If you’re using a Pixel 6 or Pixel 7 series device, you might want to hold off updating to the May 2023 security patch if you haven’t already, as the update seems to be wreaking havoc with battery life and heat.

Update 5/15: Google has identified the cause of this issue and has rolled out a fix. Read more

Google Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a, Pixel 7, and 7 Pro owners are reporting issues with their phones overheating and draining battery exceptionally quickly following the May 2023 update. In some cases, this is leading to battery life being cut in half, if not worse, and the phone being hot to the touch.

User reports of these problems first started coming out around May 6, just days after the update was released, and have continued in the time since.

Another potentially related issue seems to be coming from the Google app, which appears to be running in the background and using system resources to the point of both overheating the phone as well as draining battery life. Some affected users have spoken out on Reddit, saying that the issue is appearing both on current stable and beta versions of the Google app. Some have also found that the “Android System Intelligence” app is showing high battery usage in system settings.

Both issues seem to be fairly widespread, with hundreds of comments across multiple Reddit threads and Google’s support forums regarding the issue. Personally, my Pixel 7 Pro doesn’t seem to have been hit, though I did see some epically bad battery life late last week just after updating to the May patch, it just hasn’t been repeated since. Our Damien Wilde says that his Pixel 7a had fine battery life before installing the May 2023 patch, but has noticed a downturn since.

Google has yet to issue any public response to the problem, and customer support doesn’t seem to be helpful according to some users who have gone that route. Rolling back to prior versions of the Google app doesn’t seem to help, either.

If your Pixel is affected, drop a comment below and let us know.

Thanks, Darren!

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