{"id":569249,"date":"2026-03-29T19:43:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:43:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/569249\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T19:43:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:43:14","slug":"my-google-pixel-was-draining-battery-left-and-right-and-then-i-changed-these-settings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/569249\/","title":{"rendered":"My Google Pixel was draining battery left and right, and then I changed these settings"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is nothing more frustrating than watching your Google Pixel\u2019s battery<\/a> percentage tick down while it\u2019s just sitting in your pocket.<\/p>\n

I love the camera and the software, but for a while, the sudden battery drain was making me consider switching back to my Samsung Galaxy phone.<\/p>\n

After some trial and error (and a lot of digging through system menus), I discovered a handful of default settings that were hammering my battery life. After I flipped these switches, the difference was massive.<\/p>\n

If your Pixel is draining faster than it can charge, these are the essential tweaks you need to make right now.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tMy Google Pixel felt slow until I changed these settings
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Stop ignoring these Pixel settings<\/p>\n

Switch to the LTE network<\/p>\n

\"SIM\"switch<\/p>\n

I love fast internet speeds as much as the next person, but unless you are sitting directly under a 5G tower, your Pixel is likely working overtime to maintain that connection.<\/p>\n

In my experience, the modem constantly finds a 5G signal, which generates heat and affects the battery. I made the controversial choice to switch my Preferred Network type to LTE.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t notice a difference in my daily scrolling or YouTube Music streaming, but my battery stopped falling off a cliff.<\/p>\n

You can head to Settings > Network & internet > SIMs > Preferred network type and select LTE from the following menu.<\/p>\n

I also disabled adaptive connectivity so that my Pixel doesn\u2019t switch from Wi-Fi to mobile data due to poor wireless connectivity. The standby drain (the battery lost while the phone is just sitting on my desk) improved massively.<\/p>\n

Disable AOD<\/p>\n

\"display\"use<\/p>\n

The Pixel\u2019s Always On Display (AOD) is basic at best. It\u2019s just a dim clock and some notification icons staring at you all day.<\/p>\n

Even on an OLED screen of my Pixel 8, keeping those pixels fired up can account for about 1% of my battery drain every single hour.<\/p>\n

Instead of having my screen burning power 24\/7, I switched to the Lift to check phone and Tap to check phone gestures.<\/p>\n

Now, my screen stays completely black and saves energy until I actually need to see something.<\/p>\n

The second I pick up my phone or pull it out of my pocket, the screen wakes up instantly. It gives me the exact same info I would get from an AOD.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s snappy, intuitive, and saves a massive chunk of capacity throughout a busy workday.<\/p>\n

Turn off Now Playing<\/p>\n

\"disable\"song<\/p>\n

Another feature I finally decided to axe was Now Playing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong \u2013 the idea of my phone automatically identifying every song playing in a coffee shop or a car is cool in theory.<\/p>\n

But it means my microphones are essentially always on, and the processor is constantly listening and matching audio patterns against a local database.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a neat party trick, but the Pixel\u2019s version of it is pretty basic at best. Half the time, it doesn\u2019t catch the song anyway, or it identifies something I already know.<\/p>\n

Instead of letting my phone listen 24\/7, I switched to using the Google Song search tile in the Quick Settings panel. Now, if I actually hear something I like, I just swipe down and tap that tile. It\u2019s essentially a manual Shazam built right into the OS.<\/p>\n

It listens for a few seconds, does a quick Google search, and gives me the artist and track immediately.<\/p>\n

Automate dark mode<\/p>\n

\"schedule\"automate<\/p>\n

We all know Dark Mode is the gold standard for OLED screens because, unlike traditional LCDs, an OLED panel turns off individual pixels to show black.<\/p>\n

But I found that I actually prefer the Light mode aesthetic during the day when I\u2019m out in the sun and need that extra visibility.<\/p>\n

I stopped manually toggling it and put it on a strict automatic<\/a> schedule. I have set my Pixel to automatically flip into Dark Mode at 7 PM and switch back at 7 AM.<\/p>\n

It might seem like a small tweak, but over those 12 hours, the energy saved from not lighting up millions of white pixels adds up.<\/p>\n

\"Android<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\tMy phone felt due for an upgrade until I changed these settings
\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

I didn’t realize how much these features were affecting my phone<\/p>\n

Keep a close eye on the battery usage chart<\/p>\n

\"battery\"battery<\/p>\n

Finally, I had to stop guessing and start looking at the actual data. The battery usage chart became my best friend during this process. It\u2019s the only way to know if a single app is affecting your progress.<\/p>\n

After all, the tricks above won\u2019t work if a specific app or game is eating up all the device resources in the background.<\/p>\n

When you go into Battery > Battery usage menu, make sure to check the breakdown by apps and system.<\/p>\n

You can force close such rogue apps and reset their power consumption.<\/p>\n

Stop charging twice a day<\/p>\n

The Google Pixel is an incredible phone, but it shouldn\u2019t require a portable power bank just to get through a standard workday.<\/p>\n

By taking five minutes to audit these specific settings, I finally reclaimed the \u2018all-day\u2019 battery life Google promised.<\/p>\n

So, what are you waiting for? Don\u2019t settle for a phone that gives up before you do. Spend a few minutes in the settings menu and fix the drain for good.<\/p>\n

While you are at it, tweak these camera settings<\/a> to get the best out of your Pixel lens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is nothing more frustrating than watching your Google Pixel\u2019s battery percentage tick down while it\u2019s just sitting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[49,48,190,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-569249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mobile","11":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}