High background power drain

Valdis

Right after recent update battery life got significantly depleted (now on 2026032001). AccuBattery reports about 160mA of consumption with screen off, while before it was about 42mA with running VPN. Even with disabling VPN, GPS and background apps the usage stayed at 140 mA during the night. However, AccuBattery nor the system battery monitor show abnormal usage by any app, so I assume that is some system process refusing to stay calm. Google Play services and Play Store are installed, yet the latter is disabled.
How to debug or solve this issue?

Johnnyloans

Valdis

Hello!

You can check here for some good info:
settings > battery > battery usage

Select a day or hour.
Check" view by apps " and "view system."

The percentages cannot be compared between the 2 because let's say apps used 8% and system used 2%. 50% of each is a different number. Also, we don't know how much apps and system used, we only know how far the battery went down in total.

Valdis

Johnnyloans
Yes, Battery Usage was what I meant by "system battery monitor", sorry for not being clear enough.
I've been investigating the issue, and here's what I've found: apps show no significant drain percentage, while the "view system" says the main consumption comes from mobile network. To test this, I disabled mobile data and WiFi overnight and measured the off-screen drain using AccuBattery, which fell to 20mA - a normal level for a phone (less than 1%/h). This suggests that the problem lies with network access.
To further test this, I force-shut the email and couple of other apps which might poll the network frequently, disabled BT, GPS, VPN, and connected to a WiFi. Consumption was about 60mA, which is still more than couple of weeks ago before the system updates, but below 140mA because of fewer apps working.
From this I conclude that either network usage itself is more power-hungry or my phone isn't entering deep sleep mode as easily as it used to.
I believe apps themselves can be ruled out as there have been no new background apps. Maybe there are problems with optimization after the updates, but phone has been restarted several times. WiFi signal is strong and 5G should the same as before, as I`m visiting the same urban places with good coverage. Any other ides to test?

Johnnyloans

Valdis

LTE only will save battery. 5G uses more power. StockOS turns off 5G often automatically

Valdis

Johnnyloans
Thank you for your help. Battery usage showed that the System components are the main background consumers, specifically, Mobile Network and GPS. So I tried switching to Airplane mode with WiFi calling enabled, and consumption did decrease a lot. Of course, this is not a long-term solution. Switching to LTE helped a bit too.

However, the problem was solved by the last System Update (2026040301), now the consumption is back to the original level (from 140 to around 40 mA with screen off, discharging at about 1 %/h). The Battery usage shows very similar ratio, meaning the main consumers are the same. I can only conclude that the problem was coming indeed from the recent updates. Maybe a bug in the radio drivers, yet I did not see notes about driver changes in the new version info.
Thus, question for the future - is it possible to revert the recent update in case of something goes bad?

xaz2fiaghi Check which version you are using, maybe the updates will solve it for you too.

xaz2fiaghi

I'm also seeing very high battery usage since a couple weeks ago on my Pixel 7. The phone is physically warm almost all the time. I'm on wifi 98% of the day and used to get 3 to 4 days of battery life. Now I get less than 1.

Mobile network in battery usage reports 67% after 5 hours and the battery is at 70%. Normally this time of day I'd be in the high 90s.

I have two sims, one physical and one e-sim. But that's the same configuration I've had for some time. This seemed to happen with an update in the last month or so.

Johnnyloans

Glad it's better :)
You're quite the sleuth, nice.

Valdis is it possible to revert the recent update in case of something goes bad?

We can't "update" to an older version.

If the old install was archived somewhere, you could wipe your device and flash the old version. Then disable automatic updates.

xaz2fiaghi

I'm on 2026040301 . I have no updates available.

Novalissoide

xaz2fiaghi
That's 2026040600 still being in Beta.

wizoatk

Novalissoide That's 2026040600 still being in Beta.

And it's not going to get to Stable. Next try will be 2026040800. Looks like some QPR3 fixes/issues:

https://grapheneos.org/releases#2026040800

update Pixel firmware, driver libraries, HALs and other components backported from Android 16 QPR3 from the initial March 2026 release to the April 2026 release (CP1A.260405.005)

xaz2fiaghi

Novalissoide
@Valdis said that 2026040301 resolved this for them, however I'm on that same version and still having the problem. That's all I meant by this. I should have been more clear.

Novalissoide

wizoatk 2026040800

Yes, 2026040800 seems like imminent now.

Novalissoide

xaz2fiaghi Settings > System > System update > Release channel

Beta is a rather safe choice, not quite as 'Beta' as what that label usually mean. IMHO

Valdis

xaz2fiaghi Have you tried switching from 5G to LTE? It made a huge difference after the recent update I mentioned. It seems the 5G is still more power-hungry than before, and it was noticeable even while being connected to WiFi. Also, either GPS itself or the waking procedure to obtain position does seem to consume more energy, yet it did get a bit better after reconfiguring my phone tracking app.
Maybe try disabling GPS, BT and 5G and see which one makes the biggest impact for you. Hopefully we won't need to deal with that after further updates, actually this is the first major issue I've had with them.