About a week or so ago, I noticed that my phone battery was going from being fully charged to completely dead in less than 2 hours when it was idle in the locker at the gym. It is an older phone, a Samsung Galaxy S2( Boost Mobile is my provider) but it serves my purposes and I have no need to upgrade to a newer phone. My OS is Android 4.0.4. After doing a search online, I saw lots of complaints that the culprit was either Google Play Services or Google Services. However, whereas either of these was maybe using up to 50% of users' batteries, Google Play Services on my phone was using as much as 84%. This is not the first time that the battery has drained this fast. In the past, it was very sporadic (maybe 3 or 4 days a month) and I would just change batteries. However, after it happening daily for over a week, I finally started looking for answers.
I am apologizing in advance for the length of this post. One thing I found from scouring web sites for help is that whenever other people posted short posts about this problem, they would get a lot of questions in response from other people, mainly along the lines of “Do you have this or that enabled on your phone?” and “Have you tried this or that?” The majority of this post is how the phone is set and what I have tried so I don’t get inundated with questions about what I have or have not tried (unless it’s something I really haven’t tried yet).
I scoured NUMEROUS web sites over about a 4 hour period and tried a lot of fixes, but none have worked. After trying quite a few, now instead of the entry under battery usage saying Google Play Services, it says just Google services. The following are the settings on my phone, what apps I do not have that have caused other people problems, and the attempts I’ve made to stop the battery usage, based upon the “tips” from the web sites I visited.
First, I use the phone mainly for texting, and of course, an occasional phone call. I don’t use a lot of apps, and other than Free Cell, I don’t play any games on the phone. But, I haven’t even played Free Cell recently due to the drastic battery drain. I rarely use apps on the phone and when I do, it’s normally at home using my home WiFi. I don’t use 4G, because the phone won’t support it, and when I’m out and do use an app, like Gas Buddy, 3G is plenty fast for me. When I have the phone at home or in the car, it's always on charge. When I'm at the gym, the locker it's in is in an air conditioned open area. It is not in the locker room where the phone might be subjected to higher temps and any humidity from the showers.
I have not installed any new apps on the phone in several months, and the only ones I update are my security apps (AVG Anti-Virus and Lookout Security), or any other app that says it has to be updated before I can use it. I have auto update for the apps turned off; I have sync turned off completely for all accounts; I don’t have Location services turned on; I rarely turn on the GPS; I don’t have Facebook, Twitter or any other social media accounts on the phone; I don’t have GoogleNow or Google Fit which was a battery drain problem for a lot of people; I am using Advanced Task Killer Froyo and a battery saving app called Juice Defender; I have enabled Power Saving Mode in the phone settings; and the screen timeout is set at the default of 1 minute.
I uninstalled Google Play Service (yes, it allowed me to uninstall it – most web sites said to update it, but when I went to the settings for it, that was not an option, but uninstalling it was) and then reinstalled it. I believe it was after this that the entry under battery usage changed from Google Play Services to just Google Services, but it was still using 80% or more of the battery.
I went through and cleared all the data and all of the cache on all of the apps where it would allow me to, and I uninstalled several (probably 10 or 12) apps that I’ve had on the phone for a long time but never/hardly ever use. I also “Forced Stop” or Disabled any app I wasn’t using at the time.
I restarted the phone in Safe Mode and checked battery usage. Google Services was still using 80% +. On a couple of web sites, it said that if Google Services battery usage dropped drastically while in Safe Mode, then a third party app that was using or depending on Google Services was the real culprit, not Google Services. But, it did not drop on my phone while in Safe Mode.
Several users said that after they updated to a newer Android OS on their phones, the problem went away. I did a search on how to update the OS on my phone (if it is even feasible, given its age) and it said to go to System Updates in the phone settings. When I did, and checked Samsung Software, it said it was up-to-date. I even checked for a firmware update, and it also said it is up-to-date.
While I was trying all of these fixes, the battery in the phone was draining even though it was plugged into an AC outlet. By the time I finished all of the aforementioned fixes, it was late, so I turned the phone off for the night. The next morning when I started it, Google Services was showing around 40% battery usage. Although this is half of what it had been, it is still too high, according to what I read on some web sites. They said that Google Services should not be using more of the battery than the OS, which was only 4% at the time.
The last thing I tried was to install and run GService Fix. I couldn’t the night before because it said I needed a fully charged battery. I shut the phone off the night before so I would be assured that the battery would be fully charged when I installed this app. After 3 attempts, running the app made no difference in battery usage. This was my last ditch effort.
One last thing, I’m sure a lot of readers are thinking by now that the only other option is that the battery is shot and just not holding a charge. Not true, unless all 4 batteries I have for this phone are all shot. I rotate them weekly, and I didn’t buy them all at the same time or from the same vendor.
So, in summary, I have tried every tip and trick I could find on probably over a dozen web sites and not a single one has worked for me. So, if anyone else has any additional ideas that I haven’t tried, I’m all ears.
I am apologizing in advance for the length of this post. One thing I found from scouring web sites for help is that whenever other people posted short posts about this problem, they would get a lot of questions in response from other people, mainly along the lines of “Do you have this or that enabled on your phone?” and “Have you tried this or that?” The majority of this post is how the phone is set and what I have tried so I don’t get inundated with questions about what I have or have not tried (unless it’s something I really haven’t tried yet).
I scoured NUMEROUS web sites over about a 4 hour period and tried a lot of fixes, but none have worked. After trying quite a few, now instead of the entry under battery usage saying Google Play Services, it says just Google services. The following are the settings on my phone, what apps I do not have that have caused other people problems, and the attempts I’ve made to stop the battery usage, based upon the “tips” from the web sites I visited.
First, I use the phone mainly for texting, and of course, an occasional phone call. I don’t use a lot of apps, and other than Free Cell, I don’t play any games on the phone. But, I haven’t even played Free Cell recently due to the drastic battery drain. I rarely use apps on the phone and when I do, it’s normally at home using my home WiFi. I don’t use 4G, because the phone won’t support it, and when I’m out and do use an app, like Gas Buddy, 3G is plenty fast for me. When I have the phone at home or in the car, it's always on charge. When I'm at the gym, the locker it's in is in an air conditioned open area. It is not in the locker room where the phone might be subjected to higher temps and any humidity from the showers.
I have not installed any new apps on the phone in several months, and the only ones I update are my security apps (AVG Anti-Virus and Lookout Security), or any other app that says it has to be updated before I can use it. I have auto update for the apps turned off; I have sync turned off completely for all accounts; I don’t have Location services turned on; I rarely turn on the GPS; I don’t have Facebook, Twitter or any other social media accounts on the phone; I don’t have GoogleNow or Google Fit which was a battery drain problem for a lot of people; I am using Advanced Task Killer Froyo and a battery saving app called Juice Defender; I have enabled Power Saving Mode in the phone settings; and the screen timeout is set at the default of 1 minute.
I uninstalled Google Play Service (yes, it allowed me to uninstall it – most web sites said to update it, but when I went to the settings for it, that was not an option, but uninstalling it was) and then reinstalled it. I believe it was after this that the entry under battery usage changed from Google Play Services to just Google Services, but it was still using 80% or more of the battery.
I went through and cleared all the data and all of the cache on all of the apps where it would allow me to, and I uninstalled several (probably 10 or 12) apps that I’ve had on the phone for a long time but never/hardly ever use. I also “Forced Stop” or Disabled any app I wasn’t using at the time.
I restarted the phone in Safe Mode and checked battery usage. Google Services was still using 80% +. On a couple of web sites, it said that if Google Services battery usage dropped drastically while in Safe Mode, then a third party app that was using or depending on Google Services was the real culprit, not Google Services. But, it did not drop on my phone while in Safe Mode.
Several users said that after they updated to a newer Android OS on their phones, the problem went away. I did a search on how to update the OS on my phone (if it is even feasible, given its age) and it said to go to System Updates in the phone settings. When I did, and checked Samsung Software, it said it was up-to-date. I even checked for a firmware update, and it also said it is up-to-date.
While I was trying all of these fixes, the battery in the phone was draining even though it was plugged into an AC outlet. By the time I finished all of the aforementioned fixes, it was late, so I turned the phone off for the night. The next morning when I started it, Google Services was showing around 40% battery usage. Although this is half of what it had been, it is still too high, according to what I read on some web sites. They said that Google Services should not be using more of the battery than the OS, which was only 4% at the time.
The last thing I tried was to install and run GService Fix. I couldn’t the night before because it said I needed a fully charged battery. I shut the phone off the night before so I would be assured that the battery would be fully charged when I installed this app. After 3 attempts, running the app made no difference in battery usage. This was my last ditch effort.
One last thing, I’m sure a lot of readers are thinking by now that the only other option is that the battery is shot and just not holding a charge. Not true, unless all 4 batteries I have for this phone are all shot. I rotate them weekly, and I didn’t buy them all at the same time or from the same vendor.
So, in summary, I have tried every tip and trick I could find on probably over a dozen web sites and not a single one has worked for me. So, if anyone else has any additional ideas that I haven’t tried, I’m all ears.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram