Note 4 Sudden Battery Drain

freakout311style

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My Sprint Note 4 (running 5.1.1) has been working without issue for the past year, but a strange power/battery/something issue happened yesterday and today.

Both days, around the same time (between 5:00-6:00pm) my phone has decided that it no longer has a charge and shuts off. Yesterday, the phone went from roughly 35% > 10%, which alerted me of low charge > 0% and shutting off within around 30 seconds. When I plugged in the device, it wasn't charging and didn't indicate that it was plugged in. I took the battery out > put it back in > plugged it in and it started charging, but registered that it had a 34% charge.

Today, when I got home I checked my emails, which showed a charge of around 37%. Once I opened the first email (in the MS Outlook app), the phone started it's shut down process. Once I powered it back on, it showed 0% charge. I plugged it in and it started charging normal (from 0% this time), no need to remove the battery.

I haven't installed any new apps, and keep the ones that I have installed updated. I'm not sure if it's the battery itself that's failing or another issue. I usually let the phone drain down in to the 10%-20% range before plugging it in to charge, which has never been a problem before.

Attached is the screenshot from the battery meter settings. Any ideas / thoughts / suggestions would be greatly appreciated!Screenshot_2015-11-18-18-05-23.jpg
 

muzzy996

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My gutt reaction is in cases where there is rapid (instantaneous) power drops like this its either bad connections for the battery or faulty battery. I suspect faulty battery but verify the terminals on the battery and the contacts on the phone are clean just to be sure. I'd document a few instances of this with screen shots and contact Samsung to see about possible battery replacement under warranty.

FYI, on Amazon one can get a couple of spares made by Anker for $25 with a charger to boot.
 

CRUZR

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That's funny. My AT&T Note 4 does the exact same thing.

Even before the 5.1.1 update. Doesn't do it every time but probably around 85% of the time when it gets down to 35-30% it shuts down and when plugged into a charger it shows 0% and after a bit of time it's shows a big jump in battery power... like 38-45%.

Have yet to figure it out???
 

Dankees

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When I'm at like 25%, if I take a photo or turn on the camera, my phone just shuts off and has no power. What the hell is that?

Also, when my screen is off and phone not being used, my battery runs down very slowly, but when I use my phone, the percentages drop every few minutes.

Anyone else see this?

Any ideas? Is this a battery issue or hardware?

Also, are the Anker batteries on Amazon NFC capable?

Posted via the Android Central App
 

StaticXCC

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My note 4 does similar. I get maybe 1.5 hours of use out of it, then at 30% boom it shuts down. Plug it in and it shows zero percent. I bought another battery and within a week same problem... but that new battery inflated and would shut off at 40 percent. Afraid to try another battery, suspect the problem is with the phone itself. No longer under warranty either.

Posted via the Android Central App, Samsung Note 4
 

Dankees

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My note 4 does similar. I get maybe 1.5 hours of use out of it, then at 30% boom it shuts down. Plug it in and it shows zero percent. I bought another battery and within a week same problem... but that new battery inflated and would shut off at 40 percent. Afraid to try another battery, suspect the problem is with the phone itself. No longer under warranty either.

Posted via the Android Central App, Samsung Note 4

I do have my phone insured via SquareTrade. Do I have a claim?
 

Nora_B

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I have the same problem as of maybe a week or two ago. I am with Verizon. Have disabled all apps I could, but still, the battery does not last me more than a day.

I know that there was a security update not long ago, but don't know if that has something to do with the drain.

To the user that suspected a bad battery, I would tell that I see many users all suddenly having this issue in the last couple of weeks, regardless of the provider. So I don't think that it is a coincidence and all our batteries went bad at the same time.

THIS MUST BE A BUG.:(
 

freakout311style

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Update - I had one day (I forget which) where the battery drained down normally (which strangely was closer to 8pm when it hit the normal battery level where it dies), but all others had the same issue. Timing has been consistent (between 5-6pm, excluding the day mentioned) and yesterday the phone just shut off in the middle of streaming music with the SiriusXM app to my bluetooth speaker at 5:59 with the screen being off for probably 15 minutes prior. I plugged in the device, which registered 0% for a few minutes, then jumped up to 48%, which seems correct as it had close to 50% when I put the music on.

So we have AT&T, Verizon and Sprint customers experiencing the same issue, so if it's software related it's not carrier specific. I can't speak for other carriers, but Sprint pushed out a 5.1.1 update (version N910PVPU4COJ6 shows on my phone) earlier this month and I never experienced the issue before that.
 

CRUZR

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Yesterday my Note 4 (AT&T) did it at 67%. It came back on at 46% then died again and then repeatedly kept shutting off an on till I pulled the battery out and then came up at 0%.
Left my house 20 min earlier at 89%.
This is ridiculous!!! This was the worst time as usually it happens around 35%.
Local AT&T wants me to bring it in when it's doing it cause they can't get it to do it while I'm there.
 

Dankees

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Yesterday my Note 4 (AT&T) did it at 67%. It came back on at 46% then died again and then repeatedly kept shutting off an on till I pulled the battery out and then came up at 0%.
Left my house 20 min earlier at 89%.
This is ridiculous!!! This was the worst time as usually it happens around 35%.
Local AT&T wants me to bring it in when it's doing it cause they can't get it to do it while I'm there.

Keep us updated, please.
 

ninjakel

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Im seeing this too! The first two times were when i was watching HD video files, 700 - 900mb files, i thought it was just an issue with the files as I could replicate it about every other time they were opened.

Ive seen it a few times again since with other apps, just 20 mins ago the battery was at 58%, opened Adventure Capitalist game and 30 seconds later phone rebooted itself and came back on with 41% then as i was entering the password the battery dropped to 0% and went off.

Phone is rooted on 5.0.1 and with original battery, this is on 3 network in England.

I was thinking of trying a factory reset, does anyone think its worth trying?
 

Hawkeye83

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I have att and my phone shuts down around 30% like the rest of you. . This started about 3 weeks ago.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

amer369

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Its not your phone, it's your battery.

What you're experiencing is the effect fast charging has on your battery.

Try charging it normally (without fast charge) and it will improve that effect somewhat.

Buy a new battery and you're good for the next few months.

Feel sorry for those note5 users who gonna need a battery change in the next few months. :)

Posted via the Android Central App
 

amer369

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When I'm at like 25%, if I take a photo or turn on the camera, my phone just shuts off and has no power. What the hell is that?

Also, when my screen is off and phone not being used, my battery runs down very slowly, but when I use my phone, the percentages drop every few minutes.

Anyone else see this?

Any ideas? Is this a battery issue or hardware?

Also, are the Anker batteries on Amazon NFC capable?

Posted via the Android Central App

I use a Anker battery.. And nfc works just like with the original battery.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

freakout311style

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Oct 23, 2012
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Its not your phone, it's your battery.

What you're experiencing is the effect fast charging has on your battery.

Try charging it normally (without fast charge) and it will improve that effect somewhat.

Buy a new battery and you're good for the next few months.

Feel sorry for those note5 users who gonna need a battery change in the next few months. :)

Posted via the Android Central App

FYI - I rarely use the fast charger. Most of the time I use a charger/usb adaptor from an old BlackBerry or one from a Galaxy S4.
 

IslandGuy

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Have the same problem. My phone is 11 months old so T-Mobile ordered a new battery, no questions asked. Got the battery today so will give an update if it solves the problem.
 

kpdx

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When my phone updated to 5.1.1 AT&T, my battery life was awful.

When my phone updated, a setting was activated without my knowing.

This setting was Enhanced 4G LTE services.

I had this previously disabled because it interfered with the phones ability to download images and data over WiFi. For instance the play store would have no images for apps. Face book was only text. And other issues.

When my phone updated, this got re enabled and my battery life suffered. I have always had great battery life lasting a full day at work with moderate use, heavier use when I come home. Usually 25% left when I plug it in at night.

After update, I had to plug in three times to make it through a typical day.

This setting can be found under:

Settings, data usage, mobile data, "Enhanced 4g LTE Services"

This setting has to be the most useless setting on the whole device. It destroys battery life, WiFi data transfer, while adding no benefit to my call quality. I live in a major US city, so I am sure this "service" is avaliable here. What a terrible setting to put on unsuspecting people's phones.

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