Google’s November Pixel update is leaving screensavers stuck at full brightness

Google’s big November update seems to have broken a lot of features, and Pixel’s low-light mode for screensavers is the latest casualty. Several Pixel users have taken to platforms like Reddit and the Google Support forum to report that their phones’ screensavers aren’t dimming while charging at night. Naturally, this is leaving users with unusually bright bedrooms.

For reference, the feature, which can be accessed via Settings > Display & touch > Screen saver, lets you select a built-in screensaver that appears while your device is charging. It can be set to only show while charging, while upright and charging, or only while wirelessly charging. Considering that a lot of us charge our phones overnight, the accompanying low-light mode is a nifty addition that ensures screensavers adjust to the surrounding lighting conditions.

The feature lets you use your Pixel as a bedside clock without its screen light filling up your entire bedroom, and that functionality is exactly what seems to be broken right now. And before you comment, yes, you can manually lower your phone’s brightness, but that makes low-light mode redundant.

The complaints are starting to add up

Multiple reports about the issue describe similar problems, and almost all affected say that their screensaver’s low-light mode worked perfectly before the November update.

More importantly, users report that manually lowering brightness doesn’t help as it slowly creeps right back up:

I’ve always enjoyed my phone on the stand at night giving me a nice dim clock I can see should I awake in the night. Now its shining full brightness at me, in a dark room, so I have to turn it away from me. Setting screen to dim worked initially, but i woke up an hour later when it had adjusted itself to full brightness again.

At least one other user added that in addition to their clock screensavers being bright, they look functionally different too:

New November update screwed up my clock screensaver. Won’t dim at night while charging with clock displayed and not showing my clock set up.. showing a basic clock instead.

Although others haven’t corroborated the change to the basic clock design, the repeated complaints about screensavers struggling to dim (and stay dim) suggest that something is indeed wrong with the feature.

Adding to the reports, in a different article about a Pixel Camera bug that the November update seemingly introduced, an Android Authority reader also added that the update had broken low light mode on their Clock screensaver:

Based on the number of reports available, this doesn’t appear to be a widespread issue. However, it isn’t an isolated one either — and it’s clearly one that can disrupt a good night’s sleep. We’ve reached out to Google to check whether it’s aware of the issue and if a fix is in the works. We’ll update this article if and when we hear back.