SOLVED! Android OS draining battery on S6

[lunytnz]

Just to help others that may run into the same issue: wiping the cache partition solved the problem I was having with the Android OS consuming most of the battery on my S6. I'm running Android 6.0.1 (Marshmallow) and recently it began losing over half the battery life in 2-3 hours. Usually, it's the screen that consumes the most battery.

I followed these instructions (which I found related to battery drain issues after upgrades), but it solved the battery drain problem I was having, even though I didn't go through a recent OS update.

Try wiping cache partition. Turn off the phone then simultaneously press on the volume UP button, the POWER button, and the HOME button until you are directed to the boot screen. Then using your volume DOWN button, select the "wipe cache partition" and press the POWER button (to execute the selected command). Then use the volume DOWN button to select YES and POWER button to confirm. Then press POWER button again and that should restart your phone.

This forum ROCKS!

 

[B. Diddy]

Glad it worked! And yes, I agree -- we all rock!

 

[krisqz]

Don't want to burst your bubble but I'm pretty sure it's temporary effect of clearing the cache. In my case it also helps but for a day or two.

 

[drone3]

I have had the S6 since launch. The battery mainly gets drained by screen and location and hungry apps. highly recommend keep the brightness in manual at around 35% indoors and in auto for outdoors, torn off location when not using and delete power hungry apps.

 

[Morgan Kennedy1]

...Try wiping cache partition.

Nope. Did that, then broke down and did a factory reset. I'll have 80% battery, phone is sleeping for a bit, I get an SMS message, swipe my pattern to unlock and my phone is on 1% battery and dies.

This is all since the last update. I have to stay plugged in now everywhere. Ludicrous and there's not been a satisfactory response from anyone at Sprint, Android, or Samsung.

 

[Jerrbearfehr]

Nope. Did that, then broke down and did a factory reset. I'll have 80% battery, phone is sleeping for a bit, I get an SMS message, swipe my pattern to unlock and my phone is on 1% battery and dies.

This is all since the last update. I have to stay plugged in now everywhere. Ludicrous and there's not been a satisfactory response from anyone at Sprint, Android, or Samsung.

Same here! Instantly goes from 80% to 3%. Phone dies then, plug it in and it says it has 70%. Wtf?! Now it's not even recognizing my chargers either sometimes. All good chargers too.

 

[Rukbat]

Same here! Instantly goes from 80% to 3%. Phone dies then, plug it in and it says it has 70%. Wtf?!

That sounds like a dendrite. (See Lithium Battery Dendrite links if you want an education.) Simple solution? Replace the battery. (The dendrite shorts the battery internally, resulting in 3% [or 0%, shutting the phone off]. If the short itself didn't blow the dendrite, charging for a few seconds will. Then the state of charge will be back to near or at where it was [depending on how bad a short it was and how long it lasted].)

That's just the price we pay for light batteries. Lead-acid batteries don't develop dendrites, but a lead-acid battery with enough power for a cellphone would weigh about a pound (and be as large as the phone). It appears that the problem may finally have been solved (https://phys.org/news/2018-01-dendrite-free-lithium-battery.html ) - and about time, it's been actively studied for over 4 years - but it will probably be a few years before we see commercially available batteries using the new technology.