Extreme battery drain from Mobile Network

pit2p

ryrona I also noticed that Telegram never followed battery restrictions, and it kept running in the background (I replaced telegram with the fork). I assumed it was also using the network, but after 4 days with the new os update, there is no more battery drain

IAMHereNow288

Pixel 9 Pro: Phone was fully charged to 100% last night shortly after midnight. This morning at 10am the battery was down to 40%. When checking Battery Usage, it says Mobile Data has used 83% since last full charge. Screen time is 12 minutes. This is ridiculous! Whatever happened to Deep Sleep?

I have also noticed that when walking through certain cities, mobile data drains my battery quickly. Is there no way to make the OS go idle and just check in with the network every 10 minutes or so when the phone is not actively in use? At home I use WiFi and Airplane Mode is usually on, but when travelling this isn't always an option and more than ever I need my battery to last.

de0u

IAMHereNow288 Depending on the details of the situation, disabling 5G might help. Also, some carriers have better coverage in some geographical areas.

IAMHereNow288

de0u I changed to LTE only so will see how that does.

IAMHereNow288

IAMHereNow288 Battery is lasting much longer since I switched to LTE Only ✅

Graph10

I've had bad battery drain on cellular signal.

I have mullvad running all the time. I think it has something to do with that. It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, it is always on mobile and doesn't happen on wiif.

This is on 6 pro. I pick the phone up and it is warm, that is a dead giveaway. Maybe it is app related.

de0u

IAMHereNow288 Thanks for reporting back!

sonice

IAMHereNow288 I'm on LTE (not LTE only) and have no battery problems on P9Pro

hardwareadictos

Same issue on Pixel 7, modem draining battery more (really more) than usual. Taking about 5% of battery every 20 minutes. I suspect that this started to happen on my case from QPR1 and beyond.

Viewpoint0232

I recently switched my network from Three to Vodafone and battery life got much better. I can now use my phone for a whole day without charging midday!

Yodel5154

I recently purchased a brand-new Pixel 9a. Until now I have not inserted a SIM in it. I have also not used an eSIM. I have never connected to any mobile network.

And yet… “Mobile network” is the top battery drainer.

WTF? How do I resolve this?

de0u

Yodel5154 Is the device in airplane mode?

Novalissoide

Yodel5154 Mobile network” is the top battery drainer.

It'll be high according to the native Battery usage monitoring feature as long as anything whatsoever uses mobile networking. Is network location in use?

Yodel5154

de0u i turned on airplane mode after reading through this thread, will see it prevents the drain overnight

Novalissoide yes I have it set to GrapheneOS proxy for various reasons including Uber/Maps/Find my device from f-droid when needed, but it was never draining like this till this week

Elysium

Some days I think it is really bad, especially during continuous usage with display. But even checking battery stats for a 2h bracket then, makes the display battery consumption dwarf compared to mobile network. The phone is warm.

I do still read Telekom often regarding this issue. I use LTE-only, with apps like Towercollector (or TrailSense can do it too?) - anyway I determined signal strength to tower, which is really good.

comm-charting As seen in other threads it might have to do something with the carrier. I am located in Germany, using a Deutsche Telekom eSIM.

bobyop111 I am using a Bouygues Telecom (French) sim card in the UK

Asparagus I'm using Tello at USA which is relying on the T-Mobile network.

MiniSota I have this issue as well. T-Mobile US, Pixel 8 Pro.

Sorry for tags, just wanted to point it out how many said it.

n3t_admin - this is a carrier config issue. Mobile networks are very complex and the slightest configuration error can have devastating consequences for battery life.

I did find one difference, regarding the access point config. The preconfigured password on my device is telekom, but the provider wants it to be tm. I don't have connection issues though.

One website from telekom directly

https://telekomhilft.telekom.de/conversations/mobilfunk/%C3%BCbersicht-der-aktuellen-mobilfunk-apns-mit-detailinformationen/68bc62d9d9a8f6366a59c95c

dieser Standard- APN lautet:

APN : internet.v6.telekom
Benutzername: telekom
Passwort: tm

And from one of its daughter companies pointing out the same, post is old , but was edited in 2026
https://forum.congstar.de/thread/46325-mobil-surfen-mit-congstar-manuelle-einstellungen-zum-mobilen-internet-apn/

Internet (GPRS, LTE) Einstellungen:

Name: Congstar Internet
APN: internet.v6.telekom
Proxy: keine Eingabe
Port: keine Eingabe
Benutzername: telekom
Passwort: tm
MCC: 262
MNC: 01
Authentifizierungstyp: PAP
APN-typ: default,supl

I guess I will test out the correct password now for my provider and report back.

comm-charting

Elysium

I am sorry to report, that since then I switched back to the stock OS and the battery life is way better, and I'm running more stuff in the background. So this wasn't a random hardware issue and the carrier's and SIMs are the same.
However I think we all would be interested in your findings later on.

hardwareadictos

So I've been on Pixel 7 Stock ROM for about two months with the same telecom carrier, same apps and the same app config and I don't have any battery or overheating issues anymore on mobile data, maybe someone in the team could check this thread, because for me and for the first time, this makes me unable to use GrapheneOS

Elysium

comm-charting
I can't really tell if something changed. I still think prolonged usage will make it hard to recharge, might be because of temperature that the device opts for slow recharging or because of time of day (does Android recharge slower by default during night and faster during day?).
As soon as I turn off the device it recharges faster, even if I disabled mobile data beforehand.

Also, when I check now, the APN password seems to be reset to telekom. Maybe a restart did that, unsure.

Novalissoide

Elysium turn off the device it recharges faster

Since more of the current can be charging current and not as much shared with the other consuming components. The current gets increasingly throttled when approaching 80% charge.

Novalissoide

Elysium might be because of temperature that the device opts for slow recharging

This will also come in play. High current, and high temperature, I would say are the two biggest factors for wear, and since the charging controller is monitoring both, it will consider them when regulating.

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