Using Wi-Fi causes Cell Standby bug (Verizon)

[Kelly Kearns]

Any idea what "When connected" means? It is when connected to a charger or what?

I keep mine in never, always have. Screen is off and WiFi is off.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

The issue is in fact related to WiFi and LTE being on together. When I turn my WiFi off my battery improves by almost 25%!!! That's ridiculous.

Another issue. When I select to have WiFi sleep when the screen so off IT DOESN'T WORK. I use GSM battery and shows WiFi and cell at the time connected despite having checked that option. Very aggravating

Posted via the Android Central App

I'm telling you, I think that is a limitation of GSam. It shows the same for me, but when I turn on my screen, my phone tells me I have connected to xyz network.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Well in that case it might be "Samsung issue" and the way it is working with Verizon radios....but its an issue with Verizon or Samsung and needs to be fixed.

Not necessarily.. Because a Verizon issue would be a lot more than a handful of people.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Not having the problem on my phone. Drain is about 1% an hour idle on wifi.


View attachment 195998View attachment 195999

For those having high idle drain, I would suggest using wld.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/sa...71286-wakelock-detector-no-root-required.html


Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 5

And he is on Verizon. ^^^

 

[njwei]

I won't trust that Battery estimate from battery menu. It only measures the usage time of each task in the system, which is just one factor of device power consumption. If the Google android calculation only covers one aspect of the issue, it is not going to reflect the real issue. The fact is if you have the wifi connected, there are many system/application updates could happen at background because Wifi is more power efficient. I will suggest you monitor the data usage during the period and try to turn off different application's background data(especially play store) and test again. Good luck!

 

[stanleybb50]

I turned the setting to turn wifi off when the screen is off except for when charging and the cell standby has been 100% gone.

I still need to test whether it not the phone will use mobile data when I streaming music with the screen off or not though... That could be a deal breaker.

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[stanleybb50]

It's back at the top of my list even with the fact that I only have wifi set to stay on when the screen is off when it's plugged in....! In other words wifi turns off when I turn the screen off unless it's plugged in.

Argh!

Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

 

[Allenhardiman]

I experienced this kind of problem too. Wondering if anybody has a fix for this? I don't have advanced calling feature on and I have factory reset my device and nothing has changed.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

This is a Verizon issue and until people start reporting it to Verizon, nothing will be done.

 

[vm81]

I experienced this kind of problem too. Wondering if anybody has a fix for this? I don't have advanced calling feature on and I have factory reset my device and nothing has changed.

I was having major issues with this to the point where I never used WiFi. Last update a week ago for Samsung Pay has definitely taken care of this. Have no issues with WiFi anymore.

 

[leggy]

I was having major issues with this to the point where I never used WiFi. Last update a week ago for Samsung Pay has definitely taken care of this. Have no issues with WiFi anymore.

Unfortunately, the latest update from Verizon didn't solve this issue on my edge plus and my wife's note 5. At the beginning I thought it did but later on it was back

 

[vm81]

Unfortunately, the latest update from Verizon didn't solve this issue on my edge plus and my wife's note 5. At the beginning I thought it did but later on it was back

Don't know about edge. My note 5 is working flawless since the update. Have to check with my wife about her note 5.

 

[Trees]

Just ran across this thread. Good info here. I have WiFi set to be on during sleep. So, when I'm sleeping the phone is being charged.

One thing I think others have pointed out before is that if phone is on WiFi, cell radio will still be in use, and thus use some battery.

I do have the Smart Switch set to off, and have never used it. That could be a factor as I've not noticed any abnormal or high cell standby. -83dbm 55asu is the average cell signal at my house, so having decent cell coverage/quality could account for the phone having low cell standby.

 

[AnonUser12]

Has anyone found a solution?

I hope we can resurrect this or someone can link to another page where a solution has been found...I recently purchased a Verizon S6 and noticed immediately that the battery life was nothing compared to my S5. I realized that it was showing a large portion of battery used by 'Cell Standby' despite the fact that this phone had not been activated and had no SIM in it. I ran the VZW software repair assistant to repair any file corruptions, but the issue remains. The 'Cell Standby' info says to put the phone in Airplane Mode to save power. Well, I still don't have a SIM for this phone yet...so I left the phone in Airplane Mode the past few days. Still, 10-20% of my battery usage went to 'Cell Standby'. Today, I took the phone to work with me, where it sat idle (with Wi-Fi on but not connected and location set to 'GPS only'), and it only discharged from 2% (from 100 to 98%) over the course of about 10 hours. Once I got home and connected it to Wi-Fi it quickly drained down to 90% with very little use (I was using my computer, not the phone). The phone is roughly 4 feet away from my Wireless N router. And it continues to drain while the phone sits here idly.


So in essence, I think I've isolated it to an issue that only happens while my phone is actually connected to Wi-Fi, regardless of whether or not Wi-Fi is enabled. Here are screenshots of my battery settings (the ONLY battery usage is listed as 'Cell Standby' -- Screen is not even here).





This phone is using software version G920VVRU4BOK7.

 

[Trees]

If I understand correctly, the Cell Radio used 8% in 12 + hours. Not sure if I'm following the problem. WiFi radio will also consume battery, and if the WiFi is actually connected to a WiFi network; I'd expect there to be some drain as the WiFi radio is actually working (thus using battery) since apps and services (like Google Play, Photos - as examples) can sync up or backup data, which in turn uses more battery.

 

[AnonUser12]

The battery drain did not occur over the course of the 13 hours, it occurred over the course of the 3 hours after I got home and connected it to wifi. There is not a lot going on in the background -- I wasn't receiving emails, backing up photos, etc. Typically when those activities are happening they will be listed separately in the battery usage section. So my point is that it appears that simply being connected to WiFi for that 3 hour period drained roughly 6-8% of the battery. That is unusual for any device. That is why I'm concerned.

I'm going to do some more testing in safe mode and if necessary an FDR without logging back into my Gmail account.

 

[Ryano89]

The battery drain did not occur over the course of the 13 hours, it occurred over the course of the 3 hours after I got home and connected it to wifi. There is not a lot going on in the background -- I wasn't receiving emails, backing up photos, etc. Typically when those activities are happening they will be listed separately in the battery usage section. So my point is that it appears that simply being connected to WiFi for that 3 hour period drained roughly 6-8% of the battery. That is unusual for any device. That is why I'm concerned.

I'm going to do some more testing in safe mode and if necessary an FDR without logging back into my Gmail account.

My Note5 had this problem until marshmallow.. Seems fixed now.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Trees]

The battery drain did not occur over the course of the 13 hours, it occurred over the course of the 3 hours after I got home and connected it to wifi. There is not a lot going on in the background -- I wasn't receiving emails, backing up photos, etc. Typically when those activities are happening they will be listed separately in the battery usage section. So my point is that it appears that simply being connected to WiFi for that 3 hour period drained roughly 6-8% of the battery. That is unusual for any device. That is why I'm concerned.

I'm going to do some more testing in safe mode and if necessary an FDR without logging back into my Gmail account.

Taking the 8% value, looks like that's approximately 2.6% per hour (8% / 3hrs). WiFi does need power to operate. It would be interesting to see a chart for the Note 4 on Lollipop, Note 5 on Lollipop, and Note 5 on Marshmallow - all with same apps, same configuration, same usage pattern, and connected to the same WiFi network under the same network conditions - and see what the WiFi chip battery usage rates are. That same methodology could then be extended to other recent/current Samsung phones assuming that they have the same WiFi chip and software with which to make an equal comparison.

 

[AnonUser12]

Yeah, 2.6% per hour seems excessive simply for staying connected to Wi-Fi, especially because my other devices like Galaxy S5, iPhone 5S, iPod Touch, and iPad can sit around connected to Wi-Fi only for weeks straight without losing a full charge. After a couple more days of testing, I think the issue may be more related to battery calibration because the device is doing much better now and appears to be draining at a rate closer to 1% or less per hour. This is with Wi-Fi connected, location off completely, and Airplane Mode on. Still seems a bit odd that 'Cell Standby' is draining about 8-10% of battery over a 12 hour period with only Wi-Fi connected, but since I can easily charge my phone every night I'm just happy that it doesn't look like it'll be draining 25% or more Thanks for your input, and I'll still be watching this thread and testing my S6 without a SIM and without usage for a few more days in case ya have any more ideas!