Note 4: Battery Life getting worse??

[billbrobaggins]

When I first got the note 4 I was receiving on average 5-1/2 hrs. of screen on time, which I was really pleased with. However it seems as though the battery has been consistently declining in its ability to hold a charge. I've gone from 100% to 63% with 1hr. screen on time (this morning). Is this normal? Am I expecting too much?

In theory, if i were to fully charge my device and run it with the screen on from 100% charge to 0% with the current rate of 37% per hour, I would only have 2.7 hrs. of screen on time. I've checked the battery summary and nothing seems out of the ordinary.

I would just call up Big Red and have them overnight me a warranty replacement, but there warranty replacement would be the device only (no battery, back cover, or stylus)

P.S. I have auto-brightness on, and Power Saving mode off. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are both on as well.

I would also like to mention that I use the OEM adaptive charger MOST of the time but sometimes I use the Turbo-Charger that comes with the N6/Droid Turbo

 

[LegalAmerican]

People will tell you to turn off auto brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use, but before they do let me also say that my experience is similar to yours and my battery was fine at first with all of that on.

I get about 3-4 hours of screen on time because I cannot get "Android System" and "Google Services" under control. I have seriously spent HOURS trying to find the cause for those being as high as they are, and cannot figure it out. Clearing cache, factory reset, and reboots haven't solved it. What bugs me, is I have no games and very few apps. I use it the same way I did when I first got it, and everyone says battery will break in and improve and my experience has been the opposite. I used to easily get 5.5-6 hrs of screen on time.

 

[clevin]

It's unlikely the battery capacity could degrade so quickly. The more you use the phone, the more mess the system will accumulate, many will lead to rogue behavior of apps and processes.

You can try clearing cache or hard reset.

@T-Mobile GN3

 

[down1plus2]

My battery life is horrid. Ive been trying to figure out the issue myself. I hope it's a software issue and will be fixed with lollipop.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[pantlesspenguin]

It hasn't happened to my Note yet, but it happened with my LG G2. When I first got the device the battery life was AMAZING. After a few months it got noticeably worse. I got a couple different warranty exchanges and had the same experience on both. Perhaps batteries really do go bad after awhile, but I don't think the Note has been out long enough for this to happen yet!

I agree to turn off auto-brightness and only have brightness at a level where you can read comfortably. Turn off all radios that aren't in use. I use power saving mode and I like it, but the one thing that I don't like is that the capacitive buttons don't light up.

 

[joklun]

People will tell you to turn off auto brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use, but before they do let me also say that my experience is similar to yours and my battery was fine at first with all of that on.

I get about 3-4 hours of screen on time because I cannot get "Android System" and "Google Services" under control. I have seriously spent HOURS trying to find the cause for those being as high as they are, and cannot figure it out. Clearing cache, factory reset, and reboots haven't solved it. What bugs me, is I have no games and very few apps. I use it the same way I did when I first got it, and everyone says battery will break in and improve and my experience has been the opposite. I used to easily get 5.5-6 hrs of screen on time.

Have you tried to disable google now and its location settings? It should reduce android system and Google services.

 

[LegalAmerican]

Have you tried to disable google now and its location settings? It should reduce android system and Google services.

I have not. I can give it a shot to at least see if that's the problem, but even if it is I use Google Now so i'd be re-activating it.

 

[LegalAmerican]

It hasn't happened to my Note yet, but it happened with my LG G2. When I first got the device the battery life was AMAZING. After a few months it got noticeably worse. I got a couple different warranty exchanges and had the same experience on both. Perhaps batteries really do go bad after awhile, but I don't think the Note has been out long enough for this to happen yet!

I agree to turn off auto-brightness and only have brightness at a level where you can read comfortably. Turn off all radios that aren't in use. I use power saving mode and I like it, but the one thing that I don't like is that the capacitive buttons don't light up.

With a battery the size of the one the Note has in it, you shouldn't have to shut everything off. Especially if we didn't do that at the start and still got great battery life. That isn't the problem. It's something else.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

With a battery the size of the one the Note has in it, you shouldn't have to shut everything off. Especially if we didn't do that at the start and still got great battery life. That isn't the problem. It's something else.

But there's no use keeping radios on if you're not using them. I turn wifi on when I'm at home and shut it off when I'm going out. I turn on bluetooth when I'm using it and turn it off when I'm done. I turn on GPS high accuracy mode when I need to navigate somewhere. I'll keep it on for the trip back, and then turn it off when I'm done. I don't think I've ever used NFC, so that always stays off.

 

[Jamie Wooten]

I've only got 2 1/2 of screen time today and I'm down to 20% in 8 hours. For some reason Android core apps is taking up a lot of battery. Any suggestions

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[gpo1956]

My experience exactly.

 

[varunaX]

Same here. 2.5 h sot Is now what I'm used to.

 

[MalinoisK9]

Have you tried to disable google now and its location settings? It should reduce android system and Google services.

So which google apps control google now? I've wanted to shut that off but way to many google apps and none say google now.

 

[joklun]

So which google apps control google now? I've wanted to shut that off but way to many google apps and none say google now.

From within the Google search app you go to settings (slide from the left edge of the screen) and log out. If you want to turn off goggle's location settings you go to Settings-Location-Google location and then turn off the two options you'll find there. Hope that helps.

 

[smooth2222]

Same problem here, but it happened right after an update. Thru sprint.

I.m hopping lollipop fixes the issue.

I leave location, bluetooth, off. Also i use power saver mode

Would get 2-3 days per charge, now i,m down to 1-2 days.


For the original poster, why not use power saver mode, and i would manually adjust brightness to your liking.

 

[kobe008]

I leave my stuff on because I would rather not have to manually turn things on and off when needed. I suppose my battery isn't as good as when I first got the phone either but if it lasts me thru the day then that is all I need. I sleep every night so it doesn't hurt me at all to plug it in while it sits there being unused on the nightstand. Start the day off at 100% and I'm usually anywhere from 20% to 50% when I go to bed depending on my usage that day. That is good enough for me. Only real tweak I have done is change Location from High Accuracy to Battery Saving and I don't feel that has really taken away anything that I need.

 

[LegalAmerican]

But there's no use keeping radios on if you're not using them. I turn wifi on when I'm at home and shut it off when I'm going out. I turn on bluetooth when I'm using it and turn it off when I'm done. I turn on GPS high accuracy mode when I need to navigate somewhere. I'll keep it on for the trip back, and then turn it off when I'm done. I don't think I've ever used NFC, so that always stays off.

I agree. If you WANT to turn them off that's great. I too leave NFC off. I'm just saying that if someone was getting great battery life with them on, suggesting they turn them off now to improve battery is not a helpful suggestion. Obviously they were not the problem or they shouldn't be the problem if it was fine before. I left everything except NFC on and was easily getting 5 hours of SOT. Now I get around 3 and can't figure out why. Shutting off those radios is not the solution in my case.

 

[Haalcyon]

My Note 4's battery life seems fine. I alternate its use to every other day with my Note 3. I'm on both a lot and find that I do need to feed them a couples times a day but I do keep them pretty busy and keep haptic feedback enabled both in general and for the keyboard.

 

[pantlesspenguin]

I agree. If you WANT to turn them off that's great. I too leave NFC off. I'm just saying that if someone was getting great battery life with them on, suggesting they turn them off now to improve battery is not a helpful suggestion. Obviously they were not the problem or they shouldn't be the problem if it was fine before. I left everything except NFC on and was easily getting 5 hours of SOT. Now I get around 3 and can't figure out why. Shutting off those radios is not the solution in my case.

Oh I definitely agree that keeping things on isn't the CAUSE of this issue, since I stated the same thing happened on my LG G2. If I had to guess I would say it's an "Android System" issue since that consistently takes up the majority of my battery, even above screen! That shouldn't be happening. Right now I'm at 88% battery. Know what my SOT is? 29 minutes. What the actual eff?? I was just stating that keeping those radios off would assist in saving some battery while we search for the real cause of this problem.

 

[rahul.sharma]

People will tell you to turn off auto brightness, WiFi and Bluetooth when not in use, but before they do let me also say that my experience is similar to yours and my battery was fine at first with all of that on.

I get about 3-4 hours of screen on time because I cannot get "Android System" and "Google Services" under control. I have seriously spent HOURS trying to find the cause for those being as high as they are, and cannot figure it out. Clearing cache, factory reset, and reboots haven't solved it. What bugs me, is I have no games and very few apps. I use it the same way I did when I first got it, and everyone says battery will break in and improve and my experience has been the opposite. I used to easily get 5.5-6 hrs of screen on time.

Same here and I can assure you its not battery issue as I have spare...but both batteries behave same. Recently the change is Android System is keeping top position in battery stats.

-Posted via Samsung Galaxy Note® 4