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Google's June update leaves many Pixel users complaining of battery drain and 'lots' of other bugs

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Jun 26, 2023, 8:37 AM

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Google's June update leaves many Pixel users complaining of battery drain and 'lots' of other bugs

Stop us if you've heard this one before. Following the most recent Pixel monthly update, which was supposed to further improve the security of Google's in-house devices and add a few neat new features for good measure, many users are complaining their experience has actually gotten worse in several equally important ways.

The issues encountered by dozens of unhappy Redditors after installing the (belated) June 2023 Pixel "feature drop" cover crucial aspects of the overall user experience like battery life, connectivity, and heat management, but because the system as a whole rather than an individual app seems to be the root cause this time around, it's unlikely any sort of fix will be rolled out until the next monthly security update.

Even then, we wouldn't exactly count on every single problem for every single user miraculously going away all of a sudden, especially if we consider Google's recent (and not-so-recent) history of dealing with these types of situations.

What is it with Google and battery drain?!?

By far the biggest and most infuriating bug is (once again) messing with the battery endurance of various Pixel models, draining the life out of them with unprecedented and abnormal velocity. None of the usual energy-saving tricks appear to be working for the vast majority of affected users, with the most mundane day-to-day tasks and activities mysteriously leaving Google-made phones without juice well before the end of a "typical" cycle.

One especially frustrated Pixel 6 owner, for instance, claims his situation has gotten so desperate that he needs to charge his handset twice a day and "keep charging it" just to ensure he doesn't "end up with no phone randomly", which is something that would be barely acceptable on beta software.

Another innocent "victim" of Big G's unbelievable sloppiness has a laundry list of complaints (both new and old), adding Android Auto crashes, frequent Wi-Fi malfunctions, Bluetooth-caused overheating (?!), and of course, poor battery life to a wide catalog of unresolved bugs previously including everything from erratic fingerprint sensor behavior to bad cell reception, disappearing paired devices, sound quality issues during calls, and (more) overheating.

You can at least (temporarily) fix one specific bug

While the two particular cases detailed above seem to be fairly isolated and "special" (for some reason), a decidedly worrying number of other users with a variety of Pixel devices in their possession are reporting unusual battery drainage of their own, as well as spotty cellular connectivity and random signal drops, frequent overheating episodes with no obvious cause (other than glitchy software), and even the complete disappearance of text selection functionality.

The Pixel 7 (pictured here) and its 7 Pro sibling are by no means the only devices affected by this fresh batch of bugs.

That last issue can actually be solved with a little bit of effort, at least according to a few Redditors who've managed to regain the feature after force stopping the Android System Intelligence app and clearing its cache. That should allow you to go back to selecting and copying text for, say, web-searching purposes as usual, but it's still a problem in need of a more... elegant official solution from Google.

Of course, if the search giant were to return to a "normal" software update schedule after this month's small delay, your security patches for July could arrive as early as next week (although an over-the-air delivery in two weeks seems far more realistic).

Let's keep our fingers crossed for as many fixes as possible... and as few additional bugs as possible, although that might prove far easier said than done.

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Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.