Some Android Lollipop Users Affected by 'Critical' Battery Drain Issue

Reporting the issue on the Android Issue Tracker site, several Android 5.x Lollipop users say the battery level drops steadily when apps start consuming mobile data instead of Wi-Fi.

The thread includes comments from users complaining about apps such as Google Now Launcher and Chrome eating too much mobile data.

One of the users reported, "Massive battery drain by mobile radio active. 8 hours of phone idle, total complete idle, not even screen on for a second and it ate 63 percent of battery. 3G was on. Seems problem disappears when Wi-Fi is turned on."

Another user said, "Also on My Nexus 5 with Lollipop 5.1 I have the same issue. Radio mobile active only on 3G or LTE. Ok on Wi-Fi."

Notably, the tracker includes complaints from non-Nexus device owners as well, including the HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S6, Motorola Moto X (Gen 2), and HTC One M8.

Google is yet to acknowledge the issue or provide a fix.

It's worth noting that this is not the first time Android users have reported about battery drain issue as the problem has been around for some time now. A similar battery drain issue was reported last year as well where multiple Nexus 5 owners running the latest Developer Preview version of Android 5.0 Lollipop reported battery draining bug while on Wi-Fi. Google however last year without wasting much time acknowledged the battery drain issue and issued a fix soon.