Samsung galaxy s3 battery drain fast!

[Greg Latreille]

My phone has started doing something really strange over the last couple weeks. The actual battery performance seems to be about the same as it was before, but the battery life goes up and down like a rollercoaster. Once unplugged, it decreases rapidly from 100% down to typically the 40s, but then it will start to climb back up into the 70s or 80s, then go back down, all without being plugged back in. It's bizarre. I will get low battery warnings at 15%, and then a half hour later, I'll check the phone and it will show 50% life left. Sometimes it will go low enough to power off, but I only need to charge it for a few minutes before it starts climbing back up, and it continues to climb after I unplug. I took the battery out and tried to spin it as suggested in other posts. It doesn't spin. I know that doesn't mean the battery is necessarily good, but this feels more like a software issue, since as I said, the battery performance seems to be about the same as it always has been, other than powering off prematurely when there is still obviously a good amount of charge left. Any ideas?? I've attached some screen shots of my battery history below. Note how the charge goes up without the phone actually charging (charge bar at bottom shows when it was actually plugged in -Greg

 

[GSDer]

Note how the charge goes up without the phone actually charging (charge bar at bottom shows when it was actually plugged in

I believe the technical term for that is "f'd up!"

You could try the usual suspects:
- boot into Recovery mode and clear the system cache
- boot into Safe mode to see if a 3rd party application is causing that strange behavior
- if you were rooted you could try BatteryCalibration http://market.android.com/details?id=com.nema.batterycalibration to reset the battery calibration data

Despite your inclination my first guess would be a flaky battery, but if you think it's the firmware then your best bet would be to reload the stock firmware using the Kies software or Odin.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[Greg Latreille]

I believe the technical term for that is "f'd up!"

You could try the usual suspects:
- boot into Recovery mode and clear the system cache
- boot into Safe mode to see if a 3rd party application is causing that strange behavior
- if you were rooted you could try BatteryCalibration...

... I have to admit that I did not understand a word you wrote. But thanks to Google searching, I was able to walk myself through the first two steps effectively enough. The third bullet point was the one that really made me nervous, but with very little digging, I discovered that I (thankfully) am not "rooted" and will not be in the foreseeable future, if ever Step 1 seemed to make it mostly better for about a day, and then the battery rollercoaster slowly came back. I am newly amidst Step 2 now, running in "safe mode". So is the idea that I just wait and see if the erratic battery behavior goes away with the phone in Safe Mode? And if it does, then all I know is that <something> on my phone is causing this phenomenon, but I won't know what. I guess at that point, I'll come back for some more advice. I'll keep you posted either way. Thank you much for your help!!! -Gr

 

[GSDer]

So is the idea that I just wait and see if the erratic battery behavior goes away with the phone in Safe Mode? And if it does, then all I know is that <something> on my phone is causing this phenomenon, but I won't know what.

Yes, if the erratic behavior goes away then you can be pretty certain that some 3rd party application is the cause. You won't know which one, but the first place to start would be any power/battery management apps.

Or you could use the shotgun approach and perform a Factory Reset, then very slowly reinstall the apps that you're currently using.

Sorry, I should have provided links to my recommendations.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

 

[wesyates]

I believe the technical term for that is "f'd up!"

You could try the usual suspects:
- boot into Recovery mode and clear the system cache
- boot into Safe mode to see if a 3rd party application is causing that strange behavior
- if you were rooted you could try BatteryCalibration [removed] to reset the battery calibration data

Despite your inclination my first guess would be a flaky battery, but if you think it's the firmware then your best bet would be to reload the stock firmware using the Kies software or Odin.

Sent from my rooted, debloated, deodexed Sinclair ZX-80 running CM -0.001 using Tapatalk

Had the same issue on all counts listed here (obviously) and booted into safe mode. Battery consumption is now 'normal'. Meaning I do not see the dramatic decrease in battery as I did. This leads me to believe there is an app I installed that is causing unnecessary drain.

I will do a factory reset and reinstall apps (and not install apps that I don't need) and see which ones cause the drain.

Is there a good way to determine the most recently installed apps? Knowing this would aid in finding out which one might be the trouble.

UPDATE: Never mind. I found that if you open Play Store, My Apps, All, you see them in the list of newest to oldest.

UPDATE 10/18: It seems to be a third party app. One that uses a lot of communication or processes that aren't being shown in the task management. Most likely causes are Spotify, SoundCloud, GSam Battery Monitor, Anything regarding Wifi status or conneciton, or TuneIn Radio. These were some of the last apps that I installed since August and once removed, the phone seems to keep charge longer.

Side note: I bought a set of off-market batteries thinking at least one might work. The battery drain issue started at about the middle of Sept '14 and I thought the original Samsung 2100 mAh battery was going bad. All of the off-market batteries showed the same symptoms and all would not charge to 100%. Booting into Safe Mode, all of the batteries tested so far seem to be holding a decent charge.

 

[wesyates]

Here are the before and after shots. Admittedly they are two different times, but I think this illustrates the point.

 

[Page Tyler1]

I charged my phone through the night and it charged to 100%. I woke up took it off the charger and in .5 minutes it went down to 85% so I plugged it back into the charger and it went down to 24% instantly. I just bought a new battery too. Also this battery is 3200mah instead of the 2200mah battery I had before.

 

[MaritzaKang]

I purchased a new battery and at first it was working but now its happening again. I charge my phone but the battery drains as it charges (ive even purchased new chargers)when I look under battery usage it says android system or screen as the majority of the battery usage. Is there anyway at all to fix this?

 

[Robert Roush]

I have had this problem for quite some time and certain fixes i have tried all seemed to work for a while. I've done everything here except for rebooting in safe mode- I have no idea how to do that - or burning the root which says the phone could catch on fire??? While I'll nver get another Samsung because this has been such a problem, I have to wait until 1/20/2015 to get a new phone. It's very frustrating! I downloaded the battery calibrator, then it said I HAD to root the system first, but didn't say how... Very confusing. It now says to wait for 100% charge to delete the root battery file. I also can now not get my computer to see my phone when I plug it in the USB- so way more stuff is going on than anything thus entered here...

 

[Shirley Bricker]

My Samsung Galaxy s3 battery is draining very fast, without me making calls or using it for any purpose. I have disconnected bluetooth and wifi, tried to uninstall apps that I dont use, but to no avail? Please help

 

[GSDer]

Welcome to the forums!

My Samsung Galaxy s3 battery is draining very fast, without me making calls or using it for any purpose.

Does it do this if you boot into Safe mode? http://support.verizonwireless.com/support/devices/knowledge_base.html/59242

If not then you have a 3rd party application causing your problem.

What's your cellular signal like? (One bar, etc.) You can use an app like GSam Battery Monitor Pro http://market.android.com/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm.pro (there's also a free version) to monitor your cellular signal over time. If you have a poor signal most of the time that can really drain the battery quickly.

On a similar note, do you have Mobile data turned on all the time? It's possible that's responsible for your battery drain.
For both of the above you could try running in Airplane mode for awhile (which turns off the cellular signal and Mobile data) and see if the problem goes away.

 

[Geddes Jennings]

I seem to have another problem related to the battery on the S3 4.4.3. Apart from fast draining I'm suspecting that something may be wrong with the connector or maybe the main board. Putting the battery to charge is something of a frustrating exercise, the slightest movement and the lightening bolt disappear, I have to unplug and plug in a few times until the bolt returns. I have timed that it took 3 hours and a couple minutes to move from 18 % 19%, at times when it's low at night around 12 to 15 %, I put it to charge, make sure the bolt is displayed, come morning some 7 or 8 hours later, the bolt is there but the charge is reading around 30-35 %. I have 2 batteries and it"s the same for both.
I have no idea what to try next so I'm asking for help here based of what I've explained above. As usual I will be grateful for any help whatever.
P.S. I'm wondering if rooting will solve the problem, if so I'd appreciate your suggestion on rooting options. Thanks in advance.
Palitobuddy.

 

[Greg Latreille]

So I never did get to the bottom of my "battery roller coaster". The battery % level would do all sorts of weird things, jumping up and down, but gradually, the routine became a drop to roughly 20% battery life within 30 minutes of being unplugged every day, a jump up into the mid thirties for a while, than a decline down to 0% - dead. I figured it was a bum battery, although it still did not spin. I got a new battery on Saturday. It's not a Samsung battery, but it's a Ryovac, which should be a reputable, good battery (right?) It was brand new out of the package.

I was told it would have 30% - 50% charge, which it did (43%), but within about an hour and a half, that dropped to 0% and it died. I plugged it in and turned it back on, and it soon died. After 5 minutes, I turned it back on, and it registered 0% for about 45 minutes before slowly climbing up to 1%. A while later, it had gained up to 12%, then went back down to 8%. Overnight charging brought it up to 100%, but upon unplugging it, it dropped to the 30s and slowly decreased from there. I actually got most of a day out of it before it ran to the redline.

Today, after charging overnight, it only went to 50%. I unplugged it, and it jumped to 100% for about 2 minutes, then jumped back down to 50%. It decreased pretty rapidly down to 2% and then drew on for several hours through 2% to eventually 0% and dead. Now I have had it plugged in for about 5 hours. It charged normally at first, but the charge increase started to plateau out, and I think I'm stuck at 52%.

So... someone throw me a bone here? I tried "battery calibration" techniques, but they aren't really working since I can't seem to get the thing to charge to 100%. What the crap? Time for a new phone? -Gr

 

[cristiskate1]

Hey, I had battery draining on my s3 lte,until yesterday. What I did is a battery calibration. I played on the phone until it went off the i took out the batttery for 5 mminutes the i charged it to 100% now it lasts a lot longer 1% of battery takes 10 minutes of web btowsing, before it was o nly taking 2 minutes to drop...
Sorry for my english and i hope i helped y.all

 

[schitlman]

Finally, a truth-teller! I was getting sick and tired of GSDer schilling for a battery manufacturer that he obviously owns stock in. I am also sick and tired of having my phone light up and immediately shut down despite having been charged fully within the last hour. I will try all these suggestions one at a time to see what works.

 

[muffinut]

Finally, a truth-teller! I was getting sick and tired of GSDer schilling for a battery manufacturer that he obviously owns stock in.

Holy [edit by Mod] GSDer mentioned that specific battery one time because it seems like a reliable choice. Don't be a [edit by Mod] about someone who's trying to help.

Back on topic, my battery goes from 100% to 0% in about 6 hours, with very light use. Booting in safe mode, 1% of charge lasted me nearly ten minutes with the screen on, a great improvement, even with mobile network and wifi connected. Hopefully I figure out what the problem is; it'd be helpful if the battery % use screen would include more detail than just "Screen" and "Android System," because there's obviously more to it than that.

 

[Chaudri Mustafa]

same problem with me here from last night...!!

 

[Jack_12]

Hello, i am new to this site. I had a quick question.

My galaxy s3 is draining battery really fast and it takes long to fully charge since it updated to 4.4.2. If i clear the system cache and do a factory reset, wouldn't the phone eventually install the latest update automatically(4.4.2)? If so wouldn't the phone still have the battery drainage and slow charging issue? because there's something wrong with the 4.4.2 update.

 

[dont bother me]

I have a S3. My warranty expires today. I'm on battery #4 all OEM Samsung batteries. all in one year.
I had the same problem as everyone else (for the most part)

There is obviously an undetected problem and no one really knows the cure. I was at my carrier retailer in the mall yesterday and the girl there was suggesting all kinds of "could-be's".

Reading many of the previous posts I read a lot of software and terminology jargon that can turn many of us off. Some of this jargon is very product specific. I'm a retired RF specialist technician and I have no idea what was said.

After my third battery my S3 was sent directly to Samsung for testing. It came back as having no problems. The blame was redirected to look elsewhere. The only thing left was the battery. They wouldn't accept my battery for testing. not sure why. I also found Samsung online support as extremely substandard. Almost like you're talking to a "BOT" ? they all have their answers, but no one really knows. So, they'll fake it just to get rid of you. They sit safely behind a keyboard and answer to no one (not even the customer). Why are we not hearing Samsung engineers or Samsung trained technicians from. Why is it when we contact Samsung directly we get the runaround. I never see any official Samsung updates for curing an ongoing problem.

I bought and installed battery (Samsung) #4 about 2 or 3 weeks ago. This thing worked awesome from day one. give it a full charge from the start and "they say" after about the 2nd or 3rd charge. it will be exercised and have peak performance.

After that. I had 2 weeks solid of perfect performance. My battery would be charged at night before bed and that charge would last 2 days, Wi-Fi turned on no problem. Then out of the blue for no reason yesterday it dropped to 28% in about 4 hours, then 9% an hour after that. Then it went to zero.

Then yesterday I took it to my local Samsung mall-retailer and all I heard "it could be this it could be that" I explained that I'm on my 4th battery warranty is over in one day. I could tell that their guessing game was in full swing. That said they were nice people (as was I) but their background knowledge lacks severely.

My previous phone was a Samsung S2 and it had massive software issues. Again Samsung online support had no clue and offered no solutions. It was just out of warranty and I was obliged to buy a new one. Any one I talked to never seemed to care one bit. One person even suggested that smart phone really only last one year. These are all young kids flying by the seat of their pants to make reasons or excuses as to why this or that is not performing.

Does anyone here have any real answers?
This is definitely my last Samsung

 

[dont bother me]

Is anyone still reading this thread?

Here's an update of what I found. Since Samsung has no customer support we have to figure our own stuff out.
What I said in the above post is 100%. I doubted it when the young lady made these suggestions. But, what do I have to lose?

The following day I brought my S3 back up to a full charge.

I turn off the GPS (which I never turned in the beginning, but it was on)
I turned off my wi-fi
I left my brightness at 50%
all other added aps turned off. start off bare bones and watch the rate of discharge

Get this: I'm on the start of day 3 and it still has a 53% charge

I can understand MAYBE that wi-fi and GPS has a little to do with draining as they are both radio communications as they are always listening and possibly transmitting aps. Both being active aps might be able to have this affect.
Day 3 and 53% kind of blows me away. I will soon reactivate the wi-fi and see how the drain is again.

Again my original question why is it that I went for 2 to 3 weeks on this new battery and experience 2 day use on a charge with out fail, then suddenly it start this 28% drop? Same as some of you guys.

Why doesn't Samsung put out bulletins for any know problems? Because the engineers are too busy concentrating on the "new" rather than support the "existing". There's no money in service or support, only sales.


OFF TOPIC
has any one ever noticed that too many manufactures are avoiding the customers at the service level? Most are fed up with our complaining so they make the websites almost unusable and to call the 800 numbers they make the phone menus almost a maze to get through.
Plus most reps on the other end are uninformed, sadly many underpaid. and it's to feed gibberish to the consumer.

I will update this next test