Google recently announced a battery issue on the Pixel 6a, for which they were publishing a firmware update which throttles some battery something or other. I also have a Pixel 4a, and of course Google made a similar announcement for that phone as well.
Both of these phones have IodeOS on them.
I just noticed the Pixel 6a (which is my daily driver) was very warm (almost hot) in my pocket. After taking it out and removing the case, the phone did cool down.
What I’m curious about is whether this official firmware update is applicable when using IodeOS?
I’m also curious about any way to limit maximum battery charge to say 95%?
FWIW, my battery is at 445 charge cycles and shows 95% SoH.
The charge control limiting was removed from Lineage for Pixel devices a few months back. The issue report I found at the time indicated it wasn’t working right so they removed it. Anyway, this user reports a workaround solution:
Regarding the update which essentially just reports the battery capacity as less than it actually is (that is what I understood about the 4a and 6a “Google updates”), most users I see are looking for ways to not have those updates forced on them :-). I am not certain but I think those updates are not included in Lineage (and thus iodéOS) builds.
Regarding your 6a getting quite warm, wondering if there was an out of control process?
Check the proceses in the battery menu and figure out which app made your phone to heat up. Then, disable that app to run in the background - also aplicable through the battery menu - single switch. As for any updates comming from Google - most likely not aplicable through iodeOS, which I personaly thanks for.
Interesting, the Camera app shows 47% usage, and everything else 1%
I’d taken a picture a few moments earlier.
Hurm. Thank you for the advice.
And @rik I’m in the camp of being irritated at Google over how they approached the battery issue. But, I’d rather not have the phone blow up in my pants pocket. I know from experience as a builder of electric vehicles that limiting maximum charge to 90% or so is a wise move.
I’m not sure if charging to 100% is the problem, or too high a CPU load, caused by an app that 1. the device heats up waste heat from the CPU and 2. this is sucking up the battery and thus also heating the battery…
I had the problem with the Warming, without active use sometimes, I mean after watching a video in the browser, I can’t say it safely anymore.
I then closed all the apps, the temperature remained, only a restart of the device had helped.
Interesting would be the possibility to limit the Max CPU Load. (Or limit the battery discharge current) This probably requires a privileged service.
Or it could be only faulty battery. I bought used Pixel 5 with battery having over 950 charge cycles. Its health was estimated to 67%. The battery was almost permanently quite hot. During chargin, dischargin, normal use etc. So I have changed the battery for a fresh one and the permanent heating was gone. Even under heavy load.
The heat hasn’t recurred, and I’m now believing it to be the camera app using 45% CPU.
I also explored the options of setting a maximum state of charge. The apps with that feature also require running on a rooted phone. The system call that’s required must be run as root.
My phone is not rooted, and I don’t remember if IodeOS allows rooting. LineageOS does not.
The battery app I installed does what many of the non-root battery apps do. It rings a notification sound when the battery reaches a setpoint state of charge. You can ignore the alarm and let it charge fully, of course.