to assist in the short term include:
- Toggling Airplane mode after exiting Quick Share to force a fresh reconnect
- Clearing cache for Quick Share and Google Play services
- Rebooting after you make any changes in settings
These don’t remedy the fundamental issue, and can fail or succeed based on device state.
What Google has said so far about Pixel 10 Quick Share bug
Users have reported the behavior through official channels, but the feedback loop has been ugly as well: threads have been closed and tracker items marked obsolete. Several outlets have reached out for comment from Google on whether a patch is coming in the form of Play updates or a Pixel Feature Drop. By virtue of the bug’s nature, a server-side or app-level tweak — or even a radio firmware tune-up, for that matter — could conceivably fix the concurrency hiccup without waiting on another full OS update.
The bigger picture remains interesting: native, local exchange for far too long has bedeviled Android handsets and iPhones alike beyond the friction point at which Quick Share shoves AirDrop. Correcting this Wi‑Fi snafu soon is important, as initial friction can sour adoption. If you rely on consistent Wi‑Fi throughout the workday, you may want to put the AirDrop-supporting extension on pause for now—and keep an eye out for a proper solution from Google’s support channels.