Narrative:

Electronic flight bag (efb) failed during critical phase of flight. It was frozen (locked-up; would not respond). During taxi-out; my efb would not change from the dx release page of fliteview to the jeppesen taxi chart. The last thing I did prior to that condition was to turn off the cellular just prior to push command.prior to calling for taxi; I tried to switch my efb to the jeppesen taxi chart; and realized that the efb was nonfunctional. I was heads-down for a minute or two; and finally gave up and decided to taxi out of the alley (so-as to not block other aircraft) and find a place to park and deal with the efb. It took 7 minutes to get the efb working; [to do a] hard shutdown; then restart; and bringing up jeppesen application and the fliteview application; and verify that those apps are working.fuel: both engines were running at idle for 7 minutes while I fixed my efb. That's roughly 140 lbs. Of fuel (25% of my contingency). The first officer's efb also failed just a few minutes earlier; during pre-flight. The screen brightness was stuck at such a low setting that we could not review departure specifics. I asked him to 're-start' his efb. After re-start; the display worked fine. The reason I bring this up; is to shed light on the probability of dual efb failure; or significant distraction during flight.positive control of cellular/network state is one of several known deficiencies of the efb; and has been a problem with every update since we started using the efb. It usually does not lock-up the device. The most common problem is that it distracts pilots from their surroundings while trying to interpret contradictory indication of network status on the efb. On this particular event; it locked up the entire device; rendering it useless. Unfortunately; I did not know the efb was frozen until pushed back from the ramp and ready to taxi. The page was on was the dx release message. We have been trying to get the tablet working as an efb for a long time. It remains a huge distraction to the operation on the ground; and occasionally during flight. [It's] time to give up on it; and go with the industry standard.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ERJ-175 Captain reported both his and the First Officer's tablet Electronic Flight Bags exhibited anomalies that were distracting and caused an operational delay.

Narrative: Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) failed during critical phase of flight. It was frozen (locked-up; would not respond). During Taxi-out; my EFB would not change from the DX Release page of FliteView to the Jeppesen Taxi chart. The last thing I did prior to that condition was to turn off the Cellular just prior to push command.Prior to calling for taxi; I tried to switch my EFB to the Jeppesen TAXI chart; and realized that the EFB was nonfunctional. I was heads-down for a minute or two; and finally gave up and decided to taxi out of the alley (so-as to not block other aircraft) and find a place to park and deal with the EFB. It took 7 minutes to get the EFB working; [to do a] hard shutdown; then restart; and bringing up Jeppesen Application and the FliteView Application; and verify that those apps are working.FUEL: Both engines were running at idle for 7 minutes while I fixed my EFB. That's roughly 140 lbs. of fuel (25% of my contingency). The First Officer's EFB also failed just a few minutes earlier; during pre-flight. The screen brightness was stuck at such a low setting that we could not review departure specifics. I asked him to 're-start' his EFB. After re-start; the display worked fine. The reason I bring this up; is to shed light on the probability of dual EFB failure; or significant distraction during flight.Positive control of Cellular/Network state is one of several known deficiencies of the EFB; and has been a problem with every update since we started using the EFB. It usually does not lock-up the device. The most common problem is that it distracts pilots from their surroundings while trying to interpret contradictory indication of network status on the EFB. On this particular event; it locked up the entire device; rendering it useless. Unfortunately; I did not know the EFB was frozen until pushed back from the ramp and ready to taxi. The page was on was the DX release message. We have been trying to get the Tablet working as an EFB for a long time. It remains a huge distraction to the operation on the ground; and occasionally during flight. [It's] time to give up on it; and go with the industry standard.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.