Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro owners are now saying there’s an irritating bug with the signature Glyph lights, which refuse to turn off in some cases once notifications have been cleared. It seems to have begun for many people after its latest software update, and although a reboot will apparently resolve it (albeit temporarily), the light can also become “stuck” on.
Community threads show multiple and consistent reports of a primary Glyph position staying on and ignoring various on-device controls. Some discovered the problem after using Essential Recorder, others during voice calls, and in some cases users report it occurred at random. There’s no official statement from the company yet, but support agents are reportedly informing customers that a software patch is in progress.
- What users are reporting about the stuck Glyph lights
- Why it happens and why a stuck Glyph light matters
- Workarounds you can try now while waiting for a patch
- What Nothing’s support is saying about a pending fix
- Context from the wider Android ecosystem and updates
- Bottom line on the Nothing Phone 3a Glyph light issue
What users are reporting about the stuck Glyph lights
Dozens of owners share the same pattern across Reddit and other forums when posting about their smartphone: a single rear light bar flicks on and stays on until they reboot their device. Although settings toggles, changing your ringtone, and clearing all notifications do not consistently turn it off. If that isn’t enough, stories regarding the Phone 3a are as prevalent as those for the Phone 3a Pro, which suggests these aren’t really two separate isolated hardware failures but rather a common software path they share.
Enabled by default, common triggers include starting or stopping Essential Recorder from Quick Settings, receiving or ending an incoming call, and using “Glyph progress” for calendar events. Some users report that the light comes back at approximately the same time every day, suggesting some scheduled task or background process not being able to relinquish control of the LED.
Why it happens and why a stuck Glyph light matters
The firm hasn’t specified the underlying issue, but given the symptoms it would appear that the software service for managing the Glyph array is failing to reset a state flag after some type of event. Essential Recorder and Calendar progress features look at persistent signals, so a race condition or permissions handoff might leave a segment latched on. This is the sort of bug that crops up following a platform update where system services are being refactored.
The Glyph’s interface is more than smoke and mirrors for many owners – it’s key to how they triage calls and timers and manage recordings without waking the screen. A stuck segment undermines that pledge, and brings a relatively mild but continuous drain on the battery. There’s also concern about image retention or uneven wear over time if a light is on for hours.
Workarounds you can try now while waiting for a patch
Until an official patch is available, some affected users have reported luck with the following:
- Turn Essential Recorder on and off in Quick Settings to begin and end a recording, which may free the stuck light.
- Clear cache and data from the Essential Recorder app, then relaunch.
- Turn off “Glyph progress” for Google Calendar and any other apps that have persistent progress indicators.
- Reboot the phone — this is the most successful temporary fix so far.
If that doesn’t help, try booting into safe mode to eliminate third-party conflicts. There’s also the option to report it directly in Settings > System > Feedback, which enables the engineering team to get logs capturing the failure.
What Nothing’s support is saying about a pending fix
One customer who reached out to regional support was informed the problem is a known issue affecting the Phone 3a Pro, and that engineers are working on preparing an update. No timeline was shared. Support also suggested heading to a service center to see if a possible temporary fix could be applied, but reported success with that solution seems variable.
Phone makers have typically issued specific hotfixes to visual and notification problems in a minor build update, especially if reports gather around a single feature.
When validation is complete and we are certain that we’ve made no new conflicts regarding regression tests, members here will receive an OTA patch.
Context from the wider Android ecosystem and updates
Power management, background task scheduling (which ensure the Glyph system notices and processes Android notifications in a timely manner), and notification listeners are common targets of feature updates on Android — all code paths exercised by the Glyph system. Data on industry support indicates that post-update regressions frequently cluster around services with sustained state, such as call indicators, screen-on animations, and recording tiles. That’s a tricky class of bug: hard to reproduce in a lab setting but easier to trigger across diverse real-world use cases.
The best short-term advice is still a pragmatic one: use workarounds, collect feedback logs when the light sticks, and refrain from toggling multiple Glyph features at the same time until a patch arrives. Consider disabling Essential Recorder or Calendar progress for those who rely on them.
Bottom line on the Nothing Phone 3a Glyph light issue
The Nothing Phone 3a is affected by a software bug that renders certain Glyph elements “stuck” on, and reports of the issue have only multiplied since its latest update. A reboot fixes it – but the issue can re-emerge and there’s no official fix available yet. Support confirms the problem and it’s being worked on. In the meantime, basic band-aids — including toggling Essential Recorder or turning off Glyph progress — give the best chance to keep the lights in line.
