Smartphone

It is recommended that you lock your Google Pixel 6a so that other people won’t be able to fully access the device.

If you aren’t able to unlock this smartphone by using your finger print as well as any other unlock methods, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting guide at Seeking Tech to see how you can potentially fix this conundrum.

How to unlock the screen for the Google Pixel 6a

When you set up your Google Pixel 6a, you may be asked to provide a fingerprint to quickly unlock your phone.

If you are having problems trying to use the fingerprint sensor for this phone model, then you can check out this article.

You can also set up a secondary unlock method as you can use a swipe gesture, drawing pattern, PIN number or password.

What can be done if you can’t unlock your Pixel 6a

If you can’t get the fingerprint sensor to work and don’t remember the information required for the secondary unlock method, then you have no other choice but to factory reset your Google Pixel 6a. By doing so, you will delete all of the data, include the screen lock security, stored on the device.

If you are holding your Pixel 6a phone currently, then you can do the following:

1. Start by powering off your phone. You should be able to do so by pressing and holding the power and volume up buttons at the same time to bring up the power menu. From there, tap the power off option.

2. With the Pixel 6a shut down, you press and hold the power and volume down buttons simultaneously for around 10 to 15 seconds.

3. If done correctly, the phone should boot up in a text only menu. From there, press the volume down button until you see the Recovery Mode option.

4. After getting to the Recovery Mode option, press the power button.

5. Your Pixel 6a should now show a No Command screen. Here, you need to press and hold the power button.

6. Press the volume up button with the power button held down and then let go of both buttons.

7. If done correctly, you should now appear in the Android Recovery menu. From there, use the volume down button navigate over to the Wipe Data/Factory Reset.

8. Finally, press the power button to start the factory reset.

You can also factory reset your Pixel 6a remotely if it is far away. With that said, you will lose its tracking location after doing so. Therefore, we only recommend doing a remote factory reset only if you lost your phone and have no hope of recovering it.

After you are done factory resetting the Google Pixel 6a, you need to go through the initialization process again. During this setup, you should be able to add a new fingerprint unlock profile as well as a secondary unlock method.

To see how you can change the unlock method of the Pixel 6a, you can take a look at this link.

The Google Pixel 6a features multiple methods in terms of how you can unlock the screen of your smartphone. You can check out this guide at Seeking Tech to see how you can change the screen lock security for this device.

How to change the screen unlock method for Pixel 6a

In order to change the screen lock security of your Google Pixel 6a, you need to take the following steps:

1. To start off, you need to turn on your phone and then unlock its screen.

2. With your smartphone accessible, you need to open the Settings App.

If you can’t find it in the home screen, then you can swipe upwards from an unoccupied space in the home screen to bring up the full list of installed applications.

3. In the Settings App, the first step you need to take is to head into Security.

4. From the Security menu, you then need to go to Screen Lock.

5. You will be asked to unlock your screen again in order to continue.

6. You should now be in the Choose a New Screen Lock menu, which will allow you to do the following:

• The first option on this list is None, which means that you won’t have any screen lock method.
• You can also select Swipe, which will unlock the screen based on a swiping gesture.
• With the Pattern option, you can pick a pattern that unlock the screen based on a drawn pattern.
• When it comes to the PIN method, you can use a four-digit number for the screen unlock.
• Last but not least, you can also use the Password method for the screen lock security.

After selecting some of the aforementioned methods, you will get a “Delete Screen Lock” notification, which warns that you currently stored screen unlock method and fingerprint profiles will be deleted when making this change.

How to make your Pixel 6a screen stay unlocked

In addition to the aforementioned manual methods, you can also make your Google Pixel 6a screen stay unlocked by doing the following:

1. Open the Settings App and then select Security.

2. You then need to select Advanced Settings from the Security menu.

3. From the Advanced Settings menu, you need to go to Smart Lock.

4. You need to unlock your phone screen in order to continue.

5. After getting to the Smart Lock menu, you have the following methods:

• You can select the On-Body Detection method, which will keep your Pixel 6a unlocked when it detects that it is near your body.
• With the Trusted Places method, your smartphone will stay unlocked once it detects that it is in a trusted location.
• With the Trusted Devices option, the phone will stay unlocked if it is connected to a trusted device.

For all three of these methods, you phone will stay unlocked for 4 hours at the maximum.

The screen of your Google Pixel 6a may turn on frequently, causing a distraction and draining its battery life. To see how you can stop your phone from waking up all the time, you can take a look at this guide at Seeking Tech.

1. The first step you can take is to disable the Smart Unlock features as these will not only wake your smartphone, but they will also unlock the device. As a result, you may accidentally pocket dial others and cause other problems.

In order to turn off these functions, you need to take the following steps:

• First off, you need to open the Settings App on your Pixel 6a.
• Inside of the Settings Application, you then need to head over to Security.
• From the Security menu, scroll down and then select Advanced Settings.
• After getting to the Advanced Settings menu, select Smart Lock at the top.
• Next, you will be asked to unlock your phone to move on. So, make sure you do so.
• Once you arrived at the Smart Lock menu, you first need to select On-Body Detection.
• In the On-Body Detection menu, make sure that you turn off the Use On-Body Detection setting.
• Return to the Smart Lock menu and then select Trusted Places.
• From the Trusted Places menu, you need to remove all of the places you have previously saved.
• Go back to the Smart Lock menu and then select Trusted Devices.
• From the Trusted Devices menu, make sure you remove all of the devices that you previously saved.

2. We also recommend that you disable wake features by taking the following steps:

• Once again, you need to open the Setting Apps on your Google Pixel 6a.
• In the application, you need to tap Display from the list of available options.
• Inside of the Display App, you then need to select Lock Screen.
• From the Lock Screen menu, scroll down until you get to the When to Show section.
• To start off, make sure that the Always Show Time and Info setting in the When to Show section is disabled. Otherwise, the screen of your Pixel 6a will never completely turn off, draining the battery life of the smartphone.
• In the same When to Show section, go to Tap to Check Phone and then make sure that this setting is turned off in the next screen.
• Return to the When to Show section of the Lock Screen menu and then select Lift to Check Phone. In the next screen, make sure that the Lift to Check Phone setting is disabled.
• The last option in the When to Show section of the Lock Screen menu is Wake Screen for Notifications. You may want to disable this setting if you don’t want your phone to wake its screen whenever it gets a new notification.

When you are using your Google Pixel 6a, you may notice that your smartphone occasionally slows down or become unresponsive to your inputs. To see how you can potentially make this device run more efficiently, you can check out this troubleshooting guide from Seeking Tech.

1. There is a possibility that the slowdowns are related to the internet connection.

Therefore, we recommend that you try moving around to see if you can get a better mobile network and/or Wi-Fi network connection.

You can also try switching between mobile data and Wi-Fi to see if you can get a faster internet.

If you can only use mobile only, then you can try disabling 5G. To find out how to do so, you can take a look at this tutorial.

2. The next step you can try is to close any opened apps that you aren’t currently using. In order to do so, you need to slowly swipe upwards and then let go once the screen starts to shrink. If you are using buttons navigation, then you can press the square button at the bottom of the screen.

From the App Overview menu, you will be able to close any apps that are currently opened.

Keep in mind that some applications, such as videogames, will take up a lot of hardware resources. So, if you aren’t currently use these intensive apps, then we recommend closing them completely.

3. You can also try closing any background running apps as these will also take up hardware resources. In order to do so, you can follow the steps laid out in this article.

4. If you haven’t restarted your Pixel 6a in a long time, then it may have a lot of lingering processes that may be making the device less responsive. We suggest that you restart your phone once a day so that it can run efficiently.

5. If too much of the internal storage is filled up, then it may also cause performance issues.

To clear up some space, you need to go to the Settings App and then select Storage. Inside the Storage menu, you will be able to delete apps, images, videos, games, documents as well as other files.

Make sure you leave at least 10% of free space on the internal storage of your Google Pixel 6a.

6. If you haven’t done so already, make sure that you have updated all of your installed applications.

To do so, head over to the Google Play Store and then tap your profile picture on the top right side. In the pop-up menu, you need to head over to Manage Apps & Device.

From the Manage Apps & Device, select the Update All option if it appears.

7. A new firmware may also help speed up your Google Pixel 6a.

To manually update your phone, go to the Settings App and then select System > System Update > Check for Update.

8. If the internal temperature of your phone gets too hot, then your phone may slow itself down automatically in order to cool down.

To see how you can cool down an overheating Pixel 6a, you can check out this guide.

9. Avoid using the Battery Saver mode as it could end up causing some lag in some cases.

10. A factory reset may also help as it will restore your smartphone to its originally factory settings. This should hopefully remove any files that may can causing the device to run slower than what you are expecting.

To see how you can properly factory reset the Pixel 6a, you can follow the steps laid out in this tutorial.

If your phones remain laggy after trying all of the aforementioned potential solutions, then we suggest contacting Google for additional help.

When using your Pixel 6a, you may notice that your smartphone may randomly restart or shut down. To see how you can potentially fix these problems with this Google phone, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.

1. The first step we recommend taking is to boot your Google Pixel 6a in Safe Mode. In order to do so, press and hold either the Power Off or Restart option in the power menu.

If done correctly, a Reboot to Safe Mode notification should pop-up. Here, you need to select OK to restart your device in safe mode.

2. If your phone stops restarting and/or shutting down in safe mode, then it is likely that these issues are related to an app.

To test this theory out, reboot your Google Pixel 6a normally. Afterwards, open one app at a time to see if there are any issues. If the app appears to be running fine, then close it and then move on to testing out the next app.

If you managed to identify the problematic app, then you can try updating it. To check for app updates, go to the Google Play Store App, tap your Profile icon, select Manage Apps & Device and then select the Update All option if available.

If an update does not work, then you can try uninstalling the app.

3. Apps that run in the background could also cause issues with the stability of your Pixel 6a. To see how you can close these applications, we recommend that you take a look at this post.

4. A new firmware update may also improve the overall stability of the Google Pixel 6a. To manually check for a new software version, you need to do the following:

• Make sure you open the Settings App.
• You then need to scroll down and then select System from the Settings menu.
• From the System menu, head into System Update.
• Inside the System Update menu, tap the Check for Update option.

5. If the internal storage of your smartphone gets too full, then it could result in random restarts and shut downs.

To clear up more space, go to the Settings App and then select Storage. In the Storage menu, make sure you have at least 10% of free space remaining.

6. A factory reset may also help stop the random restarts or shut downs.

This process will return to Pixel 6a to its original setting. At the same time, it will also delete all data you have stored on the phone; therefore, we recommend backing up any important files before you continue with this process.

To see how you can factory reset this smartphone model, you can follow the steps laid out in this tutorial.

7. You phone may automatically restart or shut down if its internal temperature gets too hot.

So, if the Pixel 6a feels hot, we recommend that you manually turn off its screen or shut it down completely. If you are also recharging it, then remove the charging cable.

Let your phone cool down at room temperature before turning it back on again to see if the random restarts and shut downs have gone away.

To find out more about how you can prevent this phone model from overheating, you can check out this guide.

8. A wet Pixel 6a may also end up causing your problems. In this case, we recommend that you turn off your phone and then wait until it completely air dries at room temperature.

Afterwards, you can turn it back on again and then test to see if it isn’t randomly restarting or shutting down.

If none of the aforementioned solutions helped solve your problems, then we suggest contacting the support team at Google to get additional support.

If you are having problems with your Google Pixel 6a and/or want to erase all of its stored data, then you might want to consider performing a factory reset. To learn about the various methods of factory resetting your smartphone, you can take a look at this tutorial from Seeking Tech.

Method #1

The fastest way to factory reset your Pixel 6a is by using its system menus. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps:

1. Start off this process by opening the Settings App on your phone.

2. Inside of the Settings App, you need to scroll down and then head into System.

3. After getting to the System menu, scroll down and then go to Reset options.

4. Once you get to the Reset Options menu, you need to select Erase All Data (Factory Reset).

Method #2

If you can’t access the menus of your Pixel 6a in order to factory reset the phone, then you can try using the Recovery Mode by doing the following:

1. Power off your Google Pixel 6a.

2. With your phone turned completely off, press and hold the power and volume down buttons at the same time for 10 to 15 seconds.

3. You should now be in the text only menu. Here, you need to press the volume down button until you see Recovery Mode.

4. Press the power button to go to the Recovery Mode.

5. In the No Command screen, press and hold the power button.

6. With the power button held down, press the volume up button and then let go of both buttons afterwards.

7. In the Android Recovery menu, use the volume down button to go to Wipe Data/Factory Reset.

8. With the Wipe Data/Factory Reset highlighted, press the power button to confirm your choice.

Method #3

If you have a computer, then you can use the Google Pixel Update and Software Repair. For this tool to work, you will need the Google Chrome web browser as well as being able to connect your Pixel 6a to a USB port of your PC.

If you met these requirements, then you can go to the Google Pixel – Repair and Software Update page and then follow the instructions.

Method #4

If you don’t have access to your phone, then you can also reset it remotely by doing the following:

1. Go to the Google Find My Device Website or Google Find My Device App.

2. Make sure you are signed into the same Google account you have currently logged into your Pixel 6a.

3. If you have multiple Android devices tied to your Google Account, then make sure you select your Pixel 6a.

4. Once the website or app is able to make contact with your smartphone, you then need to select Erase Device.

5. If asked, make sure you sign into your Google Account again to get started on the factory resetting process.

When trying to recharge your Google Pixel 6a, you may get an “unplug charger” or “Liquid or debris in USB port” error message that shows up on the screen. To see how you can fix these issues, you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.

1. The first step you should take is to unplug the USB charging cable from Pixel 6a.

Afterwards, inspect the USB-C port of your smartphone and the USB cable to see if there is any potential damage, debris and/or wetness.

2. If there is debris in the USB-C port of your Pixel 6a, then you can try using a thin pin or other similarly shaped object to carefully remove it.

If the USB-C port appears to be wet, then we recommend gently shaking the phone and tapping near the USB-C port in order to drip out any excess water. Afterwards, wait for the USB-C to completely air dry at room temperature before you try recharging it again.

To learn more about how you can prevent liquid damage for this phone model, you can check out this post.

3. If the USB cable appears to have some sort of debris stuck inside, then you can try using a small pin to remove the obstruction.

If the USB cable seems to be wet, then you should wait until it dries up a room temperature.

4. If the USB-C port of your Pixel 6a appears to be damaged, then you need to contact Google in order to get it repair.

5. If the USB charging cable appears to be damaged, then you can contact its manufacturer about getting it repair. Alternatively, you can try a different USB-C cable.

6. The “unplug charger” or “Liquid or debris in USB port” error message may be the result of an overheating Google Pixel 6a.

If you phone feels hot, then we suggest that you turn off its screen and then let it cool down. Once it has dropped in temperature, you can try plugging the USB cable back into the USB-C port.

To find out more about how you can properly cool down an overheating Pixel 6a, you can take a look at this guide.

7. If the USB-C port and USB cable appears to be fine, then you can try waiting for a few minutes to see if the “unplug charger” or “Liquid or debris in USB port” error message go away on its own.

If you are still getting the same errors after trying all of the aforementioned potential solutions, then we recommend that you contact Google to get additional support.

The Google Pixel 6a is equipped with a 4410 mAh battery that can last more than a day. If you find that the battery life of this smartphone is a lot shorter than what you were expecting, then you can take a look at this guide to see how you can get more efficient usage.

1. To start off, we recommend closing any opened applications that you aren’t current using as these will end up draining the battery of your phone.

To close any opened or suspended apps, swipe upwards slowly from the bottom of the screen and then hold for a second. If you are using buttons-navigation, then you can tap the square icon located at the bottom of the screen.

In the App Overview menu, you can close any apps that are currently opened.

2. Restarting your Pixel 6a can also be helpful as it will close all opened apps as well as any lingering processes that may have been draining your battery.

You can follow this tutorial to see how you can restart this phone.

3. We also suggest restricting any background-running apps that you don’t plan on using in order to save on battery life by doing the following:

• Start off by opening the Settings App.
• Next, you need to go to Apps from the from page of Settings.
• You then need to tap the “See all apps” option from the Apps menu.
• In the All Apps menu, select the application that you want to restrict battery usage for.
• Inside the App Info menu for the application, you then need to select Battery.
• After getting to the Battery Usage menu of the mage, set the Manage Battery Usage setting to Restricted.

4. If you don’t plan on using a background running app at all, then you can try taking the following steps to force stop it:

• Go inside the Settings App.
• From Settings, you need to tap Apps.
• In the Apps menu, you then need to select the “See all apps.”
• Inside the All Apps list, select the application that you want to force stop.
• After getting to the App info menu for the application, select the Force Stop option.

5. If you have no usage for an app running in the background, then you can delete it from the Pixel 6a’s internal storage by selecting the Uninstall option from the aforementioned App Info menu.

6. It is important to note that some apps will use more battery than others. The more intensive apps often include videogames as well as applications that requires location pinging and/or constant internet usage.

7. Keep in mind that the recommended operating temperature range of this phone model is 0°C to 35°C (or 32°F to 95°F). Outside of this range, the internal battery may end up draining faster.

To see how you can prevent the Google Pixel 6a from overheating, we recommend that you check out this post.

8. If you have any wireless connections turned on, then you phone will end up using a lot more battery. To prevent this from happening, turn off the Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and any other connections if you aren’t actively using them.

9. We also recommend setting a short screen timeout length so that the Pixel 6a’s screen will turn off after it detects that a certain amount of inactivity time has passed.

In order to do so, you need to do the following:

• First, you need to head over to the Settings App.
• In Settings, you then need to go to Display.
• From the Display menu, you need to select Screen Timeout.
• After getting to the Screen Timeout menu, make sure you set a short duration in order to extend the battery life of your Pixel phone.

8. A higher brightness level will use up more battery charge. Therefore, we recommend using a dark theme as well as lowering the screen’s brightness as much as possible without causing you any eye discomfort or visibility issues.

You may also want to enable the adaptive brightness feature. By doing so, you Pixel 6a will learn your brightness level preferences over time and then automatically adjust the screen’s brightness to your liking.

9. You can also use the Battery Save or Extreme Battery Saver Modes of your Pixel 6a by taking the following steps:

• You first need to open the Settings App and then go to Battery.
• In the Battery menu, you then need to head over to Battery Saver.
• In the Battery Saver menu, make sure that the Use Battery Saver Setting is enabled.

• Afterwards, select Set a Schedule.
• In the Set a Schedule, you can schedule when the phone will automatically enable the Battery Saver. Mode. It can be based on when the phone expects your battery to run out or the remaining battery percentage.
• In the aforementioned Battery Saver menu, you can also enable or disable the Turn Off When Charged Setting, which disable this mode when you have more than 90% battery life remaining.
• To use the Extreme Battery Saver mode, tap the setting in the Battery Saver menu.
• Inside the Extreme Battery Saver menu, you will get a description of this mode. Here, you can select the “When to Use” option. Afterwards, you can choose to activate this extreme battery saving mode automatically or manually whenever you enable the regular Battery Saver mode.
• In the same Extreme Battery Saver menu, you can also select Essential Apps. In the next screen, you can select which applications that you don’t want paused when this mode is active.

The Google Pixel 6a comes with a 4410 mAh battery that could provide more than 24 hours of battery life per every full charge. If you want to view the battery percentage of this smartphone, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article from Seeking Tech.

How to view the battery percentage of your Pixel 6a

In order to view the battery percentage on your Google Pixel 6a, you need to take the following steps:

1. To begin turn on your smartphone if you haven’t done so already.

2. You should also make sure you unlock its screen so that you can interact with it.

3. Next, you need to open the Settings App.

If you can’t find this application in the home screen, then it should appear in the list of installed applications that you can go to by swiping upwards from an empty space on the home screen.

Alternatively, you can swipe downwards from the very top of the screen two time. By doing so, you will drag down the expanded quick settings window where you can then tap the gear icon in order to head into the Settings App.

4. From the Settings App, you then need to tap Battery.

5. At the top of the Battery menu, you will see the battery percentage as well as the estimated battery life remaining.

How to show battery percentage on the Pixel 6a

If you want to add the battery percentage to the top right side of your Google Pixel 6a, then you need to do the following:

1. Start by heading over to the Settings App of your phone.

2. In Settings, you then need to go to Battery.

3. Once you get to the Battery menu, make sure that the Battery Percentage setting is enabled.

The battery percentage should now be added at the top right corner of the screen.

How to remove the Pixel 6a battery percentage

If you decided that you no longer want your Google Pixel 6a to show its battery percentage on the top right side of the screen, then you need to take the following steps:

1. To begin, open the Settings App.

2. From the front page of Settings, you need to head over to Battery.

3. In the Battery menu, you need to make sure that the Battery Percentage setting is disabled.

If done correctly, you should no longer see a percentage number appear on the top right corner.

The Google Pixel 6a may be susceptible to screen burn in issues if you aren’t careful. To see how you can prevent afterimages from appearing on your smartphone, you can take a look at this article from Seeking Tech.

1. The first step we recommend taking is to enable screen time out. In order to do so, you need to take the following steps:

• Start by going to the Settings App on your Google Pixel 6a.
• After getting to Settings, you then need to head over to Display.
• In the Display menu, you then need to select Screen Timeout.
• After getting to the Screen Timeout menu, select the amount of time that will passed until the screen is turned off. We suggest selecting 5 minutes or less to prevent any burn in problems.
• From the same Screen Timeout menu, you can also turn on the Screen Attention feature, which will prevent the screen from turning off as long as the front-facing camera is able to see that someone is looking at it.

2. You may also want to consider setting up a screen saver by doing the following:

• Go to Settings App on your Pixel 6a phone.
• From the Settings menu, you should then need to go to Display.
• Once you get to Display, scroll down and then select Screen Saver.
• In the Screen Saver menu, you can select Current Screen Saver and then customize what images you want to show up.
• Return to the Screen Saver menu and then tap the gear icon.
• In the Screen Saver Settings menu, we recommend enabling Night Mode as it will dim the screen when the screen saver is active.
• Go back to the Screen Saver menu and then select When to Start.
• Inside the When to Start menu, we suggest selecting While Charging or Docked.

3. Screen burn ins are more likely to occur if you make your Pixel 6a screen extra bright. Thus, we recommend lowering the brightness level to as low as you can with causing any eye discomfort.

For the uninformed, you can manually lower the screen brightness by swiping down from the top of the screen two times to open the expanded quick settings window. The brightness slider should appear at the top.

If you have adaptive brightness enabled, then your Google Pixel 6a should learn your preferences over time and then automatically adjust the brightness level to your liking.

If you are having issues trying to get adaptive brightness to work properly, then you can take a look at this troubleshooting article.

4. Whenever you aren’t using your Pixel 6a, we recommend turning off the screen. Not only will you prevent ghost images, but you will also save on battery life.

5. If your phone has been displaying a static image for a long time, and you don’t wasn’t to turn off its screen, then you can switch over to a completely different content once in a while for a few minutes in order to prevent ghosting effects.