Battery wifi issues

[RionDunn]

Hey all,

So I've discovered that my S5's battery dies really quickly when I'm connected to my wifi. Anyone know why this would be?

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[PsychDoc]

Very odd. Bluetooth will draw a lot of power but wifi is usually incredibly battery efficient. Why don't you post some screenshots of your battery usage data so that we can take a look and see what the problem is?

 

[AZgl1500]

Yes, it is odd.

I can scarcely tell if the WiFi is on or off.

In fact, when I toggle it OFF, Battery Doctor says that has "saved 23 minutes" use time. Since I get something like two days on a charge anyway, that 23 minutes is just about meaningless.

Tonight, I looked and there is 48% left.... normally that would be all. Just put it to bed with me and be done with it.

but, tomorrow the wife is having surgery and I foresee a lot of data being used in places that don't have a real good signal. So, popped it onto the Qi pad and it will be at 100% when we leave the house tmw morning.

Even if I watch YouTube videos all day, it ought to last until late in the evening w/o need of more juice.

 

[RionDunn]

Yes, it is odd.

I can scarcely tell if the WiFi is on or off.

In fact, when I toggle it OFF, Battery Doctor says that has "saved 23 minutes" use time. Since I get something like two days on a charge anyway, that 23 minutes is just about meaningless.

Tonight, I looked and there is 48% left.... normally that would be all. Just put it to bed with me and be done with it.

but, tomorrow the wife is having surgery and I foresee a lot of data being used in places that don't have a real good signal. So, popped it onto the Qi pad and it will be at 100% when we leave the house tmw morning.

Even if I watch YouTube videos all day, it ought to last until late in the evening w/o need of more juice.

This is so odd. There has to be a way to fix this. I notice my battery deplete relatively fast when I'm connected to WiFi. My iPhone and Nexus 5 didn't die this quickly when connected to WiFi. I just recently installed a booster in my home, due to lack of any reception at all. My battery was dying quickly, I thought for obvious reasons of no signal. This issue did not go away once I had installed and connected to the booster. So I decided to give it a shot and see what a night would be like at home disconnected from wifi. The battery life was substantially higher than I expected. There should be some setting on my S5 or router in order to change an address or something. I am starting to feel like this will be one of those "never going to solve the issue" situations. I hope someone gets ahold of this thread and has some sort of suggestion.....

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[RionDunn]

Very odd. Bluetooth will draw a lot of power but wifi is usually incredibly battery efficient. Why don't you post some screenshots of your battery usage data so that we can take a look and see what the problem is?

You can see exactly when I get home from work and connect to Wifi. The bottom right of the graph shows yellow then red, the battery all of the sudden plumits. This phone has the best battery life I have ever experienced on any smartphone. Day use is amazing, but this damn wifi is driving me nuts. There has to be a way to solve this issue. Let me know if you need additional screen shots or information. I'm not too sure where to go from here. All I know is that it's definitely the wifi draining my battery at home, after a couple weeks trial and error of course. Thanks for your help!

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[RionDunn]

Very odd. Bluetooth will draw a lot of power but wifi is usually incredibly battery efficient. Why don't you post some screenshots of your battery usage data so that we can take a look and see what the problem is?

Also see below,

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[RionDunn]

Very odd. Bluetooth will draw a lot of power but wifi is usually incredibly battery efficient. Why don't you post some screenshots of your battery usage data so that we can take a look and see what the problem is?

This is also confusing, it says my wifi had been on for 18 hours. This is completely inaccurate. Maybe 5 at the most...


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[Almeuit]

What was your screen on time though? Those screenshots helps but the top drain is screen... Which is normal but knowing that time helps a ton.

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[PsychDoc]

Have you disabled/uninstalled all bloatware and crap you don't use? Anything from Amazon, Verizon or Samsung fit that category and must be immediately killed. Then install Green Power (free download from Play Store). This will keep the phone from searching for signal when the screen is off. It has dramatically improved my battery life. I can get through at least 18 hours with 2.5 - 3 hours of screen on time. You will find that the phone searching for 3g/4g signal is the biggest battery killer in the world. Bluetooth is also a big battery hog.

Hope this helps.

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[sirmaru]

When you are home and NOT using your phone for apps, use two fingers to sweep down from the top and tap Ultra Power Savings Mode.

WiFi will be on in the background and calls and messages are active but battery time is extended by DAYS.

 

[AZgl1500]

This is so odd. There has to be a way to fix this. I notice my battery deplete relatively fast when I'm connected to WiFi. My iPhone and Nexus 5 didn't die this quickly when connected to WiFi. I just recently installed a booster in my home, due to lack of any reception at all. My battery was dying quickly, I thought for obvious reasons of no signal. This issue did not go away once I had installed and connected to the booster. So I decided to give it a shot and see what a night would be like at home disconnected from wifi. The battery life was substantially higher than I expected. There should be some setting on my S5 or router in order to change an address or something. I am starting to feel like this will be one of those "never going to solve the issue" situations. I hope someone gets a hold of this thread and has some sort of suggestion.....

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using AC Forums mobile app

by "booster" I think you are saying/meaning "network extender" ? That is for the cellphone DATA connection to your carrier/ATT/Verizon/Sprint?

I moved to a rural area w/o Verizon coverage. The other folks did not provide good coverage either and the phone was always roaming looking for a better signal. I purchased a Network Extender "mini cell site" from Verizon that plugs into the home wideband internet router. Wallah! I now have 5 bars on a carrier name of "Network Extender". works great.

My router is also plugged into a Buffalo WiFi router so I have a huge circle around my home with great WiFi.... I have the guest account turned OFF, and the primary account locked tight. No freebies for my neighbors to slurp up my bandwidth.

Now, your problem. Give us some screenshots of BATTERY, so we can see what is happening there.

I am assuming that you do have Wideband cable or DSL to your home for internet?
That is what you want your WiFi to be working from.


Also, how about logging into your WiFi router and changing the name of your WiFi account. That will force the S5 to ignore the old signal and log into the new signal. While you are at it, do NOT leave the WiFi channel on '11'. Turn on Channel 1 thru 6. I chose '6' because it is weird and no one will be looking for it there. Channels 1, 2, 3 are the strongest your router will be able to put out because the frequencies are lower and have better range. Experiment around a bit.

Report back....
Download these and see what you learn:

• WiFi Overview 360 Pro
• WiFi Manager
• Interference Analyzer
• WiFi Analyzer
• WiFi Scanner

Each of those apps has a nitch in the tools arena. I look at each of them to get an overall picture of what is happening around me.

WiFi Overview 360 Pro has a tab labeled: Ch: Check
it will show you what channels are free.




If you have a neighbor(s) with WiFi signals, your S5 is going to have a rough go of it trying to stay logged into your router. That is going to eat up a lot of battery, especially if some of those signals are weak and your WiFi is really ramping up the transmit power to reach them.

Using the above tools will let you learn who/what is in the air.... then you make damn sure that your force your WiFi onto an unused channel and lock it tight with a security password.
Do NOT leave an open channel available for the neighbors, or your phone to look at. You only want '1' WiFi signal period.....

Let us know what you discover.

 

[PainFX]

Hey all,

So I've discovered that my S5's battery dies really quickly when I'm connected to my wifi. Anyone know why this would be?

Sent from my SM-G900W8 using AC Forums mobile app

maybe an app is on?

 

[RionDunn]

by "booster" I think you are saying/meaning "network extender" ? That is for the cellphone DATA connection to your carrier/ATT/Verizon/Sprint?

I moved to a rural area w/o Verizon coverage. The other folks did not provide good coverage either and the phone was always roaming looking for a better signal. I purchased a Network Extender "mini cell site" from Verizon that plugs into the home wideband internet router. Wallah! I now have 5 bars on a carrier name of "Network Extender". works great.

My router is also plugged into a Buffalo WiFi router so I have a huge circle around my home with great WiFi.... I have the guest account turned OFF, and the primary account locked tight. No freebies for my neighbors to slurp up my bandwidth.

Now, your problem. Give us some screenshots of BATTERY, so we can see what is happening there.

I am assuming that you do have Wideband cable or DSL to your home for internet?
That is what you want your WiFi to be working from.


Also, how about logging into your WiFi router and changing the name of your WiFi account. That will force the S5 to ignore the old signal and log into the new signal. While you are at it, do NOT leave the WiFi channel on '11'. Turn on Channel 1 thru 6. I chose '6' because it is weird and no one will be looking for it there. Channels 1, 2, 3 are the strongest your router will be able to put out because the frequencies are lower and have better range. Experiment around a bit.

Report back....
Download these and see what you learn:

• WiFi Overview 360 Pro
• WiFi Manager
• Interference Analyzer
• WiFi Analyzer
• WiFi Scanner

Each of those apps has a nitch in the tools arena. I look at each of them to get an overall picture of what is happening around me.

WiFi Overview 360 Pro has a tab labeled: Ch: Check
it will show you what channels are free.

View attachment 124084


If you have a neighbor(s) with WiFi signals, your S5 is going to have a rough go of it trying to stay logged into your router. That is going to eat up a lot of battery, especially if some of those signals are weak and your WiFi is really ramping up the transmit power to reach them.

Using the above tools will let you learn who/what is in the air.... then you make damn sure that your force your WiFi onto an unused channel and lock it tight with a security password.
Do NOT leave an open channel available for the neighbors, or your phone to look at. You only want '1' WiFi signal period.....

Let us know what you discover.

OK so this is my setup. I am in Canada and my current carrier is Telus. I have a booster antenna on the roof of my home which runs down to a booster unit, looks like a router that floods the basement with signal. Works great. I do not have any neighbours with wifi that will reach my area. Far out of range from any other house. I'm not to sure what channel my router is running on but I will log into it and see what's going on. I will also download the suggested apps. I already have wifi analyzer which will only show me the strength and channel I'm running on. I'll look into these and get back to you. Thanks for going out of your way for this. Greatly appreciated. Please see previous pages within this thread to see all the screen shots I posted. You'll see the wifi set at 18 hours of usage which doesn't make any sense. I had it off all day during this battery cycle, and was connected to it for only 5 hours at the most when I got home that day. What do you think?

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[RionDunn]

OK so this is my setup. I am in Canada and my current carrier is Telus. I have a booster antenna on the roof of my home which runs down to a booster unit, looks like a router that floods the basement with signal. Works great. I do not have any neighbours with wifi that will reach my area. Far out of range from any other house. I'm not to sure what channel my router is running on but I will log into it and see what's going on. I will also download the suggested apps. I already have wifi analyzer which will only show me the strength and channel I'm running on. I'll look into these and get back to you. Thanks for going out of your way for this. Greatly appreciated. Please see previous pages within this thread to see all the screen shots I posted. You'll see the wifi set at 18 hours of usage which doesn't make any sense. I had it off all day during this battery cycle, and was connected to it for only 5 hours at the most when I got home that day. What do you think?

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Check this out. So I have a couple of different wireless devices that are located upstairs and have to stay running for a fish tank. It seems as if the wifi on my phone won't stop scanning and wifi analyzer keeps showing the devices then they disappear after a minute then show up again. It seems as if they are just out of range and they handset is constantly trying to reach out to them. How do I tell my S5 to stop looking for those devices?

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[AZgl1500]

6/19/2014 8:35 PM
Okay, what I think I understand is that your only internet access is via the roof top antenna. May I assume that this is just a duplex radio signal that only provides you with internet access? We have a local provider here in my rural area that does the same thing.

Just to clarify, your S5 does not access your carrier through that roof top antenna and booster setup?

I am rereading your posts which I placed into MS Word for editing. (much easier to do things like this)

You state that you get a good solid signal throughout the basement. You don't specify if that signal is a WiFi signal, or is a Telus cell site signal for the phone's use to dial up and talk to someone. If the latter is the case, I foresee problems.

Until I get clarification on that, I am going to wait to go any further. I have 40 years radio/microwave/telecommunications/computer experience…. But my training wants good solid info before trying to diagnose problems.

 

[AZgl1500]

This is also confusing, it says my wifi had been on for 18 hours. This is completely inaccurate. Maybe 5 at the most...

Well, the WiFi receiver has been scanning that length of time. That is normal though IF you leave the Wifi activated. I don't, I turn it OFF when I don't need it.

Just for grins and the sake of isolating things, install Battery Doctor and make the Switch Widget available so you can get to it handily. It is on my Main Home Screen.

* Battery Doctor (Battery Saver) - Android Apps on Google Play
make sure that you go thru all the menus and change the default Screen Off Timer. It is 30 seconds if you don't. I use 10 minutes becuz I want the screen to stay on so I can read the newspaper (via the phone).


When I'm not using my phone, I open BD's switcher window and turn off:
data, wifi, sync, bluetooth. I leave GPS on high accuracy as I discovered that is not a big consumer of battery. Easier to just leave it on. where you are, maybe a lesser mode would be okay?

Turning that stuff off will greatly extend your phone's battery.
The phone will still make/receive calls and send/receive SMS messages.

I may assume that you have turned OFF all bloatware?

 

[RionDunn]

6/19/2014 8:35 PM
Okay, what I think I understand is that your only internet access is via the roof top antenna. May I assume that this is just a duplex radio signal that only provides you with internet access? We have a local provider here in my rural area that does the same thing.

Just to clarify, your S5 does not access your carrier through that roof top antenna and booster setup?

I am rereading your posts which I placed into MS Word for editing. (much easier to do things like this)

You state that you get a good solid signal throughout the basement. You don't specify if that signal is a WiFi signal, or is a Telus cell site signal for the phone's use to dial up and talk to someone. If the latter is the case, I foresee problems.

Until I get clarification on that, I am going to wait to go any further. I have 40 years radio/microwave/telecommunications/computer experience…. But my training wants good solid info before trying to diagnose problems.

OK so I have two different signals coming into the basement. One is cellular and the other is wireless Internet via radio on a tower of my house. We can't get cabled Internet out where we are. So I have a booster antenna for my cellular signal and a radio for my Internet which comes down into the same room. The Internet goes into a wireless modem which converts it into wifi. The Internet provider is Nexicom if you would like to look them up. Across that same room is the booster antenna that puts out the signal for my cellular signal. I have research this info and the manufacturer states this should not cause any issues between both router and booster crossing frequencies. It seems the Internet runs fine as well as the booster antenna provides strong signal.

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[RionDunn]

Well, the WiFi receiver has been scanning that length of time. That is normal though IF you leave the Wifi activated. I don't, I turn it OFF when I don't need it.

Just for grins and the sake of isolating things, install Battery Doctor and make the Switch Widget available so you can get to it handily. It is on my Main Home Screen.

* Battery Doctor (Battery Saver) - Android Apps on Google Play
make sure that you go thru all the menus and change the default Screen Off Timer. It is 30 seconds if you don't. I use 10 minutes becuz I want the screen to stay on so I can read the newspaper (via the phone).


When I'm not using my phone, I open BD's switcher window and turn off:
data, wifi, sync, bluetooth. I leave GPS on high accuracy as I discovered that is not a big consumer of battery. Easier to just leave it on. where you are, maybe a lesser mode would be okay?

Turning that stuff off will greatly extend your phone's battery.
The phone will still make/receive calls and send/receive SMS messages.

I may assume that you have turned OFF all bloatware?

I have turned off all bloatware and have attempted to use battery doctor but found it contributed to my battery drain even more. Really the only thing I would like to figure out is why my phone dies so quickly when I'm connected to my wifi. My battery is amazing when I'm in town at work out and about. The wifi at work does not cause my battery to drain nearly as much if not at all. I know it has something to do with the wifi at my house because I have tested both with cellular data and wireless data, cellular data will not drain, but I can almost watch the battery indicator drop drastically when I'm connected. Do you think it could be the channel my router is in, as mentioned before? I do not know what else it could be.

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[RionDunn]

I have turned off all bloatware and have attempted to use battery doctor but found it contributed to my battery drain even more. Really the only thing I would like to figure out is why my phone dies so quickly when I'm connected to my wifi. My battery is amazing when I'm in town at work out and about. The wifi at work does not cause my battery to drain nearly as much if not at all. I know it has something to do with the wifi at my house because I have tested both with cellular data and wireless data, cellular data will not drain, but I can almost watch the battery indicator drop drastically when I'm connected. Do you think it could be the channel my router is in, as mentioned before? I do not know what else it could be.

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Again thanks for all your help, its very nice of you to put all this effort into trouble shooting

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[RionDunn]

Again thanks for all your help, its very nice of you to put all this effort into trouble shooting

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Also, does the wifi scanner scan when I set it to off in advanced settings? It keeps showing it scanning every 5 seconds or so. If this is scanning so often in the background looking for those two devices I have as well as other devices then no wonder my battery gets destroyed when my wifi is on at home. Just to confirm, even though I have disabled scanning, it shows scaling for devices when I open the wifi settings.

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