Google Play Services Battery Drain

[JohnS305]

Some days, for the last few weeks, Google Services drains my battery at a higher than normal rate. I read some threads on other forums and tried uninstalling the updates. I thought that fixed it because it went a few days with no problem, but then today it happened again. I cleared the Play Service's cache to see if that helps.

Usually a reboot works for a few days. But, here's where it gets strange. If the drain is more than usual, let's say my battery is down to 90 - 93% after just an hour or two, with Play Services at or near the top of the list. After the reboot the the battery will be at 97 - 99% where it should normally be. How can a reboot bring the battery charge level up? So, it makes me wonder if the low reading is somehow a false reading?

Anyone else have anything like this happen, or have any ideas what could be going on?

 

[jpdaballa]

My guess is that your battery needs to be recalibrated. Are you using a wireless charger? When I used mine I had similar issues.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

If the phone is rooted, try Battery Calibration (Root). (Also, as the phone is charging, it's not fully charged the moment it hits 100% - give it another 30 minutes. The charger being connected to the battery raises the battery voltage, which is what's being used to determine the state of charge, and once it gets above about 90%, the accuracy degrades because the charging voltage is a greater percentage of the difference between the charging voltage and the battery voltage. (We could actually measure the state of charge chemically, which would be accurate - if you wanted to spend a few thousand dollars on a cheap phone. Measuring the voltage is the next best way of doing it, and by comparison it's free.)

 

[JohnS305]

I don't use a wireless charger and I'm not rooted. I use the Turbo charger and it's on overnight. The drain almost always involves Google Services. I took screen shots today. The gain after reboot wasn't as extreme today as some but still gained 2%. Before reboot then after.

 

[TurboHope]

Are your apps set to auto update on the play store?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Newdroid122]

I don't use a wireless charger and I'm not rooted. I use the Turbo charger and it's on overnight. The drain almost always involves Google Services. I took screen shots today. The gain after reboot wasn't as extreme today as some but still gained 2%. Before reboot then after.

I've been having the same issue, which I've noticed this past week. Prior I was getting great battery life.

My apps don't auto update either

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[doogald]

Google play services can be a pain about battery use. That's basically all google account syncing, Google location tracking, any games you may play, any apps that back up data to google play services, etc.

One thing you can look at is settings / google / tap your account and see if any sync errors are reported. Unless you need it, tap the google settings app, then location, then google location history, and turn it off for all accounts. Unless you are using location tracking for google now cards or something, that may help the battery use.

 

[JohnS305]

I just noticed something looking at my screen shots. After the reboot the time on battery is 41 minutes less than before, which is wrong. I wonder if the charge indicator is also then wrong after the reboot?

 

[Zpper Wipper]

Using Samsung Galaxy S2
I am having the same kind of battery drain: overnight with WIFI off and Mobile data off I'm down from 90% to about 20 % and after reboot battery charge seems to be increased by 5 % or so. I had the same problem about a year or so ago, it went away after Samsung released an update.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy S3 loaded with the same apps, and this has never given me such problems.
Definitely Google Play services is doing something very weird combined with specific Samsung firmware, and I don't even use these Google Play services!

 

[jpdaballa]

Have you found the issue? A factory reset may or may not fix the issue you are having. That would be the next step I would take after checking all accounts and making sure they have the correct settings

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[JohnS305]

No I haven't found the cause yet. I usually charge my phone every night but a few days ago I ran it down to 8%. It hasn't been too bad the past week, but today Google seems to be more of a drain than usual. This weekend is time for my monthly cache partition wipe so I'll see if that helps anything. I don't really want to do a factory reset just for this, I plan on doing one when we finally get Lollipop. Rumor has it that it may not be too much longer.

 

[emock81]

I have been having the same issues with the drain over the past couple days. I have no clue what changed to cause it but it's also listing Google Services as the main problem. I have changed my settings in Google Play to stop auto downloads since I always check it manually anyway. Seeing if that helps for now. I am wondering if this is something on Google's end, especially if others are seeing this too.

 

[doogald]

I am wondering if this is something on Google's end, especially if others are seeing this too.

That's what I think, too. This has happened before, and then updates to Play Services later fixed it.

 

[SP31]

I actually had the same issue, and for me at least, it was due to the fact I downloaded the new Google Photos app. When I initially installed it last week, it had been draining my battery and getting the phone really hot whenever I connected to WiFi, guessing because it was trying to upload a ton of photos. Issue is, the app itself and the settings within the app just seemed unstable enough to warrant me uninstalling it and sticking to the Moto Gallery.

Over the weekend, whenever I kept connecting to WiFi, the phone would get really hot and the battery would deplete. Not that the battery was the issue, but the fact that the phone itself was warming up at that level while ONLY connecting to WiFi was alarming. Poked around and found out that even though I uninstalled Google Photos, there was a new 'Google Photos Backup' option in the Google Settings in the app drawer. It had been turned on and apparently may have been causing my Google Play Services to reach to about 50% of use.

Shut that off, cleared the phone cache, cleared the cache of some of those Google apps, and have seen an improvement. Not sure if this will be the case for you, but it helped in my case. Good luck!

 

[Angryyyone]

It was the new Google Photos app that did it to me, too. The other day, I noticed my battery suddenly draining fast and Google Play Services was the culprit. One night, I charged my phone, a Galaxy Note 4, before bed, turned off location services, Bluetooth and wireless. When I woke up, it only had 15% capacity left. I tried all suggestions; clearing caches, clearing cache partition, nothing worked. Then I remembered, I installed the new Google Photos just before this started happening, so I uninstalled it. It still seemed to be draining a little fast, so I Googled it and found your post. I then did what you did; went to Google settings and turned off photo synch and then cleared the cache partition again and PROBLEM SOLVED! Thank you!

 

[ktabel01]

I have this issue as well and as above its the new Google photos app. It is a battery killer at times, especially after taking a bunch of video or pics. And I cannot get the settings in the app to work properly, won't even let me select to sync only while charging. If that worked then this problem would go away. For now I have to be selective on when to enable syncing

 

[DatabaseMX]

I had the same thing happen a couple of days ago after download several updates (not on automatic) including Google Play Store.
Noticed waaaay abnormal battery drain (for me). Open GSam and Google Play Store (GPS) was at the TOP with some large percentage consumed. So, I stopped GPS ... and the issue has not reoccurred - currently showing 0.1%.
So .. no clue what happened. I am a light user compared to y'all ... and I only drop about 20%/day ... which I see as astounding. Best battery life I have ever had.

 

[JohnS305]

I don't have the new Google Photos app so that's not my problem. It's really getting annoying, sometimes I can get a good day but then the drain is right back. Another thing is that it says Google Services but the icon is the people icon, so it may have something to do with the contacts sync.

 

[doogald]

I don't have the new Google Photos app so that's not my problem. It's really getting annoying, sometimes I can get a good day but then the drain is right back. Another thing is that it says Google Services but the icon is the people icon, so it may have something to do with the contacts sync.

Settings / Google - is there a red circle next to your Google account? Tap your Google account - is there a sync error with contacts (or anything else there?)

 

[JohnS305]

No, no errors. Just increase in battery drain with Google at or near the top of the chart. I've been through my Google account looking for anything that could be the cause, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Very frustrating.