Please help me understand my poor, poor battery life

[FightOnGoBlue]

I am truly perplexed as to how my battery continues to die so quickly. I have swapped out: The phone itself (old one had a bad camera), the battery, my case. I close any running apps that I can find, and I keep my battery settings on low. I keep wifi off unless connected, and do the same for bluetooth. Despite this, I frequently lose 50% or more of my battery in 3-4 hours, sometimes less.

My phone is encrypted for work (using the built-in encryption on Android), which could play into this, but I feel like the battery was bad even before I had to do that.

I've also turned off a number of the built-in Verizon apps, to make sure those weren't draining it.

My cell reception is generally decent/good - 4G with 2-4 bars. I have noticed that my phone takes a long time to turn back on when the screen is off - frequently 1.5-2.5 seconds (which sounds short, I know). I would say my usage is pretty average - I check the phone every now and then, but don't use it excessively. My battery will drain this quickly even when I'm not using - and haven't recently used - any super intensive apps.

Any thoughts/ideas? My phone is not rooted, is running 4.4.2, and has a Kernal date of July 17th, 2014 (not sure if that makes a difference)

EDIT: Images below! These are for today with my battery going from 100% to 50% in only a few hours, with very minimal use (except for a while in the morning and sporadic checking of my phone otherwise).





Also, I don't know why WIFI shows as being on the entire time. I turned it off hours ago.

 

[mhaiderk97]

Could you post snapshots of battery stats for your phone? For example the amount of screen time and a snapshot of the battery graph? Maybe there's a rogue application preventing your phone from going into deep sleep.
Try doing a battery pull on your device
Or try clearing the cache partition of the device itself. It's easy and very effective as far as I have experienced. Google how to do it.
I hope this helps.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[STARGATE]

I also have a GS5, my second, the first one had an o ring coming out of the camera casing.
Anyway, the old had great battery life compared to all the phones I used in the past.
This one has also great battery life.

I'm not sure what the problem is, but you can check on the battery app which application is taking most of the juice out of it.
Check for rogue apps too.

I agree with the poster above.

 

[wcc7777777]

Ok, the things that got me were brightness, the settings that required use of the sensors (ie SmartStay, SmartPause, Auto Brightness), and I had a live wallpaper. I stopped all that and it helped noticeably. I would say get BatteryDoctor and use that. Also, BIG THING, which I am sure someone else is going to ask: go to Settings, scroll down and under System there is a Battery option. Click it and screenshot the app usages for the day once you get down to about 15 percent. See what the main usage is and post it here. Let me know if this helped.

 

[FightOnGoBlue]

Could you post snapshots of battery stats for your phone? For example the amount of screen time and a snapshot of the battery graph? Maybe there's a rogue application preventing your phone from going into deep sleep.
Try doing a battery pull on your device
Or try clearing the cache partition of the device itself. It's easy and very effective as far as I have experienced. Google how to do it.
I hope this helps.

Posted via Android Central App

I will post that as soon as I've had a 100% charge (unfortunately my battery was very low earlier today, so I partially charged it before going out again, so I don't think the photos would be useful as-is).

 

[Kel M]

Do you have Facebook syncing all the time? My has been pretty good on the battery, 15 hours plus heavy use.

 

[FightOnGoBlue]

Do you have Facebook syncing all the time? My has been pretty good on the battery, 15 hours plus heavy use.

I believe it is set to sync every 4 hours, but I do seem to get push notifications frequently.

 

[Three7s]

Try some of the tips in this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-s5/416125-tips-extend-your-battery-life.html

 

[FightOnGoBlue]

Updated with photos from today! I'm only down to 50%, but I think this should show the issues pretty well.

 

[mhaiderk97]

Updated with photos from today! I'm only down to 50%, but I think this should show the issues pretty well.

You've got serious wake lock issues by the looks of that graph. Definitely clear the cache partition of your device and do a battery pull too. That should greatly help your battery. And if that doesn't work then try using the phone in Safe Mode for a while. See how fast the battery discharges on standby then and compare it to your regular stats. If it works good In safe mode then yo probably have a rogue application that's taxing the CPU and preventing it from going into deep sleep.
Do what I've suggested and please post your findings. I hope it helps.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[FightOnGoBlue]

You've got serious wake lock issues by the looks of that graph. Definitely clear the cache partition of your device and do a battery pull too. That should greatly help your battery. And if that doesn't work then try using the phone in Safe Mode for a while. See how fast the battery discharges on standby then and compare it to your regular stats. If it works good In safe mode then yo probably have a rogue application that's taxing the CPU and preventing it from going into deep sleep.
Do what I've suggested and please post your findings. I hope it helps.

Posted via Android Central App

Thank you! By "battery pull" do you mean replacing the battery, or just removing it and re-inserting it?

 

[thecomicbookandme]

Thank you! By "battery pull" do you mean replacing the battery, or just removing it and re-inserting it?

Remove and re-insert

Posted via Me

 

[FightOnGoBlue]

Remove and re-insert

Posted via Me

Thank you

 

[clevin]

Disable background sync and disable data when is not in use. Somebody calls my suggestion "cripple the phone", but it is what's needed, for battery, and for privacy.

Every iteration of android asks more sacrifice of our privacy and battery life in the name of convenience, Google is doing more and more to have your phone connected to its service, I don't favor any of those over the privacy or battery life.

I don't see a reason for any app to secretly communicate with its server, it needs to fit my usage, not doing secret Internet fun and interrupt my life with its smarty notifications.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[jonebk12]

Disable background sync and disable data when is not in use. Somebody calls my suggestion "cripple the phone", but it is what's needed, for battery, and for privacy.

I don't believe that's necessarily his issue. I leave data and sync on 24/7 and routinely get much better battery life.

 

[Intense Soul]

I am noticing that OP is getting very low signals for 4G, if the networks swaps between 4g/3g/2g continuously then it causes serious issues of battery. Check what kind of signals are you receiving at the place you stay and use accordingly. All the pics shows you are on 4G with low signals, that might be the reason. If you can get 3G use on it and revert us.