A strange issue with stranger workarounds
Many people rely on Do Not Disturb (DND) to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to notifications and only want their most important contacts to ring their phones. But for some Pixel owners, Android 11 makes this impossible: Despite allowing starred contacts to always ring the phone when they call or send messages, DND now fully mutes their notifications. While it's hard to pinpoint the culprit, there are workarounds that seem to bring back at least call ringtones for most people.
What's happening
A few Pixel owners have taken to the Google support forum following the Android 11 update. They complain that their phones don't ring for starred contacts anymore, even though they set up the feature that way on Android 10. That has serious consequences: One affected person reports that their elderly mother couldn't reach them while she was lying on the floor with a broken ankle.
Google says it's investigating the issue, but the problem seems to persist even after the October security patches.
First things first, though: Make sure you haven't turned off all notification sounds via your volume rocker menu. That's the case when you can see a crossed out bell in your status bar. To turn sounds back on, press volume up or down and then tap the bell icon in the menu above the volume slider that shows up on the screen.
Workaround #1: Allow repeat callers
Tap "People," then "Calls," and then toggle on "Allow repeat callers."
Many people could remedy the problems with a workaround posted by forum user Frank Longest. He writes that starred contacts could ring his Pixel 4 again after he turned on "allow repeat callers." You can find that option by searching your phone settings for that term or by going to Sound -> Do Not Disturb -> People -> Calls. This will also allow non-starred contacts to reach you when they call twice within 15 minutes, so it's not ideal.
Workaround #2: Tweak Phone notifications
Open Phone app info, tap "Notifications," "Incoming calls," and choose "Override Do Not Disturb."
If that doesn't do the trick, forum user Titusz Rónai reports that you might also have to go to the Phone app info (tap and hold the icon in your launcher and look for the circled i symbol), and then Notifications -> Incoming Calls -> Advanced -> Override Do Not Disturb. However, this might cause the Phone app to always ring, regardless of who calls you.
Problems with these workarounds
These solutions won't help with text message notifications from starred contacts — those remain silent for most people who successfully used these workarounds.
On top of that, these tricks don't seem to work for everyone, and forum user Henk Elemans reports some more strange shenanigans: With repeat callers allowed, his phone would ring, but the display wouldn't turn on automatically, which we can confirm. When turned on manually, the ringing would stop, and he had to go to the Phone app to accept the call. With repeat callers disabled, the screen would turn on, but there wasn't any sound.
Workaround #3: Factory reset
If none of these measures help, you might even have to factory reset your phone, though this is the most drastic and time-consuming route. To do that, make sure that you've backed up all of your data in the cloud or to another device. Then look for "factory reset" in your Pixel phone's settings. Since we don't know what exactly the culprit is, it's entirely possible that the problem persists after resetting and restoring your phone from an Android backup, so you might even have to start from scrap completely. This solution really should be your last resort.
While I can't reproduce these problems myself, they seem widespread, and it's unlikely that all the affected accidentally broke their setup themselves. Google must've changed something for a specific subset of users following the Android 11 update, and our best hope is that the company is bringing a fix with the next security patch. You might want to hold off from factory resetting until that update rolls out early next month.
