[Lucas Barbosa]

I find this SideSync app very useful. I can plug my phone via a USB cable to my PC and answer to all my whatsapp messages, etc.

However, the battery drain is so severe that the phone discharges, even when connected via USB.

Any tips on how to deal with that?

[SpookDroid]

Are you keeping the screen on? Mine (granted, it's a Note 4, not an S4) doesn't seem to drain. Also bear in mind that if you have the screen on, and you're using a standard USB port, that only supplies 0.5A of charging current to your phone, and that IS slow charging for the S4. Check to see if your computer has a Powered USB port (these usually output anywhere from 1 to 2 Amps).

[Lucas Barbosa]

Are you keeping the screen on? Mine (granted, it's a Note 4, not an S4) doesn't seem to drain. Also bear in mind that if you have the screen on, and you're using a standard USB port, that only supplies 0.5A of charging current to your phone, and that IS slow charging for the S4. Check to see if your computer has a Powered USB port (these usually output anywhere from 1 to 2 Amps).

Screen is off. Sidesync only works with the screen off... once you turn it on, the phone is automatically disconnected from the pc.

I have all kinds of USB ports, blacks and blues, etc.. but the phone gets 0.5 amps from all of them (measured via cool tool). Any way to force 1 Amp?

[SpookDroid]

Oh, so you're using the screen mirroring feature... Sorry, I forgot that you cannot use both screens at the same time hehe. You can when only sharing keyboard and mouse though, which is what I do and since the phone is tethered to the computer anyway, I just keep the phone in a stand under my monitor.

But anyway, I don't know of any way to force the Amp output... mine is also drawing 0.5A out of even my powered ports (or so I assume since charging from my PC is slooooow). I think there's something in the pins of the cables, but I wouldn't be too eager to tamper with that.

[Ben Marsden]

I have an s4 mini and, true enough, it struggles to charge when I leave the screen mirrored onto the pc/laptop. It doesn't drain as I use the higher of the available powered USB ports on my laptop -USB3.0

It does get hot whenever mirroring though, so even though the screen isn't on, there must be some processing power being used that causes the power drain.

I close the screen on the sync and then it charges and cools as before.