Samsung Note 4 - Battery drains fast, phone dies when at 20%. Why?

[AC Question]

My Note 4 has struggled with battery for around a year now and is getting worse by the day. It has been on for an hour and a half since leaving the charger, where I charged it to full, and its already down to 66%. All I have done is listen to a podcast, use Google maps and a bit of Twitter.

When my phone gets to around 20% it will die and drop right down to 0%. This number varies so of course, I actually have no idea when my phone is going to die.

I more or less have to keep my phone on charge to use it across a whole day. I used to be able to go to work with it at 100% at get home at 6PM with charge left. My phone would now be long gone before lunch time.

Any ideas? I have tried apps that save battery but they don't seem to help. I have replaced the battery and that helped a bit but was soon back to dying fast.

 

[AlphaTango414]

Sounds like a mixture of software and battery problems.

First and foremost, do not use "battery saving apps" as they do more harm then good.

Did you try a new actual Samsung battery? There is a lot of Chinese POS batteries sold as "official Samsung batteries."

Next take the time to wipe system cache via recovery. Followed by full app cache wipe via sertings > system > storage > cached data ♧.

If you aren't totally against it, I'd go ahead and suggest doing a factory data reset just to clean up everything real good. This will wipe all data stored on your phones internal storage. Back up only what is really needed.

 

[Rukbat]

If the battery droops from 20% to 0 in 0 time (see the second battery graph in Settings/Battery - tap the first graph to get to it), it has a dendrite. Even high quality lithium batteries develop them sometimes. (It's a huge problem for the industry - see Lithium Battery Dendrite links.) The battery has to be replaced.

And, as AlphaTango said, uninstall ALL "battery saver" apps - all they do is waste battery (and slow the phone down).

 

[jmagid51]

It's a known problem. Sprint replaced my battery for free.!!

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Likorisa]

Simple. Here is a pretty extensive tutorial on most everything that you can try to do to improve the Note 4 battery life. https://www.orduh.com/samsung-galaxy-note-4-battery-drain-fix/

 

[Mrdandean]

I am having the same problem. Somewhere between like 20-27% battery level, every day, the phone will suddenly drop to around 4%. Then one minute later, the phone abruptly shuts off. That is all the warning you get, every time.

I know of seven other Note 4 users, using differing carriers, and all have this exact same dilemma. I use Verizon. We have a Wireless Advocates kiosk where I work at Costco, and the supervisor there confirms that it is all Note 4's, including his wife's phone. Several of us, including him, have looked everywhere for a solution to no avail. We all believe it started after the last big update from our respective carriers, back in Feb or earlier.

I have been faithful to Samsung and Verizon for about six years, and have been patient, thinking a patch or solution would be right around the corner, since this is SO prevalent, but there is only silence. I personally, have tried all of the following:
1. Clearing the cache.
2. Deleting and reinstalling Google play services.
3. A factory reset/wipe.
4. A friend and I both got new Samsung batteries, and as expected, the battery life was longer, but still way faster than before that last update, and STILL, when the battery level got into the 20's, the phone would drop to 4% and then completely off in one minute.

As I've said, I've been a huge fan of Samsung, since my Vibrant. But now my friend gave up on his Note 4, and jumped to Apple. He hated Apple until now, but has shown me all the differences over the last few months. He confesses that he loves how smooth, well-thought-out and reliable it has been. I'm thinking of joining him in two months when my contract is over, unless Samsung finds a way to acknowledge or compensate us for this disastrous flaw!

 

[Mrdandean]

Simple. Here is a pretty extensive tutorial on most everything that you can try to do to improve the Note 4 battery life. https://www.orduh.com/samsung-galaxy-note-4-battery-drain-fix/

Those are fairly basic, common sense tweaks and tips, all of which I am familiar with, and have attempted at the onset. Sadly, this battery problem is impervious to those solutions...

 

[Mrdandean]

It's a known problem. Sprint replaced my battery for free.!!

Posted via the Android Central App

That didn't fix the crash for my phone. Did it solve your issue?