About to give up and go back to iPhone

[badbrad17]

Everyone, I am trying very hard to keep this phone which is why I posted the original message and the follow ups. My 14 days ends tonight, but yesterday morning while loading an offline map for CityMaps2Go I discovered the compass issue and reached my breaking point. I decided to post rather than head back to AT&T in hopes of getting help, which I did, so thanks.

The most critical issue I had was Skype and it started working for reasons I can not understand. I had done all the suggested items previously, nothing worked, and BTW, I only use it on WiFi (that is the whole point when I am abroad), second, the startup I work for relies on it, so I can't use anything else.

It is really down to battery life. I installed and turned on juice defender balanced yesterday evening as recommended. Last night I went to bed and plugged my phone is as I always do. At 6:30am I got up, unplugged the phone and used the power switch to immediately turn off the screen. I did not touch the phone, other than moving it to my home office until 7:50am. I turned it on and had 5% power drain. The phone was at 95% never having used it! I went into the battery monitor and GSam. Both reported the same thing...App usage @ 55% which broke down to Media @ 30% and mediaserver @ 9%. Cell Standby was at 30%, as I had not used the phone screen and everything else was basically 0

I tried stopping Media, but it keeps coming back. From the notifications there were no downloads or app updates. Why is this app sucking so much power and how do I stop it. It's critical, loosing 5% power per hour when I don't use the phone is a killer. To answer the question of how long I want it to last, that's easy. From the time I unplug it in the morning till the time I go to bed and plug it in. Obviously if I use the phone heavily, I would expect to have to recharge it. However, if I use it only a few hours out of the day (calling, text messages, email, etc.) I need it to run all day. Especially on weekends when I might be out all day (16 hours). It's now a little after 8:00am, I received one call that lasted less than 2 minutes, and sent 2 texts, in addition I looked at the battery monitors. My power is down to 92%. I won't go to bed till 10pm tonight. The battery won't last

Now from reports here and elsewhere, this is clearly not the norm.... HELP

You may want to look at this battery case. It apparently adds very little bulk but doubles your existing battery. There is a power button you press when you get low. Pretty cool and only $50. Phil on AC did a review on it.

http://www.droidax.com/power-pack-for-samsung-galaxy-s3-blue.php

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[nrm5110]

Im a root user and an on and off dev that does alot of ports and am working on my own source for a Rom right now I can help but you gotta give me what I need brotha

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[ihbsbA]

First I should mention that it's "Media -- Download", Second I am in an LTE area but I can see the tower, so its a strong signal. Third, I understand about an extra battery, I don't like the idea because I don't want to have to remember to carry it around. I just want to know why other people get maybe 1% power drain when the phone is asleep and I get 5% per hour drain in the same situation. That is what my main problem is. I wake up, dress, put the phone in my pocket, 12 or 14 hours later I want to use it I want to have enough power....

I do have an 32GB SD card, and I did format it when I got it, but did it in my Mac where I transferred my music onto the card. I have not tried reformating it. Should I? If yes, where in the phone or on my Mac again?

Search for Skunkape60's post about how to format your card - I'm mobile so it's just too tedious to try to find it. Do it that way.
The phone does things while it's asleep. If you do have Juice Defender, you can set it to turn all of these (or most) activities off while the phone is asleep. Juice Defender will DEFINITELY get you more time if you use an aggressive setting - but you do have to compromise somewhere; you may end up having to sync your mail when you actually turn your screen on instead of it being pushed. Or you can set intervals so you don't miss anything - read up on the Juice Defender settings. I think I left mine set at default (meaning Juice Defender decided what to change) and just chose an aggressive setting. If you want to get particular, you can go through and change a lot of things in there.

PS - turn off the silly palm swipe for a screenshot and just hold the power and home button down until the screen is saved. It takes about as long as it does on the iPhone ;-)

 

[ihbsbA]

You may want to look at this battery case. It apparently adds very little bulk but doubles your existing battery. There is a power button you press when you get low. Pretty cool and only $50. Phil on AC did a review on it.

Power Pack for Samsung Galaxy S3



Sent from my SGH-T989D using Android Central Forums

$20 bucks for this one - good reviews from AC people.
4500mAh Samsung Galaxy S3 Extended Life Battery

 

[smooth4lyfe]

I can't seem to get the screen shot (I tried the swipe and all that). Here is what I think my problem is:
Download - Media
In the past 52 minutes since I restarted and recharged the phone (to reset things), it has:
CPU Total 3m 28s
Stay Awake 10m 30s
Included packages
Media Storage
Download Manager
DRM protected Content Storage
Downloads
com.sec.android.providers.downloads

Nothing was downloaded during this time. I am about to reset it again, remove my SD card and see what happens. I should mention that NOTHING was done on the phone for those 50 minutes. After it was fully charged I just unplugged the phone and let it sit for those 52 minutes. During that time 4% of the battery was consumed.

Did you turn the feature on in Settings?
Also make sure ur whole palm is sweeping the screen, not half of ur palm
Also don't do it too fast, do it like medium speed

 

[mssca]

This is why the Mobile Nation have different communities for each platform. Please move on to iMore and enjoy your iPhone. I have no idea why people have to post iPhone stuff on here.

All the best to you.

 

[trucky]

Keep in mind that your battery gauge is just an indicator and not always as accurate as we would like it to be. To really know what's going on there is an app written by a pretty smart guy on another forum called Better Battery Stats... https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ksven.betterbatterystats&hl=en&token=27EYVQu3

You might want to install that and let things settle for a while. You keep dinking with things and you'll never get a baseline.

 

[davidk365]

Why battery drains too much on Android? Simple, because it's more complex than fruitie.
Since you're not rooted, try to disable apps/services that you don't need.
Turn off all the auto syncing/backuping in the background that you don't need.
I always use edge, because edge pretty much can handle it, and switch to 3g when I go web surfing, or to play store to download app, etc. if you know what I mean.
I don't believe auto brightness saves battery. More like otherwise. I always set mine at 0. When I can't see under then sun, slide the status bar slowly until it's visible.

If you're using some apps on fruitie and you want the same app same experience on Android. Just please don't expect it.
APP MAKERS TREAT ANDROID LIKE [removed]. (Wow there's auto censorship).
They don't spend quality times to optimize the apps, and they probably don't use Android either since they don't see how bad their apps are, ie Facebook app.
But hey, for the same app, I can charge once on fruitie phone, then again (double that price) on fruitie tab. Who doesn't love $$$$? Right?
So stop looking for the same apps on Android. Try other alternatives that work better.

Are you saying that Google Maps is not good enough, and worse than the app you're using?

Skype!? How about Google+?
Just create an account even if you're not using it for social networking.
Make one for everyone in your family too.
They would like it because then you all can video chat with each other using G+ Hangout. Up to 10 persons.
Facebook and fruitie are like Myspace and Nokia/Blackberry nowadays.

Also, here is a little tip.
Back button is like the X close button. Home button is like the _ minimize button.
Only use home button when you need to get back to that app.
Like camera, when done using, press back is recommended.
Web surfing, close all tabs then press back.

PS. My cousin is planning to switch to fruitie from an international S2.
And I don't give a damn about his decision. Or anyone else. If you want to do something, just do it.
I was about to give him the tip on buttons usage because everytime I open the browser on his S2, there's at least 4-5 tabs unclosed. And the camera. And games.
It seems he always use home button. My assumption is he's treating Android like fruitie.
But you know what, he's better off with fruitie based on his personality and the way he uses his phone.
I just don't like the fact that he's supporting an evil a$$#%le. (a$$#%le = apple, or whatever you're thinking)

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

All I can say is read the reviews before updating an app. Unlike iPhones that have identical hardware, android does not. That makes it harder for developers to get apps working nicely on all devices.

What I did was turn off automatic updating and read the overall reviews of android users then specifically people who have the S3. If there is a significant amount of negative feedback on a app I just don't update it. I have not updated atleast 10 of my apps due to fear of bugs.

Comments removed by moderator

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[Paul627g]

Can we please not turn this into a personal insult thread? I understand people getting mad and defending Android but there is no reason start name calling and resort to personal insults or attacks.

Please keep the helpful comments coming and discussion going but leave the rest at the door. Thanks

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[rteichman]

OK, it seems like I found the battery drain. I removed the SD card and sure enough that Media--Download stopped using resources. The phone is draining at less than 1% per hour when idle so I am happy now. The phone stays. Thanks to everyone's help here. I'll try to debug the SD card issue now (I hope I don't need to buy a new card as I just bought this one)

Guys on the later postings, most of the issues have been addressed. This was never an xxx is better thread, it is about issues and personal needs. As for the Google+ suggestion, can't the company is fixated on Skype.... I actually have and use Google+ with other people, though not my family since they also are fixed on Skype.

 

[nrm5110]

OK, it seems like I found the battery drain. I removed the SD card and sure enough that Media--Download stopped using resources. The phone is draining at less than 1% per hour when idle so I am happy now. The phone stays. Thanks to everyone's help here. I'll try to debug the SD card issue now (I hope I don't need to buy a new card as I just bought this one)

Guys on the later postings, most of the issues have been addressed. This was never an xxx is better thread, it is about issues and personal needs. As for the Google+ suggestion, can't the company is fixated on Skype.... I actually have and use Google+ with other people, though not my family since they also are fixed on Skype.

Backup needed items format sd replace needed items the card itself is probably fine the issue is likely a bad file something that was corrupted it can happen not a big deal

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[Paul627g]

OK, it seems like I found the battery drain. I removed the SD card and sure enough that Media--Download stopped using resources. The phone is draining at less than 1% per hour when idle so I am happy now. The phone stays. Thanks to everyone's help here. I'll try to debug the SD card issue now (I hope I don't need to buy a new card as I just bought this one)

Guys on the later postings, most of the issues have been addressed. This was never an xxx is better thread, it is about issues and personal needs. As for the Google+ suggestion, can't the company is fixated on Skype.... I actually have and use Google+ with other people, though not my family since they also are fixed on Skype.

Glad to hear it OP. Good luck with your device and let me throw out a " Welcome to Android " to you. I think over time you will learn to appreciate Android as the rest of us have or maybe not but at least your giving it a chance

Enjoy.

 

[GrooveRite]

rteichman, if you want to take it a step further and eliminate any other possible problem in your phone, I would suggest factory resetting your phone along with the reformatting of your SD card! I did and everything is running smoothly after having problems with my JB update. Just make sure to back up your important files before you do so!

 

[rteichman]

I'm going to start another thread about the SD card, since this one has gotten long and covers too many subjects at this point. I reformatted the card on my Mac (per a previous post) put the music back on (30GB on a 32GB card), shut down the phone and inserted the card. An hour later it's back to the old problem with Media -- Download eating power, using CPU, and keeping awake. I just let the phone reformat the card, and recharging (to get a new baseline), and will see what happens (empty SD card but in the phone). If it still is consuming power I will do a factory reset.

 

[nrm5110]

I'm going to start another thread about the SD card, since this one has gotten long and covers too many subjects at this point. I reformatted the card on my Mac (per a previous post) put the music back on (30GB on a 32GB card), shut down the phone and inserted the card. An hour later it's back to the old problem with Media -- Download eating power, using CPU, and keeping awake. I just let the phone reformat the card, and recharging (to get a new baseline), and will see what happens (empty SD card but in the phone). If it still is consuming power I will do a factory reset.

Its something on your sd bro what class sd is it

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[GrooveRite]

If it still is consuming power I will do a factory reset.

This will ultimately be your solution if the problem lies in your phone and not the SD card. Hope you get it resolved!

 

[emathed]

Glad to hear it OP. Good luck with your device and let me throw out a " Welcome to Android " to you. I think over time you will learn to appreciate Android as the rest of us have or maybe not but at least your giving it a chance

Enjoy.

Paul, I appreciate your attitude and the nice comments you had towards the OP. Very commendable of you!!! :thumbup:

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[sal the wop]

I think you just wanted attention. Its cool, I do similar post sometimes too...

Good choice of phone, its much better than the new iphone4S2.......

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[ihbsbA]

I'm going to start another thread about the SD card, since this one has gotten long and covers too many subjects at this point. I reformatted the card on my Mac (per a previous post) put the music back on (30GB on a 32GB card), shut down the phone and inserted the card. An hour later it's back to the old problem with Media -- Download eating power, using CPU, and keeping awake. I just let the phone reformat the card, and recharging (to get a new baseline), and will see what happens (empty SD card but in the phone). If it still is consuming power I will do a factory reset.

Now you're REALLY becoming an Android user - look at you troubleshooting, see how much smarter you are already? lol...