[Update: Nov. 02] Some Google Pixel users receiving random/repeating notification sound despite turning off this option

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on December 02, 2020) follows:

Several Google Pixel users are perplexed by repeating notification sound alerts that ring randomly on their devices without any known source.

As a result, there have been plenty of complaints regarding the issue on official Pixel Phone forums.

It’s just phone pings everytime without any reason… And the sound is actually the charger plug in plug out sound
Source

I have this problem, a three note audible notification. My NFC connection is set off. Please publish a solution to this!
Source

Users describe the notification tone as recurring in nature that may even ring multiple times in quick succession. It is a descending three-note sound that’s not too different from the default charging alerts.

Judging by the reports, the sound also occurs in varying frequencies for the complainants. Some stated that their phone rings randomly a few times throughout the day, while many others observed that their phone quite irritatingly, rang constantly.

A Product Expert had recommended affected users to check the notification logs whenever the phone rang with the issue. This bore no fruit though, as most users reported that their notification logs didn’t display anything untoward.

A couple of users also noted that the alert sounded similar to the NFC alert. And upon turning off NFC, their presumptions were deemed correct as the alerts ceased completely.

However, the above holds true for a select group of users with NFC-supported devices. There are also many users that reportedly had their NFC turned off and were yet facing the issue.

If you are one of such users, then you can try the below-mentioned workarounds.

1. Check for NFC-supported apparatus: It could be possible that an NFC-supported object in close proximity to your Pixel is triggering notification alerts. An example of such objects can be NFC credit cards.

2. Check for Bluetooth devices: Also make sure that your device isn’t constantly trying to connect to some Bluetooth device. This can occur if the Bluetooth connection is of poor strength due to the devices being too far from each other.

3. Other connected devices: You can also try performing the same series of steps as the user below if you make use of a wireless printer.

My beep noise was not the nfc… It was a wireless printer that I installed. I had to go to settings, connected devices, connection preferences, printing services, then change the default print service to off
Source

4. Clean your USB port: If your notification tone sounds like charging alerts, then it could be quite possible that your device is falsely detecting a charging cable. Cleaning the USB port may help in this case.

5. Reset app preferences: A user has reported that for some reason, resetting app preferences fixed the problem for them. You can try the same through Settings > Apps & notifications > See all apps.

Then click on the 3-dot menu at the top and select the “Reset app preferences” option.

6. Check notification log: If none of the above seem effective for you, then your last resort could be making use of the notification log already mentioned above. It could be quite possible that an app is misbehaving, leading to issues like these.

To access the notification log on your Pixel, hold down on the home screen. Next, open up Widgets > Settings shortcut > Notification log. Now, just check out the shortcut widget every time your phone rings to identify its source app.

Note: The above workarounds can similarly be tried on other devices plagued with the same issue.

With that being said, let us know in the comments below if the above workarounds did the job for the repeating notification sound issue on your Google Pixel device.

Be sure to also check out our dedicated Android 11 bugs/issues tracker for further coverage on issues like this.

1:19 pm (IST): Google has just pushed out the November 2021 patch to eligible devices and this update seems to fix many bugs on Pixel devices and this issue is likely fixed.

This is an Android 12 based build so if you’re still afflicted, maybe try updating your Pixel to this latest build.

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