[BB9650]

For the last month or so I have been having trouble with my Verizon S4. About 3 weeks ago the phone would continually shutdown without my input. I had recently installed Milk and Gorilla Math. I could have my phone in my pocket or sitting on the desk at work and it would just turn off. I removed these 2 newer Apps and it seemed to have helped a little but the problem continued. Several other Apps continued to Auto-Update and the problem seems to have died down. I have also noticed that I don't receive Gmail email notifications unless I manually turn off WiFi each morning when I leave the house. I also must remove the battery on a daily basis to try and combat this issue. It also seems to help if I open the Play Store and look at My Apps and then close the store. It seems like the phone gets locked into a routine of looking for updates and stops email PUSH. At the time I went into the Recovery screen and cleared the cache. Almost every time I use Chrome I clear the history and cache before closing. I am debating whether or not to do a Factory Reset, I would prefer not to since this is a time consuming option. Battery life also appears to have gone down significantly since I first got this phone. Has anyone else been having these issues and what solutions have you found? My wife and father have the same phones and don't appear to be having these problems.
Thanks In Advance

[B. Diddy]

It might be worth trying a new battery.