Google admits Samsung Galaxy Nexus volume bug, promises fix

By Luke Westaway on 23 November 2011, 9:45am

Google has admitted that there's a problem with the Samsung Galaxy Nexus spontaneously dropping volume.

In a statement sent to us, the search giant fessed up, "We are aware of the volume issue and have developed a fix."

The statement continues, "We will update devices as soon as possible."

That's good news for Nexus owners who have found their brand new smart phone hampered by the bug, which causes volume on the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered mobile to drop spontaneously, causing you to lose sound during phone calls or miss notifications.

The bug is serious, and meant we could only award the Galaxy Nexus two stars in our review, and until the issue is resolved we can't recommend buying the phone.

We've been testing the Galaxy Nexus, and figuring out what makes the glitch rear its ugly head. It appears that the issue is caused by the 900MHz 2G frequency, which is used by O2 and Vodafone, meaning Nexus owners on those networks (and piggyback networks such as Tesco, giffgaff and Asda) could experience volume dropping.

Evidence suggests that Nexus owners on Orange, T-Mobile or Three won't be affected, as these networks use the 1.8GHz or 2.1GHz 2G frequencies.

Stay tuned for more information, and in the meantime let us know in the comments or on our Facebook page whether your Galaxy Nexus is affected by this bug, and whether the glitch has put you off buying one.

Check the video below to see the nasty volume bug in action.

Update 2 December: Google has pushed out an official update that fixes the bug, and we've amended our Samsung Galaxy Nexus review to reflect this.

Comments 7

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anonymous 23 November, 2011 10:36

See, Apple - that's how you do it. Admit there's a problem, then offer to fix it, as opposed to blaming the customer for using the device incorrectly. Not that difficult, really.

anonymous 23 November, 2011 11:03

Galaxy Nexus Owners with the Volume Issue.

On the keypad dial in: *#*#4636#*#*
You will get a menu, hit Phone Information.
At the bottom you will see an option to Set Preferred Network Type,

Change this to WCDMA Only or WCDMA Preferred.

Whilst this is not a fix, it will limit the use of 2G networks on the
Galaxy Nexus thus stopping the volume issue.

anonymous 23 November, 2011 13:45

Lmao, epic fail!

I'll be waiting a few month to see how it it goes before i waste any cash on this. Hopefully its a hardware issue and I can get one at 99 quid.

anonymous 23 November, 2011 18:57

I'm on O2 and I have the issue. It stops me even closing a call!

anonymous 23 November, 2011 21:05

I am on three and has not experience this issue at least not yet. But does anybody konw why the Nexus doesn't do vibrate only notifications? I have tried but its just not working, I don't like my phone ringing, I like on vibrate but for some unknown reasnon(s) Nexus has vibrate option but doesn't work.

anonymous 24 November, 2011 03:20

Well done Google.. Not for making the error but for creating an amazing OS and admitting a mistake within it and offering to fix it, unlike Apple, who said "you're holding the device incorrectly" LOL. I am waiting for Carphone Warehouse to get this so I can upgrade on T Mobile as they wont be getting this anytime soon. Dont think I will experience this problem as T Mobile doesn't use 900mhz frequency.