Google Play Services eating battery

[anon(9072051)]

I know it must be the same app (for lack of a better term) because the usage stats will be essentially identical.

For sure. It's just the naming discrepancy bugs me is all.

On my N6, also 5.1.1 (stock/T-Mobile sim), two separate "Google Play Services" processes show up in my running apps list, one (com.google.process.gapps) 'started by' whatever "GcmService" is, and another (com.google.android.gms.persistent) 'started by' nine different services (including the FitRecordingBroker).

Wooop. That just changed as I was checking them and Google started synching something. For a while, I had only one Play Services listing combing two processes--com.google.process.gapps & com.google.process.gms. Now I'm back to the two separate Play Services listings as before. But apparently that splitting and combining procedure goes on periodically while the phone is on.

Okay. I'm out of my depth. I'll go quiet now. But as I sign off, since I've got it on hand for an FYI, here's a response to a complaint about Google Services draining battery that I saw on xda-developers:

1. Settings > WiFi > Advanced > WiFi Scanning Always Available (disable)
2. Settings > Location > Google Location Reporting > Off,off
3. Use App Ops (built into roms known as "Privacy Guard") and go to Google Play Services and deny permission to Keep Awake (Read more, [GUIDE][PSA] Google Play Services battery dr… | OnePlus One | XDA Forums)

That's the complete text of the post. Interesting that the link in number three is specifically concerned with custom roms like CM, though.

 

[N4Newbie]

For sure. It's just the naming discrepancy bugs me is all.

On my N6, also 5.1.1 (stock/T-Mobile sim), two separate "Google Play Services" processes show up in my running apps list, one (com.google.process.gapps) 'started by' whatever "GcmService" is, and another (com.google.android.gms.persistent) 'started by' nine different services (including the FitRecordingBroker).

Wooop. That just changed as I was checking them and Google started synching something. For a while, I had only one Play Services listing combing two processes--com.google.process.gapps & com.google.process.gms. Now I'm back to the two separate Play Services listings as before. But apparently that splitting and combining procedure goes on periodically while the phone is on.

Okay. I'm out of my depth. I'll go quiet now. But as I sign off, since I've got it on hand for an FYI, here's a response to a complaint about Google Services draining battery that I saw on xda-developers:

1. Settings > WiFi > Advanced > WiFi Scanning Always Available (disable)
2. Settings > Location > Google Location Reporting > Off,off
3. Use App Ops (built into roms known as "Privacy Guard") and go to Google Play Services and deny permission to Keep Awake (Read more, [GUIDE][PSA] Google Play Services battery dr… | OnePlus One | XDA Forums)

That's the complete text of the post. Interesting that the link in number three is specifically concerned with custom roms like CM, though.

I leave location reporting on because I want it on. I leave WiFi Scanning on because I want it on.

As a rule, I get very good battery life from my Nexus 6; it was only recently that it began to go through battery like crazy and the problem ceased the moment I killed what appears to have been a hung or corrupt Google Fit process as described in my earlier post. My battery life has returned to normal even with Location Reporting and WiFi Scanning turned on.

 

[gizzardgulpe]

I just got an account here because of this. I'm running CyanogenMod, and my wife is on stock Lollipop. We both have LG G Watches, and we're both getting some pretty significant battery drain. When I say significant, I mean that my wife's phone drained four percent while we were looking at it, while it was plugged into a charger. Her Google Services (Sometimes listed as Google Play Services, sometimes listed as com.google.android.gms.persistent I think) was at 61%.

I have Keep Awake and Wake Up set to deny for Google Play Services on my privacy settings. Keep awake has been denied 1,466,087 times since April 12. Wake Up has been denied a paltry 741,829 times.

For a comparison, my second highest denial count for Keep Awake is Google Play Music at 58,209, and the next highest is Handcent at 14,584.

Oh, and I just noticed Android Wear has kept my phone awake 15,686 times, but those have all been allowed.

I've only been losing an extra 30 or 40 percent battery per day than normal, and this started a little over a week ago. My wife has been losing her entire battery in about 9 hours, though I imagine if Google Services are keeping her processor running full blast every second of the day, that would probably be the cause.

 

[toastedtruth]

Also having this issue on a Nexus 4. The battery life is pretty dire regardless, however this has only been an issue over the last week or so. I was down to roughly 30% this morning, when it had been on standby from full after only 4 hours. I've also had to start bringing my USB cable to work so that I can keep topped up. It used to last a whole day, so something has changed...

Been running 5.0.1 Paranoid Android for 8 months with no issues.

Can't post links because of the 10 post limit first. But imgur, ID "uQly9Gg"

 

[zkyevolved]

I had the same issue on my note 4. I didn't even have fit installed... I never fixed it on Lollipop, so I reverted to kitkat and I'm getting 20% better battery life... I ordered my nexus 6. I can't wait!!! Yay.... ☺

 

[anon(5506951)]

I made a separate post about this a while back, but I suggest going over to XDA and searching for a user named Skipjacks. He has a post about the Google Play Services framework battery drain and how to significantly decrease it with a few tweaks. It works on any Android. I came across this user while looking at reviews for the Nexus 6 on Amazon. He mentioned rooting and tweaking his coworker's Nexus 6 to the point where the battery life on it was "amazing".

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[N4Newbie]

I made a separate post about this a while back, but I suggest going over to XDA and searching for a user named Skipjacks. He has a post about the Google Play Services framework battery drain and how to significantly decrease it with a few tweaks. It works on any Android. I came across this user while looking at reviews for the Nexus 6 on Amazon. He mentioned rooting and tweaking his coworker's Nexus 6 to the point where the battery life on it was "amazing".

Posted via the Android Central App

Thanks for the tip.

But, just to be clear, this thread was not about routine battery use by Google Services, but rather about a problem with rapid battery drain first seen 10 days ago and probably related to a bad Google update.

I know I can probably improve my battery life from say 24 hours to 36 or more using several tweaks and disabling unnecessary functions. My issue however was that battery life suddenly dropped from 24 hours on average to 6 or 7. Something was clearly wrong and, in my case, it turned out to be a corrupt/hung Google Fit process.

Besides, it is a smartphone and I like having smart features - lots of them. The more I try to save battery by disabling features, the less "smart" my phone becomes. And what's the point of that?

 

[djones101]

Re: Google Play Services eating battery - SOLUTION

I've been having this same problem lately, and finally came across the solution. As most have indicated, they're testing out Google Fit on their smart watch. Well, turns out that it's the Android Wear update, NOT Fit causing the problem. It stems from the recent introduction of support for wifi on Android Wear watches. That support is what's causing the Google Play Services wakelocks. To disable, and regain your battery again, perform the following steps.

1. Open Android Wear on your smartphone.
2. Tap the Settings icon (gear).
3. Tap the Cloud sync menu option.
4. Tap off to turn Cloud sync off.
5. (optional) Reboot your phone and watch.
** Note this last part is NOT required, but a restart never hurt anyone.

It took much trial and effort to pin down, but this was the cause of my battery drain. I went from having to recharge 2-3 times a day to a much-more normal once every 36 hours for my 1st gen Moto X.

 

[radyoactive]

Re: Google Play Services eating battery - SOLUTION

I've been having this same problem lately, and finally came across the solution. As most have indicated, they're testing out Google Fit on their smart watch. Well, turns out that it's the Android Wear update, NOT Fit causing the problem. It stems from the recent introduction of support for wifi on Android Wear watches. That support is what's causing the Google Play Services wakelocks. To disable, and regain your battery again, perform the following steps.

1. Open Android Wear on your smartphone.
2. Tap the Settings icon (gear).
3. Tap the Cloud sync menu option.
4. Tap off to turn Cloud sync off.
5. (optional) Reboot your phone and watch.
** Note this last part is NOT required, but a restart never hurt anyone.

It took much trial and effort to pin down, but this was the cause of my battery drain. I went from having to recharge 2-3 times a day to a much-more normal once every 36 hours for my 1st gen Moto X.

I already had this turned off before I disabled Google fit as my G Watch and GWR don't support it at the moment.

 

[pbwhite]

Re: Google Play Services eating battery - SOLUTION

Indeed, this seems to be the ticket. I have a Moto 360 watch coupled to a Moto G phone. Google Play Services was at the top of the battery drain leaderboard by a landslide, and I was getting about 6-8 hrs of low usage battery life, as compared to the usual 14+ moderate use life.
After turning cloud sync off, and rebooting both devices, I'm on par for about 20 hours of low-use battery life.

 

[bregol]

Re: Google Play Services eating battery - SOLUTION

I had cloud sync on previously without any issue, so it shouldn't be causing it. I did shut it off a couple days ago, though, to see if it is the case. My battery life is back to normal now, but it also looks like Play Services just had an update. I'm going to turn cloud sync back on, as I suspect it was the new Play Services version that fixed it all up for me.

 

[SueSimon]

Yes, my phone is doing this also. Didn't use to do this. I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Active. Went under Applications manager and clicked on Force Stop. Nothing.

 

[SueSimon]

Yes, Google Play Store is sucking up my battery! 110 MB

 

[Jon_Doh]

I had this issue with Kit Kat and I did try all the tweaks from XDA as well as a bunch of other suggestions, including a complete factory reset and clearing the system cache. Nothing helped. Then after I updated to Lollipop and did a system cache clear the problem went away and hasn't returned.

 

[Likorisa]

There are also some useful tips right here that can help you. There are also other tutorials on the site as well, but for now here is the Google play services battery drain fix that helped me and a few other people.

 

[anon(9072051)]

here is the Google play services battery drain fix that helped me and a few other people.

Thanks. I'm surprised that I've never run across that page before since the tips seem familiar. Disabling Google Now, though, seems like a high price to pay. Also seems a little ironic that Google wouldn't work harder to optimize an app that's so dear to their hearts.

 

[sming]

The battery drain fix no longer works for marshmallow since when you try to enable syncing for just Gmail, it turns on syncing for all Google services. Bah!

Anyone have any other fixes that don't require root?

 

[Everett Whiteman]

Having the same issue here with my droid turbo. Google Services used 19% of my battery today. I took about 280 pictures and about 1 1/2 total hours of 4K video on Sunday this past weekend and most were uploaded as soon as I got on wifi, but the 4K videos seem to be draging along with the uploads. 4K video that is more than 10 mins cant be uploaded as they are too big of files to bother with and truly defeats the purpose of Google giving away unlimited storage for pics and videos. Google Photos is a very nice app to use and reminds me of my days with Apple devices before upgrading to an android, but unlike apples iPhoto, Google Photos uses battery whenever it wants to and decides to upload bandwidth eating video at the worst times possible. Havent noticed a setting that allows me to only upload when on a specific network or any network while charging. I use a floating bandwith meter and when im at work or school, my consumption rate rarely drops below 18MB/s for a few days after I take large amounts of pictures and high quality video. Normally, this meter never goes above 70Kb/s and it has no reason to - these are the days where I could forget to charge my phone and still get through the next day without issue. I really hope that Google fixes this. Bought my Moto DT because of the battery life - I mean, who wouldnt take a phone made by Motorola with 48 Hours of battery, a 21 Megapixel Camera, and a super sleek design? This google services thing has gone too far. I wonder what else they have been tracking and getting from me through services. I recently discovered the maps function that shows where you go.. it was so weird to see me go from one place to another, snap a few pics (which could be viewed within the app and even be selected to send to google for purposes of furthering their maps system), and then use other services like Android Pay - this all was viewable from within the maps application and I could see logs from where I went before I even had this phone and had my previous droid right after my iPhone. *As im getting ready to submit this, I noticed my google services had consumed another 2 percent of battery now consuming a total of 22% of my phone - nearly 1/4 of my battery used my a mysterious service that nobody seems to know the overall purpose of...

 

[Air pirate]

Just want to point out that my Nexus 6 started with this problem TODAY. I do not have or use any Android Wear apps. No watch. No Fit. So, I'm thinking this may not have anything to do with the Fit or Android Wear. Hope this helps with this puzzle. My N6 only went 6 hours with very little screen on time.

 

[just_luc]

I've been having this same issue on my BlackBerry Priv for the last few days. I went from all day battery life to my device going from full to empty in under 3 hours. Google services is using more battery then everything else on the phone combined. Doesn't seem to be any rhyme of reason for it. I don't have fit or Android wear installed and never did, so those are out. I'm at a complete loss.