Android System Battery Drain Absurd!

[H8FKAndroid]

I have a problem, which turns out to be more widespread, than I originally thought.

When I look at my battery in settings, "Android System" (a collection of 82 apps / services with system / root privileges) is consuming as much as 36% of my total battery, which can be more than the screen itself!

The issue becomes even more glaring, when compared to an S6, where Android System barely even shows up on the battery statistics.

Now, maybe in the US your carriers have pushed out updates to fix this issue or maybe not, but in my part of the world they definitely didn't, and don't plan to, any time soon. They don't even acknowledge the issue when contacted.

I've tried pretty much everything, and three factory resets later, and a package disabler down the drain, I'm left with thinking, that if I root my phone, I can perhaps pinpoint the package responsible, and deactivate it - it's my last hope, unless someone has a better idea.

I'm going to try attaching some screenshots, to show the severity of the problem.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

I don't know what's wrong with the first post, as it only shows one screenshot, so I'm attaching the second one here.


Additionally, I visited two stores that have these devices on display, and looked into their battery stats, and they were not much better, in fact, some were even worse than what I'm experiencing.

Anyway, this screenshot shows how bad it can get, and consider the fact that there's still some battery life left, so that consumption percentage will only go up!

 

[dashauns]

Ive had exceptionally high android system drain as well, it seems to be ok for a while after i restart but after a couple hours of it being off of the charger it drains battery much faster than it used to.

 

[chanchan05]

No problems like that on my end it seems. After leaving the phone overnight I get these readings on GSAM. Doesn't seem excessive drain for a nearly 1.5yr old device with heavy usage. I mean games do drain a lot. Standby I get like 2% per hour drain with AOD on and several apps set to run in the background like Tasker on GPS monitoring, no package disabler set. But playing a game like War Robots drain like 15% per hour. Lol.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

No problems like that on my end it seems. After leaving the phone overnight I get these readings on GSAM. Doesn't seem excessive drain for a nearly 1.5yr old device with heavy usage.

Actually that's very similar to what I get in Gsam sometimes... 18-20% for Android System.

Other times it's >30% for Android System... It's kinda unpredictable.

My point is, it should not be so high! Not 20, and especially not 30% total battery usage. That's the absurd part.

My brother has a SGS6, and on his phone Android System barely even shows up in statistics, despite having a similar number of services. That kinda drives me mad, when I think that my battery could last as much as 50% longer...

 

[chanchan05]

Actually that's very similar to what I get in Gsam sometimes... 18-20% for Android System.

Other times it's >30% for Android System... It's kinda unpredictable.

My point is, it should not be so high! Not 20, and especially not 30% total battery usage. That's the absurd part.

My brother has a SGS6, and on his phone Android System barely even shows up in statistics, despite having a similar number of services. That kinda drives me mad, when I think that my battery could last as much as 50% longer...

My case that's an overnight record. Meaning nothing else was running basically except for Android system. I'd expect it to be high because there's nothing else running.

As it is, the battery life I am getting on standby is close to what reviews are saying. On continuous use for say an hour with gaming, browsing, and youtube, checking GSAM later shows I have been running at around 10%/hr which equates to 10hrs continuous SOT if I use it straight. That's close to the best time the S7E achieved when it was new (11hrs if I remember correctly), so I am not overly concerned. Especially when I consider that this is a relatively abused device with me, and its 1.5yrs old but the battery degradation is just at about 10% when people should normally expect like 20% degradation at this point in time of the battery lifespan. The only power saving feature I activated is limiting max CPU power to 70% and decreasing brightness, as well as using data saver, all done via built in settings. I don't use package disabler.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

I see. Well, my battery life is not bad by itself. My problem is, that I'm kind of a perfectionist, and when I see unnecessary battery drain like that, it drives me nuts.

I also tried using built in battery saver to limit CPU frequency (without limiting anything else on those settings), but when I do that, my notifications kinda disappear.

At least for Netguard. Not sure about others. And that, even tho I don't block background data.

 

[chanchan05]

I see. Well, my battery life is not bad by itself. My problem is, that I'm kind of a perfectionist, and when I see unnecessary battery drain like that, it drives me nuts.

I also tried using built in battery saver to limit CPU frequency (without limiting anything else on those settings), but when I do that, my notifications kinda disappear.

At least for Netguard. Not sure about others. And that, even tho I don't block background data.

It's not unnecessary. Android system SHOULD be there. It's the freaking Android system. Have you looked at the stuff in there? You have Samsung and Google Backups (these are both on by default for some reason. Turn off Google Backups because that uses more power), your WiFi service, your network service, your charging service, basically everything on the phone that makes it work falls under Android system.

I'd be more worried if it's not there on a prolonged standby, because that means your apps are running higher and using battery more than the default functions of the phone itself.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

I think you misunderstood. I did not say Android System is unnecessary. I said the abnormal battery drain is unnecessary.

I am well aware that many of the services in there are ones I use regularly.

Problem is, I believe there must be a bug in at least one of the services, or in the way they work together.

If on a Samsung Galaxy S6 running Android 7 "Android System" battery use can be as low as a couple of percent. Single digits, even tho it's running most if not all of the same services.

Apps are always supposed to be optimized to use as little battery as possible.

Unfortunately, these aren't.

 

[Michael Saxon]

The point you are missing is that those percentages are relative numbers. So, of the battery you've used, x percent is due to android system. In a properly running system, where apps are not running inappropriately in the background, android system or phone idle SHOULD BE THE TOP ITEMS. anything else means you have a rogue app. Look at total battery drain at idle. As people have said before...if you're getting 2 percent or less TOTAL battery drain per hour you're good.

 

[chanchan05]

I think you misunderstood. I did not say Android System is unnecessary. I said the abnormal battery drain is unnecessary.

I am well aware that many of the services in there are ones I use regularly.

Problem is, I believe there must be a bug in at least one of the services, or in the way they work together.

If on a Samsung Galaxy S6 running Android 7 "Android System" battery use can be as low as a couple of percent. Single digits, even tho it's running most if not all of the same services.

Apps are always supposed to be optimized to use as little battery as possible.

Unfortunately, these aren't.

Back in Marshmallow, there was a Google Backup bug which caused unnecessary wake locks and excessive battery drain via Android System.

Try turning yours off.

I always perform a factory reset after a major update, but I've kept my Google Backup off.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Thanks for the suggestion! I will look into my Google settings.

As for the factory reset, I've had to do it three times so far. Well, I only HAD to do it once, when I caused a boot-loop. The other two times I did it in the hope it would help. It didn't...

But I did just install Wakelock Detector Lite, as per your suggestion, and activated it through ADB. Time to collect some data!

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Look at total battery drain at idle. As people have said before...if you're getting 2 percent or less TOTAL battery drain per hour you're good.

That's a good approach for comparison between phone's, I guess.

But we need to set some conditions for this to make sense.

Is Wi-Fi supposed to be ON, or is this supposed to be on LTE, or neither?

Since you said idle, I can look for a period of time in Systempanel 2 where Screen is OFF and these conditions were met, and report back, with the %/h it shows.


EDIT: I guess I was just hoping, that in the time since this phone was released, someone had found the solution to this issue.

Also, I am waiting for some screenshots of the same battery stats on a Samsung Galaxy S6, to show how big of a difference there actually is...

 

[anon(5316299)]

That's a good approach for comparison between phone's, I guess.

But we need to set some conditions for this to make sense.

Is Wi-Fi supposed to be ON, or is this supposed to be on LTE, or neither?

Since you said idle, I can look for a period of time in Systempanel 2 where Screen is OFF and these conditions were met, and report back, with the %/h it shows.


EDIT: I guess I was just hoping, that in the time since this phone was released, someone had found the solution to this issue.

Also, I am waiting for some screenshots of the same battery stats on a Samsung Galaxy S6, to show how big of a difference there actually is...

If you have idle drain of less than 2% per hour, then there is no real issue to address. Wifi or lte depends on the relative signal strength. If you have good signal on both, then wifi on or off should have similar results. You'll see android system pop near the top when you're getting a lot of emails, or updating your fitbit via Bluetooth, or other background processes that are normal. At night, when things quiet down, phone idle should be higher.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Now just to make things more interesting, I have "Android System" blocked in my firewall. And my firewall logs all of the internet access attempts.

Can someone please explain to me, what, Android System would have to be constantly attempting to contact the addresses you can see in the attached image?

To me, that is very weird, to say the least....


P.S. This was a scroll-capture, so I hope it all shows up here, otherwise I'll have to edit it...

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Ok, I'm not sure you can see the fun parts, so I cropped them out, and here they are.


I don't even use ANY of the web pages on this list! What is going on?

 

[chanchan05]

Now just to make things more interesting, I have "Android System" blocked in my firewall. And my firewall logs all of the internet access attempts.

Can someone please explain to me, what, Android System would have to be constantly attempting to contact the addresses you can see in the attached image?

To me, that is very weird, to say the least....


P.S. This was a scroll-capture, so I hope it all shows up here, otherwise I'll have to edit it...

Would be an app that uses a services of Android System. On a Samsung I would expect that from Daily Briefing. I disabled that.

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Holy ****, you're right! What else would be contacting all those sites!

I'm disabling it right away! Then I'll be watching the battery like a hawk!

Thank you so much for this! I hope I'm not expecting too much, but I'll report back with the results...


What confuses me is, that Briefing is a separate app, which still works, even if Android System is blocked in firewall. Why use Android System services at all, is what I don't understand.

I kinda liked it, but didn't use it lately anyway. It's disabled now.

However, what is "Daily Briefing"? Is this another thing, or did you just mean the Briefing app?

 

[H8FKAndroid]

Unfortunately, one day after disabling the Briefing app, "Android System" access attempts still look practically the same....


Why on Earth would Android System services need to be contacting these websites, none of which I ever even use?

If a website on that list has its own app, I've disabled it from the start...

 

[H8FKAndroid]

OK, until now, while the battery usage ratio was confusing, the overall battery life was good.

Now, suddenly, I'm getting like 7 hours. Like WTF?

And the usage ratios didn't even change, to get to this point.

I don't know what I should do at this point, it's like I have to charge my phone all the time.