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Maps App Using Tons of Battery

The title pretty much says it all. The Google Maps app is using tons of battery on my Xoom, even though I've not opened it even once. Is there any way to make sure this doesn't happen EXCEPT turning off the GPS? I still want to be able to use the GPS at will without having to go turn it on, I just don't want Maps to sit there and hog my battery.
Thanks!

Maps app doesn't run on my Xoom when I'm not using it, so I don't have this problem. GPS in on.

You haven't got google latitude updating your location?

I had noticed it using up maybe 5% battery a day because I had traffic updates on. It was keeping my xoom awake during the night, but 5% ain't much.... dunno what TONS means for you. latitude, auto checkin, traffic, buzz updates? check them all...

solarnz said:
You haven't got google latitude updating your location?
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Yeah, I realized that after I posted. However, Maps is still running after turning off Latitude and logging out of Latitude, although it's considerably better on the battery.

Latest Edition of Google Maps and Battery Life

After installing the latest edition of Google Maps, I noticed that it was using between 13-18% of my battery (after approx. 9 hours off the charger). I never opened Maps or Navigation, and when looking at its battery use, it's "stay awake" time was 0s.
I do have Google location services enabled, but as I said, I never used the Maps app or any other application that would require the use of standalone GPS services. And I always keep standalone (and VZW) location services off unless navigating. This was never a problem on older versions of Google Maps - is anyone else having this problem?
I also noticed my battery life was incrementally worse with this happening, which makes sense seeing as Google Maps ranks third behind Cell Standby and Screen on my battery usage log.
Any information or advice would be much appreciated!

minnysota said:
After installing the latest edition of Google Maps, I noticed that it was using between 13-18% of my battery (after approx. 9 hours off the charger). I never opened Maps or Navigation, and when looking at its battery use, it's "stay awake" time was 0s.
I do have Google location services enabled, but as I said, I never used the Maps app or any other application that would require the use of standalone GPS services. And I always keep standalone (and VZW) location services off unless navigating. This was never a problem on older versions of Google Maps - is anyone else having this problem?
I also noticed my battery life was incrementally worse with this happening, which makes sense seeing as Google Maps ranks third behind Cell Standby and Screen on my battery usage log.
Any information or advice would be much appreciated!
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All apps that use Location Services at all will show up as "Maps" in battery stats, so it can be really tricky to figure out which app is actually causing the problem. It's most likely an updated third-party app that has location permissions. Have you updated any other apps recently?
Recently, this happened to me with 1Weather - their update had some bug that caused the LocationServices service to run continuously, which led to Maps taking up the majority of my battery without using it. Uninstalled, and that fixed the problem.

scorchedsky said:
All apps that use Location Services at all will show up as "Maps" in battery stats, so it can be really tricky to figure out which app is actually causing the problem. It's most likely an updated third-party app that has location permissions. Have you updated any other apps recently?
Recently, this happened to me with 1Weather - their update had some bug that caused the LocationServices service to run continuously, which led to Maps taking up the majority of my battery without using it. Uninstalled, and that fixed the problem.
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That's interesting. The only apps I have that could have had location settings turned on were Facebook (chat), Flixster and Chrome. I turned off the location in Facebook chat, and the Flixster app says it uses network location only, so that shouldn't be an issue, right?
Also, I left location on for Chrome seeing as that would be the main benefit to keeping Google location services on.
I'll report back, hopefully the culprit was Facebook chat.
As a side not, uninstalling the Google Maps updates seems to have solved the problem, but I'd rather have the most up-to-date version of Maps.
If anyone else has any thoughts, I would really appreciate hearing them!

I froze maps and Google now and went from almost constant awake times overnight to nothing. Was losing 20% overnight sometimes. I don't use Google now and un freeze maps when I need navigation.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

scorchedsky said:
All apps that use Location Services at all will show up as "Maps" in battery stats, so it can be really tricky to figure out which app is actually causing the problem. It's most likely an updated third-party app that has location permissions. Have you updated any other apps recently?
Recently, this happened to me with 1Weather - their update had some bug that caused the LocationServices service to run continuously, which led to Maps taking up the majority of my battery without using it. Uninstalled, and that fixed the problem.
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Thanks for the info on this, I've been wondering what's up with the maps battery usage.

Battery problem fixed in one click!

Just for anyone else suffering a horrific battery issue....
I would take a few photos a day. My battery would die in a few hours, with the culprit being "Google Play Services", which when drilled down showed the camera as the high battery user.
Furthermore, I was getting poor GSM data rates, with the phone seemingly unable to find the nearest transmitter (it would jump to full bars for a few seconds, then lock on to a 1 bar cell and constantly change between H and 3G). While all this was happening, the Nexus 5 got hot.
Now do this:
Settings>Location>Mode>Device Only
Make sure it's in "Device Only" mode. Logic says that this is the wrong setting, but now I can go a couple of days no problem, I lose 3% overnight, the camera uses next to no juice and "Google Play Services" doesn't even make it onto the list. :laugh:

If you're in an area with good signal I would say you have an issue with the data/gsm module and your solution is not proper. Try launching maps - it will suggest enabling mobile/wifi location for better location service.
Mine is set to high accuracy and my battery life is pretty good.
Verify if you're having this issue on multiple locations or only on certain places?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Pottsy said:
Just for anyone else suffering a horrific battery issue....
I would take a few photos a day. My battery would die in a few hours, with the culprit being "Google Play Services", which when drilled down showed the camera as the high battery user.
Furthermore, I was getting poor GSM data rates, with the phone seemingly unable to find the nearest transmitter (it would jump to full bars for a few seconds, then lock on to a 1 bar cell and constantly change between H and 3G). While all this was happening, the Nexus 5 got hot.
Now do this:
Settings>Location>Mode>Device Only
Make sure it's in "Device Only" mode. Logic says that this is the wrong setting, but now I can go a couple of days no problem, I lose 3% overnight, the camera uses next to no juice and "Google Play Services" doesn't even make it onto the list. :laugh:
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Yes, logic says it is the wrong setting because it is. "Device Only" will only use GPS. "Low Accuracy" will only use googles location approximation via cell towers and wifi signals. "High Accuracy" will use both.
Once you set it to "Device Only" you robbed your phone from being able to track your location (for instance for google now). So naturally you don't have that much battery drain any more when taking pictures. I'm 100% sure that you are tagging your photos with your geo location, so every time you take a picture, the google play service determins your position.
To clarify: GPS isn't on all the time and is only activated when an app requests the phones position. The google location stuff is on all the time and will be active even when the phone is idling.

Dlog said:
Yes, logic says it is the wrong setting because it is.
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I appreciate that.
I have tried with the correct settings, and it seems to leave "Google Play Services" using between 30% and 60% of my battery. Things get really bad when I am in a weak GSM signal location - with the phone getting really quite hot. Chrome triggers this, but then just having the phone awake seems to get it going.
Watching Google Maps in a position where I get no GPS signal (so monitoring the position calculated from the GSM network) I can see my location jumping from mast to mast every 10 seconds or so.
I realise that turning it off is "wrong", but it is not as wrong as my battery dying at 4pm, and until it is fixed it will have to remain off. Google Now is useless since I am not in the US, and Geo Location on the camera is switched off.

I 2nd that pottsy i disabled my yesterday and got my 1st good day with battery
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Pottsy said:
I appreciate that.
I have tried with the correct settings, and it seems to leave "Google Play Services" using between 30% and 60% of my battery. Things get really bad when I am in a weak GSM signal location - with the phone getting really quite hot. Chrome triggers this, but then just having the phone awake seems to get it going.
Watching Google Maps in a position where I get no GPS signal (so monitoring the position calculated from the GSM network) I can see my location jumping from mast to mast every 10 seconds or so.
I realise that turning it off is "wrong", but it is not as wrong as my battery dying at 4pm, and until it is fixed it will have to remain off. Google Now is useless since I am not in the US, and Geo Location on the camera is switched off.
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Click to collapse
Not saying that you're giving a bad tip. It's just not the fix for all battery problems with the n5, but only for the specific case that an app is "location hungry".

Now I did this yesterday and it has worked for Google Services but now I am checking my battery stats and "Google Search" is next most draining app behind the Screen... Why would google search be using that kind of battery?? I am not searching anything lol

Dlog said:
Not saying that you're giving a bad tip. It's just not the fix for all battery problems with the n5, but only for the specific case that an app is "location hungry".
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He says it fixes the problem everyone is having with Google Play Services draining ~50% of their battery. It's a documented problem that isn't just all over the forums and G+, but Android Police even put out a story about it. Maybe the title to the thread is misleading, but the OP's initial post clearly states his problem and the solution he found for his problem.

jm6001 said:
Now I did this yesterday and it has worked for Google Services but now I am checking my battery stats and "Google Search" is next most draining app behind the Screen... Why would google search be using that kind of battery?? I am not searching anything lol
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Google search is the launcher app used for the stock rom on the nexus 5. Maybe you are using your home button a bit too often?

Paddington said:
He says it fixes the problem everyone is having with Google Play Services draining ~50% of their battery. It's a documented problem that isn't just all over the forums and G+, but Android Police even put out a story about it. Maybe the title to the thread is misleading, but the OP's initial post clearly states his problem and the solution he found for his problem.
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What others are saying, though, is that this fix only fixes the symptom...not the actual issue. If you get battery drain because of location services, turn off location services in the apps that are draining it heavily.
Example: He takes pictures during the day and notices battery drain. Disable Geo-Tagging on pictures, and see what effect it has. If you turn the location services to "Device Only" you're going to have issues actually making use of location services (think Maps, Navigation, Google Now, Facebook, etc...that use location). Anytime you use these services it'll have to activate the GPS module to get a location...which can take 10-20 seconds, if you have clear access to the sky. For reference: the GPS module uses a lot more battery than the triangulation done by the cell towers...so actively using any app that uses location services will actually use more battery.
The other thing to try and disabling background processes. Close applications you're not using, and in the developer menu limit how many applications can be running in the background at a time. It could be that your sync services or other applications are constantly checking for location. Many of those applications will refuse to use the hardware GPS and instead rely on the triangulation services, which is why you might be seeing this battery longevity increase.
Synopsis: Setting it to Device-Only is a bad idea; instead, try to find the root of the problem.

I have found the problem.
It's not the apps making the calls, it's the location service itself. And I will specifically disagree on one point: using GPS only uses a lot less battery than cell location via a broken OS.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Another solution ...
Pottsy said:
I appreciate that.
I have tried with the correct settings, and it seems to leave "Google Play Services" using between 30% and 60% of my battery. Things get really bad when I am in a weak GSM signal location - with the phone getting really quite hot. Chrome triggers this, but then just having the phone awake seems to get it going.
Watching Google Maps in a position where I get no GPS signal (so monitoring the position calculated from the GSM network) I can see my location jumping from mast to mast every 10 seconds or so.
I realise that turning it off is "wrong", but it is not as wrong as my battery dying at 4pm, and until it is fixed it will have to remain off. Google Now is useless since I am not in the US, and Geo Location on the camera is switched off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think there's a better solution ... Go to settings>apps, and for every app that uses Google Play Services (google search, google now, maps, etc), clear the their data. Google Play Services went from 2nd biggest hog (after the display) to way down on the list. Maybe there's only one app that needs to have its data cleared to fix it, dunno I just cleared them all.

Google Play Services draining my battery

I have a Pixel 2 64 GB, and I've been seeing astounding battery drain by Google Play Services lately (I believe it started with the November OTA update, but I can't be 100% sure). Some days are worse than others, and on those days Play Services will be responsible for 30% or more of the battery usage. I haven't been able to pin down when it happens, other than that disabling location services doesn't seem to affect it. Deleting data for Google Play Services as well as the Google app, and rebooting the phone, seems to fix the issue for a day or two (during which I'll get fantastic battery life), but then it comes back.
Are there any other fixes I could try? Anyone experiencing similar issues?

Try turning off wifi and Bluetooth scanning.

gm007 said:
Try turning off wifi and Bluetooth scanning.
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Thanks! Bluetooth is off, but wifi scanning was turned on. I'll report back here if I see any effect at all.

I'm having the same issue. Factory reset didn't resolve the issue. Giving the scanning off a try.

Same here... does not have a pixel phone but latest oneplus. google play service goes to nearly 30 % in GSAM monitor. I have searched in web and someone says that google updates play service in the background in the last days. and many, many users are talking about massive battery drain because of google play service.
What can we do?
PS: Wifi seraching is off, bluetooth, too... no difference!!

Same here - 50 % battery drain.

Same here, tried a factory reset twice and still got the same thing.

Hi, OP here again. So, yesterday, with Wi-Fi Scanning turned off, Play Services seemed to behave well on my phone—ended up with about 3% of total battery usage at the end of the day (~ 15 hours). Hopefully it goes just as well today.

Is turning off WiFi scanning the Settings > WiFi > WiFi Preferences and the three options..
-Turn on WiFi automatically
-Connect to Open Networks
-Open Network Notifications
Or is that something else?

Today my Google Play Services ballooned back up to > 20% usage

foghorn67 said:
Is turning off WiFi scanning the Settings > WiFi > WiFi Preferences and the three options..
-Turn on WiFi automatically
-Connect to Open Networks
-Open Network Notifications
Or is that something else?
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It's in location settings.

Dropping by to say that I am experiencing the same thing, only when I have wifi turned on. I'm fairly confident that it's caused by wifi.

junkimchi said:
Dropping by to say that I am experiencing the same thing, only when I have wifi turned on. I'm fairly confident that it's caused by wifi.
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Click to collapse
It's not wifi, it's all sync activity that happen when connected to wifi,like Google backup and photo backup...

Whats funny is that while having problems with Play Services on my Pixel 2, my Pixel XL 2016 has been a champ. Until I re-activated it as a phone on Project Fi, now Play Services is starting to go beserk. Not sure if it just needed a few moments, or if this is an all day thing that will just follow me around no matter what phone I use.

...

Dropping by AGAIN to confirm that its happening with these conditions:
- The drain never happens when I'm off wifi
- Drain stops when I reboot the phone
- After I reboot the phone I can get on wifi without drain
- When I connect the charger to the phone while on wifi it starts the Google Play Services drain again
I've tested this sequence for almost a whole week now and I'm fairly confident in my findings, I do this type of **** for a living. Try it yourselves.

junkimchi said:
Dropping by AGAIN to confirm that its happening with these conditions:
- The drain never happens when I'm off wifi
- Drain stops when I reboot the phone
- After I reboot the phone I can get on wifi without drain
- When I connect the charger to the phone while on wifi it starts the Google Play Services drain again
I've tested this sequence for almost a whole week now and I'm fairly confident in my findings, I do this type of **** for a living. Try it yourselves.
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Click to collapse
Are you on Project Fi?
I am, so I called them and asked for escalation and told them it follows me on my 2016 Pixel XL and factory resets don't do anything. They asked for a bug report so they could send it to the engineers. Hopefully they will get back to me.

Google Play Services is still API 23 here.
It should be updated to API 26 for Oreo users and API 27 for Oreo 8.1 DP users.......
Sent from my Pixel 2

thesebastian said:
Google Play Services is still API 23 here.
It should be updated to API 26 for Oreo users and API 27 for Oreo 8.1 DP users.......
Sent from my Pixel 2
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I don't know what this means.....
Anyway, my issues seemed to have vanished. I'm finally experiencing all that excellent battery life people have been talking about.
I don't know if it's something Google did on their end that is now changed, or if it's the following:
-On my Google Now feed, there was a ton of stuff checked in the "you showed interest" section. Every NFL team, several political figures, a few movie franchises, and it kept going. It was like 5 minutes of unchecking stuff.
-I uninstalled Pandora. Even without firing up the app after a boot, it was causing issues.

I've had play services randomly draining battery with no real understanding why. I did toggle off its background activity and haven't had it since

Google Play Services Drain

I was looking at my girlfriends phone to compare some battery stats and was astounded to see that Google play services was draining 45% of the battery.
As it's not my phone don't really have the time to do any serious diagnostics at the moment, and wanted to know if anyone had/had solved a similar issue?
Appreciate the help

Welcome to Android

b1337 said:
Welcome to Android
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Haha I am a lifelong android user, just haven't had a Google phone since my 6p.
Just wondering if there are any known issues as I wont have the opportunity to do the gsam/betterbatterystats debug that I would otherwise do as it's my girlfriends phone
Also the fact its draining 2% a minute when in use is insane :silly:

Try the beta and see if that helps.

Usually, google play services drains are related to sync. The account/google play/other google service is trying to sync but not connecting, so it just continually tries to reconnect. Try turning off sync and see if the problem goes away. It might be syncing in areas with weak signal is causing the problem.

I just checked my Pixel 3 and Google Play Services does not show up on my battery usage chart. Only Nova Launcher (3%), Google Play Store (2%), Outlook (2%) and BlueMail (1%). I have been trying out different email programs for the last couple of hours and just ran the current security upgrade.

whbrittain said:
I just checked my Pixel 3 and Google Play Services does not show up on my battery usage chart. Only Nova Launcher (3%), Google Play Store (2%), Outlook (2%) and BlueMail (1%). I have been trying out different email programs for the last couple of hours and just ran the current security upgrade.
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Click to collapse
You have show system apps by hitting the 3 dots, although the problem hasn't come back since playing with some settings and a reboot