[534n]

I think the black is signal standby and is a power saving when there is no active transfer. I will see what I can dig up.

[Vengeful]

4 weeks with no plummet and it just happen yesterday. Never turned lte off during the 4 weeks it was fine.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747

[jeffreii]

4 weeks with no plummet and it just happen yesterday. Never turned lte off during the 4 weeks it was fine.

If only we knew what specifically causes it...at this point we just know it's LTE but not what conditions with LTE trigger it. The longest I have gone without the plummet is 4 days (with LTE enabled).

I just got the plummet again, only 12 hours since reboot. See screenshots.

My device does not seem to be warm...

EDIT: Also I have no Google Play updates waiting for me.

[eleeezy]

This plummet happened to me once from what i believe to be due to Gun Bros. Ever since i deleted" never had the problem again

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Android Central Forums

[cyanogen-man]

Sigh LTE IS A DIFFERANT RADIO ENTIRELY SO CHANCES ARE THAT THE LTE RADIO IS GOBBLI G UP THE JUICE LTE IS A BATTERY KILLER ON ANY PHONE PERIOD YOU WANT THE SPEEDS PAY THE PRICE THE WEAKER THE LTE SIGNAL THE MORE ITS GONNA EAT AN ALL YOU CAN EAT BATTERY LIFE BUFFET!!
INSPIRE AOKP ICE COLD SANDWICH ROM

[jeffreii]

Sigh LTE IS A DIFFERANT RADIO ENTIRELY SO CHANCES ARE THAT THE LTE RADIO IS GOBBLI G UP THE JUICE LTE IS A BATTERY KILLER ON ANY PHONE PERIOD YOU WANT THE SPEEDS PAY THE PRICE THE WEAKER THE LTE SIGNAL THE MORE ITS GONNA EAT AN ALL YOU CAN EAT BATTERY LIFE BUFFET!!
INSPIRE AOKP ICE COLD SANDWICH ROM

Caps lock, no punctuation? It only emphasized that you TOTALLY missed the point. Sounds like you read the thread title but not the first post.

Anyways you are totally wrong, even if you were in the right thread for your rant. I see very little (if any) battery life difference when comparing LTE on/off. The only real factor is that LTE off prevents the "radio bug" (if I can call it that) from causing the plummet.

[beavo451]

Just throwing my 2 cents in. I just experienced the problem as well. I've had the phone for a little over a month without any problems. When it first happened, I had the phone charged fully. I took it off the charger and went to sleep. It woke me up by making the "plug me in" sound. It went from 100% to 14% in about 7 hours.

The graph shows that the phone was "awake" at certain points.

[jeffreii]

Just throwing my 2 cents in. I just experienced the problem as well. I've had the phone for a little over a month without any problems. When it first happened, I had the phone charged fully. I took it off the charger and went to sleep. It woke me up by making the "plug me in" sound. It went from 100% to 14% in about 7 hours.

The graph shows that the phone was "awake" at certain points.

If I were going to leave it unplugged (no reason to though) and go to sleep I would definitely do a reboot before bed to forestall any future/current "plummets".

[wowpaw]

I wonder if it's the same issue considering mine is NOT fixed by charging. I can charge to full and as soon as I take it off, the plummet continues.

Anyways - small update on my LTE-disabled test. It's been 57 hours and no plummet. Honestly it means nothing. I'll want to make it through this week without reboot/plummet before I blame the whole thing on LTE. I will report back either way.

I'm definitely sure it is the same issue. Basically, we both have the issue where we'll leave our phones alone for a while(lets say at 100% charged), and few hours later we're in the red without any use whatsoever (and I know it isn't any background apps as this is not my first Android and am quite familiar with how to set things up). Going to the battery graph shows basically a straight diagonal line going downwards - with almost no "screen on" bars nor "awake" bars at the bottom bar chart. I have no clue why charging for me stops it, but either way I'm glad since I am unable to use your solution of disabling LTE. Well, not unable, but prefer not to as we (VZW users) do not have HSPA+ and 3G is basically torture and I refuse to use it if I have LTE.

[adrdfanwannab]

hopefully OP and others are still following this thread.

I have been having this issue since I bought the phone a month ago and have been trying to find a fix or an explanation, and finally found a thread that isnt telling me to "why not plug it in" or "close and delete apps", or any other thing suggesting I deal with the problem instead of fixing it.

The LTE bug sounds like a very viable explanation for this annoyance, but i was wondering if I am seeing the same problem as OP or others experiencing the same thing.
My question is: are you guys only seeing the drop when the network switches to LTE radio and stops draining when the network switches back to HSPA?
Because for me, I am experiencing these drops but every time I check the system info (whether it is draining or not) it is on LTE:14. I have never seen the network switch to HSPA.

[jeffreii]

Once the "plummet" starts, it does not stop until I reboot. I suspect that the switching between HSPA and LTE is the cause...but that's just amateur speculation. In Miami we have strong LTE coverage but definite pockets of HSPA+ where LTE signal does not reach. When I drive through those areas that could cause switching. Also, when you receive a phone call, it switches to HSPA+ automatically as LTE cannot do voice (as it is now, on our S3s).

The only evidence I have to back up my speculation is the fact that the plummet never starts (as opposed to "it stops") when I disable LTE. To be honest I decided I can't even handle giving up LTE speeds so I've turned it back on. I now reboot my phone in the morning when I take it off the charger...and then again some time after lunch. That generally prevents the plummet from happening.

[adrdfanwannab]

Once the "plummet" starts, it does not stop until I reboot. I suspect that the switching between HSPA and LTE is the cause...but that's just amateur speculation. In Miami we have strong LTE coverage but definite pockets of HSPA+ where LTE signal does not reach. When I drive through those areas that could cause switching. Also, when you receive a phone call, it switches to HSPA+ automatically as LTE cannot do voice (as it is now, on our S3s).

The only evidence I have to back up my speculation is the fact that the plummet never starts (as opposed to "it stops") when I disable LTE. To be honest I decided I can't even handle giving up LTE speeds so I've turned it back on. I now reboot my phone in the morning when I take it off the charger...and then again some time after lunch. That generally prevents the plummet from happening.

Ah, I see.
From what I am reading from you guys, if I am not misunderstanding, seems like you guys experience the plummet WHENEVER the phone switches network to LTE. Then were your phones always on HSPA even in good LTE coverage areas (before you guys manually disabled LTE)? And therefore, when the phone switches to LTE it starts to dive.
That might have been worded weird, i guess what I'm trying to ask is; before you guys manually disabled LTE, was your phones actively switching between HSPA and LTE? Because my phone seems to always be on LTE but has stable battery most of the time when it's not nosediving.

If thats similar to you guys I have a couple theories.
I live and work in the Silicone Valley area, so I doubt there are any areas with weak LTE coverage, therefore always connected to the "LTE:11" network. So when the phone plummets (in my case commonly at home during the night), the ATT towers are having trouble transmitting the LTE signal or there is interference of said signal around the area where you keep your phone. If the phone is suppose to switch to HSPA when LTE signal is weak then my guess is that there is a bug where if you have good coverage (3-5 bars) when LTE signal weakens then the phone does not automatically switch to HSPA and continues to struggle for LTE causing drain.
If it is not the ATT tower and indeed a interference around where you place your phone, then perphaps you can try to keep your phone somewhere else in the house and inform is of your findings. I cannot do this for I use my phone as my alarm and moving it defeats the purpose (although it would be great incentive to get out of bed to turn it off ).

One problem debunks the above theory. I have already exchanged my first S3 due to this drainage problem with no effect, and I also live with my sister and brother who also upgraded to the S3 at the same time as I did. And they have never experienced this problem. Unless there is really significant interference only in my room, then my second theory is a model specific defect. I have the white S3 whereas my sister and brother have the blue and red. Can you guys verify?

[jeffreii]

Ah, I see.
From what I am reading from you guys, if I am not misunderstanding, seems like you guys experience the plummet WHENEVER the phone switches network to LTE. Then were your phones always on HSPA even in good LTE coverage areas (before you guys manually disabled LTE)? And therefore, when the phone switches to LTE it starts to dive.
That might have been worded weird, i guess what I'm trying to ask is; before you guys manually disabled LTE, was your phones actively switching between HSPA and LTE? Because my phone seems to always be on LTE but has stable battery most of the time when it's not nosediving.

If thats similar to you guys I have a couple theories.
I live and work in the Silicone Valley area, so I doubt there are any areas with weak LTE coverage, therefore always connected to the "LTE:11" network. So when the phone plummets (in my case commonly at home during the night), the ATT towers are having trouble transmitting the LTE signal or there is interference of said signal around the area where you keep your phone. If the phone is suppose to switch to HSPA when LTE signal is weak then my guess is that there is a bug where if you have good coverage (3-5 bars) when LTE signal weakens then the phone does not automatically switch to HSPA and continues to struggle for LTE causing drain.
If it is not the ATT tower and indeed a interference around where you place your phone, then perphaps you can try to keep your phone somewhere else in the house and inform is of your findings. I cannot do this for I use my phone as my alarm and moving it defeats the purpose (although it would be great incentive to get out of bed to turn it off ).

One problem debunks the above theory. I have already exchanged my first S3 due to this drainage problem with no effect, and I also live with my sister and brother who also upgraded to the S3 at the same time as I did. And they have never experienced this problem. Unless there is really significant interference only in my room, then my second theory is a model specific defect. I have the white S3 whereas my sister and brother have the blue and red. Can you guys verify?

The plummet definitely does not happen every time it switches. I have gone days without the plummet and then suddenly it happens. It's seemingly random...but that's only because I haven't identified the exact scenario that starts it.

My phone does not frequently switch between LTE and HSPA+. Only when driving and leaving LTE areas or when receiving/making a phone call.

The plummet occurs sometimes at my apartment...where I have 4 or 5 bars of LTE signal at all times.

[Barenjager]

I have just read through this whole thread hoping to find an explanation other than what I thought it was.
I live near Detroit, and AT&T just activated LTE for my area...well, my work area at least, I don't get it at home. It was activated on Sept. 19th and so when I got to work the next day, I had an LTE signal! Joy! So I did a bunch of speed tests and stuff and downloaded a bunch of crap, played with Google Earth..etc, just to test out the speed...45Mbps downloads. I used my phone a lot more than usual, but I noticed a large battery drop, had about 10% or so by the time I was leaving work and that was with plugging it in on my breaks/lunch..

So, today, I use my phone like I would have normally since I've had it. And the same thing happens. I was at work for only 6 hours and by the time i was leaving it was down to 21%, so seems on par with the plummet...I didn't charge my phone at all today. Since I've been home (so, 7.5 hrs on battery) and on HSPA+, my battery is at 19%.

This is with average use. Before LTE was turned on I was getting 15+ hours on a single charge from being at work and home. I am disappoint.

So, question, sorry if I just didn't notice this answered before.. What's your top battery drain app on the battery screen? Mine is always "Screen" ...ALWAYS.. but since LTE it is "Android System" using 48%

Also disappointing is there was just an OTA update a day or two ago for the AT&T S3 that probably should have fixed this...I'm still going to do some testing tomorrow at work to confirm that I'm getting the LTE plummet but damn.. what the hell?

btw, first post. been lurking for a long time but when I read this I'd figure I would throw my two cents in, considering I went from zero LTE since July and now 2 days of LTE and I see a HUGE difference on my battery life. Love the speed tho...

[jeffreii]

I have just read through this whole thread hoping to find an explanation other than what I thought it was.
I live near Detroit, and AT&T just activated LTE for my area...well, my work area at least, I don't get it at home. It was activated on Sept. 19th and so when I got to work the next day, I had an LTE signal! Joy! So I did a bunch of speed tests and stuff and downloaded a bunch of crap, played with Google Earth..etc, just to test out the speed...45Mbps downloads. I used my phone a lot more than usual, but I noticed a large battery drop, had about 10% or so by the time I was leaving work and that was with plugging it in on my breaks/lunch..

So, today, I use my phone like I would have normally since I've had it. And the same thing happens. I was at work for only 6 hours and by the time i was leaving it was down to 21%, so seems on par with the plummet...I didn't charge my phone at all today. Since I've been home (so, 7.5 hrs on battery) and on HSPA+, my battery is at 19%.

This is with average use. Before LTE was turned on I was getting 15+ hours on a single charge from being at work and home. I am disappoint.

So, question, sorry if I just didn't notice this answered before.. What's your top battery drain app on the battery screen? Mine is always "Screen" ...ALWAYS.. but since LTE it is "Android System" using 48%

Also disappointing is there was just an OTA update a day or two ago for the AT&T S3 that probably should have fixed this...I'm still going to do some testing tomorrow at work to confirm that I'm getting the LTE plummet but damn.. what the hell?

btw, first post. been lurking for a long time but when I read this I'd figure I would throw my two cents in, considering I went from zero LTE since July and now 2 days of LTE and I see a HUGE difference on my battery life. Love the speed tho...

First thing: I upgraded to LH9 yesterday and am waiting to see if the "plummet" returns or if they've fixed the issue...fingers crossed.

Secondly, you're not really describing your battery issue to a degree that confirms it's the same as I've mentioned in this thread. Does it normalize after a reboot? Do you see good battery life then suddenly it just starts plummeting for no obvious reason?

Is your battery life just bad 100% of the time? If so I'd try GSAM Battery Monitor to try and pinpoint what's causing it.

[Barenjager]

First thing: I upgraded to LH9 yesterday and am waiting to see if the "plummet" returns or if they've fixed the issue...fingers crossed.

Secondly, you're not really describing your battery issue to a degree that confirms it's the same as I've mentioned in this thread. Does it normalize after a reboot? Do you see good battery life then suddenly it just starts plummeting for no obvious reason?

Is your battery life just bad 100% of the time? If so I'd try GSAM Battery Monitor to try and pinpoint what's causing it.

Yeah, sorry. I re-read what I hastily typed earlier and I see I wasn't very clear.

I'm not sure if it normalizes after a reboot, since I was leaving the LTE area quickly after finding this thread..more testing tomorrow..

I usually get very good battery life, and today from the moment of connecting to LTE, it started plummeting for no obvious reason. I did nothing different than I did before LTE became available.

BTW, completely stock, unrooted, latest OTA update..

Normal work day BEFORE LTE (which is usually 8 hours, 9-5, 1pm-10pm..), I would get great, great battery life. I would leave work with no less than 60-50%, quick charge on the drive home, and would usually plug my phone in around 12-1 a.m and still have around 30% on average.

This is with average to heavy use, and on HSPA+, no wifi at work. Then at home I would use my wifi.
I'll play with my phone at any given opportunity at work, text messages through out the day, use Pulse, Feedly, Reddit is Fun, Twitter, Instagram, etc. I looked recently and had 16 hrs on one charge, with 30% battery left at 1 am when I was going to bed. Great, right?

Well, I did all those same things I would normally do at work, now with an LTE connection, and today was only a 6 hour work day. I had 20%ish battery when I was leaving. I was at 60% battery after the phone only being on, connected LTE, and unplugged for 2.5 hours. Every time I took it out of my pocket I noticed the battery had dropped 3-5%...(and I clear my open tasks, and really started to clear all open apps once I noticed the battery drop, didn't help.)

Granted, this is only 2 days with having LTE, and I had the LH9 update before LTE ever touched my phone. But it was bad enough to make me do some searches and find this thread.

Like I said, I'm going to do more testing with it tomorrow at work. I'll only be there for 4 hours, but I plan on keeping my phone fully charged, reboot as soon as I get the LTE connection, and not touching it unless necessary. I might actually get some work done...

I'll check it, if I see it plummet, I'll reboot and see if there's a change and report back here tomorrow. If the worst is true, I'm just confirming what you already know. But if it's like you said and happens randomly, who knows. Too bad I don't get LTE at home so I can truly test this.

[wowpaw]

First thing: I upgraded to LH9 yesterday and am waiting to see if the "plummet" returns or if they've fixed the issue...fingers crossed.

Secondly, you're not really describing your battery issue to a degree that confirms it's the same as I've mentioned in this thread. Does it normalize after a reboot? Do you see good battery life then suddenly it just starts plummeting for no obvious reason?

Is your battery life just bad 100% of the time? If so I'd try GSAM Battery Monitor to try and pinpoint what's causing it.

Yeah I agree with jefferi. From what it sounds like, yours seems more usage-based than random in terms of drainage. My phone will literally drop 30% (when plummeting) in 30 mins when my phone is just sitting on the table not being in used (no notifications/calls/screen is off/etc)

[Barenjager]

So, everything appeared normal today. I didn't touch my phone for 2.5 hours and was at around 95%. Not sure what the heck happened. Certainly wasn't like that yesterday. If it was just a usage problem, then using LTE uses a hell of a lot more battery than hspa. A LOT. I have GSam Battery Monitor and I'm going to keep a watch on anything weird.

I'm curious to find out if the recent OTA update helps you at all, and will be checking this thread to see.

Either way, thanks.

[ilifecomputer]

I don't have anything technical to add to this discussion and thank you all for all of this info. I'm just the typical user with strong lte in my bedroom where I get completely random plummets over night. Trying to switch where I lay my phone tonight because last night after the lh9 update, my phone died plummet style.

Getting kind of sad about it and losing faith in my handset as an alarm. Before I found this thread I had also tried an exchange and still see the same issue. I do believe in a potential att lte bug because my friend who lives down the street saw the same thing happen once on her onex. I've seen it twice in one month. Reformatted and everything to no avail.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[jake_09368]

If cell standby is the biggest drain it could be that you have the issue that most SGS3 phones have where there is an error in the reference value. There is a fix for it available however, the value they replace it with isn't 100% accurate as the actual value isn't known (at least that's what I read in other forums). I had that issue and used the fix to see what was really killing my battery and it turned out to be android system. There is apparently a runaway process named gsiff_daemon that constantly keeps the phone awake and uses power. I still haven't been able to find any information about what this process actually does. the process is located in /system/bin folder and simply removing it from the folder will kill the process. So far I've seen a rather noticeable increase in my battery life since then. From what I've read, these are both known issues on all SGS3 devices in the U.S. (not sure about overseas).
Please note that for either fix to be applied, root access is required. If anything, it may be worth looking into. It's a shot in the dark but maybe this will help or point you in A direction. Good luck man.

[jeffreii]

I don't have anything technical to add to this discussion and thank you all for all of this info. I'm just the typical user with strong lte in my bedroom where I get completely random plummets over night. Trying to switch where I lay my phone tonight because last night after the lh9 update, my phone died plummet style.

Getting kind of sad about it and losing faith in my handset as an alarm. Before I found this thread I had also tried an exchange and still see the same issue. I do believe in a potential att lte bug because my friend who lives down the street saw the same thing happen once on her onex. I've seen it twice in one month. Reformatted and everything to no avail.

I'm hoping this update fixes it...I'm at 3 days uptime since updated to LH9 and no plummet yet. The longest I recall going before a plummet was about 5 days...fingers crossed.

Anyways you have the sad option of disabling LTE to avoid the plummet. You can also try doing a reboot right before bed to help prevent it from happening in the near future (before you wake up). I pretty much always have it charging on the table next to my bed but when I'm sleeping somewhere else the reboot seems to do the trick.

If cell standby is the biggest drain it could be that you have the issue that most SGS3 phones have where there is an error in the reference value. There is a fix for it available however, the value they replace it with isn't 100% accurate as the actual value isn't known (at least that's what I read in other forums). I had that issue and used the fix to see what was really killing my battery and it turned out to be android system. There is apparently a runaway process named gsiff_daemon that constantly keeps the phone awake and uses power. I still haven't been able to find any information about what this process actually does. the process is located in /system/bin folder and simply removing it from the folder will kill the process. So far I've seen a rather noticeable increase in my battery life since then. From what I've read, these are both known issues on all SGS3 devices in the U.S. (not sure about overseas).
Please note that for either fix to be applied, root access is required. If anything, it may be worth looking into. It's a shot in the dark but maybe this will help or point you in A direction. Good luck man.

That's all been mentioned a bunch and I can't find any help from researching those issues. My issue is not gsiff_daemon.

[wowpaw]

So, everything appeared normal today. I didn't touch my phone for 2.5 hours and was at around 95%. Not sure what the heck happened. Certainly wasn't like that yesterday. If it was just a usage problem, then using LTE uses a hell of a lot more battery than hspa. A LOT. I have GSam Battery Monitor and I'm going to keep a watch on anything weird.

I'm curious to find out if the recent OTA update helps you at all, and will be checking this thread to see.

Either way, thanks.

Then yes, your issue is not the same with this thread. Yours seems like either a rogue app, a sync interval that is too short on an app, or something is running in the background.

The issue we're suffering here is MUCH more dramatic (as I stated earlier, we're talking drops of 30-40% within an hour with NO use - literally, none whatsoever).

I find it strange that there are not much Verizon users having this issue. Seems a majority here are AT&T.

[jeffreii]

Day 4 and the plummet struck again today. No luck on a fix in LH9. Quite disappointed.

I am pretty good at working around the issue and making sure it has no impact on me...other than constantly having to babysit it. It would just be nice to be able to forget about it after a fix!

[jay_g]

something interesting. When my battery sucks and I restart the phone it seems that 90% of the time I get a app update notification. Maybe its nothing and its just checking for updates at first start up.

[jeffreii]

something interesting. When my battery sucks and I restart the phone it seems that 90% of the time I get a app update notification. Maybe its nothing and its just checking for updates at first start up.

I recall someone talking about this before - either here or in my XDA thread. I have seen the plummet happen without app updates waiting, though. It definitely does check for them on reboot so just a coincidence I'd say.