Pikmin Bloom Occasionally Stops Planting Flowers When Screen Is Off on Google Pixel 11 Pro XL

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Dear Pikmin Bloom Support Team,

I am writing to report a recurring flower-planting problem that appears to occur when Pikmin Bloom is running in the background with the screen turned off on my Google Pixel 11 Pro XL.

I have spent a considerable amount of time troubleshooting this issue, and I would like to provide as much information as possible because the problem is intermittent and difficult to reproduce consistently.

Device information

  • Device: Google Pixel 11 Pro XL
  • Storage: 1 TB
  • Operating system: Android
  • Location permission for Pikmin Bloom: Allow all the time
  • Battery usage for Pikmin Bloom: Unrestricted
  • Other relevant permissions and background settings: Enabled as fully as possible
  • The phone is a relatively new device, and its GPS/location functionality generally works normally in other applications.

The problem

When I plant flowers while walking, taking public transportation, or riding a bicycle, Pikmin Bloom normally tracks my movement and plants flowers correctly.

However, when the screen is turned off and the phone is placed in my pocket while I am riding a YouBike, flower planting sometimes completely stops.

The most frustrating aspect is that this is NOT consistently reproducible.

The exact same:

  • phone
  • app
  • permissions
  • battery settings
  • bicycle
  • route
  • pocket
  • approximate riding speed

can result in either successful or unsuccessful flower planting.

In other words:

Sometimes it works normally, and sometimes absolutely no flowers are planted.

Important evidence from repeated use

I regularly use the same route to travel home by YouBike.

On multiple previous occasions, including the previous evening, I successfully planted flowers on this exact route while riding a bicycle with the phone in the same pocket.

On another occasion, I followed essentially the same procedure, but after completing the entire bicycle trip I discovered that no flowers had been planted at all.

This means that the route itself is very unlikely to be the cause.

I also deliberately reduced my cycling speed to avoid any possibility of triggering Pikmin Bloom’s speed-related flower-planting restrictions. I used no more than second gear on the YouBike, even though the bicycle has a third gear.

Despite this, flower planting could still completely fail.

GPS and movement evidence

The phone continues to record my steps normally while this happens.

My actual physical movement is also continuous and normal.

I have previously used the same phone to successfully plant flowers while walking, riding a bicycle, and traveling by bus.

For example, shortly before one of the failures:

  1. I successfully planted flowers while riding a bus.
  2. I got off the bus and walked.
  3. Pikmin Bloom continued to function normally.
  4. I then rented a YouBike and started cycling.
  5. During the bicycle ride, flower planting stopped completely.
  6. After returning home and opening Pikmin Bloom again, I discovered that no flowers had been planted during the bicycle ride.

This strongly suggests that the problem is not simply a general GPS failure on the phone.

Background-app behavior

One potentially relevant circumstance is that, when renting a YouBike, I normally open the YouBike app to scan the QR code.

On one of the failed occasions, I:

  1. Had Pikmin Bloom running and planting flowers.
  2. Opened the YouBike app to scan the bicycle’s QR code.
  3. The YouBike app remained in the foreground.
  4. I turned off the screen without switching back to Pikmin Bloom.
  5. I placed the phone in my pocket.
  6. I started cycling.
  7. After the entire trip, I discovered that no flowers had been planted.

Initially, I suspected that the YouBike app might have interfered with location access or caused Pikmin Bloom to stop receiving location updates.

However, after many additional tests over a long period of time, I no longer believe this is necessarily the sole cause.

I have tried different procedures and settings, and the problem still occurs intermittently even when I attempt to avoid this situation.

Therefore, I suspect that there may be an underlying issue involving Pikmin Bloom’s background location tracking, background execution, or the handling of location updates while the screen is turned off on this device/Android environment.

Battery and permission troubleshooting

I previously experienced a similar problem where flower planting stopped while the screen was off.

At that time, changing Pikmin Bloom’s battery usage setting to “Unrestricted” appeared to resolve the issue.

Since then, the battery setting has remained at “Unrestricted.”

Location access has also been configured to allow Pikmin Bloom to access my location all the time.

Therefore, the current problem cannot simply be explained by Pikmin Bloom being configured with a restricted battery setting or insufficient location permission.

Despite having these settings enabled, the problem still occurs occasionally.

The problem is intermittent

This is perhaps the most important point.

I have tested the same phone and the same route repeatedly.

There are situations where:

  • Pikmin Bloom successfully plants flowers with the screen off.
  • Pikmin Bloom successfully tracks my movement while cycling.
  • The same route works normally.
  • The same pocket placement works normally.

But on other occasions:

  • The screen is turned off.
  • The phone is placed in exactly the same pocket.
  • I travel along exactly the same route.
  • I deliberately maintain a relatively low cycling speed.
  • My phone continues to record movement/steps.
  • Pikmin Bloom appears to remain configured correctly.

Yet zero flowers are planted during the entire trip.

This inconsistency makes it difficult for me to identify a user-side configuration problem.

Why this is particularly important

This issue is especially frustrating when I am using limited seasonal or event flowers.

I intentionally choose cycling as a way to make flower planting more efficient than walking, while still maintaining a reasonable speed.

When the game silently fails to plant flowers during an entire trip, I may only discover the problem after returning home.

By that point, valuable event flower petals have already been spent, while I have received no corresponding flower-planting progress.

Because some event flowers are difficult to obtain in large quantities, losing an entire cycling session due to an undetected background-location failure can have a significant impact on gameplay.

Request for investigation

Could the development team please investigate whether Pikmin Bloom has any known issues with:

  1. Background location updates when the screen is turned off on Google Pixel devices.
  2. Background execution on recent Android/Pixel versions.
  3. Location updates stopping intermittently after Pikmin Bloom is moved from the foreground to the background.
  4. Flower planting failing when another application was previously in the foreground.
  5. Location updates becoming unreliable after the phone is locked immediately after using another location-enabled application.
  6. Pikmin Bloom incorrectly determining that the player is not moving even though Android continues to record physical movement.
  7. Any compatibility issues specifically involving the Google Pixel 11 Pro XL and the current version of Android/Pikmin Bloom.

I would also appreciate it if the team could check whether there are any known issues with background location handling on Pixel devices that may not be resolved simply by granting “Allow all the time” location access and setting battery usage to “Unrestricted.”

I understand that GPS behavior can sometimes be affected by environmental conditions. However, the fact that the exact same device, route, pocket placement, cycling behavior, and settings can work normally on one occasion and completely fail on another makes me believe that this deserves further investigation.

I would be happy to provide additional information such as:

  • Screenshots
  • Screen recordings
  • Device information
  • Pikmin Bloom version
  • Android version
  • Approximate time of a failed session
  • Route information
  • Any diagnostic information that may help your development team reproduce the issue

Please let me know what diagnostic information would be most useful.

I really enjoy Pikmin Bloom and use the flower-planting feature frequently, so I hope this issue can be investigated and potentially addressed in a future update.

Thank you very much for your time and assistance.

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