My wife’s Google Pixel 7a phone suddenly discharged way too quickly. It would go from 100% to 30% in a matter of hours, even without any major use of the device.
This was quite puzzling. First, because this was a relative new occurrence. Second, because settings and use of the phone were in stark contrast to the rapid discharging. You could almost see the power percentage going down.
It got that bad that she had to charge her phone multiple times per day to keep it at a workable level. No matter what she did, it seemingly lost a lot of power in a matter of hours.
Here is the fix
I tried various tweaks to stabilize power usage. This included reducing brightness, enabling dark mode or power saving functionality. None of this worked.
My last resort was a drastic option. I decided to fully discharge the device to see if this would fix the issue. The battery calibration might not work correctly and resetting it required discharging the battery fully.
I downloaded 3D Mark for the device and started to run it. Battery went down quickly at first, but imagine my surprise when it started to stay on very low levels for a long time.
When it reached 1%, it took hours before it finally powered down. This was an indicator that the calibration was off and that it was not a problem with the battery itself or use of the device.
I plugged the device in and let it charge. I ran some tests afterwards and discovered that the calibration was working properly again. The device wouldn’t discharge battery rapidly anymore, which was excellent news.
Closing Words
Battery calibration issues can be resolved by discharging the battery entirely. This may resolve any related issues. Note that the device was not losing power faster than before, but that the battery load indicator was working incorrectly.
Anyway, if you notice similar behavior, you may want to give this a try.