Pixel 7 and 6 owners report severe battery drain after Google's latest update

What you need to know

• Users on Reddit have started reporting battery drain problems with the Pixel 7 and Pixel 6 series.
• Overheating has also become a problem after downloading the June 2023 security patch.
• Other Redditors have not noticed any glaring problems with their device’s battery or overheating with others saying the latest patch solved some problems.

Not even a week after Google rolled out its monthly patch for its phones, users have started reporting serious problems.

The reports started rolling in after a Redditor created a thread detailing their troubles which quickly gained hundreds of upvotes and comments (via 9to5Google). According to their report, their Pixel phone has started overheating, and its battery has been draining quicker ever since updating to the June 2023 security patch. The Redditor added, "The select text option isn't working and a lot more bugs."

Users who've joined the discussion are owners of either a Pixel 6 or Pixel 7 series device. One user stated, "My battery has tanked in the last couple of days. Needs charged by the afternoon." Another commented that they've had to increase the frequency at which they charged their Pixel phone because of the unfortunate battery problems.

Interestingly, these problems don't appear to affect everyone in the Pixel community. One Redditor said, "I got the June update installed last night and now it's like my battery drain issues are gone."

This isn't the first time Pixel owners have had to wrangle with battery drain and overheating problems. Users reported problems with devices from the Pixel 7 and 6 series earlier this year, which seemed to have stemmed from the Google app after downloading the May 2023 update. A spokesperson from the company informed Android Central at the time that the problems were due to a backend change to the app, which had these unintentional effects on devices. 

As annoying as these problems are on their own, this is more so the case considering Google's patch notes for the June 2023 update state that it ushered in battery and charging improvements alongside better thermal performance for the devices.

On the bright side, we're already into the final week of June, and July is fast approaching. Hopefully, this time around, Google can acknowledge these problems affecting its phones and cook up a fix next month. The Mountain View-based company has had quite a frustrating habit of rolling out its security patches quite late, so hopefully, next month's patch will arrive sooner rather than later. The June 2023 patch was two weeks late, while another patch for the Pixel 6 series was also delayed in March.

Google has yet to formally acknowledge the problems affecting the aforementioned device, however, let's hope we're not waiting too long for July's patch.