Hello everyone, I have an issue that seems partially well documented, but fragmented and not solved: battery drain with GrapheneOS on my Pixel 8a.
I used to run CalyxOS until about late summer, then switched to IodeOS for a brief time and then finally made the switch to GrapheneOS in about early October. I think it was just around the time when Android 16 arrived on GrapheneOS.
Quickly, I noticed, however, that I got much less battery time throughout the day than with Calyx and Iode. I often don't make it past about 17h or 18h before it dropping below 20% percent. I could easily reach the end of the day before on this phone before switching to GOS with more usage and more screen time. I have used about 324 cycles since November 2024.
The culprits switch on a day to day basis, it can be mobile data, Antennapod (podcast) or Spotify. I'm used to my media consumption really taking a toll on my phone, but I've especially noticed huge drains without me using the phone. At night, while not charging, I can easily lose 40 percent while doing nothing.
On many days, however, when it gets very bad, I can see in the battery usage in the settings under 'view per system' that two processes take up a lot of energy. These are called: System (AUDIO) and System (VIDEO). See screenshot for apps here and for systems here.
Today I woke up at about 7:00h with 100% battery, read some things, listened to a podcast and some music on the way to work. At about 16:00h, I had 37% battery life left with just 1h15min screen time. It had mostly been in my pocket. But System (VIDEO) used battery for apparently for 9h9min, draining my battery for 50 percent. Besides this extreme situation, it just feels like my phone doesn't really go in to idle? Even with hardly any usage I lose about 5% to 10% per hour.
I would greatly appreciate any insights that might help me fix this, as this is barely usable.