Battery Issues, please help!

[Repoman23]

So I've had the S5 since its been out, and for a little while the battery life was awesome! But now, my battery almost dies every day. I took my phone back to the store asking if they could look at it and suggest anything, but they said I should be grateful that I get this much battery life out of it. I mostly use my phone for texting (which isn't alot), and listening to music. Can anyone give me their opinions and what can I do to make the battery last longer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[UJ95x]

So I've had the S5 since its been out, and for a little while the battery life was awesome! But now, my battery almost dies every day. I took my phone back to the store asking if they could look at it and suggest anything, but they said I should be grateful that I get this much battery life out of it. I mostly use my phone for texting (which isn't alot), and listening to music. Can anyone give me their opinions and what can I do to make the battery last longer? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

How long has this issue been happening for you? Have you tried rebooting the device since your battery life went bad?

 

[STARGATE]

I also have a GS5 and I normally get about 14 hours out of it with about 3-3.5 hours screen time on a 4G area.
But I use it with the screen at 100% and plenty of emails, some of them with pictures taken that same day.
Several texts and phone calls.
Milk or Pandora.
AC forums.
A little bit of Facebook and Twitter.

So, if you only text, I really think you should get more out of it.

Do what UJ95x suggests, a battery pull also.

 

[bIOforger]

Again 17hrs uptime with 2hrs+ of screen time and 30% battery left is pretty good. Nothing to worry about. Batteries degrade over time i'm afraid with each time you charge them, so it might just be a case of your particular battery not being as good as it used to be.

 

[Repoman23]

How long has this issue been happening for you? Have you tried rebooting the device since your battery life went bad?

I've restarted the phone pretty often. I know thats supposed to help the battery.

 

[Three7s]

It looks like you are doing OK, but there is room for improvement. Without knowing how you use your smartphone, I'll make a few suggestions (that may not work for your purposes).

Your cell signal is often weak or non-existent. This requires the phone to step up the power in order to maintain a connection. If you can't change the signal strength, consider using Airplane mode. You can still maintain the WiFi connection while the cell radio is off. This would obviously mean that you could not get phone/SMS the normal way.

Your WiFi is always on. If you do not need it on all the time, consider turning it off. The wakelocks will be significantly reduced, but obviously this would impact getting that urgent Twitter alert from the Biebs.

I think you would benefit from an app like Greenpower or JuiceDefender. Those can help you stretch your battery much further, depending on your needs.

I have a list of items you can check here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s5/416125-tips-extend-your-battery-life.html

 

[emanwis]

I was worried about my battery. I switched to the S5 from the iPhone 5S on Friday. I haven't really changed any settings and now it is amazing. Right now, I'm at 83% battery remaining after unplugging my phone at 5:00 am this morning. I'm very happy!

 

[TMFoughty]

I am in the same boat as you are. My phone has been off the charger for 4 hours and 44 minutes and I am down to 64%. Today I have only done text messages, checked emails, and replied to Facebook posts. 40% in 5 hours seems a bit much to me. I have noticed that the location icon kept popping up, so now location is turned off unless I need it. It's just a pain to have to keep turning it on and off. I, like you, took my phone back to the VZW store to see if there was a problem. I was losing like 5% every 30 minutes with the phone being locked. The manager said that was normal for all phones. I had just come from an iPhone 5S, and that was not normal. I've given up on looking for a solution, I just have a freaking charging cable at home, work, and in the car, and plug in whenever I can. I also bought an extra battery. I've read where some thinks it's a bug with the 4.4.2 software and it should be resolved with the 4.4.4. But who knows how long that will take to make its way down to us. Verizon is terrible about updates and who knows if that will even work.

If I am playing games or watching videos, the battery will drain fast, which is to be expected, but if I am just texting and checking FB, there is no reason that I should lose 40% in 5 hours. My android system is at 26% usage. That just seems high to me.

 

[Rukbat]

I've restarted the phone pretty often. I know thats supposed to help the battery.

That's another one of those stories that's not true but sticks around like glue. If you have apps running that you don't close, restarting the phone will save battery, but so will just closing the apps you're not using. (The Home button doesn't close the current app, it just runs the launcher, while leaving the current app still running.) Actually, restarting the phone wastes battery power, because it's using battery while restarting, while you're not getting any use of that power. (It's like the "put a wet phone into dry uncooked rice" nonsense. I wish there were some way we could get rid of these "told once, repeated always, never correct" instances of "expertise".)

 

[mklasse]

17 hours and still have 30% left actually sounds good. You said texting and listening to music, but on spotify? Spotify use data and use more juice than listening to offline music I would guess?
I also agree that battery degrades over time. Do you let your battery very low (ie. below 10-15% charge) before you start charging your battery again? I heard that Lithium ion batteries degrades faster if you do that frequently. If not, maybe you should also try calibrating your battery?
Either way, I don't think you should be worried too much about it, it's a good thing the battery on our phone is removable, so if it's toast, just get a new one and you're good to go. The battery is actually a lot cheaper than iPhone's and with iPhone (or any other phones with non user-removable battery) you have to bring it in to do that.

 

[Blobfish_Love]

I am recently having the same problem. My phone is less than 4 months old. I hardly use it, and it mostly sits on the table powered on, waiting for calls or texts. I used to get several days out of the battery under these conditions. My screen time is normally under 3%. All of a sudden it needs to be charged every day, sometimes twice, and it is warm to the touch. Something has changed.

 

[PainFX]

I am in the same boat as you are. My phone has been off the charger for 4 hours and 44 minutes and I am down to 64%. Today I have only done text messages, checked emails, and replied to Facebook posts. 40% in 5 hours seems a bit much to me. I have noticed that the location icon kept popping up, so now location is turned off unless I need it. It's just a pain to have to keep turning it on and off. I, like you, took my phone back to the VZW store to see if there was a problem. I was losing like 5% every 30 minutes with the phone being locked. The manager said that was normal for all phones. I had just come from an iPhone 5S, and that was not normal. I've given up on looking for a solution, I just have a freaking charging cable at home, work, and in the car, and plug in whenever I can. I also bought an extra battery. I've read where some thinks it's a bug with the 4.4.2 software and it should be resolved with the 4.4.4. But who knows how long that will take to make its way down to us. Verizon is terrible about updates and who knows if that will even work.

If I am playing games or watching videos, the battery will drain fast, which is to be expected, but if I am just texting and checking FB, there is no reason that I should lose 40% in 5 hours. My android system is at 26% usage. That just seems high to me.

what is your on screen time? what is your brightness level?

 

[TMFoughty]

On time was 2 hours and 4 minutes. Brightness was at 40%.

 

[bIOforger]

I am recently having the same problem. My phone is less than 4 months old. I hardly use it, and it mostly sits on the table powered on, waiting for calls or texts. I used to get several days out of the battery under these conditions. My screen time is normally under 3%. All of a sudden it needs to be charged every day, sometimes twice, and it is warm to the touch. Something has changed.

Charging everyday is perfectly normal.

If its heating up when idle, that means some background process or application is using the CPU, thus battery drain. Check your batt stats for the high percentage users. Pull the battery overnight. Follow basic power saving techniques posted all over this site. Check to see if your cell signal isn't very weak. Try another new battery, they're cheap to buy now. I pulled my battery overnight recently, probably just coincidence but i'm getting much better batt life now. Getting 24hrs uptime and 4.5hrs screen time with 15% charge left regularly now.

 

[sirmaru]

If you go into Ultra Power Saving Mode when not in use, all apps are shut down other than phone calls and messaging. Rogue apps will also be shut down and will not come back until activated.

 

[PainFX]

On time was 2 hours and 4 minutes. Brightness was at 40%.

turn off wifi and mobile data while the phone is sleeping see if it stop.

 

[Bryan Eriksson]

I have almost the same usage stats as you but my battery would be dead before 12 hours of up time Some days I need to charge it twice with only moderate usage. I think there are some apps running in the background that wake the phone up that we are not aware of. I'm going to factory reset soon and slowly start re-installing my apps to see if any specific apps are to blame.

I'll keep you posted.

 

[Bryan Eriksson]

Here are a few of my stats

 

[Bryan Eriksson]

Barely any screen time. Battery at 26% now.

 

[PainFX]

Barely any screen time. Battery at 26% now.

Turn OFF your WIFI and Mobile DATA while the phone is asleep.