Google Services is draining my battery.

[venom0706]

I have a year old S7E that worked flawlessly until recently. Since November, my battery started draining quite fast.

I went to battery usage and guess what - Google Services draining around 15% of my battery, more than Android and the screen combined together.

I dug the issue over the web and found it's quite common. Then followed every advice - removed permission of the app to make system changes, uninstalled it, installed latest updates, etc - nothing.

The only thing that fixes it temporarily is doing a soft/hard reset of the phone. But then it usually comes back in 2-3 weeks and i don't want to constantly go through this, restore my settings, etc every couple of weeks.

So, any suggestions? I am really desperate.

Thank you and appreciated.

 

[belodion]

Does it persist in Safe Mode? I'm guessing you've tried that, but just to be sure.

 

[Morty2264]

Please keep us posted on your situation, OP. Just a random thought: are you getting a strong enough signal during the day? Hopefully you will be able to find a solution to this issue.

 

[venom0706]

Please keep us posted on your situation, OP. Just a random thought: are you getting a strong enough signal during the day? Hopefully you will be able to find a solution to this issue.

Thanks!

I do get a quite good signal, but worth to mention i travel by bus between cities every day (to uni). However, i have Location switched off and GPS set to Wi-Fi and mobile data only.

I haven't gone to Safe mode as i am quite protective on my tech and don't want to mess up something. But if the problem happens again, i will try do so and report on results.

I did a hard reset yesterday. Lst's see how long it last before it inevitably comes back again...

 

[venom0706]

And exactly 1 week later, the problem is back. Services is draining 8% of my battery, taking a percentage almost every minute or so.

Help, please!

 

[kct1975]

And exactly 1 week later, the problem is back. Services is draining 8% of my battery, taking a percentage almost every minute or so.

Help, please!

Not to be a 'Debbie Downer' but I had a similar problem with a Nexus 6 that I owned, and I simply had to learn to live with it. I just made sure that I had a good battery saving app installed, watch my battery percentage, and charged my phone as frequently as possible.

 

[Morty2264]

And exactly 1 week later, the problem is back. Services is draining 8% of my battery, taking a percentage almost every minute or so.

Help, please!

I'm so sorry you are still experiencing this. I had an LG G3 with a defective (in my opinion, anyway) battery; and I ended up just living with it. However, some software updates would actually improve my battery longevity for a time before the issues started up again. Perhaps an update would help you as well.

Going into Safe Mode will not hurt your phone - it will just temporarily disable your apps so if the battery issue still persists, you know your phone is the culprit and not an application.

 

[venom0706]

Thanks for the suggestions!

However, I know that Google Services is the culprit as I can clearly see that it's the main app draining my battery. The thing is - my previous phone - Xperia Z2 doesn't have that draining problem and it's still on Android (although older version).

 

[venom0706]

Another update after some observations:

I think the issue is time-based. It either happens exactly 1 week or 2 weeks after every hard reset I make.

Everything else is kept neutral, no additional apps installed. Also doing the exact same activities every day.

But something triggers it exactly either after 7 or 14 days....

The search for an answer and fix continues...

 

[JerBrown]

well that is pretty interesting as for me

 

[kramer5150]

I have found Google Services tends to fluctuate in the background. At most its been around 22%, a few percentages below Phone Idle. Its like this when I am in an area with weak cell service. If I turn off cellular data and GPS in weak areas its much, much better.

 

[venom0706]

It appears I was wrong. The issue is not time-based.

Happens randomly.

I really have no idea what to do anymore to fix it.

I guess it might be fixed with a future Google Services update...

 

[kramer5150]

are you looking at the mah consumption of the app or just the percentage? A high percentage of (basically) nothing is normal.
For whatever reason my Google services set a percentage record this morning...

But in terms of mah consumption its not too much, if its doing an update or optimizing something.

It would be really nice to know EXACTLY what google services is actually doing.

 

[kramer5150]

... I usually just let it do its thing and it will eventually stop. I try and manually stop and it just starts right back up.

 

[limelightlemons]

Id uninstall the google play service updates in the "app" app settings. Should be 3 little icons at the top of the app once you tap on it and it should fix it. I'm sure something just got stuck that happened to my pixel 2 XL once

 

[venom0706]

Thanks, but this happens even after I hard reset my phone. Which means something always gets stuck in the app, no matter what I do.

 

[robertm7]

The worst part is that you cannot get rid of Google services, especially in Android. This is what they call Perpetuum mobile

 

[venom0706]

Do you guys think that my issue might be related to the fact that I had created a dummy campaign on Google AdWords for a university task I had to do couple of months ago and then immediately paused and cancelled the campaign?

I don't see how it might be related, as AdWords and Google Services (PlayStore) are completely unrelated and have different T&C. In addition, the AdWords thing I worked with was completely on a desktop PC at university and not on my Android device.

The only possible correlation I might think of is the fact that Google Services started draining my battery shortly after I had made and paused the AdWords campaign.

I think this is my OCD speaking and they are completely not related, but wanted to hear your opinion on the matter.

 

[Wbutchart]

One thing that is worth checking is how things are syncing. Part of Google services is that it syncs contacts etc if one of these is getting stuck it can cause a spike. That happened to me in the past.

Have a wee look in your account settings where it tells you what is syncing to Google and see if any have failed.

 

[venom0706]

Thank you! I went to Sync and for some reason, Play Movies/TV and Music weren't syncing (said syncing was disabled). I couldn't get it to sync, but after couple of uninstalls (from PlayStore), enabling/disabling Automatic Sync and actually accessing those 2 apps for the fisrt time, I got them to sync successfully.

I will report later on the battery. Do you think I should keep Sync always on (automatic) as until now I always had it disabled (and synced manually).

Lastly, do you think the AdWords issue I have mentioned above play a role or it is my OCD and it's completely unrelated?