Pixel 6a battery warning

Eirikr70

krag I don't think it is related to GrapheneOS. It just seems to be old age !

DeletedUser495

krag how many cycles are on your battery?

Settings > About phone > Battery information > Cycle count

krag

Screenshot of the battery status

Email from Google:

Thank you for contacting Google support. My name is Bella. I hope you're

doing well.

I see that you are concerned about the appeasement. Rest assured, we are
always here to help you with the query

As we reviewed your eligibility for the Pixel Battery Performance Program.
Unfortunately, after careful review of your submission, your device has
been determined ineligible for an appeasement. As a result, we have
rejected your request.

Please believe me when I say this decision is not made lightly, and I
sincerely regret any inconvenience or hardship this may cause you. Your
experience matters greatly to us, and it pains me to deliver such news.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation throughout this process. If you
have any further questions or need assistance exploring other options,
please don’t hesitate to reach out — I’m here to support you as best I can.

Thanks!
Bella
The Google Support Team

So either Google or GrapheneOS are incorrect. I want to make sure before I challenge Google's response.

GrapheneOS

krag Google is wrong and it's potentially because you don't have the stock Pixel OS installed for them to see which battery variant you have.

krag If GrapheneOS is showing you the warning notification, the notice in battery settings and marking it as dead then you have one of the faulty batteries. That appears to be what you're describing. The support person you talked to is clearly wrong.

krag They're wrong, and it's likely because you aren't using the stock OS with their privileged integration into the OS so they can't see what you have.

krag They should be able to figure it out based on the IMEI or serial number. However, it seems they're trying to check via some kind of on-device integration sending data to them which you don't have.

krag

Seems like I cannot upload screenshot.
The charge cycle count is 508 and there is a warning above it :

Battery replacement recommended
Due to a potential battery overheating issue, battery capacity adn charging performance are reduced, and battery replacement is recommended.

DeletedUser495

krag so your battery is in fact eligible for replacement. I am not one of those lucky bastards who can get a replacement, my count stands at about 700. Luckily I have been utilizing Pixel 9 Pro XL (great phone!) as of late. Here's to good health. They should make batteries that last longer instead of focusing on stuffing their own pockets.

krag

Do I have to install the stock OS for Google to detect that the battery is faulty?
The courtesy we get for buying their device is an obvious obnoxious LLM generated response.

DeletedUser495

krag my suggestion would be to get a newer, better device with longer support, for as much as you can afford from Pixel 8 onward (MTE - memory tagging).

regit

krag

Do I have to install the stock OS for Google to detect that the battery is faulty?

Unfortunately, most likely.
Back in July I got a similar response as you did when I filled out their form. I also understood it as my device not being affected by the battery issue. But after the recent GrapheneOS update I did get the battery warning. I replied to that e-mail and asked for a further explanation why my device does not qualify for their replacement program. I was then asked to provide proof of purchase and to sign my affected Pixel device into Google. After some back and forth, I was told I had to install the official Pixel OS (I am using sandboxed Google Play and am logged into my Google Account, but that's not enough).

We've found that your phone's unique identifier (the IMEI) is not appearing in our system records. This often happens if the device is running a third-party operating system (OS), which unfortunately voids the standard warranty and prevents us from moving forward with your support request.
What You Need to Do

To get your case moving and allow our team to proceed with the review, you must take these steps:

Reinstall the Original Google OS: Please reinstall the factory Google operating system on your phone.

Log In: Sign in to the device using the Google account associated with this case.

Keep it Standard: Please keep the original Google OS installed and stay logged in while our team conducts the final review.

We understand this is a significant and unexpected requirement, and we truly regret the extra effort it takes. However, this is the only way we can get the necessary device information to appear in our system and continue your support process.

I followed through, backed up my device, installed the official Google Pixel OS, logged it into my Google account, and replied. Strangely, I was again asked to log into my Google Account, which I already was. After telling them so, the compensation request was finally approved and I returned to GrapheneOS.

The initial rejection e-mail took a few days or weeks to arrive. Luckily, all the later communication went much quicker, I usually received a reply within a day.

krag

DeletedUser495 Yes, I guess Google always gets the money.

Hat

This OS change is also causing the battery cycle count to increase faster, since each cycle is smaller than before.

Google says that my device isn't affected by the battery issue but, I have the warning in settings app and battery life has reduced significantly

Other people reported the same thing after struggling to contact support. Google's approach is not appropriate for its customers.

DeletedUser495 my suggestion would be to get a newer

I would prefer to wait and see the new GrapheneOS phone before deciding to upgrade my current one.

krag

Hat Yes, the cycle count was close to 400 before the update.

monogram

Hat I would prefer to wait and see the new GrapheneOS phone before deciding to upgrade my current one.

Yeah, I love GOS but I just don't trust Pixels because of this fiasco and lookalikes; they're even doubling down and spreading the new "Battery Assistance" plague across all models and I guess it's not going to take long before the same hits the 8a/9a and others (you wanted seven years of free software support? What were you thinking, kiddo).

Moreover, I always took very good care of my battery: I never charge it unattended, I charge it with reputable chargers and cables (from Nokia, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oneplus, since I bought it secondhand) below 10W (that is 1.5A or 2A * 5V) and I never discharged it flat to 0%.
In fact, my battery so far is fine and performing like new and the only ones trying to painfully mess with and destroy it all at once for "muh safety" were the dudes at Google, not me: if you really cared about safety, you'd just stop sourcing your batteries from known garbage manufacturers again and again.

So in order to defend myself and my device ownership, I had to freeze the GOS updates in early September and migrate data to my older (and way higher build quality) Oneplus - which still has a very strong 85% capacity 5 years old battery, by the way - while Google's support sorts out my compensation claim (just for having my time wasted on this nonsense) and likely asks me to reinstall the stock OS.

Hat

monogram However, it may take a while. This is because the first phone could be a replacement for the standard Pixel or Pro flagship, rather than an a series phone.

GrapheneOS

monogram Pixel 4a and Pixel 6a each had multiple battery suppliers. One of the suppliers made faulty batteries which turned out to be a fire hazard. Many other phones used these faulty batteries too, not only Pixels. Pixels are unique in the fact that they're doing something to protect people from it and offering either a free battery replacement or other compensation. Your battery is not fine if GrapheneOS or the stock Pixel OS detects it as one of the faulty ones. You should update GrapheneOS so it can check if it's a faulty battery, and if you have one then it's a serious fire hazard without the current updates limiting it. Not every Pixel 4a or Pixel 6a is impacted by this. Pixel 4a support was already over when this issue came up for it so we didn't integrate anything for it since people are supposed to stop using the device anyway. For the Pixel 6a, GrapheneOS got the standard protection against the fire hazard they shipped in July once it was added to Android 16 QPR1 in September since we shipped the Android 16 QPR1 kernel drivers. We wanted to ship it in July but the way they did it by forking off the Pixel 6a stock OS into a separate release with a different kernel driver tree made it difficult and we waited for Android 16 QPR1. The reason we shipped the user-facing integration later is because we had to do that entirely ourselves including due to lack of Android 16 QPR1 tags which remains an issue.

monogram

GrapheneOS

Thanks for your clarifications, I already knew all that and of course I'm not blaming it on you.