Android Pie released in August with new features. Two of them were Adaptive Battery and Adaptive Brightness and the use AI in order to work.
While the second feature requires human input in order to work, the first should have work flawlessly with no intervention. Most users noted that the update offered little to no benefit when it came to battery life. In some cases, the effect is quite unexpected as select devices started to discharge at an accelerated rate after they were updated.
The issue has been persisting for a few months and even Google’s new flagships are affected by it as some Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL users have complained about the problem on the official forums.
Looking for the culprit
Since Adaptive Battery was deemed the main innovation when it came to battery life improvements in Android Pie many users believed that the feature was to blame. It seems they weren’t right as disabling the feature doesn’t lead to any obvious improvements.
The problem could be a flaw in the system itself as it only appears on devices that run Android Pie. Users have reported that they lose up to 20% of the battery per hour. Some unlucky users have posted screenshots, showing that the device discharged to 75% in less than 15 minutes.
Check your media apps
Android Pie users noted that high battery drain seems to be influenced by some media apps. The list ranges from Google apps like YouTube and Google Play Music to apps like Spotify and it extends to any apps that are capable of media playback.
Background execution limits are usually employed by the system, but apps and updates that focus on older OS versions are not affected by the limitation.
Temporary solutions
Enabling Battery Saver seems to solve the issue and even if it’s not desirable tests have shown that it is effective. Disabling Adaptive Brightness also works for some users and you can give it a go if the problem persists.
Google is looking into the issue and a future update could solve the problem.
Frances might be just at the beginning of her career, but after attending a technical school, she has a fresh perspective on today’s technology. She contributes to the site with tech news.