Pixel 6a reduced battery capacity after 202509500 alpha update

franc

Hello team,

Thank you for your amazing work,

I have a pixel 6a which is officially affected by Google's reduced capacity program as I received the email on July,

Until yesterday using GrapheneOS I've had pretty good battery life, 93% capacity showing on both aBattery & Battery Guru after almost 3 years and 1250 cycles and 6h+ SOT,

Yesterday after updating to 202509500 alpha version and leaving the phone on charge overnight, I woke up with 84% battery in the morning, charging had stopped (was taking 1amp as per Battery Guru), Battery Health was showing Dead on aBattery and max capacity was on both around 2900mah max, which is definitely reduced.
Charging info on lock screen is showing just charging instead of charging rapidly and time left.
And most important today battery is draining extremely quick... Barely 3h SOT

This is exactly same behavior as some of my friends Pixel 6a which are running official stock OS with reduced capacity.

Not sure if QPR1 (yesterdays update) on Grapheneos reduced my capacity or it is due to the fact that I also have Play services and google play store on my phone and once it detected QPR1 applied the new battery update as well ?

Please I need the old capacity back 😭

xxx

franc I think you don't want a burning phone which is more important.

franc

xxx I've never had heating issues in the past 2 years, battery life has been amazing without issues. I've always used adaptive charging before on official OS.
GrapheneOS team said in previous discussions that they'll let us choose if we want this battery update or not.

Since this is still alpha I believe this can be still fixed.

DeletedUser396

xxx really. How many P6a batteries have ignited, how many P6a devices have been sold. What is the failure percentage of the P6a against any other Pixel failure rate.
If it were that safety critical the phones would be on a recall immediately.
People are the problem, I want my phone charged and I want it NOW.. So its plugged into a too powerful charger and even left unattended whilst charging.

I just find it funny that a battery problem in the next series of phones to go EOL emerges weeks before the P10 is released. I assume in the summer of 2026 the P7a will have battery problems... Weeks before the P11 is announced. Only saying.
My P6a works brilliantly, its looked after, not abused and is charged slowly to 100%.

Miles

franc an official battery replacement is not expensive, you dont even need to replace GOS.

A battery with more than 1000 cycles is old, ThE problem is that appart from being old it s alzó defective. Google is doing full refunds for phones con warranty for a reason if your country doesnt have an oficial partner to replace it.

franc

Miles As I mentioned before I'm just trying to figure out what happened, if GrapheneOS team included the battery reduce update program on this alpha update or if it's only due to having the Play Services installed on the phone ?

I've had play services and play store installed since long ago but wasn't affected of this before. I need them for various reasons.

xxx

franc Perhaps ask here: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/26209-grapheneos-version-2025090600-released

franc

xxx Thanks for the advice,

Yep already replied there, hopefully this is something that can be fixed, or at least have the option to choose as mentioned earlier on previous threads.

xxx

franc

I think the team is very busy with all the changes in AOSP. We will see.

franc

DeletedUser396 That's indeed the sad truth,

I've had mine for almost 3 years, been using the original charger and cable since day 1 and never had issues so far, battery has been brilliant (with its ups and downs after updates but 95% postive).
Never had heating issue, while charging.
Phone is still amazing to this day, and still super smooth absolutely smashing every task.

Google decides to reduce its capacity just because couple people decide to sleep with their phones under the pillow or leave them unattended for hours charging on warm places.. This is not a Note 10 story.
I've seen issues raising regarding Pixel 7a as well, and we'll see for Pixel 8a for sure...

Anyway back to the topic, I wasn't expecting the new reduced capacity to be included on this update, I also tried removing google play services and any app related to google but capacity is still the same, terrible. This seems like firmware deep level hopefully fixed on the next alpha update.
Phone is nearly unusable right now.

xxx

DeletedUser396 What is the failure percentage of the P6a against any other Pixel failure rate.

I just don't know and also don't care much. But I can assure you don't want a burning phone.

monogram

DeletedUser396 I just find it funny that a battery problem in the next series of phones to go EOL emerges weeks before the P10 is released. I assume in the summer of 2026 the P7a will have battery problems... Weeks before the P11 is announced. Only saying.

It seems that every single "a" variant has alleged battery "issues" now, for some reason.
Heck, even the 9a (2025) will get its
voltage reduced at 200 cycles i. e roughly eight months after purchase, because - you know - it's too old and you need to replace it.
And the 10 series? Same policy: they're gimping the battery now to "prolong its life" later, not to mention that you'll have to charge it more often ending up degrading it even faster. This got out of control and became usual business practice alongside lots of other sketchy moves lately.

Miles

DeletedUser396

I got more money back than what I paid for my 6a after almost 3 years of use.

Replaced the battery and got a pixel 9 almost for free. Pretty happy with The battery issue TBH.

DeletedUser396

franc I would assume that once you have the battery limiting update, you're stuck with it, even if you renew the battery, the software will still trigger if the new battery, count gets near 400 cycles.
My P6a probably has battery limiting software now, but because I have a count of less that 200, my battery has remained as it was after the last update.
I have no idea if my phone is one of the affected ones or not.
I don't use G@@gle and have no interest in using G@@gle just to find out.

xxx

DeletedUser396 I think we have to wait. Does the battery have a firmware too?

franc

DeletedUser396 actually not, I've tested stock OS after the limitation and yes my battery capacity was reduced and I was having exactly same state that I have now.

But when switching to GrapheneOS it went back to normal.
I've read in another thread where GrapheneOS team mentions that they'll allow us choose if want it or not.

Battery capacity program was introduced on stock OS with beta QPR1, and somehow makes sense that I'm seeing it after updating to 202509500 which is a preparation for QPR1 release.

DeletedUser396

xxx I agree, but then the only option open to you is don't use a phone, because just about every modern phone known to man has a battery inside it, and invariably its Lithium-ion based.
The battery in any phone not just a P6a, may not combust today, or next week, month, year, or ever, but it has the potential to do so.
The moment my P6a shows any signs of battery problems (heat, swelling, poor charging, poor capacity )it will be mechanically shredded.

xxx

franc But when switching to GrapheneOS it went back to normal.

So it's fine again now?

franc

xxx of course not, else I wouldn't create this thread, I was talking regarding previous experience before with GrapheneOS until Saturday.

xxx

franc
My bad. But I think this will get fixed somehow in the near future. @GrapheneOS
Maybe stuff can tell us more.

xxx

DeletedUser396 I know.