Google Play Store update is draining the battery in OnePlus, Asus, OPPO, and others

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Over the past 24 hours, many people have discovered sudden battery drain issues on their smartphones. They noticed the CPU usage is much higher than normal and a spike in power consumption. From the CPU statistics shared on social media, it appears the recent update of Google Play Store is the real culprit. It is the Play Store’s download service which is clearly hogging the CPU.

Google Play Store update is draining the battery in OnePlus, Asus, OPPO, and others
Credit:Twitter user @arter97

As can be seen from the detailed usage, the Google Play Store is consuming most of the battery. However, it’s not been active in the foreground or background at all. Even after following the usual practice of clearing the cache, deleting all data, and restarting the phone, the issue has not been resolved.

On prima facie, there seems to be a bug with a recent Play Store update causing the download service to have high CPU usage. People using brands like ASUS, OPPO, OnePlus, Samsung and others have started sharing their findings on social media.

OnePlus 7T Pro user on Reddit put forward the issue and asked for a solution. “Google Play Store has been draining my battery somehow and I don’t know why. I don’t have many apps installed and I have automatic updates turned off. Can someone advise with solution to solve this issue?

On checking the running processes in the background, it appeared that a service called “com.android.vending:download_service” was clogging the maximum resources of the CPU.

There were few who reported issues due to the Google News app also. It turned on auto sync without an easy way to shut it off again.

There is no official word on the annoying issues y Google. However few workarounds have been posted by the users. They are listed below, however, try them at your risk. 

OnePlus user has suggested flashing LineageOS by following XDA Dev. Another one suggested to uninstall updates until Google provides a fix. On a temporary basis, stop the Play Store from auto-updating. Another gave a weird option to expel all Google Play Services from phones and make it super fast with better battery life.

People have been found complaining about frequent software updates related to breakdowns. Although the hardware is amazing, however, the Android software when compared to iOS is highly unoptimized. Every update pops up random issues like Google Play Store drain, Google Play Services drain while fixing an issue. Android users are getting frustrated after getting plagued with such issues on a repeated basis.

Asus Rog Phone 2 users had also taken to the community forum and shared the abnormal CPU spikes and battery drain issues since the last update. They were lucky enough with the devs releasing a new update addressing issues. Does that mean the solution lies with the manufacturer and not Google?

Rashmi
Rashmi
Rashmi is the Editor of PhonesWiki. She launched PhonesWiki back in 2018, turning it into a top spot for phone news and updates by 2019. Now, it's your go-to for leaks and solutions to phone problems. Her first phone was a Nokia 6610, but now she relies on an iPhone 14 Pro as daily driver. Rashmi's a tech enthusiast through and through, always tinkering with gadgets and gizmos. When she's not writing, you'll find Rashmi hanging out with her beloved pet, enjoying some quality playtime. Have a tip or just want to say hello? Contact her at info@phoneswiki.com

12 COMMENTS

  1. I am having a same problem on my Oneplus 7,
    Google playstore is using more than 20% on every single charge even when I am not using it. Called customercare but no solution on it. All I have to do is charge my phone twice or sometime thrice a day.
    Can you give me any solution on it.
    Please.

  2. I have the classic same problem. Noticed recently that I had to charge more frequently, then saw that Google Play Store was using more than 20% of power, even overnight and with automatic updates switched off, despite not showing any background usage. I have used the Google Play Store “uninstall update” feature and the problem has disappeared. Play Store still seems to be working OK.
    Another problem is that I have Play Store notifications switched off, yet it still keeps notifying me that I have notifications switched off and would I like to switch them on. Just idiotic.

  3. Hello! Thank you very much for your article. Now now that we are not alone. Let me tell as a representative from Russian’s biggest Android forum 4pda.ru. We have also faced the same problem with Google play app battery usage. I can say with confidence, that all Huawei devices have this battery drain with Google play update . Also we have reports from Samsung and Redmi smartphone users. It doesn’t depend on Android or firmware versions. Everything started from Google play 21.9. 47-21. Nothing like factory reset or firmware update helps, the only one temporary remedy is to freeze or delete Google play.
    We have been trying to communicate with Google support, but, unfortunately they don’t listen to us, and recommend to contact our device manufacturer so they can provide us the necessary assistance we needed….
    But it is more than clear, that it is Google’s problem!
    Everything we can do is to cooperate in our efforts to deliver Google support our problem, expecting new update…
    Feel free to contact me to unite our efforts in revealing this problem!

    • Hi Nikita

      Thank you for reaching out to us through the blogpost. Yes, you are right. I have studied the actual issues people are facing due to Google Play Store updates. They echo what you are saying.

      I am more than happy to help out in whatever small way I can. Since you have been long into it, let me know how we should go about, raise voice and ask people to join us in the efforts

      Best Regards
      Rashmi

    • Hi, I have a OnePlus 6T and did find the issue as you mentioned for the version you state. However I updated to a newer version Play Store 22.0.18-21 from ApkMirror and this appears to have alleviated the issue by a wide margin. After 2 hours off charge and 1.5 hours of SOT use Play Store now only uses 1% even though I haven’t so much as opened it in that time.
      Hope this info can help.

      • Just to add, that after updating the Play Store I also updated the Google Play Services as well to 20.36.15.
        I then cleared the App info Cache and App info Storage on both and restarted the phone. Battery usage returned to normal levels after a full overnight charge.

  4. Hi, I have a OnePlus 6T and did find the issue as you mentioned for the version you state. However I updated to a newer version Play Store 22.0.18-21 from ApkMirror and this appears to have alleviated the issue by a wide margin. After 2 hours off charge and 1.5 hours of SOT use Play Store now only uses 1% even though I haven’t so much as opened it in that time.
    Hope this info can help.

  5. please everyone remember to send info on google support too so they will do something they have not done anything yet and posting me mail about that i should connect to my phone manufacturer for fix and refuse to understand that they have problem in their end even i send them logs and links for every forum post i could find if more people do this and write on internet they can’t hide behind their bad work at their jobs i’m getting so pissed off that i almost ready to go to court with class action lawsuit if they don’t start to treat people with respect that they deserves

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