GoKawiilRita El Khoury / Android Authority
TL;DR Some Pixel Buds owners are reporting an issue with the expanded volume slider menu.
The toggles for noise cancelation, off, and transparency appear to be missing.
Users are connecting the bug to the March and April 2026 updates.
When you want to switch between active noise cancelation (ANC) and transparency mode on the Pixel Buds, there are a few ways to go about it. One way is to touch an earbud and hold until the chime lets you know the mode has switched. You can also open the extended volume slider menu to view the toggles. However, a recent bug appears to have made this method unusable for some.
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Pixel Buds owners are turning to Reddit to report a noise control issue. These users claim that the toggles for ANC, off, and transparency modes have disappeared. Specifically, this glitch occurs when attempting to access the controls through the extended volume slider menu, which is done by tapping on the three dots below the volume slider.
It appears that owners first started noticing the bug after the March 2026 update. One Reddit user claims that the problem persisted even after rebooting all their devices, clearing cache and data for the Pixel Buds app, removing and re-pairing the earbuds, and adjusting several settings. They also claim that the April 2026 update seemed to fix the glitch, only for the problem to reemerge.
As mentioned earlier, there are a few ways to change noise control modes, so these users aren’t without other options. However, a bug like this is very inconvenient. Android Authority has reached out to Google for comment. We’ll update this article when new information is available.
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