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How to improve battery life on Google Pixel 3 XL (fix battery drain issue)

Is your Google Pixel 3 XL losing battery power fast? This post will give tips and solutions on how to solve this common problem.

What causes Google Pixel 3 XL to lose battery fast

One of the most common issues that Android users encounter is battery drain problem. Poor battery performance can be due to a lot of things so there’s no definitive way to fix it. Some of the common reasons why your Google Pixel 3 XL may be losing battery fast include the following items:

  • screen brightness
  • minor OS bug
  • apps
  • inefficient coding
  • customizations or settings
  • Widgets
  • hardware malfunction

Extending battery performance on your Google Pixel 3 XL requires patience and time. Be sure you have both in order if you want to seriously improve battery performance.

How to improve battery life on Google Pixel 3 XL

In most cases, poor battery performance is due to improper usage habits. Our suggestions below are meant to guide you on how to address poor usage habits as much as solutions. They are not meant to “fix” the problem right away so be patient in doing them. It may take one or a combination of some suggestions to fully improve the battery performance of your Google Pixel 3 XL.

Suggestion 1: Force reboot

Before you do any software changes, it’s good idea if you can refresh the system first. If you are unable to use your Pixel 3 XL normally nor restart it the traditional way, try to do a forced reboot. Simply press and hold the Power button for about 10 seconds. Afterwards, wait for your phone to complete the reboot sequence and see what happens and more importantly, to see if there’s improvement in battery performance.

Suggestion 2: Check apps

In majority of cases similar to yours, the main problem is apps. Like Android Operating System, apps are just codes designed to work with an operating system and your Pixel 3 XL hardware’s mini OS (called firmware). Interaction between apps and other software in a device is a pretty complex process and there are millions of possible points of failure. Although developers have done a pretty decent job of making apps and Android stable, problems can sometimes show up unannounced.

If your Google Pixel 3 XL’s battery started to lose power fast after installing an app, the most likely reason must be that new app. Try to uninstall that app to see if there’s an improvement on battery performance.

Alternatively, you can use the built-in feature in Android to see if a particular app is to consuming power abnormally. You can head to Settings > Battery and check if a certain app stands out particularly. Tap on the Battery symbol to see a breakdown of your apps. This will help you tell how much your apps use the battery since the last full charge of the device. If you think an app shows up high on the list when you don’t use it that often, you can then try to force stop or disable it. If force stopping or disabling an app won’t make a difference, try uninstalling the ones you think may be causing the problem. Otherwise, you can continue with the rest of the troubleshooting below.

Suggestion 3: Restart in safe mode

Another way to check if a third party app is consuming your Pixel 3 XL battery is by restarting to Safe Mode. On safe mode, third party applications will be disabled so if your device’s battery improves significantly after allowing the device to run for some time, you may be able to narrow down the possible causes afterwards.

In order to boot your Pixel 3 XL to safe mode:

  1. Press and hold your device’s power button.
  2. On your screen, touch and hold Power off. If needed, tap OK.
  3. Your device starts in safe mode. You’ll see “Safe mode” at the bottom of your screen.
  4. Let your Pixel 3 XL run in this mode for at least 48 hours so you’ll notice any difference.
  5. To exit safe mode, simply restart the device.

Remember, booting to safe mode won’t automatically tell you which of your apps is troublesome. You’ll need to observe the phone and check for improvements in order to identify if a third party app is causing the problem. To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:

  1. Boot to safe mode.
  2. Check for the problem.
  3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
  4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
  5. If your Pixel 3 XL is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:

  1. Boot to safe mode.
  2. Check for the problem.
  3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
  4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
  5. If your Google Pixel 3 XL is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Suggestion 4: Install app and system updates

Sometimes, poor battery performance or excessive battery drain can occur due to inefficient coding. This can occur if there’s a coding issue in an app or in the operating system. If a developer notices issues that may be caused by poor coding, they will try to improve the situation by patching them. It is for this reason that we encourage you to always install app and system updates as they come.

Suggestion 5: Use Battery optimization

Google devices such as the Pixel models have a useful feature called Battery optimization designed to minimize the impact of battery drain. We suggest that you use it to improve your situation. Below are the general steps to use it:

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up the Arrow icon (located at the bottom) to view the Apps List.
  2. Go to Settings.
  3. Tap Battery.
  4. Tap the Menu icon (located in the upper-right).
  5. Tap Battery optimization. Apps/services unable to be optimized appear grayed out.
  6. Tap the “Not optimized” dropdown menu Dropdown menu icon(located at the top).
  7. Tap All apps.
  8. Tap the appropriate app, tap one of the following then tap Done:
  • Optimize
  • Don’t optimize

Suggestion 6: Lower screen brightness

Another most common reason why expensive and powerful smartphones like the Google Pixel 3 XL loses battery fast is the screen. To give you straight fact: the brighter the screen, the more power the system needs to maintain it. So, if you are the type who wants to make everything bright, don’t be surprised if your battery won’t last long. Try to decrease screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level for you to extend battery life every day.

Suggestion 7: Turn off services you’re not using

Some background services left enabled can slowly but surely drain the battery as well. Try going under Settings menu and disable any service or feature that can potentially add to the problem. You can start by disabling such things as Bluetooth, wifi, GPS among others if you’re not using them. If you are in an area with intermittent or poor cellular services, enable Airplane mode. If cellular signals come and go, it can cause the system to constantly search for them. Try using wifi instead to minimize battery loss over the day.

Suggestion 8: Remove widgets

App shortcuts or widgets in your Home screen may be the reason why your Pixel 3 XL is experiencing battery drain. Like apps, widgets may regularly contact remote servers to update its contents. Try to remove them if you still can’t figure out the cause of the problem at this stage.

Suggestion 9: Factory reset

If all the troubleshooting steps above won’t solve the freezing issue on your Pixel 3 XL, the final software troubleshooting step that you can do is to wipe it. This way, you can return all software settings back to their defaults in one stroke. If the reason for the problem is software related, factory reset will most likely help.

To factory reset your Pixel 3 XL:

  1. Create a backup of your personal data.
  2. Make sure to know the username and password for Google account in the phone.
  3. Open Settings app.
  4. Tap System.
  5. Tap Advanced.
  6. Tap Reset options.
  7. Tap Erase all data (factory reset) and then Reset phone. If needed, enter your PIN, pattern, or password.
  8. To erase all data from your phone’s internal storage, tap Erase everything.
  9. When your phone has finished erasing, pick the option to restart.
  10. Set up your phone and restore your backed-up data.

Suggestion 10: Downgrade OS

Sometimes, battery drain issue can become more pronounced right after installing the latest Android version. If doing all the suggestions above has not helped so far, consider downgrading your Pixel’s OS to its previous version. Downgrading to previous Android is not officially supported by Google because it can cause problems if not done properly. Do it at your own risk.

Suggestion 11: Contact Google support

Should nothing change after a factory reset or downgrading the OS, the most likely reason must be hardware malfunction. Contact Google so they can advise on what to do.


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