Pixel 2 Users Report Bug That Switches on Battery Saver at 99 Percent, Google Issues Fix

Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL users, who've updated their smartphones to Android 9.0 Pie, have been reporting a weird issue in which their battery saving mode gets activated even when the user has manually turned it off. This has been reported to occur at different battery levels, however some say that it is scheduled to turn on automatically at 99 percent. Google has officially responded to these claims by saying that its internal testing went out to an unintended number of Pixel users and has since been rolled back. Battery saving mode is now available in its default state on the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL.

The development was first reported in a thread on Reddit, where the affected OP claimed that battery saving mode automatically turned on on his Pixel 2 128GB even when he has never used the feature on the handset. He also goes to state that a friend's Pixel (first-gen) faced the same issue. Not just that, his LTE connectivity (on Pixel 2) seemed to not be working until the handset was rebooted.

"Hi all, some of you may have noticed that battery saver turned on automatically today. This was an internal experiment to test battery saving features that was mistakenly rolled out to more users than intended. We have now rolled battery saver settings back to default. Please configure to your liking. Sorry for the confusion," said Google in a reply on the thread from its PixelCommunity profile.

The issue has possibly been resolved through automatic Google Play updates on Pixel handsets, in the background. One user in the original thread also reported a similar issue with the original Pixel XL. Some users claim that this bug crawled into their phone with the September software update, however there is no official confirmation on the same.

Furthermore, other smartphone users running Android Pie, including in beta, have been reporting the same issue. These include the Essential Phone, OnePlus X, and more.

This is the not the first instance wherein Pixel handsets have been plagued with bugs. Just in July this year, Google resolved a bug in which the camera app showed 'fatal error'. The fix, however, involves having to root the smartphone.