Why does s6 battery drains while phone is off?

[AC Question]

I went from around 92% down to 70% overnight with the phone completely off. I have fixed a lot issues already to alleviate battery drain during the day. It's been 2 hours and I only went down to 68% while it is on. What is running on the phone while it is turned off? I never had this on my s4...

 

[belodion]

Welcome to AC.

What did your battery usage stats indicate after this discharge?
It could have been a wakelock or something stuck on syncing or an app repeatedly requesting location reporting.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[supdie]

Sorry, I had to actually register to respond... I have 11% Cell Standby and 3% Android System. Since I posted, I can update now. After 7 hours of my phone being on (I don't use it much...it's a work phone), it has gone from the 72% down to 63%. It was probably off last night for about 8 hours total and dropped over 20%. I have only had the phone activated for about 3 days. I did transfer over some apps, photos, and videos but generally haven't really done much with it. I didn't want to go to the s6 because of the no access anymore to the battery. I used to have multiple batteries on my old phone that I could swap in and out. When I do use the phone for work purposes, I need it to be available for work not sitting on a charger. So, I want to figure out if I want to keep the phone. I did turn off a bunch of things yesterday before I did my first full charge which seemed to help...the first day I had it it was dropping like a rock as far as batter during the day. I have never noticed (with my old phone) any change in battery if I turned it off at night. At least not that I noticed.

Thanks,

Ryan

 

[belodion]

Welcome as a new member.

You're certainly not alone in having battery problems, especially with a new phone. Most of us have been there. The tips in this guide by B. Diddy may help:
http://forums.androidcentral.com/ambassador-guides-tips-how-s/298919-guide-battery-saving-tips.html

If still no go, get back to us.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[supdie]

I have done almost all of these...spent alot of time on internet searching for tips yesterday. The wake lock thing is my only question. Would that affect the phone while it is turned off? Or, could this be something that happens right before it turns off and/or right after it turns on. I will keep monitoring it tonight when I turn it off and when I turn it back on. But, I have done almost everything already.

I am also the administrator of our cell phones here at work so I need to have some answers for this as people start going to this phone. It's not my primary job, but I am the administrator by default since no one else wants to handle them.

Thanks

 

[belodion]

Yes, the wakelocks can drain the battery while the phone is switched off....though not if fully powered off. Screenshots taken on waking the phone in the morning, and posted here, will help us to diagnose what may have been happening during the night. It would also help if you can give us an idea of your signal strength.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[supdie]

See if this works

 

[belodion]

Thank you. The signal strength is very low. That may be causing the trouble.
I'll refer this to more knowledgeable people for their opinion.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Golfdriver97]

Welcome to the forums. You should have a small amount of drain when the phone is completely shut down, but not 20% overnight. I would imagine there is something wrong with the battery itself. I would start talking with your carrier/Samsung about what can be done.

 

[supdie]

I am at my office now...I don't get great signal strength here. We have a lot of magnets brick walls around... My cell is more important when I am off site and people need to get a hold of me. At home, I usually get about 3 bars. I will probably get a hold of Verizon soon.

One other side note...this morning when I turned it on it said it couldn't find my SIM card...this happened once when I first turned it on last week. It took 3 reboots before it finally found it...probably another bad sign for this phone...

 

[Golfdriver97]

I will probably get a hold of Verizon soon.

When you do, show them that screenshot. If it doesn't mean anything to them, tell them that it clearly indicates significant drain when the device is off.

EDIT: Is this drain consistent? Or is this the first time it has happened?

 

[dpham00]

Could be an issue with battery calibration. How many times has this happened?

 

[supdie]

I got the phone last thursday and activated it on Monday I believe. It's drained 20% the last two nights. I actually charged it back on Thursday, but never activated. I turned it on Friday and it was completely dead...which is why I waited until Monday to activate because I had to recharge it.

 

[belodion]

It seems to be draining battery even while powered off, unless those stats are reading false for some reason. But if they're true, that's worrying. Return.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[LeoRex]

I'm with belodion... Any time a phone drains like that while powered down leads me to believe that there is an internal short somewhere that is causing a drain.

If that's the case, that is really really bad news for you and anything around the phone. The last thing you want is a catastrophic failure.

 

[supdie]

Sorry, I just wanted to note that I should get my replacement phone today. If I don't follow up anymore in the next couple of days, I would say my new phone is working fine. Verizon had no issues just sending me a new phone. The old phone kept telling me all weekend that it couldn't find the SIM card. I think it was just a bad phone. We'll see.

thanks for the help

 

[LeoRex]

Good... yeah, that thing was starting to worry me. There is nothing that should draw power on a powered off phone. That thing could have been a ticking time bomb for all we know.

 

[Rukbat]

"Can;t find the SIM" is a bad SIM (which they should replace for free) or a bad port - which is covered under the warranty.

The battery graph, though, definitely looks like a bad battery. Lithium batteries do self-discharge, but what you're getting in a few hours is about normal for a few months. Since you no longet have the phone, there's no way that we'll ever know, but it is of academic interest to some of us.

 

[supdie]

OK, my replacement phone is definitely much better already. I charged it yesterday afternoon. Went to bed with 96% percent and turned the phone off. Woke up and turned it on at 95%. It did a couple of things this morning and still at 93%. They did not replace the SIM card as a note. But, I had no issues activating it or having the phone find the SIM card. I think the old phone just had some issues internally. Thank you for all the help. I did learn a few new power saving tips. Hopefully, my issues are behind me.

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hopefully, my issues are behind me

They seem to be, and hopefully are. That drain is much more like it for overnight, and most, if not all, of that percentage point lost was due to booting up the device.

Glad everything got sorted out. Again, welcome to the forums.