battery death after 8 months

[mugwai]

forgive me in advance - this is a lot of information and a lot of frustration....

i have had the galaxy s7 (sprint) for about 8 months now. it was doing fine in terms of battery usage. with my music playing most of the day, and with intermittent game play/bus tracking, the battery would still last from about 8 am to 8pm, sometimes even longer, without dying... in fact i could have up to 50%+ battery life left by the time i got home. now, all it wants to do is die, i'm down to 4% battery by noon, and require another charge by 4:30pm in order to get home. i have tried every single solution covered in this forum and in every article i could find and there is no apparent solution - i've "turned off" the running apps by using the overlay button to the left of start... everything looks closed, but my music doesn't stop - so is it closed (OFF) or isn't it?? i've set up all the power saving modes. i have closed all apps when not in use (from the overlay button), i've NOT closed all apps from the overlay button), since an article suggested letting the phone use it's power saving settings to shut those apps down when not in use... nothing changes.... amazon video, which i used ONCE 2 weeks ago (before the phone started dying so quickly; not so close in time that i immediately noticed the faster drain, but close enough that it makes me wonder), i have force closed it from the battery usage screen, as well as gone into app manager and shut it down there - and every time i check battery usage stats, the damn thing is still showing as running and using about 11%... the big drain at 34% seems to be google play music - which also recently purchased my old music app (songza), it's a pos, but it's got my playlists already (like amazon video, google play music became the music app i use before the battery drain started happening, but not so close in time that it's obviously the new culprit) - do i have to get rid of it and get something else to stream music ?

HELP!

my general usage: unplug the phone 8am, turn on bus tracker app and google play music app. turn on family guy the quest for stuff game (2%), listen to music, sometime around 11am/noonish i get the first warning that my battery is low (20%), about 3 minutes later i get the second warning, and about a minute after that my phone is at 2%. sadly, these are not exaggerations. NOTHING ELSE IS RUNNING DURING THESE TIMES! music, bus tracker, and the occasional text. briefing is turned off. around 5pm the bus tracker gets used, a quick check into family guy the quest for stuff, maybe a game of solitare, and a couple rounds of candy crush saga - all after the recharge earlier in the day and another around 4pm.

on the battery usage screen the following things are apparently running at the following percentages (some even though i swiped right from the overlay button to the left of start):
google play music - 32%
media server - 19% (don't even know what this is)
screen - 11% (i use lock screen with pattern, default static background, no bells and whistles - same usage since the phone was purchased)
amazon video - 11% (i swear i shut this thing down from app manager, force stop, disable, everything except uninstall) - it's still on the list running
android system - 6%
android os - 5%
google services - 5%
cell standby - 4% (what he hell is this even?)
family guy - 2%
device idle - 1%

optimize battery usage is turned on for everything EXCEPT:
google play services (won't allow me to turn it on)
samsung push service (won"t allow me to turn it on)
smart device manager (won't allow me to turn it on)
voicemail (won't allow me to turn it on)

i have let the phone run down, i have not let the phone run down, i have charged overnight regularly, i have let the battery drain to 40%, charged to 100%, let it go to 30% and charged to full, i have used fast charge, regular charge, wireless and wired charging from ac and a portable charger. i have turned the phone off and turned it back on after a half an hour, after a few hours. i tried to get snapdragon batteryguru, which was specifically suggested in an article to specifically address this issue with THIS PHONE (galaxy s7) and surprise, surprise, my device isn't compatible.

one thing i have noticed is that many of the battery drain articles are at least as old as the phone, many people have posted that they experience it when they buy the phone, but i haven't seen any specific suggestions or comments that are recent enough to be even a little bit applicable. i also recently

also, can someone frigging explain why samsung has bragged about doze, and everyone is talking about doze for the s7 and it ISN'T ON THE PHONE? samsung is really getting on my apple nerve. ggrrrr
HELP!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! A couple things that stand out are the relatively high battery usage for Google Play Music and Mediaserver. Are you constantly listening to music, or is it just intermittent? The Mediaserver usage could be related to a corrupt media file, often on the SD card -- is that possible in your case? Have you tried Unmounting and removing the SD card to see if the battery drain persists?

Another common culprit is poor cell signal. How's yours in general?

It'd be helpful to actually see your battery stats. Charge up to 100%, then let it drain to 20-30% with normal usage, without charging in between. Then show us:

1. The main Settings>Battery screen.
2. The fullscreen battery graph screen (which shows Awake time and Cell Signal Strength).
3. The Screen category (to see total Screen On time).
4. The Cell Standby category, if present (to see Time Without Signal).


http://forums.androidcentral.com/ge...ide-how-post-screenshots-android-central.html


You might have to install a 3rd party battery monitor, like GSam Battery Monitor, to get the Cell Signal Strength graph.

 

[mugwai]

thanks, in answer to your questions: i listen to music most of the day at work, and definitely during my commute on public transportation. about 3 months ago google aquired and implemented the platform of my old music app (songza); while i did notice some battery drain as a result, i was still able to get most of the day (at least a whole work day/commute) up until about 2 weeks ago (?). suddenly the battery was draining before noon. after checking the battery stats i noticed that amazon video (built in) was running up around 38% and 900+ mAh (even when listed as disabled) (google play music currently running at about 463mAh), i opened it once about 2 weeks ago for about a half hour to check on getting it on my tv via bluetooth or mirroring) so i thought "AHA I FOUND YOU, YOU *******!" and tried to turn it off. after furiously trying to disable/force stop/phone restart multiple times it finally dropped off the list of running apps, and my battery is behaving better today... except it isn't as good as it used to be, i'm down to 22% at 3pm - not the 8pm+ i used to get, but much more acceptable i suppose than 3% after 3 hours of use. is it possible that amazon video running as it did might have ruined the battery permanently?? ugh! anyway, here are some screen shots from earlier today.... the cell signal info isn't there, but i think i mentioned sprint, so you know it probably isn't good... i get about half the bars outside my house, and about 1-2 bars inside my house. except for my commute, i am on wireless from 8:30am to 5pm, and once i get home the music is off, i play some games, and the phone is plugged in (all night based on info i found on a couple of sites that say the ion battery in the galaxy s7 will automatically stop charging when it's full regardless of whether it's plugged in. i occasionally let the battery run down and shut off the phone, maybe once every 2 weeks or so (not on purpose), but generally i have the battery plugged in once the phone falls below about 40% so i don't get stuck later. i am using standard chargers and ac, i occasionally use the fast charge that came with the phone. game play is limited on the phone to family guy the quest for stuff (which requires a connection), solitare and candy crush (both run with or without connection). oddly i do not use the phone to talk to anyone, so phone calls are at a minimum. i do text and use the camera regularly, never noticed them affecting the battery like this.

i did put in a new sd card just a couple of weeks ago! my camera crashed like a meteor last weekend! i'm definitely going to reinstall it!

again i appreciate your help and apologize for the long-windedness :/ i hope the screenshots load

 

[B. Diddy]

Have you unmounted and removed the SD card yet? That could still be a significant contributor to your issues, if a media file on it is corrupt or if the whole card itself is corrupt.

 

[mugwai]

next step, have to do it tonight, will let you know! i appreciate your help!

 

[chanchan05]

During the times it was still working well, at what percentage of the battery would you usually plug the phone in to charge? Do you often run it down flat to zero? How often do you do that?

 

[mugwai]

a i occasionally let the battery run down and shut off the phone, maybe once every 2 weeks or so (not on purpose), but generally i have the battery plugged in once the phone falls below about 40% so i don't get stuck later.

- basically this.... except i really tried not to let the battery die - so it was probably more like hardly ever in the beginning and got more often in the last month or so before it just started dying 4 times a day in the last couple of weeks.