Help! Note 3 battery went from fantastic to average literally overnight? (missing a setting???)

[OUGrad05]

Hello all, I finally decided to register since my random searches here and at other places weren't turning up my situation. I purchased my note 3 in mid february. The battery life was insanely good. I had a razrMaxx that by 3pm was about done and usually on the charger. After purchasing the note, I'd leave the office between 60% (on a heavy use day, well heavy for me anyway) and 80%. The battery was absolutely fantastic. Even with moderate to heavy usage the phone would be down to 45-50% at night.

Then approximately a month ago the battery life became abruptly shorter. Now by lunch I'm typically in the upper 60s and by the time I leave the office in the 30's or low 40's. Thursday was a very light usage day and I still got home and was hovering at about 40% by the time I went to bed it was 12%.

I've been scouring the various settings for a month, had an android update last week that I thought might fix it and it didn't.

"Android System" jumped in usage considerably about a month ago from mid single digits to 20-30%. I also now have "Google Services" consuming somewhere between 7 and 12% each day.

The Android System is taking nearly as much power as my screen on a moderate use day and on a light use day its more than the screen. Before whatever happened a month ago, Android system was almost never more than 10%.

I've formatted the SD card, tried running a day with Wifi off, another day with GPS off and none of which are helping. I feel like I'm missing an obscure setting that's really killing my battery life.

I'm on Verizon if that matters...

Help please!

 

[sweeperdk]

Try a factory reset...

Yes, it's cumbersome to set up the phone again, but can often clear any rogue apps or settings that are hogging battery life.

 

[FBA]

Before you go down the factory reset route (and it may happen again after that) I would download GSAM to check battery usage -

You have one or more apps that are causing this...other than the OS...and there are ways to determine what they are.

1st, look at the apps you've downloaded...then also look at any apps that auto update data periodically, and shut them down.

Use GSAM to find the apps, and then to compare the before and after once you find the rogue apps eating your battery.

Wipe your cache partition; it's free and will have no negative impact on the device. It may actually do something for you.

I have experienced these issues on various devices over the years and in some rare cases, you're forced to wipe and restart, but more often than not, you can fix the problem without a wipe.

Wiping will work for now, but it may reoccur in the future if it's caused by an app you're using, and it will take a long time to recreate the phone environment, when in may in fact not be necessary at all.

 

[OUGrad05]

Thanks guys. I just downloaded app cache cleaner, used it in the past...hope that's a good one. Just put GSAM on here, we'll see what it tells me.

 

[anon8380037]

Thanks guys. I just downloaded app cache cleaner, used it in the past...hope that's a good one. Just put GSAM on here, we'll see what it tells me.

You have a cache cleaner on the phone, although some like Clean Master.
What @FBA meant is you can clear cache in Recovery Mode, or 2nd best in Storage.
This was unknown to me until it was explained. It's safe and a bit of fun.
Turn off the phone, hold volume up - power - and home button together. This should bring up a very small list in the upper left of the screen.
Scroll down with the volume keys to wipe cache partition and select with the power button. This will only take a few seconds, and you will see reboot selected, press Power to select and you have a cleaned and rebooted phone.
There is a handy link from AC which explains this better.
Welcome to Android Central.

Sent from my N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[OUGrad05]

You have a cache cleaner on the phone, although some like Clean Master.
What @FBA meant is you can clear cache in Recovery Mode, or 2nd best in Storage.
This was unknown to me until it was explained. It's safe and a bit of fun.
Turn off the phone, hold volume up - power - and home button together. This should bring up a very small list in the upper left of the screen.
Scroll down with the volume keys to wipe cache partition and select with the power button. This will only take a few seconds, and you will see reboot selected, press Power to select and you have a cleaned and rebooted phone.
There is a handy link from AC which explains this better.
Welcome to Android Central.

Sent from my N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

Did it that way forever on my razr maxx before using app cache cleaner. Doing it via hardware is better? or any different?

 

[anon8380037]

Did it that way forever on my razr maxx before using app cache cleaner. Doing it via hardware is better? or any different?

I had an S2 for 2 years and never knew
I tend to refer people to my new bottom signature at this point; but it makes sense to me, and if experienced moderators and members believe in it .... I guess it all depends on how Android works and why they call it a cache partition. Adding an app to clean other apps?, well I tried Clean master and didn't like it.

Pardon me while I sneak off the stage before everyone realises I don't know my lines.
Someone may take this up -----

 

[anon8380037]

Btw - did you try disabling the Google+ app, even temporarily, and unticking many of the sync settings in your Google account like photos/Picasa. another default 'go to' for battery issues.
You didn't say if you updated to KitKat around the time of your sudden battery loss.
I think your early experience of leaving work with 60 - 80% battery was exceptional, and the sudden 'drop' is still not bad.
GSam can keep an eye on things and give you averages and estimates.

 

[OUGrad05]

Btw - did you try disabling the Google+ app, even temporarily, and unticking many of the sync settings in your Google account like photos/Picasa. another default 'go to' for battery issues.
You didn't say if you updated to KitKat around the time of your sudden battery loss.
I think your early experience of leaving work with 60 - 80% battery was exceptional, and the sudden 'drop' is still not bad.
GSam can keep an eye on things and give you averages and estimates.

Kit Kat update was about two or three weeks after the issue started.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[OUGrad05]

Something is up with my GSAM. It's not properly tracking usage. For example it says since 8am my screen has been on one hour. That's not even close probably more like 10 minutes? App Usage is dominated by "Android System" on GSAM.

The onboard ratings have Noom at 30% (used it to exercise this morning) and Android system at 22% followed by Android OS and then "screen" way down at 13%.

 

[jeffruby]

I have same issues! Posted elsewhere. For gsam to work must be on internal memory, not ext SD. Still huge Android system % which is =to screen. I have all Google sync options off except mail contacts and calendar. (and keep-imagine that's it?)

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[tweazer]

Note 3 has a removable battery. Is this the factory battery or clone? Did you drop it or damage it in any way? Did you get it wet? Inspect it for bulging, penetration of the foil, check the watermark on the battery and also warping of the pack. If you are using excessive power it may be evident as heat felt on the display surface or back cover. From what you told us it sounds like your battery is no longer up to the job.

I overheated a few of my GS3 battery packs last summer using GPS in the summer sun. The battery life has not been good since.

One other thing to check is if you are roaming at work and the phone is hunting all of the time. I had this problem until I locked my network into my normal carrier.

 

[AndroidvsOS]

Hi
Not sure if this will help.
My note 3 battery was fine until the KitKat update (some people have automatic updates set in their phones). My search on the Web resulted in this: KitKat caused battery drainage in many phones. One temporary solution is to install latest version of Skype, which I did (I don't use Skype) but it worked like magic and the battery is back to normal. Don't ask me why though

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

 

[OUGrad05]

Note 3 has a removable battery. Is this the factory battery or clone? Did you drop it or damage it in any way? Did you get it wet? Inspect it for bulging, penetration of the foil, check the watermark on the battery and also warping of the pack. If you are using excessive power it may be evident as heat felt on the display surface or back cover. From what you told us it sounds like your battery is no longer up to the job.

I overheated a few of my GS3 battery packs last summer using GPS in the summer sun. The battery life has not been good since.

One other thing to check is if you are roaming at work and the phone is hunting all of the time. I had this problem until I locked my network into my normal carrier.

Thanks for the reply. Original battery. I did drop the phone off the couch last week but it's in a case and seems fine.

Doesn't seem to be roaming. I have solid 4G coverage in my office.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[OUGrad05]

Hi
Not sure if this will help.
My note 3 battery was fine until the KitKat update (some people have automatic updates set in their phones). My search on the Web resulted in this: KitKat caused battery drainage in many phones. One temporary solution is to install latest version of Skype, which I did (I don't use Skype) but it worked like magic and the battery is back to normal. Don't ask me why though

Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

That is odd...

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[OUGrad05]

Well I may try the factory reset route if no other suggestions. I am down to 62% under light usage today.

How would I go about doing that on this phone?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[Kelly Kearns]

You need to boot into recovery mode and wipe the cache. Turn off the phone, hold volume up, power and the home button, down all at the same time.

In recovery mode use the volume button to scroll up and down and power button to choose. If you end up doing a reset in the end, do the reset in recovery mode, not in settings on the phone.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[OUGrad05]

I just did this we will see if it helps. Why is this better than the software I was using?

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[OUGrad05]

So today the battery is much better. At 62% now. Been off the charger for 7 hrs.
Not sure if it was the hardware cache clearing or disabling Google now. I did them both yesterday. I will report more after a couple of days of use.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[Kelly Kearns]

So today the battery is much better. At 62% now. Been off the charger for 7 hrs.
Not sure if it was the hardware cache clearing or disabling Google now. I did them both yesterday. I will report more after a couple of days of use.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

The cache wipe also gets any bits of previous firmware left, etc. Also, when you delete an app, you should open it in Application manager, clear cache, force close and then uninstall there, you clear everything out for sure that way.

I do not use battery and cache/app cleaners. I have used a battery app before to diagnose an issue, but then remove them, battery apps actually eat more battery. I used to use a cache cleaner, a popular one, but found it was doing NUMEROUS wake locks on my phone and was eating battery, but not showing in the battery graphic that it was the culprit.

Myself personally, I think the system apps like that just use more resources and cause more wake locks. Like I said, they have their place, IMO, to diagnose, then fix the problem, then do away with them. It is just something else running on your system.