With true wireless earbuds that have ANC, the last thing you want is to experience an issue that makes it harder to use that feature, but Pixel Buds users are experiencing just that, with a strange bug that technically removes their ANC and transparency mode toggles. For those unaware, the Google Pixel Buds series offers ANC and transparency mode across a few different models. There are multiple ways to turn it on and off as well.
There are a couple of easy ways to access these controls, and one still technically easy way but it takes an extra step. The shortest path to enabling these controls is simply by touching the earbud and holding. After a second or so, you’ll hear a tone that lets you know ambient mode or ANC has been turned on. If you already have ANC on, you’ll know it has swapped to ambient mode even without the tone, because you’ll begin hearing outside sounds. You can also open the Pixel Buds app on your mobile device to access the controls there. Google also gives you a third way to enable and disable these features, and this is where people seem to be experiencing the bug.
The Pixel Buds ANC bug only seems to be popping up from the extended volume slider
The third method for enabling or disabling the ANC and ambient modes for your Pixel Buds is through the extended volume slider. If you tap the volume keys on your connected mobile device, then tap the three dots at the bottom of the slider, a new extended controls menu pops up from the bottom of the screen. There is typically a few buttons at the bottom. One for the ANC and ambient modes, one for spatial audio, and one for live capture.
The ANC button has disappeared for some users, and they haven’t been able to figure out why. Interestingly, one user says they had the button appear in this menu, but then tapping on it opens a blank pill button, then closing that essentially removes the button for some strange reason. I have checked this on my own Pixel Buds Pro 2 and this is exactly what happened with mine. So the issue is not an isolated incident, but it also doesn’t seem to be impacting all users.
Google seems to have been made aware of the issue through the Reddit post that brought it up, but there isn’t a fix yet. The issue also reportedly started popping up after the March 2026 update. So add this to the list of Pixel bugs following the last two updates.
The post Pixel Buds users report losing the ANC toggle with a new bug appeared first on Android Headlines.
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