Massive Battery Drain - GPS is on constantly.

[rizzo269]

I did a fresh ruu install on my phone and the issue went away for a couple of days but is now back. Strange thing is my wife has the m8 also and hers never does it.

 

[holz75]

I wish I knew why att is not concerned with updating phones to lollipop. Every other carrier has already updated a majority of their phones. I will not enjoy having to deal with this issue for another month or so. It is not like there is that much updating to do. Just make sure it runs smoothly on the network and send it to the phones!

because the average consumer does not care about the version of OS. this community is a very, very, very, very small portion of android
users, and i'm sure most people do not even notice this GPS problem. they just use their phones and do not have OCD like we all do!

 

[anon(3846388)]

To be fair, I think most users, even those who are not particularly tech-savvy, would notice if their battery started having significant issues. My battery lost at least 30% of its efficiency pretty much overnight.

 

[Spade30]

I've had the same problem since my phone was updated on 4.4.3,and carried over to 4.4.4 I got absolutely no help from at&t customer service, so I went to a at&t service center I explained the issue to them, without them even looking at the phone they went in the back and got me a brand new phone on 4.4.4 with no GPS issues what so ever,couldnt b happier.. So if u are having the GPS problem please take ur phone to a service center so they can give u a new phone

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[anon(3846388)]

How do I find an AT&T service center?

 

[Spade30]

I called at&t warranty department, and they told me where to go texted me the address and the phone number..

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[cwise222]

I'm not sure a new phone would ultimately solve the issue. I'm sure AT&T would be happy to; when I worked for Sprint it was often just easier to replace the phone and hope that kept the customer happy long enough to get the issue fixed, especially if it was a software bug we knew would take months to fix or would never be fixed. I got the 4.4.3 update the day AT&T put it out and the 4.4.4 update the day it came out and have not had an issue with GPS up until 3 days ago. Now I pull it off the charger at 6:30AM and its almost empty by 3PM, so it seems that just because the phone does not have the issue right away doesn't mean it won't get it. Phone exchanges are also only really helpful if it's a hardware issue, which this does not seem to be.

I'm also more inclined to think it's an AT&T issue. I work with someone who has a dev edition of the M8 and it's on Lollipop now but she does not recall having the GPS issue before the update. I'd guess AT&T messed with something in one of their apps or something they stuck in the software in 4.4.3 or 4.4.4 and it causes the GPS to go on and off all day. With any luck Lollipop will fix it.

 

[kygator13]

I've been having this issue for months now. It started with the last OS update from at&t and HTC service packs as far as I can tell.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[madelman99]

So GPS is only part of the problem. The battery history shows that the phone stays awake almost all the time. I checked my wife's M7 and when the screen is off the phone is not awake like mine.

 

[anon(3846388)]

Madelman, now that you mention it, I'm seeing that always-awake too. I've been resorting to just keeping my phone in airplane mode while I'm in the office (where a gps activity goes from being a couple second activity to a several minute activity), but battery has still been draining faster than I'd think. Are you rooted? If you are, there are apps in the play store that will detect wake locks. I'm not rooted, so they're not very helpful for me.

Edit: something that's confusing me, though, is that GSam is showing very little awake time on my phone, but the built in HTC battery usage app is showing my phone as awake very frequently...

 

[cwise222]

Just checked my phone and it's showing as awake nearly constantly as well. It is possible that the GPS is firing up and staying on while the phone is locked and the HTC battery monitor considers that 'awake'? Maybe GSam reads it differently?

According to my phone Android System has used of 25% battery usage with a keep awake time of 45 minutes and a GPS use time of 52 minutes. Google play services are not far behind at 18% battery usage and then Andriod OS at 9%. Everything else is lower so something is screwy with the system software side of things.

 

[richard_rsp]

Just for everyone's information, my AT&T HTC Desire Eye is doing the same thing (not surprising seeing how it shares so much with the M8). Seems like GPS is coming on every minute or so. I am 3 days out of my return policy and am not real happy that this just started.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[madelman99]

Madelman, now that you mention it, I'm seeing that always-awake too. I've been resorting to just keeping my phone in airplane mode while I'm in the office (where a gps activity goes from being a couple second activity to a several minute activity), but battery has still been draining faster than I'd think. Are you rooted? If you are, there are apps in the play store that will detect wake locks. I'm not rooted, so they're not very helpful for me.

Edit: something that's confusing me, though, is that GSam is showing very little awake time on my phone, but the built in HTC battery usage app is showing my phone as awake very frequently...

I am not rooted, but, unless AT&T fixes this, i will not have a choice but to root my phone. I'm not comfortable knowing that they are spying on me. I also noticed GPS turning on now every time I make or receive a phone call.

 

[madelman99]

I've had the same problem since my phone was updated on 4.4.3,and carried over to 4.4.4 I got absolutely no help from at&t customer service, so I went to a at&t service center I explained the issue to them, without them even looking at the phone they went in the back and got me a brand new phone on 4.4.4 with no GPS issues what so ever,couldnt b happier.. So if u are having the GPS problem please take ur phone to a service center so they can give u a new phone

Posted via the Android Central App

Spade30, how long do did you have your Phone? Not sure they will just swap the older phone for a brand new one. Also, please keep us posted and let us know if the problem resurfaces on the new phone.

 

[Spade30]

Madelman99 I have 35 days left on my original warranty, and they even extended the new phone for an extra 90 days on top of my 35 days left, all I can tell u is I get 5.50 hrs of screen on time and 27 hrs of normal battery life haven't seen any problems with this phone at all. I make multiple phones calls a day no gps popping up. I even turn it on airplane mode a few times a day just to see if I can duplicate the problem, nothing

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[madelman99]

I just thought of something: I can be completely wrong here, but, I'm sure most of you read an article about how NSA broke into the SIM manufacturer network and stole the encryption algorithm for their SIM cards. So is it me or did this started happening around the same time as the story broke and is it possible that it is related to this issue. Could this be resolved as easily as replacing the SIM card? Just a thought...

 

[anon(3846388)]

That's a lot of hassle... Anyone want to volunteer to be the guinea pig?

I'm currently chasing down a possible option that's kind of a halfway point between n00b and rooted. I have low level access to my phone, and a possible way to disable anything related to Carrier IQ (which is definitely on the phone and running), but I just can't find the relevant packages to disable. Will report back if/when I come up with something.

 

[MatthewGavin]

I just thought of something: I can be completely wrong here, but, I'm sure most of you read an article about how NSA broke into the SIM manufacturer network and stole the encryption algorithm for their SIM cards. So is it me or did this started happening around the same time as the story broke and is it possible that it is related to this issue. Could this be resolved as easily as replacing the SIM card? Just a thought...

So...you think somebody is using our data some how, or just messing with us?

 

[madelman99]

So...you think somebody is using our data some how, or just messing with us?

Anyone's guess at this point. There is not much to use in terms of data, I don't have anything on my phone that is of any value to anyone. This could be done to divert attention from the article... This would explain why Verizon don't have the issue: no SIM cards... This would also explain why some phones are effected and some are not.

 

[cwise222]

There is pretty much zero chance it's related to the 'NSA hack'. You can get encryption keys to a SIM card but the best you can do with it eavesdrop on say calls or data that you are sending out over the data/voice connection, and I believe that it would only affect 2G use since 3G & 4G use a different and tougher encryption. If you're not using the phone data/voice connection (like if you are on WiFi) then whomever could eavesdrop is getting nothing; at least that is how I understand it. This would also affect more then just AT&T M8's on 4.4.4. Every device that uses LTE has a sim card in it, even Version and Sprint since LTE is a GSM based technology.

If the NSA wanted to spy on your location (the only reason the GPS would come on and the phone would be active all the time, even on WiFi) it would need an application you would have to install or HTC or AT&T would need to build it into one of their applications and tell no one or program it into Android or Sense themselves. I'm going to stick with AT&T jacked something up in 4.4.4 and it's just a really annoying bug.