Pixel Buds owners exterminate bugs by shutting down features

Google's True Wireless Stereo (TWS) Pixel Buds were first made available on April 27th of last year. And users have posted complaints about the in-ear device on the Pixel Buds Community Forum and on Reddit ever since then. Some of the most recent headings found on posts in that forum are pretty much self-explanatory: "Left Bud Louder than Right Bud," "My pixel buds won't activate when I want to speak a text message," and "my pixel buds keep disconnecting."

One particular issue that was written up in the Pixel Buds forum came from a user complaining that the left bud on his Pixel Buds was not being detected even though the right one had no problem. The user, named Armando Heredia, wrote, "Received my Pixel Buds 2 today, got the fast pair notification when I opened the case, and followed Pairing and Setup wizards. Left bud is not detected, even though it is reporting battery life. Right bud plays audio, notification music when inserted into ear, responds to touch gestures. Had pairing forgetting, power-cycled phone. Reset pairing on the case. Same outcome. Forgot pairing again, shut off phone. Reset buds in case, paired them with my Pixelbook, same behavior - left bud non-response, right bud operates as expected."

Over 100 responses to the original thread were posted and while performing a factory reset didn't seem to work, there was at least one action that did seem to do the trick. After performing a factory reset, pair the Pixel Buds and disable in-ear detection. By following these directions, many users found that their left ear bud started working.

Another post on Reddit made by a Pixel Buds user discussed an audio imbalance issue that moves the audio from one side to the other. Fixing this is as easy as going into the Pixel Buds app and turning off Adaptive Sound. So if you look at what is actually happening to Pixel Buds owners, they are being asked to turn off features like in-ear detection and Adaptive Sound in order to get their device to work. Having to turn off features to get a device to work like it should sure doesn't sound like a winning game plan for Google, nor for those ponying up $179 for the accessory.