Google Pixel 4 XL battery issue: it’s even draining when the phone is idle

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Google Pixel 4 came out a few weeks ago and there are a lot of issues that have emerged since. One of them is that many users have been disappointed with the battery life. Now, another Google Pixel 4 battery issue came up when the phone is idle, according to a series of posts on XDA developers, users reported.

It’s worth noting that not every unit of Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL is affected by the issue, but depending on the level of usage, it also depends on the issue with the battery capacity. One of the most possible reasons of the battery drain is that this phone is equipped with a Soli radar chip which allows users to unlock and manipulate the phone’s features without really touching it. Thanks to the Soli feature, the phone’s battery is draining even in idle because the phone is waiting for users to use the adequate mimics to trigger its Soli sensors.

That said, the Google Pixel 4 battery issue is mostly present in the standby power consumption which defines how the battery is used when the phone is in the idle state. Users could even have insight in the consumption by using the power management tool, Doze mode app.

Normally, when users would use the Doze mode, the phone would use the least amount of battery when unplugged and in an idle state, with the display turned off. However, that doesn’t seem to be the case with the Google Pixel 4 battery issue that users reported. It seems that the phone loses over 10% battery when Doze mode is used which means that the deep sleep feature isn’t working properly. Additionally, there’s doesn’t seem to have an actual cause for this problem or why it affects this feature.

“I’m in the same boat. I have no deep sleep on mine today. So subscribing to get ideas,” one user said in the XDA forum about the thread.

Different Android apps can prevent Pixel 4 from going into the deep sleep mode with the setting called “wakelock,” and in deep sleep mode, it can affect how those apps work. Apps can use wakelock to prevent the deep sleep mode which results in draining the battery even more when the users aren’t using the phone.

“I found the cause but not the solution: DIAG_WS kernel wakelock is keeping phone from entering deep sleep. Rebooted to make sure not a frozen process. The problem is I can’t find a single bit of information on what this wakeclock [sic] is anywhere on the internet,” another user said.

Luckily there seems to be a temporary solution until Google addresses this issue. Some users reported that keeping NFC off and rebooting the smartphone seems to fix the issue and reduce the ridiculous battery drain. However, other users say that the issue comes back after a while.

Are you affected with the Google Pixel 4 battery issue in idle? Let us know.

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