Galaxy Note 2 - Massive battery drain after 4.3 update

[W Walsh]

Thanks, that was VERY helpful. I just got a phone a couple of days ago (4), and I have been recharging it daily. Thought as long as I kept wifi off, and didn't use internet, that the battery usage would be minimal like my old (non-smart) phone. But this seems to use about 25% daily, whether online or not. I charged it up last night, and left it over night, and still was down to 91% by early morning. Your post was much appreciated. I did all that you suggested. I was very surprised to find all those things on. Once again, thanks.

 

[Prasanjeet Sikder]

I have Samsung NOTE 2 GT-N7100 model, I too had the same problem, finally I had to reset my phone, It all became fine for few days. battery was working like as before. I kept updating the softwares daily say 2-3. after few days again battery drain started. I again did a factory reset & repeated the same process of updating few softwares daily. After few days again battery drain started. Again a factory reset. Finally I can conclude that in my case whenever I updated Samsung apps battery drain started. So at the end I can conclude that do a factory reset for your phone, but never update Samsung apps. Try to download everything for google play store only.

 

[DrDrag]

2 months working without battery draining and I had the same problem again (no new app installed). After a week unsuccessful attempt I read the full forum again. I went into the developer mode and seems to solve draining. I did that yesterday and since then my Note 2 had it's normal battery life again. One more thing, draining started every times after using gps and mobile internet at the same time (waze, endomondo).

 

[hIrVaRi]

I have figured out that my problem was wifi. With wifi my battery drain at night (8h) about 40% and without wifi and mobile data on less than 10%.

 

[Christos Terzis]

I have figured out that my problem was wifi. With wifi my battery drain at night (8h) about 40% and without wifi and mobile data on less than 10%.

10% is still a lot of drain for 8 hours. It should be between 2-4%. Anyway it is good that you have brought your phone back to acceptable levels.

 

[rockporiom]

I have gone through the whole thread and tried almost all techniques mentioned here and it looks like I have finally cracked it. Getting 1-2% battery drain per hour in sleep mode. Getting upto 22 hours of battery life on single use. This is with WIFI, data and automatic brightness. Usage was basically social networking and youtube. I have a normal wallpaper.

What I did was uninstall and force stop all knox components and uninstall automatic call recorder, robocop, andy's room LWP.

For uninstalling Knox I had to first update it (154 MB) and then uninstall it after that Force stopped all related components that were mentioned by a member on this thread.

After uninstalling all the above mentioned downloaded Battery Doctor. Both Battery doctor and Wakelock Detector showed chomp sms as a battery hogger so deleted it. Now my note 2 is back in action.

Tried the same on 2 note 2's both show similar result hope this helps

 

[flashsexington2]

Hi, I had the same problem after 4.3 update. I did not want to do a factory, and going from a lot of posts this does not work anyway. I also didn't want to turn off a lot of processes I previously had running. I just wanted the same level of performance as before. After doing a little research I have come believe it is a battery calibration issue. This worked for me. Charge your phone to 100%, goto keypad, type in *#0228#. This will take you to a battery status screen. Press quick start at the bottom of the screen. Your screen will go blank for a few seconds. Press the home key. Your battery percentage should have dropped. Charge to 100% and repeat the process. After a few times the drop should be negligible. Allow the battery to completely discharge and repeat. Hope this helps. Good luck.

 

[MrsDimples87]

Hi, I had the same problem after 4.3 update. I did not want to do a factory, and going from a lot of posts this does not work anyway. I also didn't want to turn off a lot of processes I previously had running. I just wanted the same level of performance as before. After doing a little research I have come believe it is a battery calibration issue. This worked for me. Charge your phone to 100%, goto keypad, type in *#0228#. This will take you to a battery status screen. Press quick start at the bottom of the screen. Your screen will go blank for a few seconds. Press the home key. Your battery percentage should have dropped. Charge to 100% and repeat the process. After a few times the drop should be negligible. Allow the battery to completely discharge and repeat. Hope this helps. Good luck.

Thanks!! This worked beautifully for me.

 

[Stephen McDonald2]

I tried half a dozen or so of the various suggested remedies in this thread and nothing had any effect.
But when I switched on developers mode my battery drain problems disappeared.
Now back to a good solid battery life again.
Thanks, Anthony Appleton!

 

[amcjavelinsst]

thanks flash !
Mefinks this has done the trick
Drain was not that poor although I had noticed that it used to be better
Back to how it used to be
Glad that you posted this
And this is the only remedial works I have tried as it rung true to me so stoked I have not had to fluff around with a lot of other bs to only get frustrated
cheers flash & hip hip....

Sent from my GT-N7105T using AC Forums mobile app

 

[marymaf112]

I have the exact same issue. It started immediately after the 4.3 update. My phone held a charge for almost 2 days prior to the update now it only lasts several hours. I had to put the screen brightness so low it is difficult to see the screen. No help from AT&T samsung told me to send it to them to be checked out with but it may be 2 weeks until it is returned. Past frustated.

 

[acmarkie]

I'm brand new to Android, and just one year into having any kind of cell phone. My first phone I got last year - a BB Z10. It died a few weeks ago, just four days after it's year warranty was up. So I went to get a nice, small, inexpensive phone replacement to work on my Wind account, so I wouldn't get burned with an expensive phone dying again. Got a Samsung Android phone. (I forgot the model). Long story short, it turned out it didn't register any numbers or names of people who called me. So after a couple of days I returned it to the Wind store for examination. After a few days of looking into it, the techs remained mystified. Long story short, the head tech (who does repairs) there offered me a Galaxy Note 2 at an absurdly low price. I bit and took it home. Big, beautiful screen. But I noticed that the battery depleted alarmingly faster than my Blackberry Z10 ever did, even on standby. So I tried some tricks I had just learned online, like turning off Wifi and Bluetooth and clearing all visible programs from memory. Very little difference. The battery would drain almost 40 percent overnight, on standby! It was version 4.3.

Well I found this thread and did three things based on the advice here: 1) did a factory reset. 2) put it into developers mode. 3) recalibrated the battery. Did all this within a few hours.

Guess what? It has been almost 3 days, about 65 hours, and I have not yet charged my phone. My usage has been light: occasional phoning and texts, some picture taking, checking emails, light surfing the web. Maybe 95 percent of the time the phone is on standby. But after 65 hours the battery on my Galaxy Note 2 is showing 63 percent! That's about a 13 percent depletion per day. I never would have dreamed it could get this good. Thanks for all the helpful advice, it's very appreciated!

Edit: I also did what Prasanjeet suggested: I didn't update the Samsung apps.

Mark

 

[mybucah]

Guys, I had the with you after the 4.3 update last December. During standby overnight the battery drains more than 30%. That's awful.

And 5 days ago I just downloaded kit kat update 4.4.2.
And I can assure you that the problem is solved. Now my note 2 is hardly drains the battery.
During sleep overnight now drains only 6%. And after medium use during the day, the battery still at least 45% left.

Just be patient for the kitkat update.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Ronald Geiken]

The Android guy showed up twice on my screen since Android 4.3 was installed and the battery draining so quickly is a problem too. This graphic shows up with the power off and no phone or wifi service. Not sure how it gets there.

 

[Ronald Geiken]

Can anyone match this picture that showed up on my Note 2 recently,

 

[chewren]

For those people who want to install root but was blocked by knox,
I have a method to bypass it,
After u install supersu,
you disable supersu on the application manager.
Next search for supersu on play store and update it.
Wola it is accessible

Guys, the draining problem is fixable by rooting and removing knox through titanium backup. My phone is now back to normal.

 

[stamxx]

Την κατσαμε την βαρκα πατριωτη! ακριβως το ιδιο προβλημα εχω και εγω με το note μου...

 

[DWooderson]

Did I just get lucky? My battery performance has been pretty solid since the day I got the phone. I took the initial 4.3 update last year, but blocked the most recent update, and I haven't noticed a change.

The attached pic shows my typical drain curve, I use the camera a lot, stream music, play games, and constantly text. You can see a big drop when I was playing games early yesterday. I usually get 1.5 days with heavy usage, sometimes 2 full days.

 

[DBlack Fox]

Hello
I have had a massive battery drain problem on my Note 2, a couple of days after the 4.3 update. While being idle during the night it loses 25% to 30% of its battery and while using it I can literally see the percentage drop. I have tried everything that I could find on the net. EVERYTHING! Nothing worked. These included: Factory reset (twice), letting the battery frain completely and then recharging it while the phone was switched off, switching off all sync,disabling bloatware including KNOX components (the actual KNOX app is not installed), installing only a few apps after factory reset, using Gsam, Wakelock detector, Deep sleep battery saver (which could not make my phone sleep), no GPS, no 3G, wifi on only when needed and more besides.
The phone is only one year old, unlocked and unrooted. On 4.1.2 it had a beastly battery performance of almost 1.5 days of normal to heavy use, with 300 apps on it. Now it cannot go for more than a few hours with the same use and a fraction of the apps. Gmail, Email, Google+, Google Newstand, Google music, Google Books and more besides are disabled.
I cannot say for sure but it seems to me that the drain is the same when it is sleeping and when I am using it. Wakelock has given me a 75% awake time even though I only use it for 15-20% of the day at most nowadays. The Android OS seems to be the one keeping the phone awake most times. It is the one thing I have noticed changing after the update.While it was 8-15% noe it is 15-30% of battery usage. Battery settings show eg Screen 35%, Android OS 15-28%, Voice calls 10%, Android system 5-15%, Cell standby 7%, Device idle 4%, Media server 4%. The batttery chart shows a constant steep drop all the time.
The problem started one day when the Media server went mad consuming 50% of the battery. After I did the factory reset it has never again been a problem but the drain still persists.
I have also read that it's a mess up between syncing of Samsung apps and Google services, but I have no way of verifying that.
Can anyone help?
Thanks

There is nothing wrong on your device nor your battery. It happened when you start updating to 4.3 version
The old version 4.1 power saving is much better than the newest version
Just remember when you are using the old version, your phone keeps freezing itself right? Its because the old power saving really saved a lot of power from the battery

 

[Ronald Geiken]

This is in regard to the Note 2 with Android 4.3. I had the battery draining problem, once from 60% at turn off to 1% at turn on the next day. I finally resolved the problem to my T-Mobile apps that kept turning the phone on after I had turned it off and gone to bed. I just disabled all T-Mobile notifications since there was nothing in there that I wanted. That night, I charged the phone to 100% and then the next morning when I turned it on, the battery was still at 100%. No discharge overnight. It has been fine ever since. The update to 4.3 might have activated some functions in the T-Mobile apps that caused the phone to turn on, but after playing with the thing for a while, just decided to make sure no notifications were active. If you need to use their notifications through the day, you can just reactivate them, and then deactivate them in the evening. That way you will get notifications when you actually want them and not when you are sleeping. Your phone will still ring on a call, but will not turn on when it is not important.