Discharging rapidly

[NancyinWI]

I have read with interest all the similar issues people have had with the Samsung Galaxy S3 charging issues, but I haven't found one that is exactly like mine.

The problem started a little over a week ago. I used a car charger, I'm sorry I don't know the make or model, received as a gift, and noticed that it was not charging my phone. The regular wall charger worked fine. However, I noticed that my phone would discharge quite rapidly. I was on 4G at the time because I was traveling. When I was WiFi connected, the drain was not as bad.

Once I got home and fully recharged the phone with wall plug in charger, the phone worked fine for a week.
Yesterday, the problems began again.
I can watch the battery deplete without even using it. In a few hours today, it went from 100% charged to 17%.
When I check the battery usage, something called "Media" with an icon that looks like a download arrow usage is at 50%. I have deleted everything in the "Download" app. I have turned off and restarted the phone. I have removed the battery and replaced it. I have cleared the cache on email and cleared history on the browser. I have deleted a whole bunch of apps I don't use anymore.

I have had NO problems with this phone or the charging until recently, even with LOTS of apps on the phone and everything syncing at regular intervals, getting notifications etc.
The only problem I had yesterday was that the phone totally locked up and I couldn't shut it off or restart it. Nothing. So I did open it up and remove the battery and put it back in, started it back up and everything seemed to be fine. The phone charges fine with the wall outlet charger.

The Android version is 4.1.1
Last 4 digits of build number is LK3

I have a protection plan in place and I will go to the AT&T store, I just wanted to know if there was something else I could do before I do that.
What does a factory reset do? Wipe everything clean? Any way to save contacts, photos, and anything else wiped if I should have to do that?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Nancy

Okay. I charged my phone while I was eating dinner...about 45 minutes and charged from 15% to 88%. I have been using it a bit and have been checking it and it has remained at 88% for the past 10 minutes. However, the battery is still showing the following:

I attempted to link to a picture on my Sky Drive, but it's not appearing.
Anyway, the "media" is still showing at 47%.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Heavy media use can indicate a couple of things. Given your description, the most likely seems to be a corrupted media file or SD card. If you have an SD card, shut down the phone and remove it, then power back up and see if that keeps the problem from coming back. If you don't have an SD card, or removing it doesn't solve the problem, try deleting (or copying to a PC and then deleting) all your media files from the internal storage and rebooting the phone.

If removing the SD card resolved the problem, copy all the files from it to your PC, reformat the card, and copy the files back. If the problem comes back, you'll have to try to figure out what file is causing the problem. If it was a file on internal storage, same thing.

As for backing up your data, the best approach if you're not rooted is to use the Helium backup app from the Play store.

Oh, regarding media still showing at 47%. Those stats won't reset until you charge to 100% and then unplug the charger. So the phone is still showing prior use, not necessarily current stats.

 

[NancyinWI]

Thank you very much for your reply

thank you so much for the info about having to charge the phone to 100% before seeing a change! I did notice that when I plugged in phone and charged it to 100% the media app that was draining the phone was gone. My battery stopped draining at a rapid rate also.
I still notice that while using the phone, the battery drains at approximately 1% every 5 minutes. On a day when I would be needing to use it a lot, I'd be out of battery long before the end of the day. Now the only thing that concerns me is that it says that the screen is using 67% of the battery. I have it set on "automatic" and to turn off after 15 seconds of being idle. Does having photo backgrounds drain the battery? I don't have ones that use motion. Is this just a common thing with the Galaxy S3?
I'm considering buying a high capacity battery for $30 to solve the problem.
Thanks again for your help. I very much appreciate it!

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Battery drain is a tricky thing to compare. There are so many variables: signal strength, 3g vs. 4g, vs WiFi, how many programs are syncing data and how often, screen brightness and on time, and more. Take a look at this thread; you might find some useful tips there: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/278622-battery-life-tips-myths.html

Is the battery draining at 1% / 5 minutes when you're actively using it, screen on, playing a game or surfing the web or on Facebook, etc., or when the screen is off and the phone "idle"? There's a big difference. I'd suggest doing screen captures of 3 battery related pages. First, let the battery drop to 50% or less left, then capture the Battery stats page in Settings / Battery. On that page, tap on the graph, and capture the screen that appears. Hit back, then the row that shows screen usage, and capture that screen. Post all three screens here.

 

[NancyinWI]

Battery drains at 1%/5 minutes when actively using the phone on the internet. It is losing only 1% an hour when idle and screen off. It does drain much more when on 4G, for instance, when using GPS/maps for directions.
I will attempt to post all three screen captures, though when I tried to do that with a link to my skydrive or dropbox, it didn't work.
Any easy way to post pictures?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Just click "Go Advanced" when you're adding a new post and attach them directly here.

When you're using the gps for directions not only are you using 3g / 4g to download maps, but you're using the GPS radio. That will drain the battery quickly. If you're going to use Nav in a car, invest in a car charger.

 

[NancyinWI]

Thanks...I was using a car charger that apparently wasn't working. I have since bought a new one and will test it out our next trip.
I've had my phone on all day, using it periodically both on 4G and WiFi and it's still at 59%, so I guess I don't have too much of a problem.