Horrible battery on GS3 - phones dies every night! Help!

**saintforlife** · 10-03-2012, 05:53 PM

I've only had my GS3 for a short while. The battery life was ok the first couple of days. But now my phone battery has died for 3 straight nights! Each time I want to bed with 100% charge and when I woke up in the morning, the battery was completely dead and the phone was off. After powering on, I notice that the cell-standby takes up the highest usage.

Network: AT&T
Apps: apps installed on my phone - Angry Birds, Chrome, Facebook, Google Finance, Flashlight, Gmail, Google Maps, Tango, Unit Converter, Juice Defender, Visual Voicemail and Whatsapp. None of these should have been running overnight except the push Gmail (only one account and I get very few emails). I am not using the default email app as I don't have a need for it.
OTA: Latest OTA update already installed.

I installed the free version of Juice Defender and it seem to help for a day, but then it was useless. I tried, balanced, aggressive and other settings, but nothing helped. Do I have a bad phone? Is the OTA the culprit? Is the constant pinging of cell tower at night the issue here? This is mighty frustrating.

Any help to get this resolved is much appreciated.

TIA!

Horrible battery on GS3 - phones dies every night! Help!-iconcheers.gif

**xKrNMBoYx** · 10-03-2012, 06:37 PM

have you checked to see if there are any apps running in the background? I remember when I checked in the first few weeks of having my S3, I had several apps running in the background (All Free versions of Angry Birds, Words w/ Friends Free, Zynga games.)

**smooth4lyfe** · 10-03-2012, 07:11 PM

How often are your apps syncing?.....Make them sync every hour not every 10 or 20 min
Whats your brighness level?......keep it at about 15%, screen brightness is usually the most cause for a quick battery drain

Keep your Juice Defender at Balanced and check the settings above and you should be good

**GSDer** · 10-03-2012, 07:26 PM

1. Start with a factory reset, and don't reinstall anything - see how it goes.
2. Turn off data & WiFi and see what effect each have.
3. Be sure the screen is turned off.
4. (Related to your data connection) Are you in an area where the phone is constantly searching for a signal, or switching between 4G/3G/1X? That'll kill the battery in no time.
5. How many bars on the phone (not data) signal? (or check Settings -> About -> Status and look for Signal strength: how many dbm?)
6. Finally, what's the battery life like when you're not at home? Does it last all day (which it should) when you're out-and-about?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 2

**hatchettjack** · 10-03-2012, 07:47 PM

Take it in and get a new battery!

Sent From My EVO 4G LTE!

**GtoJon** · 10-03-2012, 08:04 PM

I had a simple 3D clock sucking my battery .... go to bed with 50% & wake up with a dea phone! Removed that app & I can go to bed with 90% & wake at 84% 7 hours later. You must have a weather app or something banging the f%#% out of your GPS or something like that. BTW, my battery now lests for about 64 hours

Cheers, Jon

**funkylogik** · 10-04-2012, 06:00 AM

id charge it overnght instead lol.
it shouldnt run down that fast when not being used though (unless its north-pole night time lol)
an app is keepin it awake.
get Gsam app, fully charge it then say four hours later see whats been running

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**PanchoPlanet** · 10-04-2012, 06:22 AM

Try CPU spy. Its simple and effective.

Pp.

Sent from the future using Mayan technology.

**saintforlife** · 10-05-2012, 02:55 AM

delete

**saintforlife** · 10-05-2012, 02:56 AM

Originally Posted by xKrNMBoYx

have you checked to see if there are any apps running in the background? I remember when I checked in the first few weeks of having my S3, I had several apps running in the background (All Free versions of Angry Birds, Words w/ Friends Free, Zynga games.)

Yes, every night before going to bed, I close all running apps by long pressing the home button. Now if there are any rogue apps still running in the background after I close all of them, then I don't know what to do.

Originally Posted by smooth4lyfe

How often are your apps syncing?.....Make them sync every hour not every 10 or 20 min
Whats your brighness level?......keep it at about 15%, screen brightness is usually the most cause for a quick battery drain

Keep your Juice Defender at Balanced and check the settings above and you should be good

I don't know how often my apps sync. But have less than 10 apps installed (list is in my OP). Should it matter?

Juice Defender has always been set to Balanced since the day I installed the app. Never turned it off. Even with JD on, the phone battery died overnight.

Originally Posted by GSDer

1. Start with a factory reset, and don't reinstall anything - see how it goes.
2. Turn off data & WiFi and see what effect each have.
3. Be sure the screen is turned off.
4. (Related to your data connection) Are you in an area where the phone is constantly searching for a signal, or switching between 4G/3G/1X? That'll kill the battery in no time.
5. How many bars on the phone (not data) signal? (or check Settings -> About -> Status and look for Signal strength: how many dbm?)
6. Finally, what's the battery life like when you're not at home? Does it last all day (which it should) when you're out-and-about?

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk 2

I will try factory reset last. It is my last resort.

I usually have about 3 bars of cell signal when I at home.

Funnily, the battery lasts all day when I am up and about during the day. It lasts all day when I am in the office. For some reason it dies at night when I sleep.

Originally Posted by funkylogik

id charge it overnght instead lol.
get Gsam app, fully charge it then say four hours later see whats been running

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

I have to try this Gsam app. I didn't know about this app.

Originally Posted by PanchoPlanet

Try CPU spy. Its simple and effective.

What is CPU spy? What does it do?

**Almeuit** · 10-05-2012, 05:54 AM

Originally Posted by GtoJon

I had a simple 3D clock sucking my battery .... go to bed with 50% & wake up with a dea phone! Removed that app & I can go to bed with 90% & wake at 84% 7 hours later. You must have a weather app or something banging the f%#% out of your GPS or something like that. BTW, my battery now lests for about 64 hours

Cheers, Jon

I'd check into this OP. A weather widget or something could be using gps alot to drain battery.

Sent from my Sprint S3 using AC fourms

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 01:48 PM

the fact its only discharging fast at night is very strange.. there must be a clue in that?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**OWybPPgO** · 10-05-2012, 03:05 PM

I would get rid of Juice Defender and and other task killer type apps. Then install a good battery monitor like GSam. In the morning, check GSam to see what's consuming your battery.

It's always a better idea to figure out what the performance problems are before trying to solve them.

**gta50419** · 10-05-2012, 03:09 PM

The s3 bettery is just horrible.

**PanchoPlanet** · 10-05-2012, 03:12 PM

OP, before you factory reset try a reboot, I have run into this before.
A reboot can sometimes do wonders. That's if you haven't done it already.

Pp.

Sent from the future using Mayan technology.

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 04:22 PM

Originally Posted by OWybPPgO

I would get rid of Juice Defender and and other task killer type apps. Then install a good battery monitor like GSam. In the morning, check GSam to see what's consuming your battery.

It's always a better idea to figure out what the performance problems are before trying to solve them.

ive heard of "hockey moms" lol but "geek mom"!! love it!

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 04:24 PM

Originally Posted by retrofuture

The s3 bettery is just horrible.

thats a pretty over generalised, ignorant and unhelpful post bro but hey

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 04:26 PM

Originally Posted by PanchoPlanet

OP, before you factory reset try a reboot, I have run into this before.
A reboot can sometimes do wonders. That's if you haven't done it already.

Pp.

Sent from the future using Mayan technology.

mate is there any difference between holding power button and selecting "restart" versus what someone on here called a soft reset (holding power button in until the phone reboots)?

p.s, aparently taking battery out for >30seconds can fix a lot of simple faults but in this case i doubt it.

plus since the OP has woken up to a dead phone.. that really counts as a reboot eh?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**ilifecomputer** · 10-05-2012, 04:28 PM

It's a horrible bug and there's a while other thread about it. As soon as I leave Disneyland I will post all applicable links.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 04:32 PM

Originally Posted by uscdigital

It's a horrible bug and there's a while other thread about it. As soon as I leave Disneyland I will post all applicable links.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

kick Micky in da nutz for me please!

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess

**ilifecomputer** · 10-05-2012, 05:31 PM

Pluto slowmo jumped in front of my foot and took it to the snout. What a good dog...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

**danperde** · 10-05-2012, 07:49 PM

There's another bug caused by a file called "gsiff deamon". go in Settings, Developer Options and check Show CPU usage. If you see "gsiff" running, that's what's draining your battery.

**deandino2359** · 10-05-2012, 08:04 PM

Turned off the 4g and I regularly get 15 hours with heavy use

**ourmanbv** · 10-05-2012, 08:12 PM

I changed the setting for "Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep" from "Always" to "Only when plugged in". Battery didn't drain as much.

Settings->Wi-Fi->Advanced->Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep

**funkylogik** · 10-05-2012, 08:20 PM

Originally Posted by danperde

There's another bug caused by a file called "gsiff deamon". go in Settings, Developer Options and check Show CPU usage. If you see "gsiff" running, that's what's draining your battery.

lol it looks pretty cool having those processes diplayed. wonder if theres a live wallpaper that shows them in a funkyer way?

global s3, UK. Ask me anything and ill reply even if its just an intelligent (or stupid) guess