[Updated] Google investigating Pixel 2 overheating and battery drain issues

Update (March 29):

Stuck processor cores likely causing Pixel 2 battery drain/overheating issues. More info here.

Update (February 26):

Google refutes February update triggered battery drain/overheating reports on Pixel 2. Orrin informed the complainants (on multiple threads discussing the matter) this morning that Google’s analysis (based on the bug reports shared by those affected) doesn’t confirm any issues with battery-life post February update.

Following is Orrin’s actual statement:

Thanks to all of those that have sent over bug reports, it has been very helpful. Our analysis does not show any evidence of a significant issue with battery-life following the February software update on Pixel 2.

Furthermore, he also added

We will always investigate bug reports to look into any potential issues, and I’ll keep you all updated if there’s any other information.

While the company has denied the existence of battery issues in question, we can’t comment on how the latter half of their statement going to help. Possibly, they might locate any traces later, but for now, for those facing the problem there’s no official solution at sight.

Original story:

Right after receiving the recently pushed February security update, Pixel 2/2 XL users started reporting poor battery performance and device overheating problems. With help forums flooding with such reports, Google has swung into action and started investigating the matter.

Just a few hours back, Google employee Orrin (who is also the Community Manager at Pixel User Community) posted on multiple relevant threads asking the complainants for bugs reports to get into the skin of the problem. Here’s what they said:

We want to look into this issue and I’m going to reach out privately for bug reports.
Please keep an eye out for my email, thanks!

A significant number of users note that the excessive battery consumption and overheating problem has something to do with ‘Android Core Apps’. Take a look at how some of those affected explain the issue:

Hi, my Pixel 2 XL is having bad battery life since installing the February 2018 update. Most importantly, something called “Android Core Apps” is eating up battery life, this was not the case before installing this update. On tapping Android Core Apps, it shows “Call Log Backup/Restore” has been running the background and eating up battery life (screenshots attached). Similarly, the Pixel Launcher itself has been using a lot more battery than before

Ever since I did the Android 8.1.0 update, I’ve noticed my Pixel 2 heating up while idle and screen is off and the battery getting fully drained within 8 hours after a full charge even though there’s minimum usage of the phone. I’m having to recharge my Pixel 2 atleast twice in 24 hours to get it working through the day. The problem started ever since I did the software update a few days ago. Last night I fully charged my phone to 100% before going to bed and in the morning when I woke up, my battery had gone down to 43% overnight without any active use of the phone

It is happening with Pixel as well since 8.1 upgrades. Phone is becoming an.iron box. Most battery consumed apps coming out as Anroid Core services (contacts app) and Outlook. Deleted Outlook but the phone is still taking a beating

Following are some of the user shared screenshots displaying excessive battery consumption:

What’s appeasing is that soon after the problem was highlighted, Google came to the rescue of Pixel users. As the matter is currently in the phase of investigation, there’s no known timeline as to how long will it take to fix. We hope they do it sooner than later.

Meanwhile, following are some of the user suggested workarounds until Google fixes what’s broken.

First:

Open Sync, disable it for contacts
Go to contacts & call/backup log, disable cache/storage for both apps.
Re-enable sync

Second:

Stopped syncing of Google Accounts Contacts
1. Settings -> Users & accounts
2. Entered each Google account I had -> Account sync -> turned Contacts off

Cleared cache and data for relevant android contacts apps
3. Settings -> Apps & Notifications -> See all X apps -> hamburger icon -> Show system
4. Entered 2 apps: Call Log Backup/Restore & Contacts Storage
5. In each app -> Storage -> Clear Cache, Clear Data

Restarted syncing of Google Accounts Contacts
6. Settings -> Users & accounts
7. Entered each Google account I had -> Account sync -> turned Contacts on

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