Google says it has deployed a fix for a battery drain issue on some Pixel models, yet some owners still report the problem. The company said a July update should resolve the drain on Pixel 9- and 10-series phones, with Pixel 8a and 9a slated for a September fix.
According to an Issue Tracker update cited in coverage, Google marked the “Severe Idle Drain: kepler_spi_irq_handler & gnss_ipc Suspend Aborts” issue fixed and said a merge landed in the July MPR release CP2A.260705.006 for Pixel 9 Pro XL, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10, and Pixel 10a. Pixel 8a and Pixel 9a owners are told to wait for the September Quarterly Platform Release.
The trouble dates to after Google’s April update, when hundreds of user reports described idle drain that some said effectively cut battery life in half. People described the CPU staying active in the background even when the phone was unused, with some seeing just a few hours of use and others noting drain even in airplane mode.
Google said that month it was looking into the reports.
Some users still disagree with the closed status, saying drain remains as bad as ever after the July software. The July Pixel update changelog also does not mention an idle battery drain fix, which makes it harder to verify what changed on device.
Google has not announced a fix for older models that owners say are affected, including Pixel 7- and 8-series phones.
