Google Play Services eating battery

[N4Newbie]

I have recently noticed that both my Nexus 6 and my wife's Nexus 5 have been eating battery at an alarming rate. In both phones, Google Play Services is at the top of the battery consumption chart with no apparent reason why.

Is anyone else seeing this issue as well?

 

[radgatt]

What version of Google Play Services are you running?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[N4Newbie]

What version of Google Play Services are you running?

Posted via the Android Central App

I'm thinking that I should have said "Google Services" and not Google Play Services. I am running v5.1-1743459 of Google Services Framework and v7.5.71 of Google Play Services.

Check out these screenshots. My Nexus 6 NEVER goes through battery so quickly and so consistently - notice how the usage graph is a virtually straight line even though there was only 35 minutes of screen time during the 2-1/2 hours displayed. And, I don't know why Fit is listed at 3% - I have Activity Detection disabled and no connected apps.

 

[N4Newbie]

This is really strange. I just looked again and now the first entry is "Google Play Services" but with very similar stats.

Are these two names used interchangeably? "Google Services" and "Google Play Services"?

 

[ckeith206]

I've noticed the same thing the last 3 days. Today I haven't turned the screen on and after 4 hours I'm down to 69%. And it's Google Services not Google Play Services.

 

[waldirs]

The same is happening with my Moto X.
Andriod 4.4.4; Google Play Services v. 7.5.71.

 

[PAC757]

Same here this just started today, Google Services killing my battery more then the screen on time, something must be going on with Google Services, I hope that Google is aware of this problem and they don't ignore it.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Google Services isn't even on my Usage list.
I'm on LMY47E

Posted w/ Nexus6 via the AC App

 

[radyoactive]

I noticed the past few days that my battery life was taking a hit and yesterday noticed the same thing, Good play services was at the top of the list at 15%..

 

[bregol]

Droid Maxx running 4.4.4 with same symptoms. Started last Thursday or Friday - I don't really remember. It kinda sucks to have a 2-day battery turn into a 10-hour battery all of a sudden. And that's 10-hours of just sitting at my desk at work (on wifi) with minimal interaction or screen-on time, with Google Play Services sucking somewhere around 70-80% of battery. CPU total and Keep Awake total seem quite high when looking at the battery details for Google Play Services. The version is listed on my phone as Google Play Services 7.5.71. There were some Google app updates around last Friday, looking at the dates in the play store. I wonder if any of those updates caused a problem. So far I've tried wiping Cache, and freezing G+ (which was one of the apps that updated around that time) but still no improvement.

 

[N4Newbie]

Well, I think I have resolved my problem; don't know if this has anything to do with the others in this thread.

I mentioned in my first post that I did not understand why Fit was so high on the list since I had Activity Tracking turned off. Well, I thought about that some more and - a little bit of background first: I have an LG Watch Urbane with its own built-in step counter. I had been playing with using the Urbane's step counter vs. Google Fit Activity Tracking trying first one and then the other. Frankly, neither impressed me very much but it seemed to me that Fit wasn't ready for prime time and so I disabled Activity Tracking last Friday. Okay, so then why was it still one of the top battery consumers? Not only that, why did my Urbane display a Google Fit card telling me how many steps I had walked when Fit is supposed to be turned off?

I wiped the cache partition ( https://motorola-global-portal.cust...prod_answer_detail/a_id/102414/p/30,6720,9293 ), fully charged the phone and then rebooted it again. Still, when I checked later Google Play Services was at the very top of the list and Fit was the second entry.

So I went to Settings -> Apps -> Fit and tapped Clear data (I didn't care about losing the existing data) and then, just for laughs I also did a Force stop. I rebooted the phone once again.

Now, about 20 hours later, Google Play Services is no longer at the top of the list, Fit is not in the list at all, and my battery life seems to have returned to normal.

 

[radyoactive]

I did the same thing as I read in another thread it was causing lag. 2 day later google play services is down to 5% from 15%. I want to give it another day or so and see how much it really affects battery life.

BTW, I just disabled from the apps, didn't do anything else.

 

[bregol]

Fit indeed seems to be the source of the problem. Funny thing is that I had seen Fit's battery usage get pretty high, so the first thing I did was uninstall it. At that point Google Services skyrocketed - almost like it took on whatever battery was previously listed as Fit. Yesterday, I reinstalled Fit, then cleared its data and rebooted. That didn't seem to do a whole lot... Play Services battery usage decreased but Fit was back on the list, so that the sum of the two was similar to what just Google Services was using previously. I then went into Fit and disabled the Activity Tracking setting, then for good measure deleted Fit's data and rebooted. I haven't touched Fit since yesterday and battery levels seem back to normal so far. So it looks like something to do with Fit as well as its Activity Tracking. Like N4Newbie, I also wear the Urbane, if that adds some sort of data point (ie. in determining if it has to do with Fit + Wear, or simply is Fit's fault?)

 

[berdinkerdickle]

For those of you having this issue, had you opened Fit previously?
Myself, I've never opened Fit, and I'm not having any Google Services or Fit Battery drain issues.

Posted w/ Nexus6 via the AC App

 

[N4Newbie]

For those of you having this issue, had you opened Fit previously?
Myself, I've never opened Fit, and I'm not having any Google Services or Fit Battery drain issues.

Posted w/ Nexus6 via the AC App

Yes. As stated above, I had been testing Fit's activity tracking to compare it to my watch's native step counter function. However it turns out that even three days after I disabled Activity Tracking in Fit it was apparently still running and actually consuming way more battery than it did before I "diasbled" it. I think maybe it was hung, stuck, or whatever and, as bregol suggested, it may be a bad interaction between Fit, Android Wear, and my LG Watch Urbane.

 

[berdinkerdickle]

Funny, I never opened Fit until I saw this thread.
Now Google Play Services is on the top of the Battery Usage list. :-(
Thanks a stinken lot!

Posted w/ Nexus6 via the AC App

 

[radyoactive]

Fit indeed seems to be the source of the problem. Funny thing is that I had seen Fit's battery usage get pretty high, so the first thing I did was uninstall it. At that point Google Services skyrocketed - almost like it took on whatever battery was previously listed as Fit. Yesterday, I reinstalled Fit, then cleared its data and rebooted. That didn't seem to do a whole lot... Play Services battery usage decreased but Fit was back on the list, so that the sum of the two was similar to what just Google Services was using previously. I then went into Fit and disabled the Activity Tracking setting, then for good measure deleted Fit's data and rebooted. I haven't touched Fit since yesterday and battery levels seem back to normal so far. So it looks like something to do with Fit as well as its Activity Tracking. Like N4Newbie, I also wear the Urbane, if that adds some sort of data point (ie. in determining if it has to do with Fit + Wear, or simply is Fit's fault?)

I checked and Google Services not the Play services is at 16%. I did have several apps that had updates today but not sure why this jumped up.

Just to add to this, I have a G Watch and GWR connected to android wear.

 

[bregol]

After a couple days, it looks like it's not completely fixed for me by clearing out Fit. Partly fixed, as in instead of draining in half a day or so, it takes most of a day. But still not very near what battery life should be. Right now, Google Services (com.google.android.gms.persistent) is still up to around 60%, with almost 6 hours of CPU usage listed... which is better than it was before clearing Fit, but not good yet.

 

[anon(9072051)]

Right now, Google Services (com.google.android.gms.persistent) is still up to around 60%, with almost 6 hours of CPU usage listed... which is better than it was before clearing Fit, but not good yet.

YIKES! 60% of your battery usage? Is that after a full charge?! or cumulative over several days of top-ups?

Can you select Google Services in your Running Apps list and get a breakdown of all the services working under that umbrella? Maybe something there will strike a chord for one of the megatechy brains on the forum.

Me, I'm still wondering why "Google Services" as such has never shown up in my battery usage list, only "Google Play Services." (Not that I want it to make an appearance now.)

BTW, here's a similar thread from last month in case you haven't seen it:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/go...mpletely-draining-battery-life-nexus-6-a.html

 

[N4Newbie]

Me, I'm still wondering why "Google Services" as such has never shown up in my battery usage list, only "Google Play Services." (Not that I want it to make an appearance now.)

I see it on my Nexus 6 (Android 5.1.1) listed both ways with no explanation as to why. Sometimes it will be "Google Play Services" and other times, as in the screenshot above, just plain "Google Services." I know it must be the same app (for lack of a better term) because the usage stats will be essentially identical.