[Q] Galaxy S3 Battery Drain Loe Usage - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I just got this phone about a week ago and right away I noticed that battery life was very low. I tried doing some charge cycles and I even got a brand new Anker battery but nothing changed. I looked at the battery usage and the graph is just steadily dropping with very minimal screen usage. I have turned off background syncing on everything and I disabled notifications on most of my apps (all but Facebook and Instagram) and still the battery goes dead in under one day of standby. Looking at battery usage I noticed that Android OS,Android system, and Google play services are pretty high on the percentage (I do have auto updates disabled though). I know the battery shouldn't be dropping from one day of standby. I've also checked some other posts where people say to turn off auto brightness and notifications and I've tried all of that to no avail. Also on the battery graph the scene time is of most of the time, but the puzzling part is that the awake time is only dotted a few times, no large bars that might be huge background processes. And speaking of background processes, most of my running apps say they've been on since the time my phone had turned on (not sure why). Please help me out on how I can fix this, I can post screen shots if needed

Wipe it and flash latest firmware with Odin, disable all the bloat.

boomboomer said:
Wipe it and flash latest firmware with Odin, disable all the bloat.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'm trying that right now, I'll tell you if it worked

It did not work Could this be a faulty device? Here is a screenshot of one hour of usage after factory reseting. As you can see on the running apps (my phone was on for about 8 mins in the picture) there are a few processes that stay running from startup and never stop.
p.s. I also went disabled all running apps that were possible and that didn't look important (clock widgets, SNS, Stock Daemon, etc.)

Related

[Q] Insane battery drain after gingerbread update, please advise

Hi, just updated to 2.3.3 stock rom, no flash, using the standard LG upgrade software, from v10q (I believe) to v20g.
I installed no new apps, didn't change a thing on my phone, but now my battery drains in 12h of no use, screen off.
Battery information says the phone never goes to sleep anymore, the blue bar is continuous.
I've tried shutting down running apps using both the phone's built in app manager and Advanced Task Killer, doesn't change a thing.
Searching the forums, I've found people with battery drain, but never the same issue or solution so I'm hoping someone might know something more on my specific situation.
Here's how I use my phone and what apps I generally have running:
Audio Manager Console and Advanced Task Killer are always running, I keep data off most of the time, and turn it on when I use it occasionally (usually no more than a few minutes at a time), no wi-fi, most of the phone usage comes from Think Free Office (at least since I upgraded 2 days ago) and a few minutes of calls. Brightness is always on min.
This is mostly how I generally use my phone all the time (throw in a couple of hours a day of Bluetooth music using the default music player, but this hasn't been the case since the update) and I used to recharge every 2-3 days. Now it's 2 times a day.
Before the upgrade my phone would barely burn any battery in idle (maybe 1-2% during the 12 hours, as opposed to 94% as it currently does)
Battery health seems fine, temperature is around 20-25C
What can I do?
cable36wu said:
Hi, just updated to 2.3.3 stock rom, no flash, using the standard LG upgrade software, from v10q (I believe) to v20g.
I installed no new apps, didn't change a thing on my phone, but now my battery drains in 12h of no use, screen off.
Battery information says the phone never goes to sleep anymore, the blue bar is continuous.
I've tried shutting down running apps using both the phone's built in app manager and Advanced Task Killer, doesn't change a thing.
Searching the forums, I've found people with battery drain, but never the same issue or solution so I'm hoping someone might know something more on my specific situation.
Here's how I use my phone and what apps I generally have running:
Audio Manager Console and Advanced Task Killer are always running, I keep data off most of the time, and turn it on when I use it occasionally (usually no more than a few minutes at a time), no wi-fi, most of the phone usage comes from Think Free Office (at least since I upgraded 2 days ago) and a few minutes of calls. Brightness is always on min.
This is mostly how I generally use my phone all the time (throw in a couple of hours a day of Bluetooth music using the default music player, but this hasn't been the case since the update) and I used to recharge every 2-3 days. Now it's 2 times a day.
Before the upgrade my phone would barely burn any battery in idle (maybe 1-2% during the 12 hours, as opposed to 94% as it currently does)
Battery health seems fine, temperature is around 20-25C
What can I do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use apn on off widget to kill ur connection when u don't nees it...its a known issue known as the fastdormancy bug, which when u turn off data it makes ye phone awake. Apn on off is the easiest solution know...
Sent from my LG-P500 using XDA App
Thanks, will try, update results

Android and battery

I love Android.
I think the customization is great, and since v4 it's smoother and feels more responsive.
There are LOTS of apps and it's better than iOS.
But i'm sick of the battery issues.
I've always loved trying new features, ROMs, apps, hacks and whatever.
I now have SGS3 and it's my third android device, and i've installed ROMs dozens of times, even on my friends' devices.
One thing that always kept me alert is the battery life - the maximum I can get from my battery is around 30 hours with my usage - 1/5-2 hours of screen, ~45 minutes talk, lots of standby.
But every now and then, my girlfriend, my dad, my aunt or my friend ask me 'why does my battery drain so fast?'
Sometimes its google maps.
Sometimes its mediaserver/media scanner
Sometimes - and only I can see it cause they are not familiar with tools like BBS, it's gsf (Google Services Framework).
The point is, when you have an Android device, you need to check the battery stats every now and then to make sure nothing is unusually heavy on the battery.
I am currently experimenting with ParanoidAndroid and AOKP, which are faster and more responsive than omega/stock.
Yesterday i went to sleep (6 hours) with 25% battery (after it lasted 15 hours) and I turned off the data connection and the wireless connection.
I woke up after 6 hours (lucky..) and I saw my phone if off. after I connected it to the charger and turned it on I saw mediaserver decided to wake up in the middle of the night, after It almost did nothing during the day, and worked for 5.5 hours until the battery died!
Today I unplugged my phone and in 1 hour of standby 10% of the battery were gone, I checked what happened using BBS and saw gsf again (that GTALK_SYNC whatever wakelock) was draining battery, after I thought I fixed it yesterday when I disabled app data and browser sync in the google account sync options). I rebooted and now it seems ok again, the phone is back to ~70-80-% sleep.
I want to emphasize that I don't like all the stupid battery tips that tell me to castrate my phone:
turn off wifi when it's not needed, turn down the brightness, lower the screen timeout, disable sync (wtf? but its a smart phone, I WANT push notifications!) and that sort of things.
I KNOW I can get >24hours of battery without disabling the basic features of my phone.
And the draining battery processes that I mentioned earlier can suddenly appear even in a stock ROM, so I don't think it's PA or AOKP's fault.
What I want is that google will finally build a supervisor entity that will check what causes an unusual battery drain, check if it makes sense, and disable that cause!
It's absurd that google maps application comes with default 'enable location reporting' that constantly drains your battery and for what?? google maps doesn't run in the foreground, why the hell will I want that background location reporting draining my battery? and if so, why do you put this option enabled BY DEFAULT? The average user doesn't know this sort of stuff, and get only 10 hours of battery out of a device that should ideally provide ~30 hours!!!
Just wanted to let it out of my system...
And to get useful battery tips if any...

[Q] Battery Life = Androids greatest headache

My Samsung S3 battery goes from fully charged to "low battery" often before I get home from work. I just put up with it because troubleshooting Android is such a pain even with Better Battery Stats.
But by exceeding my data quota this month I see exactly what the problem is. Android 4.3 disabled data last night because I went over my quota.
It is now 6:02PM and my battery is at 82% when it would usually be at 5% by now. I still used my phone almost exactly the same amount as I have a desktop at work. My battery usually goes down to 5% just doing nothing in my pocket and making a few calls and texts and some music listening.
My poor battery life is due to all the data transfer bull Google is doing in the background every day.
Better battery stats can identify the process like Bam_dmux or fast dormancy, but it doesn't tell you which apps are actually calling the wakelock.
If Android did keep proper track of this I am sure many apps would be deleted (including Google Apps) from phone in a instant.
But it is too much trouble to try to figure out which one it is so we just put up with 6 hour standby battery life when the manufacturer claims 72 hours.
What a mess ..... I am going to have to research "restrict background data" now to waste more of my time.
Looking at Data Usage in setting doesn't help much because it only tells how much not how often
HaHaHaHa: Google Search on = android "restrict background data" gives 192,000 hits
Does anyone know a good site or method to do this?
Fixed Battery Issue
Well I managed to solve my battery problems at least until the next round of updates.
Previously ..... Galaxy S3 goes from full battery to empty by about 4:00PM in the workday ... mostly phone is sitting in my pocket. No surfing, occasional call.
Then I blocked background data for:
1) Play Store (I am tired of useless updates anyway)
2) Medscape
3) MPR
4) EMAIL ( confirmed this does not affect Gmail notifications )
Then Removed Accounts:
1) All associated with Samsung
2) WeChat and program
So only Accounts for Dropbox, Google, Scribd and Whatsup are left
Nothing else changed
It's 10:00PM and I still have 60% battery ..... sometimes getting pissed helps as I have been putting up with this for a month.
Unfortunately I don't know which were the offenders.
Sirandar said:
My Samsung S3 battery goes from fully charged to "low battery" often before I get home from work. I just put up with it because troubleshooting Android is such a pain even with Better Battery Stats.
But by exceeding my data quota this month I see exactly what the problem is. Android 4.3 disabled data last night because I went over my quota.
It is now 6:02PM and my battery is at 82% when it would usually be at 5% by now. I still used my phone almost exactly the same amount as I have a desktop at work. My battery usually goes down to 5% just doing nothing in my pocket and making a few calls and texts and some music listening.
My poor battery life is due to all the data transfer bull Google is doing in the background every day.
Better battery stats can identify the process like Bam_dmux or fast dormancy, but it doesn't tell you which apps are actually calling the wakelock.
If Android did keep proper track of this I am sure many apps would be deleted (including Google Apps) from phone in a instant.
But it is too much trouble to try to figure out which one it is so we just put up with 6 hour standby battery life when the manufacturer claims 72 hours.
What a mess ..... I am going to have to research "restrict background data" now to waste more of my time.
Looking at Data Usage in setting doesn't help much because it only tells how much not how often
HaHaHaHa: Google Search on = android "restrict background data" gives 192,000 hits
Does anyone know a good site or method to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Day5
Since I made these changes my battery life has been greater than 60% every single night no matter how much I use the phone. Maybe it was WeChat.....
Play Store Issues from the OP
My battery life bliss was cut short by issues with my gmail account and sync probably caused my "restrict background data" on the play store.
Previously restricting background data on Play Store and WeChat improved my battery life from 100%-0 in 8 hours to 100% to 90% in 8 hours
BUT
This seems to cause issues with gmail and Google sync. Neither would work and I had to uninstall and clear data for both to get them working again. It said the sync was "experiencing difficulties".
Uninstalling and reinstalling gmail and play seems to have fixed my battery issues .... even without background data restrictions.
Sirandar said:
My Samsung S3 battery goes from fully charged to "low battery" often before I get home from work. I just put up with it because troubleshooting Android is such a pain even with Better Battery Stats.
But by exceeding my data quota this month I see exactly what the problem is. Android 4.3 disabled data last night because I went over my quota.
It is now 6:02PM and my battery is at 82% when it would usually be at 5% by now. I still used my phone almost exactly the same amount as I have a desktop at work. My battery usually goes down to 5% just doing nothing in my pocket and making a few calls and texts and some music listening.
My poor battery life is due to all the data transfer bull Google is doing in the background every day.
Better battery stats can identify the process like Bam_dmux or fast dormancy, but it doesn't tell you which apps are actually calling the wakelock.
If Android did keep proper track of this I am sure many apps would be deleted (including Google Apps) from phone in a instant.
But it is too much trouble to try to figure out which one it is so we just put up with 6 hour standby battery life when the manufacturer claims 72 hours.
What a mess ..... I am going to have to research "restrict background data" now to waste more of my time.
Looking at Data Usage in setting doesn't help much because it only tells how much not how often
HaHaHaHa: Google Search on = android "restrict background data" gives 192,000 hits
Does anyone know a good site or method to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Apps Responsible For Battery Drain

After having run 'Better Battery Stats' for several days and after several recharges, these were the following apps causing battery drain. This includes partial wakeups, Alarms, network use and processes.
The top apps for biggest battery loss were:
Whatsapp
Beautiful Widgets
Firefox
Swiftkey Keyboard
Gmail
Life 360
Other apps causing slight to moderate battery drain:
Google Play Store/Services
Album
Battery Doctor
Devices
DS Battery Saver
Handset SMS
Power Amp
Surf Easy
Talkray
Despite force closing the apps, they keep re-opening even though the internet is not running and the phone is supposed to be asleep...
Greenify is even running 24/7 but doesn't seem to help with the above apps. Hibernating all the above apps seem to make little to no difference and high battery usage is still an issue...
On screen time is just 2 hours 36 minutes and battery is at 23% and draining very fast with no use at all.
Any other way to stop the above apps from draining so much battery?
I've tried many different roms, kernals and apps but battery drain is an issue regardless...
Just come back from lunch. Battery is now 17%
Why has it dropped from 23% to 17% over a 2 hour period? The phone has not even been touched since I left it in the office...
Is it possible I have a defective battery or would it be due to bad apps?
kanej2006 said:
Just come back from lunch. Battery is now 17%
Why has it dropped from 23% to 17% over a 2 hour period? The phone has not even been touched since I left it in the office...
Is it possible I have a defective battery or would it be due to bad apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
I'm using Stock ROM (4.4.4). I have more than a hundred of apps installed and my battery time is more than 5 hours with heavy use (screen on). I can't even imagine how many days the battery could work with the screen off.
Is the weak battery mode activated? Is Stamina on? Have you checked your battery details on the config panel? And what about the internet use? Is auto-synch off or at least are you scheduling when the apps can download background data? What about the system statistics about background data?
Are the GPS and bluetooth off when you're not using them? Please also remember wifi use way less battery than other mobile connections; that battery goes away faster with more brightness on the screen; and that you can get some more minutes if you let the auto-rotate off.
Have you checked if some app is preventing the "deep sleep" state?
If I was on your shoes, I'd uninstall all the 3rd-party battery utilities (even Greenify!) and I'd restart my Z Ultra.
^ Thanks for the reply Andre Verissimo. I too have 4.4.4 stock rom and only around 25 apps installed...
Stamina mode (power saving mode) is on 24/7 and brightness is set to around 50%.
I never use GPS/Satellite, bluetooth or data/mobile connection...
Auto sync and backround data are disabled...
I did track apps causing high usage. They were whatsApp, Firefox, Google Play, Battery Doctor & DS Battery Saver.
I'll try uninstalling several apps and see if it helps...
Seems I finally solved the battery leak issue.
I prevented bad apps from auto starting as well as to close once the phone has been put to sleep.
In other words, the battery will only be drained when in use. However, the phone appears to be in deep sleep since I manually set 'Battery Doctor' to kill/close apps when not in use as well as stop them from auto starting...
Only the battery draining apps have been selected to do so...
My phone has been on for 24 hours hours and my battery is still 85%
I will monitor battery usage over the next couple of days and report back with any update.
Regarding Beautiful Widgets: Are you talking about the free version or the paid one?
I am on the paid one (Pro) and it shows up as 0.3% on GSAM Battery Monitor. If you have experienced drain on that version, I will look for a different clock widget then (i.e. that it actually drains noticeably but in such a way that it doesn't show up as such).
I have the impression that the free version of Beautiful Widgets could be a drainer since it seems to be very happy to push a lot of ads and stuff.
Will try Battery Doctor and compare with Greenify.
Edit: I think Greenify is working properly on my device, i.e. it hibernates the apps properly.
your network signal greatly affects your battery and that will not show up on your battery usage stats
E90 Commie said:
Regarding Beautiful Widgets: Are you talking about the free version or the paid one?
I am on the paid one (Pro) and it shows up as 0.3% on GSAM Battery Monitor. If you have experienced drain on that version, I will look for a different clock widget then (i.e. that it actually drains noticeably but in such a way that it doesn't show up as such).
Will try Battery Doctor and compare with Greenify.
Edit: I think Greenify is working properly on my device, i.e. it hibernates the apps properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm on the paid version of Beautiful Widgets. The app has only affected my Processes. Usage is 9% . However, there are no alarms or wakeups from the app since I disabled them both using per app hacking...
I will search for an alternative to Greenify to hibernate apps. Only 3-4 apps are opening despite force closing and even preventing startup, alarms and wakeups...
Regardless of what I do, the following apps continue to run and launch even when not opened:
Photo Analyzer software
Mirror Link System
Devices
WhatsApp
Xperia extension for throw
Sweep Panorama
Creative effects
Camera
Albums
Screen Mirroring
How can I prevent the above apps from automatically launching and running? I blocked all listed programs from launching using both Battery Doctor & per app hacking yet they still re-open and run...
ShadowVlican said:
your network signal greatly affects your battery and that will not show up on your battery usage stats
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very true. Where I work, reception is VERY poor since I'm in a large factory high up...

Device is always awake and WiFi is always on

Hi,
I'm having battery issues with OPX again, first it was a faulty battery, but now it looks like the there's something wrong with the settings. The device loses about a third of it's battery overnight, but when I look at the stats I can see that WiFi is always on and the device is always awake!
I have installed naptime as well and told it to ignore sensors (not that it matters as the device is not moving overnight) and to sleep even if connected to a charger etc. No matter what I try the device is always awake.
Is there a way to find out what is keeping it awake?
When I look at usage since last full charge there's nothing unusual there, just regular apps and single digit percentage numbers.
Thanks for your help!
System version?
I'm on Android Marshmallow, using Resurrection Remix ROM.
I'm not quite sure how to use the wakelock blocker, but I just installed Wakelock detector and it shows TripAdvisor as #1 on the list. I have it blocked in notifications, but I can't find anything related to TripAdvisor in wakelock blocker.
Is there any way to prevent apps from keeping the system awake, or should I just unintall TripAdvisor completely?
Not sure if I'm on the right track, but something is keeping the system awake and I need to find out what
OS3 with google back up turned off I get zero drain. Maybe 2-3℅ max over night. Also turned off automatic updates playstore. With just those two things off dont see drain anymore might just be lucky.
Well I think I'm back on normal drain. I uninstalled TripAdvisor, not using it except when I'm on holidays. I disabled the option to keep WiFi on even during sleep.
I used wakeblocker to block all weather/facebook entries, and I have two gmail accounts, one which is use a lot and one which I don't - so I blocked all wakelocks from syncing the account I don't use often.
Battery history confirms device is now correctly going to sleep and turning off WiFi. Automatic updates are still on.
I probably blocked too much, but I don't care anymore, I have 30% more battery every morning and that's good enough for me
crótach said:
Hi,
I'm having battery issues with OPX again, first it was a faulty battery, but now it looks like the there's something wrong with the settings. The device loses about a third of it's battery overnight, but when I look at the stats I can see that WiFi is always on and the device is always awake!
I have installed naptime as well and told it to ignore sensors (not that it matters as the device is not moving overnight) and to sleep even if connected to a charger etc. No matter what I try the device is always awake.
Is there a way to find out what is keeping it awake?
When I look at usage since last full charge there's nothing unusual there, just regular apps and single digit percentage numbers.
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which ROM and recovery do you use?

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