Some Google Pixels are suffering from a crippling battery bug, but we might already know the cause

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They're not dozing deeply

Google Pixel 10 Pro XL in Porcelain against a blue background with a green neon Android figurine in the background
The Google Pixel 10 Pro XL (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)
  • Some Pixel owners are reporting that their batteries are draining very fast
  • This appears to be caused by a bug introduced in a March update, which affects Deep Doze
  • Unfortunately, there's no fix yet

Ever since the March Google Pixel update, some users have been experiencing a serious battery bug with their phones, and it’s one that wasn’t addressed in April’s Pixel update, and currently has no other fix either.

As spotted by Android Police, there are threads on both Reddit and Google’s support forums complaining about the issue, and it appears to affect a wide variety of phones, from the Pixel 7 through to the Google Pixel 10 series.

There aren’t a huge number of reports, so thankfully, it might not be too widespread, but it sounds like a major problem for those who are affected, with one Reddit poster claiming they now “have to charge [their Pixel phone] 2 to 3 times a day.”

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That’s a serious issue, especially if you’re out with your phone all day, as you can no longer rely on it to survive until you get home or to somewhere you can charge it.

Google Pixel 10 in Lemongrass against a bubbly backsplash

The Google Pixel 10 (Image credit: Philip Berne / Future)

A mode you probably hadn't heard of reportedly isn't working

But while there’s no fix yet, OddAtmosphere1793 on Reddit has found a possible explanation for the bug. They claim to have found that a firmware bug is preventing their Pixel from entering Deep Doze — a mode that should automatically kick in when the phone is idle to reduce performance and background activities, in order to conserve battery.

The good news is that they’ve posted the bug on Google’s Issue Tracker, and they encourage anyone affected to hit the ‘+1’ button there, so that Google’s engineers will see it and hopefully prioritize a fix for it.

In the meantime, we’ve got a guide to boosting your Android phone’s battery life, so you might want to try some of these ideas as a stopgap.

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James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.

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