Battery Drain with Samsung Galaxy S3

[Louis Leonardo]

Hello everyone,

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 yesterday at company FIDO and right away I noticed problems with battery draining. I've been searching through forums and found out many people had the same problems. I'm not sure if i'm in the good forum but here is my problem: this is my first ever smartphone and I have noticed, in a few hours of use, that the battery would drop 1% every few minutes, even though I barely use it. I switched off all the battery-eating things (WIFI, GPS, Synchronisation,etc.), deleted apps I didnt need, turned down the screen at lowest brightness, restricted background data and stopped apps after each use. I basically tried everything I saw on the forums but the battery is still going down quite quickly, and at some times it gets very hot. I also tried rebooting it and taking off the battery. What should i do? I don't know what is a factory reset but I've heard it might help. I also heard about downloading loops problems but I don't know how to solve them. Shall I call Samsung ? I am thinking about changing to an Iphone if this problem persists, as I need a phone with good battery life for my job! Please help me, and if you need me to post screenshots, just ask.

Also, I deleted by mistake the Android OS ''app'' in the Settings/Application Manager/Running. How do I get it back?!!?!

Thanks
Louis

 

[bassmig]

The S3 is far from having stellar battery life. You should however be able to get anywhere from 14-16 hours of usage on a full charge with moderate to heavy use. You can do a factory reset by going to Menu > personal > backup and reset and at the bottom you should have factory data reset. This will remove all 3rd party apps and make your phone same as it came out of the box from Samsung (take out your SD card if you have one prior to doing this otherwise you may lose your data). If that doesn't I say bring it back for an exchange @ place of purchase.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I am highly inclined to agree.

Sent from a Carbon Galaxy S3.

 

[Louis Leonardo]

On the factory reset, they say I won't be able to have access to my files on my SD card...what should I do? There's an internal sd card in the phone no?

 

[Golfdriver97]

On the factory reset, they say I won't be able to have access to my files on my SD card...what should I do? There's an internal sd card in the phone no?

Transfer any files you need. Unmount card in settings-storage. Then reset.

Sent from a Carbon Galaxy S3.

 

[Louis Leonardo]

Thanks. I'll be charging my phone this night and will come back to you tomorrow evening to tell you if all those changes help! thanks guys

 

[gmiterek]

You should see what's running in the background that is drawing so much juice. Go to application manager and look at the tab running. I had the Amazon App store running and whenever it was running in the background my battery would drain really fast (about 20-30% an hour). I would just turn it off and then it would solve the problem until it was loaded again and I forgot to turn it off. Right now I've uninstalled it. Also I have a few other programs that do the same (Garmin Fit & Connect). You can also use a program called wakelock detector. It's a program that let's you know what is keeping your phone awake. Good luck.

By the way. My battery last between 20 to 30 hours on average every day with about an hour of gaming, about 50 emails, some texting and a small amount of talking. Just remember that when you check things like emails or text. Turn off the screen right away as that is the biggest battery drain of them all.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using AC Forums mobile app

 

[fdurocher]

One of my associates has a Galaxy S3 that has a battery drainage problem.

He could not find the application causing the problem.

Then he removed the SDHC card from his phone ... the problem stopped.

He changed SDHC card and tried again ... the problem came back immediately.

Now he does not use an SDHC card, and the battery drainage stopped.

This is a Samsung problem, and Samsung does not seem eager to help its users ...

 

[blessedta]

I'm having the same issue.

 

[246karenkaren]

I have recently bought a samsung galaxy from eBay, worked fine except the battery which would go from 100 to flat in 7 hrs...bought a power case extended battery but not much improvement..and the hours I spent googling and reading forums...time I won't get back. my daughter had a samsung s3 too and hers battery would last forever. This morning I put my SIM card in her ph and mine in hers and bingo her battery drained quickly and mine had heaps..so obviously the SIM card which I had been using in an iPhone was the problem...yippee so happy I just had to share this and maybe it will help someone else

 

[katieslovingmom]

Hi Everyone! I am a middle aged woman, who has her first smart phone. I read the Galaxy 3 was better then the iPhone, but in 3 days, I watch my battery drain in no time. I shut down the running programs. (My daughter showed me how!) I have it on power save, but 20 minutes on it took me down 20%! I will adjust the brightness, once it charges, but something is seriously wrong. I have read previous posts, but don't understand what I need to do with the card, while saving my contact list. I could really use help on this. My husbands does the same thing. Grrrr. Pleas help!

 

[verd02]

There are a few apps/etc that will cause your battery to drain a bit faster if they're running in the background, but the kind of battery drain you're talking about seems to be often caused by:

1. External SD Card issues. There have been specific issues related to a rather large batch of SanDisk SD cards (this has been acknowledged by SanDisk) but people using other SD card brands (for instance, Kingston) have had similar problems. You'll notice your phone heating up because something is making the CPU run at full speed and the battery will drain quickly. Some people have no problems whatsoever with SD cards though. Other than defects in the card, one big battery-drain issue is if you have a lot of file or directory names that have the '_' (underscore) character in them. This is most often found in music that people have transferred to their phone SD card. The '_' character is pretty common. However, you'd have to have a few GB of music files on your phone for this to be a possible issue (and only if a lot of them have underscores).

2. Charging your phone using a USB port on a computer. Some people say it's faulty cables. Some say it's that the phone software continues to think it's connected to your computer after you disconnect it. Some say it's both, and some say it's other things. Most people have no problems when they charge their phones in this way.

I've had both of those problems. My solution was a) to stop using SD cards in my phone (I tried several and had repeated problems with each one); b) to charge exclusively with an electrical outlet. I also (this is probably me making up things in my head) restart the phone while it's charging. Since making these changes, I have gotten 30 - 36 hours with moderate use. I think I might try an SD Card again at some point, but I doubt I'll ever charge from a computer USB port again except in an emergency.

 

[Shannon Vary]

Hi everyone...I have had my S3 for about 8 months now. I do love it. I did experience rapid battery drain. So here is what I have found that works for me.

1. One of the first things I did after a couple of days of using my S3 (well, the guy that sold me the phone in the store did it when I went back ) was to disable LTE and run on WCDMA only. I have no issues with this as I don't need the "lightening speed" of LTE. Huge difference. Instead of getting only about 10-14 hours, I could go closer to 22.

2. I also try to let my battery drain right down to about 3% at least once a week...that seems to help in the long run. (I am at home most days so having to have it charged all the time is not as much of an issue for me)

3. Try to remember to turn off WiFi when I am not at home....this was a significant help

4. Turned my phone to Airplane mode at night

5. I have just recently installed NQ Android Booster from Google Play and have seen a significant improvement.

***These are just what works for me. HTH!

 

[kray86]

Am using S3 and all of A SUDDEN its battery is DRAINING like anything....
Please help

 

[GSDer]

kray86,
Try to limit the double posts.
And as noted in my other reply, we also need the Screen on detail for a complete picture.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM 10.2 using Tapatalk 4

 

[kray86]

and how do I get the detail?

 

[bassmig]

click on the screen option (in your screenshot it's 51%) that will tell you the screen on time. Then take a screenshot of it.

 

[supper1942]

let it die 3 or 4 times and it will start holding it's charge

 

[Lawrence Lewis]

go to settings application manager ...force stop wi fi direct....the little orange download indicator should stop its activity and then just force stop some applications that you dont use...

 

[penyt]

Hello everyone,

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S3 yesterday at company FIDO and right away I noticed problems with battery draining. I've been searching through forums and found out many people had the same problems. I'm not sure if i'm in the good forum but here is my problem: this is my first ever smartphone and I have noticed, in a few hours of use, that the battery would drop 1% every few minutes, even though I barely use it. I switched off all the battery-eating things (WIFI, GPS, Synchronisation,etc.), deleted apps I didnt need, turned down the screen at lowest brightness, restricted background data and stopped apps after each use. I basically tried everything I saw on the forums but the battery is still going down quite quickly, and at some times it gets very hot. I also tried rebooting it and taking off the battery. What should i do? I don't know what is a factory reset but I've heard it might help. I also heard about downloading loops problems but I don't know how to solve them. Shall I call Samsung ? I am thinking about changing to an Iphone if this problem persists, as I need a phone with good battery life for my job! Please help me, and if you need me to post screenshots, just ask.

Also, I deleted by mistake the Android OS ''app'' in the Settings/Application Manager/Running. How do I get it back?!!?!

Thanks
Louis

Yes Contact Samsung.com Tech Support Online Chat.On This Issue.I Have The Galaxy S3 and Have Had The Same Issues And As well With My y Charger Not charging.What They Recommended Was to Clear The Partition Cache On The Device. The Will Give You A Step By Step How To.
Basically
Power Off Device
Remove Battery & Reinsert
Replace Battery
Simultaneously Press And Hold The Volume Button,ThePower Button, And Menu Button On The Device Until You See At The Top Left Corner In Blue "Device Recovery Mode.
Take Your Finger Off The Volume Button And There Should Then Appear A Menu For Device Recovery Options
Using The Volume Down Button To Scroll Down To Clear Partiton Cache.
Press The Power Button To Clear The Partition Cache
After This The Device Partition Cache Should Be Cleared And The Device Will Reboot.
This Proceedure Fixed And Improved Both My Charging Issue And My Galaxy S3 Battery Drain Problem
.
I Advise Also To Still Contact Samsung.Com Support Chat For Help As If This Doesnt Work They Will Give An Option For Repair Or Replacement Also.
Pen Lange
S3 User