Horrible batter life out of no where?

ShaneN.

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Jul 3, 2014
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I've had my S5 for about a month and it's had AMAZING battery life. I've been using it more than any other phone i've had and it easily lasted 24-36 hours off the charger. I'd also check out the battery usage for fun and the screen is what was killing battery by a large margin. Well today I took it off the charger and didn't touch it and then when I finally picked it up 2-3 hours later it was down to 70%, which was very unlike how it normally would drain - especially not being touched at all. Now after only 11 hours unplugged and very minimal usage today (mostly at idle with screen locked) it is down to almost needing to be plugged in, and when I check battery usage it has "andoird os" as used up 53% of the battery and screen is only at 14%. Usually by the time my phone is killed the screen percentage is the big one.

I haven't changed anything in my phone since yesterday except for I unchecked the box where it made the screen more sensitive to be used with gloves.Anyone have any ideas?


edit: after some searching on this site I came across the stuff below in quotes, but i'm not sure i want to uncheck it because then it won't find wifi when i enter and leave the house, will it? Plus, it's not like having it on was a problem in the past.

I'm also on a Note 3 with AT&T. Just got it 11 days ago. The other day I ended up at 40% battery by 1:30 in the afternoon after coming off the charger at 6:00 AM with just very moderate at best use. So I googled battery saving tips and gleaned from several different article and I also got a battery app to optimize. I turned off the feature that allows apps to still keep scanning using wifi. Settings>wifi>hit menu for Advanced>turn off Always allow scanning. (has to do with Google location services) I read that somewhere and changed the option. I also keep wifi off at work and now I am doing much better. I took phone off charger at 7 am and I'm at 95% with some light use-sent a text, downloaded the above mentioned app and read a little email. Hope this helps.
I was having the same problem...using about 15% battery every hour even with the screen off. I turned off the always allow scanning option and man what a difference. Going on 12 hours and still at 70% battery.

Posted via Android Central App



Here is a screen shot of my phone, maybe someone can help me understand it?


 
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AZgl1500

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I don't see anything really wrong with those percentages.

The screen can be a large part of the battery consumption depending on how you use the phone. If it is an entertainment device with a lot of video to watch, yes, the screen will rank fairly light.

If it is a music box for you and the screen is blanked out, then the screen won't rank so high.

With the change you have now, something is using up more battery than normal for you.

Check to see what apps are using power and then think about restricting their use.
 

ShaneN.

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I don't see anything really wrong with those percentages.

The screen can be a large part of the battery consumption depending on how you use the phone. If it is an entertainment device with a lot of video to watch, yes, the screen will rank fairly light.

If it is a music box for you and the screen is blanked out, then the screen won't rank so high.

With the change you have now, something is using up more battery than normal for you.

Check to see what apps are using power and then think about restricting their use.

Maybe re-read what I wrote and look at the screen caps again. When my screen was the main point of drainage it was working fine. Now it has android os at using 3 times as much battery as the screen and I didn't use my phone.

After doing some searching, it looks like some apps can "stay awake" whatever that means. The suggestion was to turn it off, pull the battery and start again. I've done this and just fully charged the phone, we'll see if it's back to normal.
 

PsychDoc

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May 28, 2011
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I seriously doubt it has anything to do with wi-fi. Wi-fi is a very minor battery user. Bluetooth OTOH is a real hog. I have used the Green Power app for some time with very pleasing results. I routinely get 18+ hours of overall use with 4+ hours of screen on time. The Green Power app effectively turns off data, wi-fi and BT when the screen is off and instantly reengages them when the screen is turned on. It's individually configurable so, in my case, I don't have it automatically turn on BT with the screen going on. It will only turn on BT when I actually make or receive a call. And as soon as the call is over, bye bye BT. Pretty nifty and a great battery saver.
 

CaptainSnaps

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Jul 21, 2014
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I am having the same issue. Out of nowhere, my battery life started draining much faster than it did before. Android OS is the main drain according to the default battery mo itor, but taking a look with Android Assistant I get this.

qtuTmNe.jpg


I have always kept a close eye on my battery, and the "phone" app never used to drain so much before. This started a little more than a week ago.
 

Three7s

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The "Stay Awake" is the clue, I believe. Click on the gray part of the graph and post a screen shot of the result.

I am thinking that you have an app (perhaps part of the OS) that is not allowing the CPU to sleep (wake lock).
 

ShaneN.

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It was def the "stay awake". I assume an app was stuck or something. I'm not fully sure how that works. Here is today so far though...

 

FastMoneyPlaya

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I just got an S5 about a week ago. So far the battery has been great - comparable and possibly better than my previous phone, a RAZR MAXX, which had a slightly larger battery than the S5. However, one day I noticed the battery was down to about 70% around lunch time, when it is usually still around 90%. I tried to figure out what apps were draining it, tried closing every app that was open, did a Clean Master sweep, etc, but it continued to drain battery at a fast rate. I decided to pull the old REBOOT trick, and voila, the phone was back to normal. The battery drain chart flattened back out from a sharply down-sloping trend. Ever since, I have not experienced any problems - I unplug at 6:25AM and by bedtime i usually have 50-60% battery left.

My conclusion is the battery drain problem I experienced was an aberration, and REBOOT resolved everything.
 

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