Google Pixel 6 mobile network draining too much battery on standby mode

New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

Original story (published on November 11, 2021) follows:

The first buyers of the Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro series continue to report areas for improvement. You can check the dedicated bug/issue tracker to stay on top of everything.

The most recent reports from users of Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones indicate battery draining problems caused by the mobile network in standby mode.

Some Google Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro users are reporting their phones are suffering from excessive battery consumption in standby mode (1, 2, 3, 4).

When going to the battery section of the system, affected users report that the ‘mobile network’ item is consuming between 30{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73} and 40{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73} of the battery per day.

Is anyone else seeing Mobile network standby using up to 40{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73} battery in the last 24hours?

I have tried numerous things like turning off adaptive connectivity. But the only thing that seemed to reduce it was turning off data completely. It’s odd as the phone should be using wifi, I have noticed the phone disconnects from wifi when locked sometimes so could that be related?
Source

Day three with my pixel 6 pro and I’ve noticed while watching YouTube or anything. Even Chrome or scrolling Reddit the phone gets very hot to the point where when I try to charge it according to Accu battery it says I’m charging at 2-10mA. Anyone else having these issues? I’ve tried turning of 5g because it says mobile network standby is taking up more than 30 to 40{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73} of my battery. Disabling mobile connectivity is not an option because I am on the road so this is strictly on 4G LTE
Source

Some users suspect that the problem would be the Pixel 6 suddenly losing all network coverage and recovering it seconds later. This would happen spontaneously every 2 or 3 minutes.

Constantly losing and recovering the signal put additional strain on the Pixel 6’s modem. So, this would result in the reported excessive battery drain.

Among the reports, there are also possible workarounds that can mitigate the issue. For example, it is recommended to turn off the ‘Adaptive Connectivity’.

Adaptive Connectivity is a feature that automatically switches between WiFi and mobile data networks. This means that the mobile data is always on, even if Wi-Fi is being used.

If that doesn’t work, a more ‘severe’ workaround can be tried. Basically, it is recommended to do a factory reset and configure the phone from scratch, without directly transferring data or saved settings.

Had a very very similar drain (Google Fi here). Tried a bunch of items (disable mobile standby, disable 5g, etc) but in the end, a factory reset and NOT transferring data over seems to have resolved it for me. Used sms backup and restore to get texts, reinstalled all apps manually.
Source

The bug has already been listed on Google’s bug reporting platform. At the moment, it only remains to wait for new updates in this regard.

If there is any new development in this regard, we will update this article. So, stay tuned with us.

12:03 pm (IST): The December 2021 update is rolling out to Pixel devices and a few improvements are also coming to the battery experience. Below is a section of the changelog.

Battery & Power

– Additional improvements for battery charging information shown in notification shade.
– General improvements for battery & thermal performance in certain conditions.
– General improvements for wireless charging in certain conditions *[5].
– Improvements for alignment detection on Pixel Stand in certain conditions.
– Fix for issues occasionally causing incorrect Battery usage accounting to display in Settings.
Source

07:32 pm (IST): December 2021 update for Pixel 6 users was supposed to fix battery draining issue. But since the update has been shifted to the end of January, users have to wait until then.

11:54 am (IST): Users are still reporting excessive battery drain issues with the mobile data network on standby even after the latest update. So, it seems that this issue is still not resolved with January 2022 patch.

12:53 pm (IST): Users now seems to be making a direct correlation between the dual SIM/network and the battery draining. According to them, having a dual SIM leads to a more aggressive battery drain.

10:48 am (IST): Users who were not having this issue on the November patch have also started reporting it after upgrading to the January 2022 patch.

And with new reports still pouring in, it now seems that the January update has made this bug even worse than before.

10:58 pm (IST): Users are now reporting that even after installing the January 2022 update, this issue isn’t fixed. And the only viable solution is to downgrade to the November 2021 patch.

01:05 pm (IST): The latest report of the battery draining issue has been marked as ‘Accepted’ on the Google Issue Tracker. This means that Google devs might be investigating the issue again.

12:51 pm (IST): Some users are reporting (1, 2, 3) battery draining issues on standby even after February 2022 update. This means that the issue still persists and users will have to wait for some more time to get it fixed.

04:57 pm (IST): While the Android 12L Beta 3 changelog does not mention any fixes for the battery draining issue, users are hoping that the new update fixes or at least include some improvements for the same.

05:41 pm (IST): Google released a small OTA update for Pixel 6 phones with fixes for critical bugs and general improvements. But unfortunately, it does not mention any improvements for the battery draining issue.

12:10 pm (IST): A user now claims that the Android 12L beta has brought some improvements in the battery status. Therefore, if no bug sneaks into the stable version, things may again go back to normal for Pixel 6 users once the stable comes.

01:40 pm (IST): Google is expected to release March 2022 patch for Pixel 6 on March 07. And we hope that it brings fix for the battery draining issue.

10:53 am (IST): Google is conducting a survey regarding Android 12L beta 3 for Pixel users. And those having battery-draining issues on Pixel 6 can also share their feedback to Google by submitting the survey.

11:57 am (IST): Here’s a workaround for those who are facing battery draining issues on their Pixel 6 even if they only use Wi-Fi calling.

Workaround:

Go to developer options and disable the option that keeps “mobile network on when wifi is connected”. It made a huge difference to my battery life since I am mostly on wifi. (Source)

04:50 pm (IST): Google engineers appear to be working on a report from an individual who complained about abnormal battery drain issues on the Pixel 6 via the official issue tracker.

The team, however, requires additional data for further analysis. So affected users may have to wait a while before a fix is implemented.

05:40 pm (IST): An individual claims that they were able to drastically reduce the battery drain overnight by simply disabling the Adaptive Connectivity function.

I disabled the Adaptive Connectivity function last night. My phone was @100{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73} this morning and it’s just after 10 pm local time and I’m still at 60{5376dfc28cf0a7990a1dde1ec4d231557d3d9e6448247a9e5e61bb9e48b1de73}. Much better today since I disabled that function. (Source)

Thus, you might want to check this out for yourself to see if it makes a difference.

01:03 pm (IST): Google support team has recommended Pixel users to soft reboot the device by holding down the power button for 30 seconds to fix the battery issues.

Moreover, a user has confirmed that this workaround has resolved the battery issues for them and also improved the battery life.

Thanks for the info. Could you try a soft reboot by holding down the power button for 30 seconds and see if it works fine? Let us know if that helps. ^Mark (Source)

05:28 pm (IST): According to Google Issue tracker, the issue where mobile network is draining too much battery has been escalated to the engineering team for further investigation.

05:30 pm (IST): Some users alleged that they have noticed a change in the way their mobile network battery usage is being reported. According to users, the mobile network battery drain increases significantly when Wi-Fi is turned on.

But for some odd reason, even when Wi-Fi is disabled and mobile network battery usage is normal, the battery life remains the same in both scenarios with all other things being equal.

02:23 pm (IST): A Redditor has shared a workaround that you can try in case you are facing issues receiving calls after turning off 5G in order to save battery.

Although it’s been suggested by a Pixel 5 user, Pixel 6 users can also try it out and see if it works.

Workaround: NR/LTE/WCDMA is usually the default. But you can set it to NR/LTE since 3G is/was being retired. (Source)

06:32 pm (IST): A user claims that the battery life of their Pixel 6 has improved after installing Android 13 beta. This means we can expect the upcoming OS to resolve the battery draining issue.

PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.