One more thing, if I remove the battery from the phone and put into the external charger, leave the phone plugged in without the battery, then put the battery back into the phone while the phone is still plugged in and let the phone boot into charging mode (where it shows the giant battery on the screen), the battery in charging mode shows fully charged even when unplugged. I left it for 10 minutes like that and it still showed fully charged. I then boot into the android and it shows 50%. I boot back into charging mode it shows 50%. The whole thing would be funny if it wasn't so annoying.
[Help][50% SOLVED] LTE = random heavy battery drain aka "plummet"
- Thread starter jeffreii
- Start date
If you've tried multiple batteries, it does sound like it must be a phone issue. Do you have access to another S3 you can check these batteries in, just to make sure? Maybe you can go to a local carrier store and ask them to let you swap batteries with their demo phone to see.
But if it's not the battery, it sounds like it's warranty time.
But if it's not the battery, it sounds like it's warranty time.
I doubt that the warranty will cover it since I put cm10.1 on it but this experience was the last straw with android. I've had 3 android phones and every single one of them had problems that could not be easily fixed. Only reason I switched from the iphone was the price but I guess I now know why it costs more. Thanks for trying to help anyway, I'll hit up the apple store on my way back from work and get a phone with an OS that can actually work for more that 6 months.
It's easy enough to unroot and get back to stock, but if you've made up your mind to go to apple (and your user name would indicate that), good luck. I can only say that my family has had 8 Android phones, and not one of them has had any issues.
I've been following this thread closely since before I purchased my AT&T S3 over 6 months ago. Originally I was worried about it but really loved everything else about the phone and was hoping since it seemed random that I wouldn't get hit by it. But I did. And like everyone else here I was extremely frustrated and almost returned the phone. I was losing half the battery in two hours seemingly every other day, usually in the early afternoon. Reboots sometimes seemed to help, but often didn't. Anyone facing this issue knows the drill. I have excellent LTE coverage both at home and at work. Then my coworker who sits six feet to my right got the exact same phone on the exact same carrier and had absolutely no issues whatsoever. This was frustrating, so I started comparing our days. The biggest difference was that he bikes to work and I take the subway. Given all of the informal evidence on this thread, I started to wonder if going through a total dead zone and/or a shaky LTE coverage zone and then coming out of it was what was causing the phone to end up in a state that could later lead to the plummet. So rather than rebooting randomly, I changed my routine to reboot every time I come back above ground from the subway. Since I've done this I have had zero issues whatsoever. Battery life is better than ever.
The other times I recall having battery problems with the phone were when I was driving through remote rural areas where coverage would come in and out for long stretches. Which to me adds some support to the idea that it is this type of activity that sets the phone up for later failures. For those of you who experience this issue consistently, it's worth thinking about your days and seeing if you spot patterns. Do you get the plummet on weekdays but not on weekends? Do you seem to get it only on days you pass through a certain area? I know that having to reboot the phone isn't an ideal fix, but knowing when to reboot rather than just randomly rebooting makes dealing with it much more manageable and predictable. Hope this helps someone else out there.
The other times I recall having battery problems with the phone were when I was driving through remote rural areas where coverage would come in and out for long stretches. Which to me adds some support to the idea that it is this type of activity that sets the phone up for later failures. For those of you who experience this issue consistently, it's worth thinking about your days and seeing if you spot patterns. Do you get the plummet on weekdays but not on weekends? Do you seem to get it only on days you pass through a certain area? I know that having to reboot the phone isn't an ideal fix, but knowing when to reboot rather than just randomly rebooting makes dealing with it much more manageable and predictable. Hope this helps someone else out there.
I've been following this thread for a while and I believe my AT&T Galaxy S3 has the same issues. Had it since November last year. It's not rooted, running 4.1.1.
I first purchased the phone and returned to the store within 3 days because the battery would drain fast, compared to my previous Iphone 3G. The AT&T store replaced it once I mentioned the battery got hot. Got the phone back and of course, with new devices, you tend to play with them more frequently, which I attributed to the faster than normal battery drain. I gave it a week and I'd have days where it'd last up to 24 hours on a single charge with normal use.
Other times I'd have it in my pocket, pull it out to check an email and notice the bottom around the battery was warm, and that the battery had drained substantially. Stumbling upon this thread I realized this tends to happen when I'm driving around, or going in and out of my office. My work building his a thick concrete building that only gets 4GLTE upstairs, and some 4G near the windows and nothing if you're deep within it.
For work I drive around an urban city which causes me to switch through many cell tower areas, plenty of 4GLTE coverage. Some days the phone will be fine and others I'll experience the plummet issue. I'm hoping with an updated OS they may fix it, but this happened prior to me upgrading to 4.1.1 over Kies. Today it happened twice. Nice to know what the issue is but annoying that it's not being handled.
I first purchased the phone and returned to the store within 3 days because the battery would drain fast, compared to my previous Iphone 3G. The AT&T store replaced it once I mentioned the battery got hot. Got the phone back and of course, with new devices, you tend to play with them more frequently, which I attributed to the faster than normal battery drain. I gave it a week and I'd have days where it'd last up to 24 hours on a single charge with normal use.
Other times I'd have it in my pocket, pull it out to check an email and notice the bottom around the battery was warm, and that the battery had drained substantially. Stumbling upon this thread I realized this tends to happen when I'm driving around, or going in and out of my office. My work building his a thick concrete building that only gets 4GLTE upstairs, and some 4G near the windows and nothing if you're deep within it.
For work I drive around an urban city which causes me to switch through many cell tower areas, plenty of 4GLTE coverage. Some days the phone will be fine and others I'll experience the plummet issue. I'm hoping with an updated OS they may fix it, but this happened prior to me upgrading to 4.1.1 over Kies. Today it happened twice. Nice to know what the issue is but annoying that it's not being handled.
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I'm in this boat as well. I cant turn off the just LTE, tried the safe mode and it had different options listed. I switched from the iPhone a last month and I LOVE it.....minus the horribly inaccurate GPS and this battery drain issue. I don't see them as wanting to fix this either. Just seems to be a "sorry, deal with it" kind of thing. the S3 is worlds better than the iPhone, but the battery drain on standby is quite an annoying thing. Last weekend the phone totally had no service and I thought it was because I was in a rural area but it was just error-ed out. It's substantially less buggy than the iPhones but I do wish we could get an update for this issue at least.
my issue is RANDOM. It is always when on standby. when I'm using it the battery barely drains. I'm wondering if I just leave the screen on forever if the battery will last longer. I have tried the "remove battery, leave out, charge fully and turn on" thing and it DOES work for a few days then back to massive drain again. I have been following this thread and trying things.
:'(
my issue is RANDOM. It is always when on standby. when I'm using it the battery barely drains. I'm wondering if I just leave the screen on forever if the battery will last longer. I have tried the "remove battery, leave out, charge fully and turn on" thing and it DOES work for a few days then back to massive drain again. I have been following this thread and trying things.
:'(
I don't have a fix for the battery issue, but not sure where you're coming from with "horribly inaccurate GPS." I was monitoring the GPS (with the GPS Status app) while my son was driving the other day, and it showed accuracy within 10 -14 feet. Google Nav never fails to show my location within that same error range.
I am on at&t and have the "LTE Plummet" problem, too. After reading this thread I turned off LTE by enabling WDCMA ALL (I think that was it). Now I just see 4G in the status bar, and usually see the UTMS:3 network in status. I have not had a plummet for a few days, so that seems to have fixed it. However,
I notice today that my battery is down, not nearly as much as caused by the LTE plummet, due to 43% cell standby. I never saw this until I disabled LTE. Has anyone else seen this, or found a workaround?
Thanks
I notice today that my battery is down, not nearly as much as caused by the LTE plummet, due to 43% cell standby. I never saw this until I disabled LTE. Has anyone else seen this, or found a workaround?
Thanks
right now I am looking about about 7-8hrs from 100% battery life...10-15% drain PER HOUR. I have wifi and gps off. bluetooth was on for a little bit. mMy screen is so dim i cannot even see it outside. I have the advanced task killer and it shows a ton of apps open that shouldn't be, it kills them and then they show right back up again. I also have GSambattery Monitor and it is showing the colossal drain. I have tried it all. I am about to go get a new battery and see if that is it. Android rocks. this drain sucks. I tried to turn off JUST LTE and it didnt work. it was either ALL or no 4g.
- Apr 20, 2012
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I don't see any indication of the plummet here...the signature being good battery life followed by a sudden and unexplained "plummet". You just seem to have bad battery life in general, based on the images attached. Your battery certainly could be defective, but it could also be your apps/usage.
Get rid of ATK. It makes your battery usage worse, not better. Task killers should not be used with any version of Android above 2.x.
I concur. I can't believe I preordered the S3 instead of an iPhone.
Everything would be fine if it wasn't for this battery drain issue; it's unacceptable and only occurs on Android. My previous iPhone 4 never had any issues regarding battery drain...
Everything would be fine if it wasn't for this battery drain issue; it's unacceptable and only occurs on Android. My previous iPhone 4 never had any issues regarding battery drain...
- Apr 20, 2012
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As far as I know, it only occurs on the S3, so don't blame all of Android. My best guess is that it's a glitch involving AT&T's LTE network and the S3. Also worth noting this is a pretty rare bug that only a fraction of us are reporting...probably why it never got fixed.
BTW your iPhone 4 that never had battery drain issues had one big "death grip" issue...so remember all phones have their faults, big and small.
Anyways, the S3 is old news now. I haven't yet had the plummet in several weeks of using the S4...a good reason to upgrade.
For what it's worth, I loved my S3 and consider the plummet only a minor nuisance that was easily prevented with a well-timed reboot.
Well, all I can say is that while I was in Florida on business last week, it was the iPhone users who had to plug in their phones mid-afternoon to keep them going. Those of use with Androids just kept on running.
I joined android central just to thank you guys for your hard work - i have this exact issue and everything I tried to research on google just said "disable this, turn off that, dont use facebook" and this is not the issue. Glad to know that I shouldn't lower my expectations on what a top tier smart phone should do.
I was able to replicate everything you guys have figured out - airplane mode gives a much more respectable battery drain. I have installed every mod/kernel in the book and currently on task650 - looks like the drain is minimized to 13%/hr but that's with limited monitoring and obviously not going to work across the board for everyone. Nevertheless double digit drain on idle isnt exactly what we should settle for.
I read thru the entire thread and havent seen much sharing of how APN's are setup and the proper entries for each setting on the various carrier other than the wap bandaid solution. Is this something that should be looked into just to cross another thing off the list?
I was able to replicate everything you guys have figured out - airplane mode gives a much more respectable battery drain. I have installed every mod/kernel in the book and currently on task650 - looks like the drain is minimized to 13%/hr but that's with limited monitoring and obviously not going to work across the board for everyone. Nevertheless double digit drain on idle isnt exactly what we should settle for.
I read thru the entire thread and havent seen much sharing of how APN's are setup and the proper entries for each setting on the various carrier other than the wap bandaid solution. Is this something that should be looked into just to cross another thing off the list?
Hi
I have an S3 on Bell Canada LTE network in Montreal and experiencing the exact same behavior.
I have the SGH-I747M model with stock Rom and Android 4.1.1
The only way for me to get good( actually very good ) battery life, between 2 and 5% per hour, is to prevent the phone from using LTE and restrain it to use HSPA+.
Here is how I've done it: Go into Settings --> Wireless and Network --> More Settings --> Mobile Networks --> Network Mode.
Select "WCDMA only" or "GSM only" depending what's availlable in your region.
If I leave it in "LTE/GSM/WCDMA (Auto mode)" I inevitably end up experiencing the Battery Drain within the next 24hrs that I put it back in LTE mode...
This is definitively a BUG.
Good luck
I have an S3 on Bell Canada LTE network in Montreal and experiencing the exact same behavior.
I have the SGH-I747M model with stock Rom and Android 4.1.1
The only way for me to get good( actually very good ) battery life, between 2 and 5% per hour, is to prevent the phone from using LTE and restrain it to use HSPA+.
Here is how I've done it: Go into Settings --> Wireless and Network --> More Settings --> Mobile Networks --> Network Mode.
Select "WCDMA only" or "GSM only" depending what's availlable in your region.
If I leave it in "LTE/GSM/WCDMA (Auto mode)" I inevitably end up experiencing the Battery Drain within the next 24hrs that I put it back in LTE mode...
This is definitively a BUG.
Good luck
Hello,
I finally found the thread I've been looking for! I have the same problem (see screenshots below) but I've always stumbled on other non-related battery threads. I'm writing this to say that you're not the only ones with the problem! Plus, I'm a different kind of user so it might give a different perspective on the plummeting problem.
My phone and its settings: I have the blue Samsung Galaxy S3 since August 2013 with Virgin Mobile Canada (on Bell's network). I have 3 apps in addition to those that came with the phone: chrome, swiftkey, and TD bank. However, I've only had the last app for about a month. I am always have access to wifi so I do not have a mobile plan and mobile data is disabled on my phone. Furthermore, I selected wcdma-only in mobile networks (I did however try with gsm-only and with lte/gsm/wcdma-auto to try to solve the problem). Finally, I have motion disabled, auto-rotate disabled, gps disabled, location-services disabled. What's enabled is wifi, sync, and power savings. Oh ya, I also have the latest update, Android 4.1.2 and I performed 2 factory resets: once in the fall and once 3 weeks ago.
My issue and when it happens: I usually get 3-5 days on a battery charge (from fully charged to 10-15%) with wifi on. With wifi off but default and on just to sync, I usually get at least 7 days on a charge. The battery plummet started happening in the end of September and lasted for about a week (as in charging and plummeting constantly for a week). Moreover, I've had the problem with every Android updates. On one occasion when I caught the plummet before the battery drained out, I saw that my phone was charging extremely slowly during a plummet at about 5% per hour. However, I've never been able to reproduce that slow charging. The problem usually occurs while I am sleeping where the battery would be at 0% when I wake up. It also occurred twice at my secondary office (where I have a line-of-sight access to Bell's cell tower across the street from my window) but I am rarely there. The plummet usually persists on my phone for a few days to a week. Then, everything goes well for a few weeks to a bit over a month until the plummet reappears again. It's been like that since September.
My solution: N/A. I've been reading many threads and I've never seen any. Hopefully there will be one!
I finally found the thread I've been looking for! I have the same problem (see screenshots below) but I've always stumbled on other non-related battery threads. I'm writing this to say that you're not the only ones with the problem! Plus, I'm a different kind of user so it might give a different perspective on the plummeting problem.
My phone and its settings: I have the blue Samsung Galaxy S3 since August 2013 with Virgin Mobile Canada (on Bell's network). I have 3 apps in addition to those that came with the phone: chrome, swiftkey, and TD bank. However, I've only had the last app for about a month. I am always have access to wifi so I do not have a mobile plan and mobile data is disabled on my phone. Furthermore, I selected wcdma-only in mobile networks (I did however try with gsm-only and with lte/gsm/wcdma-auto to try to solve the problem). Finally, I have motion disabled, auto-rotate disabled, gps disabled, location-services disabled. What's enabled is wifi, sync, and power savings. Oh ya, I also have the latest update, Android 4.1.2 and I performed 2 factory resets: once in the fall and once 3 weeks ago.
My issue and when it happens: I usually get 3-5 days on a battery charge (from fully charged to 10-15%) with wifi on. With wifi off but default and on just to sync, I usually get at least 7 days on a charge. The battery plummet started happening in the end of September and lasted for about a week (as in charging and plummeting constantly for a week). Moreover, I've had the problem with every Android updates. On one occasion when I caught the plummet before the battery drained out, I saw that my phone was charging extremely slowly during a plummet at about 5% per hour. However, I've never been able to reproduce that slow charging. The problem usually occurs while I am sleeping where the battery would be at 0% when I wake up. It also occurred twice at my secondary office (where I have a line-of-sight access to Bell's cell tower across the street from my window) but I am rarely there. The plummet usually persists on my phone for a few days to a week. Then, everything goes well for a few weeks to a bit over a month until the plummet reappears again. It's been like that since September.
My solution: N/A. I've been reading many threads and I've never seen any. Hopefully there will be one!
- Apr 20, 2012
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I find it sad that there has been no resolution to this issue since I first made this thread almost a year ago...aside from daily reboots as a preventative measure.
Anyways, I've had the S4 for a few months now and have not had "the plummet"...so I'm going to unsubscribe from this thread and wish you all the best of luck!
Anyways, I've had the S4 for a few months now and have not had "the plummet"...so I'm going to unsubscribe from this thread and wish you all the best of luck!
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