[Q] can anyone help me solve a battery issue? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I've got a stock S3 running nova launcher, but unrooted. i was typically getting around 14-20 hours battery life from a charge, with between 3-4.5 hours of screen-on.
i think it dates from the jelly bean update, but recently my battery life has dropped significantly... i'm lucky to get 12 hours, and very lucky to get more than 2 hours of screen-on.
i've been looking through many, many forum threads both here and elsewhere, but am getting really bewildered - i've installed betterbatterystats, CPU spy and Watchdog lite, but to be honest don't really know what i'm looking at/for. I've tried entering the '*#2880#' code (or whatever it was) and doing the battery restart.
I'm still losing around 8-12% batter an hour even if i literally don't touch the phone. CPU spy is showing 200MHz as using up a huge majority of the CPU time (currently 62% compared to 12% deep sleep, despite having left my phone alone for 1.5 out of the last 2 hours). Android OS, device idle and Cell standby have started showing up as huge culprits in the battery stats.
Kernel wakelock is showing "mmc1_detect" as being active approx 50% of the time.
Can anyone advise? I'm really just not tech-savvy enough to decipher any of this stuff!

You either have a rogue app that prevents the phone from sleeping, or an aspect of the OS is causing the same thing. I can't tell what it is from the info you've provided so, in general:
Normal suspects are apps that constantly update, e.g. facebook, twitter, weather etc. try freezing or uninstalling them one by one until you locate the culprit. The stock ROM has loads of battery draining apps included but even a normally 'good' app can go bad, if you can find the app casuing the issue then freeze it, clear its data or reinstall (not including data if from a backup). Don't freeze essential system components as your phone might stop completely.
Another common problem is the OS media scanner, which can be a big problem if its database is corrupt or the file structure on your SD card is damaged.
Try force stopping the Media Storage app, clear data then restart the phone - if the mediaserver still appears on the battery list for hours instead of minutes then you may have to backup, format and restore your SD card.

boomboomer said:
Another common problem is the OS media scanner, which can be a big problem if its database is corrupt or the file structure on your SD card is damaged.
Try force stopping the Media Storage app, clear data then restart the phone - if the mediaserver still appears on the battery list for hours instead of minutes then you may have to backup, format and restore your SD card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
amazing - thank you! my sd card which is very aged has recently stopped working and won't show up on the phone, but i didn't miss the storage so i've ignored it. that must be causing the problem, much appreciated!

Please post a screenshot of Kernel wakelocks and partial wakelocks from better batterystats when the battery is almost dead otherwise we are just shooting in the dark people on XDA know how to properly read bbs, and you will be more likely to get help.

Related

[Q] Randomly Low On Storage [SOLVED]

Hello all I have a rooted Aria with FR008.
Had it running smoothly for about a week until the last couple days.
Had a little over 100MB of space left on the phone, then legit 45 mins later( the phone standing idle) I randomly got the "Low On Space" message at the same time Android system usage went up to 80% + for about an hour or so and drained the battery to below 10% then the system usage went down to about 20%.
Any ideas on what causes this? It happened two days ago and I just started from scratch, and then it happened again today...getting kind of frustrating wiping the phone every other day.
I've used all the cache cleaners, task killers, and moved everything to the SD than can be.
I just find it strange that I saw that the phone had 133 MB left of space...legit hit the power button, then turned it on 45 mins later to find that warning...and having less then 8MB left on the phone.
Are there any programs that update automatically that dont go to the SD card?
Any help is appreciated...thank you!
Which programs do you have installed and do they run in the background?
Gmail, Dropbox, ebay, twitter, facebook, barcode, astro, apps2sd, wifi analyzer...plus the task killers and cache cleaners....
Had them installed for a few days running fine, and then like I said, in a matter of 45 mins, before I knew it, the go from 100+ MB to 9 MB internal storage.
This happened today, and the only program new I installed today was the Wifi Analyzer
Thanks.
dmoneypros said:
Gmail, Dropbox, ebay, twitter, facebook, barcode, astro, apps2sd, wifi analyzer...plus the task killers and cache cleaners....
Had them installed for a few days running fine, and then like I said, in a matter of 45 mins, before I knew it, the go from 100+ MB to 9 MB internal storage.
This happened today, and the only program new I installed today was the Wifi Analyzer
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which task killer are you using? Is the cache cleaner something that runs automatically, too? What purpose does the Wifi Analyzer do and does it do any logging?
Using the Advanced Task Killer...I tried setting the cache cleaner both to manual and auto clean...no difference. The Wifi Analyzer doesnt do any logging, just detects the wifi signal stregnth. Either way this is the second time its happened, and the first time I didnt have the wifi analyzer.
Thanks.
dmoneypros said:
Using the Advanced Task Killer...I tried setting the cache cleaner both to manual and auto clean...no difference. The Wifi Analyzer doesnt do any logging, just detects the wifi signal stregnth. Either way this is the second time its happened, and the first time I didnt have the wifi analyzer.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this your first Android phone? Why are you running Advanced Task Killer? What was your reasoning for deciding you needed to run it? With the FR008 ROM and Froyo 2.2 using a task killer actually has a negative impact on the Aria. Android does a great job at managing the memory just fine. So try removing Advanced Task Killer and the cache cleaner and see if that solves your issue.
Ive uninstalled both of what you asked, restarted the phone a couple times and still have the message on the notification bar at the top
"Low on space"
"Phone storage space is getting low"
dmoneypros said:
Ive uninstalled both of what you asked, restarted the phone a couple times and still have the message on the notification bar at the top
"Low on space"
"Phone storage space is getting low"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What else did you do to clean up the phone storage space? How much storage was available when you started?
Try going into clockwork and clearing cache. Also clear cache on market and browser.
Thanks for all the suggestions...I just ended up starting fresh again...tried all your suggestions and still had the low storage space warning...I'll just have to take it day by day and hope it doesnt happen for the third time!
I had the same problem until I enabled a2sd. You might want to check if it is enabled; it was not on my FR008 - i think you have to do it after the fact.
You can change the text message limit to automatically delete a thread after a certain amount is reached. You can also use Titanium Backup to uninstall stock apps that you don't use, or even freeze apps that you don't want running all the time.
Sent from my Aria using XDA
when you are starting fresh all of these times, are you doing a complete wipe?
i ran into an issue with low phone storage while running cm6 from all of my back and forth flashings. when i decided to start using cm7 nightlies, i wiped data/cache, formatted system partition, and upon installing the rom had plenty of space and haven't had any issues.
i'd try a complete and utter wipe of all your phones data/cache.
Little late, but its better to have this info here for others, found the issue...It was the Twitter application. It was syncing the contacts and with my 10K plus followers, it was chewing up my space

[Q] Battery Drain - Usage Media?? 2.3.3

Right, im on 2.3.3 with my X10, and ive noticed in the battery usage section in the menu that something called media has 21% so far, even though ive not used any media at all, and in 38 mins from being fully charged im down to 85% battery lol.
Anyway this media thing says when i click on it
Cpu total 11mins
Cpu Foreground 6mins
Keep awake 7 mins 54secs
included packages, DRM protected content storage
Downloads,
Download manager
Media Storage..
So out of all that anything i can do to stop this?
Do you have many media files (music, photos etc?) on your card ?
It might be that the media scanner kicked in to index / search around. If this is the case, maybe this post could help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15037379&postcount=35
viulian said:
Do you have many media files (music, photos etc?) on your card ?
It might be that the media scanner kicked in to index / search around. If this is the case, maybe this post could help: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=15037379&postcount=35
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
aye i do, quite a few pictures and alot of music on there, But nothing changed so im not sure why it scanned again, plus it ate the battery like mad from a fully charged battery to 85%
No software is perfect...
In my case, the scanner hogged the CPU the first time I booted the phone after update, gallery worked very very poorly, freezes, etc. Eventually it finished and now it seems ok.
If it keeps doing it, just reset, and if it insists - just add a '.nomedia' file and it should not scan the big folders anymore. Please read more about .nomedia file limitations here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=626997
Right cheers for that, ill give that a shot and see what happens, was just annoying to see my freshly charged battery disapear lol

[Q] Media Server killing battery

I was checking my battery status in settings and noticed Media Server has taken 56% of my battery, and has caused my phone to stay awake for over 18 hours and has almost 5 hours of CPU time. I have been getting over a days worth of battery with 4-5 hours of screen on time, I am currently at 22 hours with only 1.5 hours of screen on time. I don't see a way to stop it from running in Application Manager.
Is there a way to stop this process from keeping my phone awake? Is this connected with any particular application, or called something else in Application Manager?
I'm having the same issue as well.
I've seen it take a decent chunk more than once. Only like 15% at max so I'm not doing nearly as bad though. I'm curious about what it is exactly as well.
flaring afro said:
I've seen it take a decent chunk more than once. Only like 15% at max so I'm not doing nearly as bad though. I'm curious about what it is exactly as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have always noticed it on my list, but it was never a huge drain on the battery. Like you said in the 15% range, all of the sudden though it just jumped up to over 50%. I can't think of an application I have used to make it use such a huge chunk of my battery.
So I went back into Application Manager and noticed under the Running tab that there was a "Show cached processes" option in the top right corner. Under that there was a Media application listed that uses the "android.process.media" process. Any chance that this could be related to the Media Server, or am I heading in the wrong direction?
I have recharged and restarted my phone, and Media Server is back down to 6% after discharging for 5 hours. I would just like to know what I possibly did to make my battery drain so quickly. I haven't watched any movies or videos and Pandora is the only time I listen to music on my phone.
According to my research, the media service covers scanning your internal and external sdcards for media files, including music, pictures and videos. If one file is corrupted in some way, it can cause the service to hang. That said, mine was doing the same thing. There's an app on the play store called Media Rescan Root that blocks the service at boot. The stock media player, player pro, and probably others use the media service to find new songs added to the sdcard. I switched over to PowerAmp which does its own search which doesn't hang like that. That's what I reccomend.
Sent from my GN2 using XDA Premium HD app
Do you have Drive installed?
I had the same issue with media server eating up about 60% battery. I have Google Drive installed and have around 1gb data in it. In accounts my sync settings were set to always sync Drive. I unchecked this and the media server issue seemed to have been resolved.See if this helps you.
_paradox said:
I had the same issue with media server eating up about 60% battery. I have Google Drive installed and have around 1gb data in it. In accounts my sync settings were set to always sync Drive. I unchecked this and the media server issue seemed to have been resolved.See if this helps you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I unchecked media sync, and put back in my SD card, which has about 12 gb of music on it. Within 10 minutes, the media scanner jumped from .02% to 12%, so this didn't seem to make a difference for me.
TallgeeseIV said:
According to my research, the media service covers scanning your internal and external sdcards for media files, including music, pictures and videos. If one file is corrupted in some way, it can cause the service to hang. That said, mine was doing the same thing. There's an app on the play store called Media Rescan Root that blocks the service at boot. The stock media player, player pro, and probably others use the media service to find new songs added to the sdcard. I switched over to PowerAmp which does its own search which doesn't hang like that. That's what I reccomend.
Sent from my GN2 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to me. Mine turned out to be m4a files that were causing. I removed them and no longer see mediaserver power drain.
I read a forum a few days ago that talked about wifi causing the media service drain. They said to set a static IP address instead of dynamic and that would solve the problem. I spend most of my time on wifi so this makes a little bit of sense to me. I have set a static address and so far today my media service has remained at 3%. I don't have the link to the forum right now but I'll try to find it again and link to it later.
Sent from my SCH-I605 using xda app-developers app
Edit: Apparently that did not last long. My Media Server stayed down at 2% for several hours but then for no aparent reason it spiked up to its current usage of 31% (2hr CPU time and 7hr of Stay Awake). I would really like to know what is causing this.

[Q] galaxy s2 overheating after official 4.1.2 update

i updated my galaxy s2 i9100 2days back.uk version.but since installation my 4n overheat like hell and battery drains like hell.I USE MY S2 AS A TAB.so it always in airplane mode.never occur such issue with gingerbread.is cpu clock over heating?i updated via odin.all my gingerbread applications there after i upgreaded.i like the update.but overheating is really problem.what should i do my dear friends????i am from india region.any help????plzzzzzzzz
THANK YOU :crying:
anjuhiru said:
i updated my galaxy s2 i9100 2days back.uk version.but since installation my 4n overheat like hell and battery drains like hell.I USE MY S2 AS A TAB.so it always in airplane mode.never occur such issue with gingerbread.is cpu clock over heating?i updated via odin.all my gingerbread applications there after i upgreaded.i like the update.but overheating is really problem.what should i do my dear friends????i am from india region.any help????plzzzzzzzz
THANK YOU :crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You flashed which ROM in your phone?? XXLSJ or XWLS8 ?? Is it a custom ROM/leaked??
Official update in india should come in within a few weeks(coz S3 JB already came)...go back to stock ICS and you can wait for it..
For now try Wiping your Battery Stats and see if it gets fixed..
Press Thanx if i helped..
thanks 4 help
[my dear friend it is xwls8.only problem is when screen on also 4n is heat like hell.what can i do?is it softwear problem.what is it may be cpu overheating?what is cpu optimum level?...thanks 4 ur help bro :good: hope further assistance.
Probably an overactive media scanner (android media process). I have the same problem since updating to the stock official 4.1.2 XXLS8.
I'm not sure what the solution is. You can disable the android media process (application manager -> media storage -> select and disable). However, if you do so then not only do you lose access to media files in the standard music and video players, but you also lose all your sound files for ringtones, notifications, email and SMS alerts etc. So as solutions go that one's a bit rubbish...
Rescan Media Root is also ineffective. I don't know why, possibly something to do with Jellybean that prevents it from working.
I've seen many posts in different forums about this, it seems to be a common issue with the 4.1.2 JB releases. Some say it is partly fixed in JB 4.2 but that isn't much use to us right now.
You could try reformatting your memory card as some say that corrupted files cause the problem. However, others say this 'fix' is unsuccessful and the excessive scanning continues regardless.
Mr Anderson said:
Probably an overactive media scanner (android media process). I have the same problem since updating to the stock official 4.1.2 XXLS8.
I'm not sure what the solution is. You can disable the android media process (application manager -> media storage -> select and disable). However, if you do so then not only do you lose access to media files in the standard music and video players, but you also lose all your sound files for ringtones, notifications, email and SMS alerts etc. So as solutions go that one's a bit rubbish...
Rescan Media Root is also ineffective. I don't know why, possibly something to do with Jellybean that prevents it from working.
I've seen many posts in different forums about this, it seems to be a common issue with the 4.1.2 JB releases. Some say it is partly fixed in JB 4.2 but that isn't much use to us right now.
You could try reformatting your memory card as some say that corrupted files cause the problem. However, others say this 'fix' is unsuccessful and the excessive scanning continues regardless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this workaround:
Copy you DCIM folder to your External SD Card. Empty Internal SD card's DCIM folder (files, not the folders, just leave it empty).
Set your external SD Card's DCIM folder to default for pics & video.
Reboot.
gastonw said:
Try this workaround:
Copy you DCIM folder to your External SD Card. Empty Internal SD card's DCIM folder (files, not the folders, just leave it empty).
Set your external SD Card's DCIM folder to default for pics & video.
Reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried this, it worked. thanks
good
i will try it and see brothers...thanks any way:good:
gastonw said:
Try this workaround:
Copy you DCIM folder to your External SD Card. Empty Internal SD card's DCIM folder (files, not the folders, just leave it empty).
Set your external SD Card's DCIM folder to default for pics & video.
Reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sadly no change for me.
Emptied DCIM on internal SD, camera was already set to external SD for storage. Rebooted, and Android Media Process is now busy hammering my CPU again.
This is so frustrating. I lose 50% battery in ten hours, and I'm now scared to actually use the device at all when I'm out and about for fear of losing power altogether. Google have known about it since October - see this issue thread.
I had similar issues after I've installed the same rom on my phone. After a few awful days of fiddling with it and endless cycles of recharging, I've decided to do a clean reinstall. After I did a clean install last night, everything seemed better. The battery wasn't overheating, wasn't even draining that fast. During the night (5 hours of sleep I got, actually), BetterBatteryStats had shown me that I had only ~5 minutes of awake state vs the 5hrs of deep sleep.
But! Today after work, my battery started going crazy again. Left work with ~35% and I've discharged it completely after some 30-40 minutes of Ingress play (gps + 3g + screen on). Something's awfully wrong with this version, no fix worked for me (except the mediascanner issue which resolved itself after I did a clean install).
Any and every advice is more than welcome.
Mr Anderson said:
Sadly no change for me.
Emptied DCIM on internal SD, camera was already set to external SD for storage. Rebooted, and Android Media Process is now busy hammering my CPU again.
This is so frustrating. I lose 50% battery in ten hours, and I'm now scared to actually use the device at all when I'm out and about for fear of losing power altogether. Google have known about it since October - see this issue thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try freezing gallery as soon as it boots, check with betterbattery stats if media scanner stops when you do.
If it stops it within 50 seconds or so make sure you have no files at all in internal DCIM, only the -empty- cache folder inside.
Sent from the little guy
Not working
did same but it getting worse and worse.....this is worst update ever seen.thinking roll back to gingerbread again.....its better than this....any custom roms help?is there anyone know better solution.....
anjuhiru said:
did same but it getting worse and worse.....this is worst update ever seen.thinking roll back to gingerbread again.....its better than this....any custom roms help?is there anyone know better solution.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post your battery detail screen shot.
Are you all stock?
Sent from the little guy
gastonw said:
Post your battery detail screen shot.
Are you all stock?
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
I have also installed JB through Odin and facing same battery drain issue. It's finishing like a in a day without using any high app ( FB, Browsing, Twitter etc)
Please help me or I'll need to roll back to ICS .
you're kidding me right?
20 hours with 35% left on battery and 44% screen usage?
Bluetooth on, avast and who knows what more crap you got there. Every app running in background drains your battery, but again, you are looking at a 3 % / hour drain.
Sent from the little guy
gastonw said:
you're kidding me right?
20 hours with 35% left on battery and 44% screen usage?
Bluetooth on, avast and who knows what more crap you got there. Every app running in background drains your battery, but again, you are looking at a 3 % / hour drain.
Sent from the little guy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I am not kidding. it was just opened to test and received a reply on twitter once the wifi connected. If I am not using my phone and let it without open anything. Next day it will be at 70% which does not seem right to me. ICS was much better, I was using wifi and 3g as well almost all day than it used to go be on 40-50%.
MrGadgetGuy said:
No, I am not kidding. it was just opened to test and received a reply on twitter once the wifi connected. If I am not using my phone and let it without open anything. Next day it will be at 70% which does not seem right to me. ICS was much better, I was using wifi and 3g as well almost all day than it used to go be on 40-50%.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Post your partial wakelocks since boot.
gastonw said:
Post your partial wakelocks since boot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here you go!! Just for info, the android thing on top is an Easy battery saver and avast is security stuff which was running in ICS as well.
Also, Could you please tell me the process to roll back ICS as I have downloaded the file from samobile, in case I need
It's not rooted and neither locked with operator.
Thanks for you help
Here is the pictures -
MrGadgetGuy said:
Here is the pictures -
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since Boot, not since unplugged.
gastonw said:
Since Boot, not since unplugged.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's appearing only two options screen off or unplugged. I have attached both of them.

Absolute android essential!!!....

This is real battery saving tips☺??......
Now what is the key to having a fast, smooth running device? Well its probably a lil different than most people think. Over time our phones become slow and lag which gets very annoying, and if u install 10,000 apps this is coming to happen. It is also going to ruin your battery life too. Sadly people get fooled by apps like cleanmaster and du battery saver into thinking they are magically gonna fix things, but it wount fix. These kinds apps actually make the problem worse and jus give the illusion of better performance and battery.
Ok these apps don't actually do anything but burn ram and cpu cycles in the background draining more battery. When u hit that boost, it wipes apps from ram and Android immediately starts reloading them so u get a quick boost then even more lag cuz everything is trying to run again. You have to understand how android operates. Apps run a steady service and all apps have to use the same ram and that ram is finite. Now once it becomes overloaded, android (the garbage collector) will start to kill apps it thinks u are less likely to use. This is great, but if you have too many apps they all try to reload at once overwhelming android. So it goes into a cycle of killing and reloading causing all kinds of problems. So using a task killer jus makes things worse.
CPU IS WHAT CAUSES LAG.... Yes, it's your cpu maxed out that causes your phone to slow down. When an app is cached into ram it is using cpu cycles,and when an app is loading it really uses alot. So killing an app with a task killer causes tons of cpu burn and thus burning battery. You're better off leaving it running it uses less. So my point is... DON'T USE SO MARY APPS! Only keep what u need installed because 95% of apps will run a service when installed.
WAKELOCKS.. VERY BIG IMPACT!!......A wakelocks is when an app wakes up your cpu while the phone is in deep sleep, which is necessary for stuff like syncing and notifications. But alot of apps do it for no reason really and it burns tons of cpu killing more battery. Unfortunately there's not much u can do about them without root.
HIBERNATION IS THE REAL KEY!!
There's two apps that actually will save you battery and give you better performance.... Greenify and ShutApp.. These apps don't jus kill apps but put them into hibernation where they do not run and burn cpu cycles and use ram. You need to hibernate any app u don't rely on for messages, notifications, weather updates, etc.. because it will be completely shut down , works greatly try it?
AN ALMOST FULL RAM IS A GOOD THING!! Cleaning your ram is bad it jus cause the whole restart process of apps... You want your ram almost full of the apps you're using so they don't have to be reloaded burning cpu and ram bad.
STOP CLEANING CACHE CONSTANTLY!! Cache is how android operates and is not junk! When u wipe cache android immediately has to rebuild it and that does what? Burns more cpu and battery, slowing ur phone down. The only time it's necessary is when an app needs refreshing or is misbehaving. Maybe clean cache, android needs that cache to run fast and smooth.
DON'T BE LAZY!! Learn your files and take a few extra minutes to go through ur file Explorer and delete useless files. Es File Explorer will automatically clean residual files upon app uninstalls and runs a very light service. Then there's SD maid pro, which cleans all kinds of ---, cleanmaster won't like ghost files, duplicate files and apks, etc.. and runs no background service at all.
DONT USE A BATTERY SAVER!!
They are all jus gimmicks and don't actually do anything but run another heavy background service. All about "trickle charging" and other stuff is ridiculous and total waste.... You are the real battery saver. Keeping less apps on ur phone, hibernation, going to data usage and turning off background data for apps that don't need it, smart display use, etc.... These are the real battery savers.
BE SMART, THINK!! Install "Process Widget" by It-Dan software and look for any app running that has no reason to be. Use GREENIFY OR SHUTAPP!! These will have a real impact. If u actually got better battery using another battery gimmick app I promise it was something you were doing lol..
Hit thanks button if you like above information ☺??
Thanks
Thanksss. Nice info...

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