Battery drain issue.. (yes, another one..)

peeka73

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Aug 15, 2012
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Hello,

I'm afraid I am another one of the folks with battery issues on this phone. I've tried many of the tips and tricks on this and other sites, and am trying to avoid doing a factory reset, but that looks to be the next step before taking it over to Sprint. And for the folks who did the reset, does it usually fix the issue for you?

I have a habit of plugging in the phone into the charger when I return to my work desk during the day, so I didn't even notice the battery drain until very recently and realized it dropped extremely fast while I wasn't doing a whole lot. It is losing about 10%-20% an hour.

So far I've:

- Turned off the background data for all except the system files and Gmail.

- Bluetooth and GPS are already off since I don't use it much.

- WIFI, Mobile data and SYNC all turned off.

- Boot into recovery and cleared the cache.

- Drained battery till 3%, charged till full, rebooted.

- Have battery defender, GSAM battery monitor and wakelock detector all installed. Battery defender is taking up 18.8% of power used. o_O But it was dropping before I installed Battery defender and wakelock detector.


And now, after 1 hour from being fully charged, it is down to 80%. It is actually getting WORSE now even with minimal use and everything turned off.

Does this sound like a dying battery issue or one where a factory reset might correct? And that brings the other issue..

Trying to find OEM Samsung battery is near impossible now. I called several Sprint shops in my area and they all do not carry replacement batteries for the S3. The Sprint site also does not list it. The Samsung website also has it on back order. One shop said that they haven't carried it for a long time. Are they making it difficult for one to hold onto the S3? It sure seems like it! I know it's not the newest phone, but other than the battery drain issue, it is a pretty good phone that is still performing superbly. I am just shocked and irritated that the stores don't carry it. I am unsure about buying compatible batteries online since it seems that many seem to puff up or have issues. I would prefer to use the OEM if possible.

Sorry for the long post, but am frustrated at this point. :(

Oh, and I am also un-rooted.

Thanks much in advance!
 

meyerweb#CB

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First, uninstall the battery saver apps. They often make things worse.

Second, fully charge the phone, unplug it, use it normally until the battery is down to 50% or less, the do screen captures of the 3 standard screens you'll see in almost every battery thread. Without data, we can't do more than offer random guesses.

Printing screens from wakelock detector, too, couldn't hurt.
 

peeka73

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Aug 15, 2012
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Meyerweb: Uninstalled the battery saver app. Charging phone now and will provide the screen shots after it is fully charged. Thanks for the quick response.
 

Weazrbmxr

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Oct 16, 2012
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Have you had the phone more than a year? I was having really bad batery drain issues a couple months ago, and nothing i tried worked. But a new battery more than solved the issue! I've known a few people with S3's, and all the batteries start to suck after like 10 months, so once that first year hits it's probably best just to replace the battery. But out here in Denver anyways, everyone seems to have them stocked. I ended up getting mine at the Verizon store because they were $10 cheaper.

PM me if anyone needs help finding an S3 battery, i have 2 sprint stores, an at&t store, and a verizon store just around the corner from me. And they all had a bunch in stock not 2 months ago.
 

peeka73

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Next month will be 1 year, so almost? And wow.. I am right at that point of time! Oh.. that is an idea.. I'll just try a different store. I'm just surprised I couldn't find any in the local stores around me. You'd think it'd be one of the typical things to get replaced?

If I still can't find any, I'll PM you. Thanks for the offer. :)
 

blz2

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Jul 7, 2011
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My battery drains even in Airplane Mode. But I think GPS is stuck on for some reason. Is there a way to tell what's activating GPS? Phones should last forever in Airplane Mode. If mine isn't on a charger overnight, its dead and off in the morning.
 

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Weazrbmxr

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Oct 16, 2012
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My battery drains even in Airplane Mode. But I think GPS is stuck on for some reason. Is there a way to tell what's activating GPS? Phones should last forever in Airplane Mode. If mine isn't on a charger overnight, its dead and off in the morning.

I've noticed my gps stuck like that too a couple times, if you toggle it off and wait a while it should reset the radio when you turn it back on. Try that, and then if can, boot into recovery and clear your caches, especially your dalvik cache. Hopefully that can clear things up.
 

meyerweb#CB

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FWIW, my battery is almost exactly 1 yr old, and seems to last almost as long as when new. Of course, that doesn't mean your battery is good. Hopefully the screenshots will show us something.
 

peeka73

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Hi guys! Soooo.. I finally caved and bought a new Samung replacement battery. It took over a month from bad shipping issues (never EVER use super egg saver), but after putting it in, charging to full yesterday, it is still at 60% after 19.5 hours. I think my battery was just on its way out.. none of the fixes would make a single bit of difference. So just a FYI to some folks out there with really awful battery issues.. if you've tried everything and nothing seems to help, give a new battery a try. Best 25 bucks ever spent. (finally ordered from samsung website) :)
 

Ytsejamer1

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Oct 3, 2011
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Google Services has been draining my battery something awful in the last few days since some Google stuff was updated. I've rebooted and it got a bit better...but not quite as expected.