Battery drain on Pixel 6a (with solution that worked for me)

Pawsh

Hello community

Maybe this helps others with battery drain problems or even the developers (feel free to contact me if you need more information).

Device: Pixel 6a

Problem: Device to noticeably warm/hot at the back and had a massive battery drain whenever mobile data was set to ON (independent of WiFi state). Normal battery usage with WiFi ON+mobile data OFF, WiFi ON only with no SIM inserted, internet completely OFF or in flight-mode.

Solution: Set "Preferred network type" to anything OTHER than 5G.

Details / what I tried but did not help (all with carrier SIM inserted and 5G set as "preferred network type"):

drain with wifi ON
(as mentioned in other threads) I set VoLTE and/or WiFi calling to OFF, drain.
tried with another SIM (data only, no calls) from the same carrier, same result.
drain was independent of various user profiles in use with or without sandboxed Google Play
factory reset whole device, "fresh out of the box" (no additional apps installed, only "naked" owner profile), wifi and mobile data (5G) ON, drain.

turmoil2750

thanks for the tip, i'll try this. been noticing a fast drain too. always chalked it up to lack of GAPPS

meiklmue

Thanks for sharing and testing.
That awful battery drain is the only thing that drives me nuts on GrapheneOS.
With other Roms I got 2-3 days and GrapheneOS barely gets me over one day even with flightmode enabled at night...

NOiSE

I've also experienced heavy battery drain with 5G enabled and thus set it to 4G. I'm quite happy with the battery life of my Pixel 6 since.

Relaks

I've never experienced battery drain on Pixel 6a (usually get about 2 days of battery life), but I've always had it set to LTE-only, so maybe that's the reason. Thanks for sharing. 😊

Skyway

I don't have a 6a or battery issues , but when diagnosing a different issue under dev option - network. There's an option " mobile data always active " I believe its on by default. Turning it off may help while keeping the use of 5G .

[deleted]

Skyway No. No one should be messing with Developer Options unless they are a...developer. It's not meant to be used by average joe users.

Pawsh

Skyway Thanks, I tried your suggestion, but still had the drain. Back to LTE.

prompter

[deleted] very true, absolutely NO ONE must use any developer options, even increasing animation speeds results in an exploding device, unless you're a developer ofc, then it's all good.

Skyway

[deleted] freedom is scary .

N3rdTek

[deleted] sources?
I turn it on for every Android I own.

Bluetooth/USB DAC support and & better codecs.
limit # of background tasks
limit # of connected bt devices
wifi scan throttling for better performance and reduced battery drain
access to 12L taskbar by setting min Width to 600 or higher.
mock gps
reduce or remove animations
prevent cached apps from running
force Max refresh rate
and so many more

You just need to understand what you're turning on or off. To say nobody ever should have a need for developer options besides developers is so untrue it's a smack in the face for power users as some apps(primarily banking) refuse to run if dev options are turned on. Thankfully that list is small and there's always an alternative somewhere

meiklmue

On my 4a5g switching from 5G to 4G made a huge difference in battery life.
Now I get a whole day without any problem.

[deleted]

meiklmue pixels are known for their not so ideal battery life and I think it's down to the SOC so not much can be done there. When I decided to take up GOS, I didn't really think of that. It's something you need to get used to, that your battery will barely last a day unless you want to become a hermit.

meiklmue

[deleted]
No, with other Roms battery life is fine.
It is some "problem" related to GOS. But no one seems to really care about battery life on a secure system it seems.

[deleted]

N3rdTek some apps(primarily banking) refuse to run if dev options are turned on.

Banking apps are known to have a false sense of security, they will work on a cheap 120$ device that passes Google's MEETS_DEVICE_INTEGRITY check but not on a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS that only passes MEETS_BASIC_INTEGRITY because of not being certified by Google.

MoonshineMidnight

I don't get strong reception on my 6a. I had it on LTE only as suggested and I think the issue was constantly switching between towers where I live. Put in airplane mode with WiFi calling on and battery is now a champ. Also like that when I leave my house I turn WiFi off (airplane still on) and have a dumb phone for privacy. Turn on and then off LTE as needed to make/check calls when out and about (yes, location, Bluetooth/WiFi scanning all off).

N3rdTek

[deleted] that's because the secret ingredient is crime!

Or deep pockets of money.

Drandroid

I have the same probleme
When i am in a car for long distance the battery drain without i use the phone .....so i thing when the phone change between frequency 2g to 3g to 4G that drain battery too