Pixel 3a - Purchase Nov.2019 (New: terrible on-screen battery life)

[Marc999]

Re: Pixel 3a

I purchased my phone during Black Friday (Nov.2019), so it's a little over a year in use.
At the time, I was getting a little over 7 hours on-screen battery life.
I'm running Android 11 with the latest security updates. (Edit: My mistake - it is Android 11)

I'm not sure at what point my battery life has suffered, but it's very noticeable.
I'm lucky to get barely over 4 hours on-screen time, by the time the battery hits ~ 15%. (Consisting mostly of reading internet articles on Chrome, checking email and text messaging).

I have done the following:
Always keep apps up-to-date
Have a subscription to BitDefender
Disable - Adaptive Battery - no difference.
Disable - Haptic feedback - very little difference.
Turned down brightness to useable amounts - very little difference.
Looked at Battery usage and there are no apps that the system is identifying as abnormally high use.
Always on Display - off
WiFi & Blutooth scanning - off
Current song playing - off

------------------------
I have not done a factory reset.
Has anyone else proven this actually works?

I cannot think of any out of the ordinary apps that I have installed.
Unless the Covid-19 app (issued by Canadian government) is responsible - if it were, wouldn't it be flagged and shown to me within the Battery usage settings?
--------------------------

Surely a decrease from over 7 hours on-screen time to barely 4 (with ~ 15% battery life remaining) is not normal wear/tear in about a year?

Any suggestions would be welcome. Suggestions that have worked for you.

Edit: I'll be testing the phone with Wifi Scanning set to off (it was on). I'll see if that makes a difference.
Failing that, I'll just go ahead and do a factory reset and slowly add back one app at a time.
Starting with the Canadian Covid-19 Alert app (most recent app I added), which obviously is more important than any battery life changes.

 

[mustang7757]

You should be on Andriod 11

 

[J Dubbs]

Re: Pixel 3a

I purchased my phone during Black Friday (Nov.2019), so it's a little over a year in use.
At the time, I was getting a little over 7 hours on-screen battery life.
I'm running Android 10 with the latest security updates.

I'm not sure at what point my battery life has suffered, but it's very noticeable.
I'm lucky to get barely over 4 hours on-screen time, by the time the battery hits ~ 15%. (Consisting mostly of reading internet articles on Chrome, checking email and text messaging).

I have done the following:
Always keep apps up-to-date
Have a subscription to BitDefender
Disable - Adaptive Battery - no difference.
Disable - Haptic feedback - very little difference.
Turned down brightness to useable amounts - very little difference.
Looked at Battery usage and there are no apps that the system is identifying as abnormally high use.

------------------------
I have not done a factory reset.
Has anyone else proven this actually works?

I cannot think of any out of the ordinary apps that I have installed.
Unless the Covid-19 app (issued by Canadian government) is responsible - if it were, wouldn't it be flagged and shown to me within the Battery usage settings?
--------------------------

Surely a decrease from over 7 hours on-screen time to barely 4 (with ~ 15% battery life remaining) is not normal wear/tear in about a year?

Any suggestions would be welcome. Suggestions that have worked for you.

What's worked for me won't work for most, because I don't have typical usage. But I learned a long time ago third party apps, especially free ones, will cause all kinds of issues, especially battery issues. And since I'm perfectly happy with the stock apps and look of my phones I don't use any third party apps anymore. My 2015 Moto X Pure Edition ran 2 and a half years with no appreciable battery degradation.... and as a backup phone it's still fine. My 2016 pixel 1 is going on 2 and a half years as well, also with no noticeable loss in battery capacity.

I also don't run my phones dead, and don't leave them charging all night. Like I said, not typical usage but it's worked extremely well for me

 

[wcavaliere88]

I've had my 3a since June 2019, with typical use. I find the battery to be near the same as it was then. There was a period it was worse but an update fixed it. I assume you already have always on display and the current song options off. I don't charge my phone overnight, leaving it at 100% is not good for the long term. I tend to keep the device between 40 and 90 percent charged, small charges during the day, I have a desk job so that is easy, may not be for everyone. Factory reset may help, but I understand why you don't want to have to re setup the phone. If you do, back up everything first. Then you only have to sign into apps again.

 

[Marc999]

I've had my 3a since June 2019, with typical use. I find the battery to be near the same as it was then. There was a period it was worse but an update fixed it. I assume you already have always on display and the current song options off. I don't charge my phone overnight, leaving it at 100% is not good for the long term. I tend to keep the device between 40 and 90 percent charged, small charges during the day, I have a desk job so that is easy, may not be for everyone. Factory reset may help, but I understand why you don't want to have to re setup the phone. If you do, back up everything first. Then you only have to sign into apps again.

Yes, I usually did just that - keep the charge between 40-90%. Yet, I wanted to get a feel for how the battery was doing so I began charging to 100% the last couple weeks to test the amount of typical on-screen time I was getting within a 24 hour period, including taking the phone down to ~ 15%.

The phone's current decreased on-screen time was noticeable. Although not life changing for me, as I can always give it a charge if need be. It's more academic to see if this level of battery degrading is typical, given a year's worth of browsing/email/texting use.

Surely if there was a rogue app - the battery usage settings would show me.
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Yes, Always on Display - off / Current Song playing - off.
I'll keep Factor Reset as an option. It's been awhile since I've gone to that extent, but it's a good option.
-------------
I also turned off Wifi Scanning, so I'll see if there's any improvement.

 

[wcavaliere88]

How is your network signal? If you have low or no signal often that can drain the battery.

 

[J Dubbs]

Yes, I usually did just that - keep the charge between 40-90%. Yet, I wanted to get a feel for how the battery was doing so I began charging to 100% the last couple weeks to test the amount of typical on-screen time I was getting within a 24 hour period, including taking the phone down to ~ 15%.

The phone's current decreased on-screen time was noticeable. Although not life changing for me, as I can always give it a charge if need be. It's more academic to see if this level of battery degrading is typical, given a year's worth of browsing/email/texting use.

Surely if there was a rogue app - the battery usage settings would show me.
-------------
Yes, Always on Display - off / Current Song playing - off.
I'll keep Factor Reset as an option. It's been awhile since I've gone to that extent, but it's a good option.
-------------
I also turned off Wifi Scanning, so I'll see if there's any improvement.

You won't always see an app problem in the battery stats.... sometimes the only way you notice the difference is by factory resetting without reinstalling any of your third party apps, then reinstalling them one by one, after your battery is working normally, until you come across the problem app. If you factory reset fresh without reinstalling any apps and still have the problem then it's the battery.

Also taking your battery from %100 to %15 or lower daily will dramatically shorten it's life. I never let my battery get below %40 unless I absolutely have to..... and like the other poster I top off during the day.

 

[Marc999]

You won't always see an app problem in the battery stats.... sometimes the only way you notice the difference is by factory resetting without reinstalling any of your third party apps, then reinstalling them one by one, after your battery is working normally, until you come across the problem app. If you factory reset fresh without reinstalling any apps and still have the problem then it's the battery.

Also taking your battery from %100 to %15 or lower daily will dramatically shorten it's life. I never let my battery get below %40 unless I absolutely have to..... and like the other poster I top off during the day.

-------------
I think this is the best solution that I will try.
I'll do just that: Factory Reset + use it for a day & test. Then install 1 app per day and test. Until culprit found.
If no culprit found, then perhaps when my battery did have a good life, maybe I slowly lowered its life by leaving it off the charger for too long between charges and filling up to 100 too often. I just don't recall at what point this happened, it may very well have been gradual, or sudden (via rogue app).
Again, it's more academic - we're always near chargers these days (or battery bank), so I can always top up more often to keep it within the ideal range.

Note: Network signal is fine and this past year I've mostly been using WiFi anyway, much less dependent on cell signal.

 

[J Dubbs]

-------------
I think this is the best solution that I will try.
I'll do just that: Factory Reset + use it for a day & test. Then install 1 app per day and test. Until culprit found.
If no culprit found, then perhaps when my battery did have a good life, maybe I slowly lowered its life by leaving it off the charger for too long between charges and filling up to 100 too often. I just don't recall at what point this happened, it may very well have been gradual, or sudden (via rogue app).
Again, it's more academic - we're always near chargers these days (or battery bank), so I can always top up more often to keep it within the ideal range.

Note: Network signal is fine and this past year I've mostly been using WiFi anyway, much less dependent on cell signal.

Very good strategy I hope it's just a rogue app or system conflict and the factory reset fixes it for you. Phone batteries are suprisingly tough, only being a year old I can't see how you could have hurt it much with the usage you described (which wasn't that bad). I've seen people treat their phone batteries WAY worse than you and make it 2 years

 

[Marc999]

Very good strategy I hope it's just a rogue app or system conflict and the factory reset fixes it for you. Phone batteries are suprisingly tough, only being a year old I can't see how you could have hurt it much with the usage you described (which wasn't that bad). I've seen people treat their phone batteries WAY worse than you and make it 2 years

Ok - update.
I did a factory reset today.
Charged phone to 100%
Did all the system updates/google play store/security updates etc.
Did NOT restore apps.

Added clock widget (can't live without that one - alarm etc.)
Added Covid-19 app
Changed background to black
Kept default font and icon sizes the same (I'm sure I had larger font, prior to factory reset - I forgot about that).
Changed display to 30 minutes on - trying to test on-screen run time.(will revert to 30sec.-1min., when done testing)

Read news stories via Chrome.
--------------------------------
Screen usage since full charge: 7 hours @ 50% battery remaining.
Last full charge: 12 hours ago.
At this rate - just with reading articles online and/or screen staying on, the phone would be ~ 14 hours battery life to zero?
Rest assured - I have never drained my phone completely - but still, that seems very impressive, if not unbelievable.


This has definitely helped and over 1/2 the apps I had, I'll likely never miss/bother to reinstall.
Yet will add slowly over the week, whichever most useful ones I need again.
I will also maintain (as best I can) to keep charge between ~ 40-80%

I'd say at this point, the phone is absolutely fine.
Either the phone needed this, and/or there was a rogue app that wasn't being identified.
I even tried Gsam Battery Monitor - which I used for last couple days to interrogate my phone [can use with non-rooted phone - adb]. It found nothing unusual at all to account for the draining.

 

[J Dubbs]

Ok - update.
I did a factory reset today.
Charged phone to 100%
Did all the system updates/google play store/security updates etc.
Did NOT restore apps.

Added clock widget (can't live without that one - alarm etc.)
Added Covid-19 app
Changed background to black
Kept default font and icon sizes the same (I'm sure I had larger font, prior to factory reset - I forgot about that).
Changed display to 30 minutes on - trying to test on-screen run time.(will revert to 30sec.-1min., when done testing)

Read news stories via Chrome.
--------------------------------
Screen usage since full charge: 7 hours @ 50% battery remaining.
Last full charge: 12 hours ago.
At this rate - just with reading articles online and/or screen staying on, the phone would be ~ 14 hours battery life to zero?
Rest assured - I have never drained my phone completely - but still, that seems very impressive, if not unbelievable.


This has definitely helped and over 1/2 the apps I had, I'll likely never miss/bother to reinstall.
Yet will add slowly over the week, whichever most useful ones I need again.
I will also maintain (as best I can) to keep charge between ~ 40-80%

I'd say at this point, the phone is absolutely fine.
Either the phone needed this, and/or there was a rogue app that wasn't being identified.
I even tried Gsam Battery Monitor - which I used for last couple days to interrogate my phone [can use with non-rooted phone - adb]. It found nothing unusual at all to account for the draining.

That's incredible battery life I knew it was an app or system conflict..... congratulations! I wouldn't worry to much about charging it over 80%, the bigger issue is running it way down then charging back up. Batteries have a limited number of full charge/discharge cycles in them..... keeping your battery topped off when possible reduces the big cycle swing and will make it last MUCH longer than a battery drained down low and fully recharged every day. But you also don't want to keep them on a charger all the time. 40% to 80% is good, but from my experience going over 80% hasn't been an issue at all.... plus that extra 20% can give you more headroom before you start running your battery down lower than you'd like

 

[Marc999]

That's incredible battery life I knew it was an app or system conflict..... congratulations! I wouldn't worry to much about charging it over 80%, the bigger issue is running it way down then charging back up. Batteries have a limited number of full charge/discharge cycles in them..... keeping your battery topped off when possible reduces the big cycle swing and will make it last MUCH longer than a battery drained down low and fully recharged every day. But you also don't want to keep them on a charger all the time. 40% to 80% is good, but from my experience going over 80% hasn't been an issue at all.... plus that extra 20% can give you more headroom before you start running your battery down lower than you'd like

Good to know thanks - yes, I'd feel like I had some buffer room by going over 80%
Is it possible it was a battery calibration issue - that a factory reset + charging to 100% did something useful to the battery?
-----------------
Further testing: I have reinstalled BitDefender mobile security - although I never saw any discernible battery drain, nor identified as such, I'd like to see if there's any impact on battery life.

 

[J Dubbs]

Good to know thanks - yes, I'd feel like I had some buffer room by going over 80%
Is it possible it was a battery calibration issue - that a factory reset + charging to 100% did something useful to the battery?
-----------------
Further testing: I have reinstalled BitDefender mobile security - although I never saw any discernible battery drain, nor identified as such, I'd like to see if there's any impact on battery life.

It very well could have been a calibration issue..... battery issues can be very tricky sometimes, that's why battery usage stats don't always tell the whole story Let us know how much BitDefender affects your battery life.... I'm curious

 

[Marc999]

It very well could have been a calibration issue..... battery issues can be very tricky sometimes, that's why battery usage stats don't always tell the whole story Let us know how much BitDefender affects your battery life.... I'm curious

BitDefender - no impact as far as I can tell. So I'm comfortable using that on my phone.

Battery behavior really is bizarre.

Although I got about 7 hours on-screen time a few days ago (from 100 to 50%), more recently I got 4.5 hours on-screen time (from 90 to 40%).
In both those scenarios - 50% battery usage was the same.
The difference is, I got 7 hours on-screen time almost exclusively with the screen left on. Those 7 hours were continuous, mostly.

Whereas, with the 4.5 hours on-screen time, that was intermittent, like a normal day - over a longer period of time.
So, I suppose that makes sense. The drain over night, was very small as well - so no issues there that I could tell.
------------

I've gone ahead and loaded a few more apps that I use. See what happens.
Thanks for taking an interest in this un-scientific experiment.

If there's anything I've learned.
Don't be afraid to factory reset a phone once in awhile and only load apps you really need; don't restore all the apps.

 

[J Dubbs]

BitDefender - no impact as far as I can tell. So I'm comfortable using that on my phone.

Battery behavior really is bizarre.

Although I got about 7 hours on-screen time a few days ago (from 100 to 50%), more recently I got 4.5 hours on-screen time (from 90 to 40%).
In both those scenarios - 50% battery usage was the same.
The difference is, I got 7 hours on-screen time almost exclusively with the screen left on. Those 7 hours were continuous, mostly.

Whereas, with the 4.5 hours on-screen time, that was intermittent, like a normal day - over a longer period of time.
So, I suppose that makes sense. The drain over night, was very small as well - so no issues there that I could tell.
------------

I've gone ahead and loaded a few more apps that I use. See what happens.
Thanks for taking an interest in this un-scientific experiment.

If there's anything I've learned.
Don't be afraid to factory reset a phone once in awhile and only load apps you really need; don't restore all the apps.

Thanks for the info... I'm learning from it and so will others And factory resetting is not something most folks want to do too often, but I'm like you, I only use apps I need, and keep my phone as streamlined as I can which makes a factory reset much simpler

 

[stevenjb2020]

Check what apps are running in the background. Do these apps really need to be running in the background?

 

[droid93]

I'm glad you solved the battery issue! If the issue does come back, do keep in mind though that poor reception can be one of the biggest battery drainers.