Battery life

[Gary_Berg]

I've had a couple of battery oddities in the last week...

1) I used by Tab S3 in the morning, then closed the case and stuck it in my bag (did not power off, left WiFi switched on). That afternoon I drove for 3 hours. When I opened the tablet that evening battery was 20%. It was probably 85% when I put it away that morning. Battery stats didn't point at high battery use by anything.

A couple days later I was using it for about an hour, it went from 100% to about 75% in that time. Again, battery stats didn't point to anything.

I've had the tablet for about 18 months, and I use it around 6 hours per day. I usually top it off mid-day, so it rarely gets below 50%.

Any comments?

 

[B. Diddy]

Does your car have wi-fi? Is the tablet wi-fi only, or is it also LTE-enabled?

 

[neo999]

Assuming you have Android 9, did this start after the upgrade? Mine has been intermittently terrible. Some days fine, some excessive.

 

[Gary_Berg]

This is a WiFi only model, no wifi in the car.

I've had some oddities since the Android 9 update. It would sometimes get into some race condition after a couple of days which would suck down the battery. Setting it up so it reboots every morning before I get up seems to have resolved that issue.

 

[neo999]

This is a WiFi only model, no wifi in the car.

I've had some oddities since the Android 9 update. It would sometimes get into some race condition after a couple of days which would suck down the battery. Setting it up so it reboots every morning before I get up seems to have resolved that issue.

I've experienced the same, but scheduled reboots haven't helped so far. Even tried wiping the cache partition. Battery usage still wacky. I think it's the Home UI that's the problem. But I think only an update will help.

 

[B. Diddy]

Does it get really warm when this happens?

 

[neo999]

Does it get really warm when this happens?

Yes, but not all the time.

 

[B. Diddy]

And when this happens and you look at the battery stats, are you tapping Menu>Show System Processes as well? The default is just to show app usage, not system process usage.

 

[Gary_Berg]

And when this happens and you look at the battery stats, are you tapping Menu>Show System Processes as well? The default is just to show app usage, not system process usage.

It looks like showing system processes on my tablet is the default. So yes, I looked at that. I'd say my tablet doesn't get particularly warm when the battery starts running low. It hasn't done it to me now for 2-3 days..?

 

[neo999]

It looks like showing system processes on my tablet is the default. So yes, I looked at that. I'd say my tablet doesn't get particularly warm when the battery starts running low. It hasn't done it to me now for 2-3 days..?

Same here

 

[Rukbat]

When you have WiFi enabled, and there's no WiFi signal available, the WiFi transmitter is set to its highest power, meaning its highest battery drain - and for nothing. There's not going to be any router it can connect to. Turn WiFi off when you're not using it. (Besides, why do you eave it on when it's in your bag? Is there a tiny little man in the bag using it? It doesn't cost anything to turn it off, put it in the bag, then turn it on later when you take it out. But it does keep from killing the battery. (Letting it drop to 20% all the time is going to mean a battery replacement [probably early] in 2020, and the battery should last about 4 years if you treat it properly.)

 

[Gary_Berg]

I've done this before and typically the battery drops very little when driving around. It's not like I do it often, either.

I am trying to change my behavior now?

I also set the option to only charge to about 85% to see if the battery does better?

 

[anon(10181084)]

What @Rukbat said, plus the fact that your battery might not be in the best shape.