Is your Pixel 3 stuck on dark theme? Here's how to fix it.

A few days after I set up my brand new Pixel 3, I noticed a bug relating to the system theme. No matter which wallpaper I chose or which device theme I selected, my Pixel 3’s quick settings dropdown and volume controls were stuck on the dark theme — even though my folders, Google Discover page, and app drawer were all on the light theme. Check out the screenshots below to see what I mean:

It wasn’t a huge issue, but it was bugging me. I filed a bug report on my phone and reached out to Google Support to see if they had any advice. I ended up factory resetting my phone, but the problem came right back. Pretty infuriating.

A few days ago, a handful of users started posting about the problem on XDA and Reddit, and Reddit user EEMIV managed to find a solution. For some reason, the system-level dark theme is tied to the dark theme in Android Messages. To fix the problem, just open Android Messages, click the menu button, then disable dark mode. That should fix the Pixel 3’s dark theme.

Hopefully Google rolls out a fix for this sometime soon, along with fixes for poor RAM management, photo saving issues, and imbalanced speakers.