My old phone's battery life went from 4 hours to 2 days after a factory reset

I was about to buy a new phone because my Pixel 6a would die by lunchtime. On a whim, I backed everything up and did a full factory reset last Tuesday. I didn't reinstall half the apps I used to have, just the essentials. Now, after a full 16 hour day of normal use, I'm still at 40% battery. It turns out a bunch of background apps and old cached data were killing it. Has anyone else gotten years more out of a gadget just by cleaning it out properly?

3 comments

3 Comments

benbrown2mo ago

Why didn't I try that first?

harperjackson2mo ago

Wait, you mean you spent all that time on the complicated fix before checking the power cord was actually plugged in?

patricia_rodriguez1mo agoTop Commenter

Is it just me or does that happen way too often @benbrown? Yeah, I've definitely been there before... you try all these complicated steps and then realize the simplest thing was the whole problem. It's like our brains skip over the obvious because we overthink everything. I swear half my tech issues are just loose cables or unplugged stuff. But really, you can't blame yourself - the simple fix just doesn't feel like the right answer sometimes.