Battery drain, slow charging - Galaxy S3, 4.4.2

biggains

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Hello,

I'm obviously quite new to this place as it appears. I purchased a brand new Samsung Galaxy S3 in January 2013 through Verizon and I've had it ever since and I've taken excellent care of it, it still looks (and usually behaves) brand new a year and a half later. I can't remember for sure how long I've had Kitkat 4.4.2 on my phone, but it's been a while.

I haven't had any problems thus far until about 24 hours ago when I noticed that the battery levels were going down unbelievably fast. I was using my phone in bed to check my e-mail or something yesterday morning, and noticed it was going down probably a little more than 1% per minute. I hooked it up to my wall charger, which delayed the drainage a little, but it still ended up draining while using it plugged in. Prior to yesterday morning, the battery has been excellent, I can usually go to work for 11 hours and by the time I get back home my battery is still in the 70-85% range. Just a little while ago, I had my phone 100% charged and I took it off the wall charger to move them both into another room, and in a mere 25 seconds (according to system's battery usage graph) it dropped down to 98%!

I have no idea what caused the drainage/slow charging to start out of nowhere yesterday I didn't install any new apps when this problem started, but while trying to remedy the problem on my own, I did uninstall some of the few third-party apps I've had on there for a while (Firefox, Reddit is Fun, Kitco Gold/Silver widget, and one or two others). After Googling this problem quite extensively, I decided to install Easy Battery Saver [apparently I'm not allowed to post links] from the Play Store. It helped a little, but not anything worth bragging about. I've also tried rebooting/powering down the phone several times, draining the battery all the way to 0% and charging it back to 100% before using it, and I've also wiped the cache partition a couple times; all of which to no avail.

I just installed Gsam Battery Monitor and I'm going to let it monitor my phone for a little while and post on here what it tells me. For the short 20 minutes or so I've had it installed already, the "Android System" is using 23.4%, "Kernel (Android OS)" is using 8.7%, followed by the Gsam app at 5.4%, and "System (ndroid.systemui)" at 4.1%.

In the mean time, do any of you smart people happen to have any ideas or suggestions I can try? I work on-call 24/7 and having a stable, reliable cell phone is a must for me, so if this thing keeps acting the way it is I'm going to be in a little bit of a predicament. Is this more of a software/firmware issue (that appeared out of nowhere several months after updating), or could my battery finally be dying after a year and a half of use?

Thank you very, very much!
 

B. Diddy

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Welcome to Android Central! The top 3 possible causes are battery, battery, battery.;) It would not be unusual for the battery to start failing around now, and it can do so relatively suddenly. Try a new one, or borrow a friend's battery as a test.
 

cindylike24

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Hey, if anyone has any ideas on how to get this issue resolved, I'd sure like to hear them too. I took my phone off the charger at work and it said 100% when it was plugged in and the second that I unplugged it, it said that I was at 61% charge on the battery. This is my second warranty replacement phone that I've had the same issue with both of these. Starting to get a bit concerned about this. Is this a common problem with the S3 phones? Trying another battery right now to see if it's an issue with the battery. The thing is the first battery was working just fine until earlier today.
 

cindylike24

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Hey, if anyone has any ideas on how to get this issue resolved, I'd sure like to hear them too. I took my phone off the charger at work and it said 100% when it was plugged in and the second that I unplugged it, it said that I was at 61% charge on the battery. This is my second warranty replacement phone that I've had the same issue with both of these. Starting to get a bit concerned about this. Is this a common problem with the S3 phones? Trying another battery right now to see if it's an issue with the battery. The thing is the first battery was working just fine until earlier today.

Update: Phone was charging fine at home so I went to the local Verizon store and they checked my network settings. They found that the network settings were not set and that may have been my problem with my phone. They set it to the LTE network setting. Keeping my fingers crossed that this works when I go to work tomorrow.
 

biggains

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B. Diddy and cindy, thank you both very much for the information, as anything at this point is helpful. Before I buy a battery, how can I check my network settings to ensure I don't have that same issue as mentioned in the previous post? My phone does display "4G LTE" most of the time, so perhaps mine is already set correctly.

Also, I am under the assumption that the best place to buy a real, OEM battery is through Samsung.com? They want $28.94 (including S&H), and I think my local Verizon store has them for $39.99... so it's obvious where to go. Just checking to see if there might be a cheaper, reputable place out there though.

Thank you all very much!
 

cindylike24

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B. Diddy and cindy, thank you both very much for the information, as anything at this point is helpful. Before I buy a battery, how can I check my network settings to ensure I don't have that same issue as mentioned in the previous post? My phone does display "4G LTE" most of the time, so perhaps mine is already set correctly.

Also, I am under the assumption that the best place to buy a real, OEM battery is through Samsung.com? They want $28.94 (including S&H), and I think my local Verizon store has them for $39.99... so it's obvious where to go. Just checking to see if there might be a cheaper, reputable place out there though.

Thank you all very much!

I had that come up on my phone too. here is what you need to do.
  1. Click on the Settings icon.
  2. Click on More networks.
  3. Click on Mobile Networks.
  4. Click on Network Mode.
  5. Make sure LTE/CDMA is selected in the Preferred Network Mode.

I learned something new today because I would have never thought to check this out and the Customer Service person at the local Verizon store found this.
 

AKAndy

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I would recommend not wasting your money on batteries. This is a pretty well known issue with the GS3 4.4.2 update. It started happening for me immediately after I got the 4.4.2 update. I went from using 3-5% drain per hour before 4.4.2, to 12-15% per hour after 4.4.2. I have tried all of the usual battery saving techniques, which had no effect. I have tried doing a complete factory data reset, and I even went as far rooting and re-flashing the stock 4.4.2 rom so that it's 100% stock. Immediately after reflashing the stock 4.4.2 rom, I put the phone in airplane mode without installing any applications. It was still burning 10%/hr, with mostly Android System and Kernel/Android OS responsible for the drain. My wife also has a GS3, which strangely doesn't seem to have this problem. I swapped batteries with her, and found that my phone still uses battery at the same rate, so it's clearly not the battery, but a software issue on my phone.

I went to a Verizon store for help, and they told me they were aware of the issue, but there is nothing they could do other than sell me an external battery pack. Since I have 6 months left on my contract, at this point I realized that my only hope was to root again and load CM or some other custom ROM. After spending a lot of time fiddling around with it, and reading for hours on the XDA forums, while you can root a GS3 with 4.4.2, it isn't yet possible to ROM because of the locked bootloader that Verizon pushed out with 4.3 and later. So basically we're SOL with this problem. I'm going to call Verizon and tell them I want an early upgrade or I'm going to T-Mobile, who will pay my ETF.

Are there many people out there who are not having this problem? I'm trying to figure out what might be different about my phone.
 

cindylike24

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I would recommend not wasting your money on batteries. This is a pretty well known issue with the GS3 4.4.2 update. It started happening for me immediately after I got the 4.4.2 update. I went from using 3-5% drain per hour before 4.4.2, to 12-15% per hour after 4.4.2. I have tried all of the usual battery saving techniques, which had no effect. I have tried doing a complete factory data reset, and I even went as far rooting and re-flashing the stock 4.4.2 rom so that it's 100% stock. Immediately after reflashing the stock 4.4.2 rom, I put the phone in airplane mode without installing any applications. It was still burning 10%/hr, with mostly Android System and Kernel/Android OS responsible for the drain. My wife also has a GS3, which strangely doesn't seem to have this problem. I swapped batteries with her, and found that my phone still uses battery at the same rate, so it's clearly not the battery, but a software issue on my phone.

I went to a Verizon store for help, and they told me they were aware of the issue, but there is nothing they could do other than sell me an external battery pack. Since I have 6 months left on my contract, at this point I realized that my only hope was to root again and load CM or some other custom ROM. After spending a lot of time fiddling around with it, and reading for hours on the XDA forums, while you can root a GS3 with 4.4.2, it isn't yet possible to ROM because of the locked bootloader that Verizon pushed out with 4.3 and later. So basically we're SOL with this problem. I'm going to call Verizon and tell them I want an early upgrade or I'm going to T-Mobile, who will pay my ETF.

Are there many people out there who are not having this problem? I'm trying to figure out what might be different about my phone.

I was having this problem. Got a warranty replacement phone and thought that all of my problems were solved until I got back to work after Labor Day and the same issue popped up for me. I then went to the local Verizon store and got a very helpful associate that knew what she was doing who looked at my network settings and changed them to the LTE option instead of the Global network that it was set on. I did this almost a week ago. That has really helped my phone and I haven't had this issue come up since.
 

biggains

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Well, just another update on my problem. I ordered a new OEM Samsung GS3 battery for my phone and much to my surprise (as AKAndy pointed out above) it didn't help me much. I noticed with the new battery that it doesn't charge to full capacity like my old battery did (granted, the older one drained a little faster compared to this one). This new battery only charges to about 87-93% typically (it will say it is at 100%, then when I unplug it from my wall charger it immediately drops). It also dies without notice around 20-25% sometimes, so apparently that's the new 0%. My battery percentage levels are waaay off than they were before.

I'm getting sick and tired of having to babysit my phone and waste money on it because of a ****-poor "software update". I don't know if Google is mostly responsible for it since it's their operating system, or if Samsung is partly to blame since it's their hardware, or if Verizon is somehow to blame too since they're the carrier. Evidently, nobody seems to care. These frickin' smartphones aren't cheap to buy in the first place, they aren't cheap to keep plans with, and it sure as hell isn't cheap to buy batteries that you end up not needing because that's not the main source of the problem. Ugh! Frustrating!

I think threatening a legitimate class-action lawsuit might get somebody's attention to fix these problems. The ball has got to start moving somehow on this issue, we can't just keep putting up with this senseless crap. For as much as they overcharge the average person with these phones and every little bell and whistle that's part of them, you'd think they could get these issues fixed but they just leave you hanging instead. I'm not an Apple fan, but if I have to get an iPhone just so I have something dependable, then that will be my next choice. I'm tired of being ignored, especially for as much money as I've thrown in their direction for the last several years. What a farce.
 

cindylike24

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Well, just another update on my problem. I ordered a new OEM Samsung GS3 battery for my phone and much to my surprise (as AKAndy pointed out above) it didn't help me much. I noticed with the new battery that it doesn't charge to full capacity like my old battery did (granted, the older one drained a little faster compared to this one). This new battery only charges to about 87-93% typically (it will say it is at 100%, then when I unplug it from my wall charger it immediately drops). It also dies without notice around 20-25% sometimes, so apparently that's the new 0%. My battery percentage levels are waaay off than they were before.

I'm getting sick and tired of having to babysit my phone and waste money on it because of a ****-poor "software update". I don't know if Google is mostly responsible for it since it's their operating system, or if Samsung is partly to blame since it's their hardware, or if Verizon is somehow to blame too since they're the carrier. Evidently, nobody seems to care. These frickin' smartphones aren't cheap to buy in the first place, they aren't cheap to keep plans with, and it sure as hell isn't cheap to buy batteries that you end up not needing because that's not the main source of the problem. Ugh! Frustrating!

I think threatening a legitimate class-action lawsuit might get somebody's attention to fix these problems. The ball has got to start moving somehow on this issue, we can't just keep putting up with this senseless crap. For as much as they overcharge the average person with these phones and every little bell and whistle that's part of them, you'd think they could get these issues fixed but they just leave you hanging instead. I'm not an Apple fan, but if I have to get an iPhone just so I have something dependable, then that will be my next choice. I'm tired of being ignored, especially for as much money as I've thrown in their direction for the last several years. What a farce.

Now I have a couple of questions for you. 1. How strong is the signal on your cell phone? Sometimes when you're in an area where you don't have a great signal, it will drain your battery pretty quickly. 2. Do you feel better getting that off your chest? Sometimes a good rant makes me feel better just to get it off of my chest.

I used to have the same problem that you're having with your phone's battery. All I did to my phone is that I made sure that the network settings were set to LTE, made sure that power saving mode was turned on and changed out the charger I was using at work. Ever since I did those things (with the help of the Verizon associate), I haven't had those frustrating issues come up with my phone's battery. Of course I do have a couple of spare batteries just in case I need them.

Cindy

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biggains

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1. How strong is the signal on your cell phone?
Usually it's pretty strong, actually. Sometimes if I venture out of town on the rural roads I'll lose it, which is to be expected. But even with great reception and full bars, it still likes to drain down and the battery percentage is nowhere near accurate anymore with this new battery.

2. Do you feel better getting that off your chest?
Ha ha ha, yes, I do. It's just so frustrating putting up with this phone on a day-to-day basis. I need it on or near me at all times (job), but I'm so frustrated that there appears to be no fix for these things that my attitude is starting to drain as much as my phone's battery.

I made sure that the network settings were set to LTE, made sure that power saving mode was turned on and changed out the charger I was using at work.
Most of the time I have 4G LTE where I live, but sometimes in more-rural areas it will go down to 3G. I did try setting it to LTE-only (as you had mentioned a few posts ago) but I found that this would cancel out any/all other reception (like 3G) in those rural areas. I'm on-call 24/7 due to the nature of my job, so I need to have as much cell phone reception at possible at all times, so that's why I'm not keeping it on LTE-only because otherwise I won't get any service in the areas where only 3G is available. I've had it on Power Saving Mode pretty much since I first got the phone, but I have not yet tried a different charger. If I wasn't already tired of throwing money at this phone, I'd probably order another OEM charger, but I suppose that wouldn't do anything for me kind of like the new OEM battery didn't. I do have an OEM car charger though, I haven't noticed anything different charging my new battery with that versus my original OEM 110v wall charger.

I'm guessing my problem mainly lies in the Android OS and this crappy KitKat 4.4.2 update.
 

cindylike24

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I don't think that the money you would spend on another OEM charger would be money wasted. I normally have at least one spare charger with me. I have one at home, one at work and normally I have one in my purse in case I am over at my sister's place and should happen to need it over there.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8" model using Tapatalk
 

MrDoh

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OP, what happened with the GSAM app, looking at what's using the battery on your phone? I have the GSAM app, which I use to look for what app(s) are using more battery than they should, and BetterBattery Stats and Wakelock Detector to look at wakelocks on my phone. Also have 4.4.2 on my phone, and the phone uses slightly less than 1% battery per hour during the day with light use, and about .6.-.7% per hour idling at night. I've done a lot of tuning for battery use, learned a lot about kernel wakelocks and partial wakelocks, and how much battery the google framework and apps use (lots).

Also, my phone is rooted, and I've used Titanium Backup to uninstall a whole lot of apps that I don't need or ever use. TB also has the ability to convert apps so that they can be easily frozen when not in use, and then defrosted for each use by using TB action widgets. I do that with google maps, and a few other apps that tend to run way more than I actually use them. I used to use Greenify, but have given that up, and removed the task manager from my phone. I just quit out of apps after I use them, using the "home" button, and let Android manage my tasks. That has helped as well.

You should find out how much your phone is in deep sleep state, and how much it is awake. An app like BetterBattery Stats can be used for that (or Wakelock Detector, if you turn on detailed data). Could be that there's some app or app(s) that's keeping your phone from getting into the deep sleep state, where it should be spending a lot of its idle time.

It does take some work to learn about how to go after the kind of battery usage that you're seeing. I'm personally going away from Samsung phones, partly because of Knox, and partly because of all the battery sucking crap that comes with Samsung phones. The phone that I'm looking at is the "New Moto X", since it is a much purer Android experience, with a lot less crap added in. They also put in a better screen and camera than they had in the original Moto X. Still has all the google framework stuff, and google apps, of course. It really is too bad that Android wasn't designed to use battery better, hard to get through a day on one charge the way these phones come configured from the manufacturers. Battery usage seems to be an afterthought, not good for a mobile device.
 
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blunt_eastwood

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I had that come up on my phone too. here is what you need to do.
  1. Click on the Settings icon.
  2. Click on More networks.
  3. Click on Mobile Networks.
  4. Click on Network Mode.
  5. Make sure LTE/CDMA is selected in the Preferred Network Mode.

I learned something new today because I would have never thought to check this out and the Customer Service person at the local Verizon store found this.

I've been having this same problem and when checking my settings my Network Mode was set to Global, so I changed it to LTE/CDMA. Let's see what happens. Also I made some corrections to the settings as per what's in my phone.

  1. Click on the Settings icon.
  2. Click on More networks. settings
  3. Click on Mobile Networks.
  4. Click on Network Mode.
  5. Make sure LTE/CDMA is selected in the Preferred Network Mode.

Mine says "CDMA/LTE/EVDO". Is that the same thing?
 

cindylike24

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I've been having this same problem and when checking my settings my Network Mode was set to Global, so I changed it to LTE/CDMA. Let's see what happens. Also I made some corrections to the settings as per what's in my phone.

  1. Click on the Settings icon.
  2. Click on More networks. settings
  3. Click on Mobile Networks.
  4. Click on Network Mode.
  5. Make sure LTE/CDMA is selected in the Preferred Network Mode.

Mine says "CDMA/LTE/EVDO". Is that the same thing?

Yes this is the same thing.


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 8" model using Tapatalk
 

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