[Q] Weird Battery Drain + Indicator Problem - General Questions and Answers

I'm not sure if it's more appropriate to post here
or on the custom ROM forum itself, but here's my battery issue:
Issue: Abnormally fast battery drain. My battery would
be fully charged, and almost immediately start draining until
it'd show 1% within 2 hrs. Screen would be off mostly (normal
use).
Been on a custom ROM since January 2017 (crDroid) and have had no problems with it since,
except 3 days ago, when the problem first appeared.
Things that are ON: LTE data (or Wi-fi), Auto apps update on
Google Play Store (never been problematic before), Location,
Things that are OFF: Bluetooth, ScreenCast, Caffeine
When I check Battery in Settings, the numbers don't add up.
I'd have battery indicator at 70% for example, but Screen,
Android System, all other apps would add up to only 7%. So
that's a whopping 23% unaccounted for.
But here's the weird thing: it drains fast until 1%, then at 1%,
the phone is supposed to initiate automatic shutdown like it has before.
When this issue cropped up, the phone keeps going for about 6 hours
or so before shutdown is started. Checking Kernel Adiutor occasionally,
I'd see a much slower decrease in voltage which probably reflects
more accurately the power drawdown situation.
Things I've done:
-clear cache (both through File Explorer and TWRP Recovery)
-clear batterystats.bin
-calibrate battery after full charge/discharge (via Root Essentials,
which basically does the same thing as manually deleting batterystat.bin,
if I'm not mistaken)
-Resetting App Preferences via Setting/Battery
None of the above has worked. Any idea what might be wrong?
My device is a Zuk Z1, with a 4100mAh battery. It usually lasts me more
than a day on normal use, but as the attached pic shows, it's at 96%
yet without having used any apps yet, has only 2 hrs of juice left.
I've tried reflashing my ROM, wiping everything including formatting data
yet nothing has worked.
I'm a light user, as I don't play games or watch videos on my phone.
Neither do I use graphics-intensive apps. I haven't used processor-intensive apps
that require constant GPS (like Google Maps, Waze) since then.

Borat38 said:
I'm not sure if it's more appropriate to post here
or on the custom ROM forum itself, but here's my battery issue:
Issue: Abnormally fast battery drain. My battery would
be fully charged, and almost immediately start draining until
it'd show 1% within 2 hrs. Screen would be off mostly (normal
use).
Been on a custom ROM since January 2017 (crDroid) and have had no problems with it since,
except 3 days ago, when the problem first appeared.
Things that are ON: LTE data (or Wi-fi), Auto apps update on
Google Play Store (never been problematic before), Location,
Things that are OFF: Bluetooth, ScreenCast, Caffeine
When I check Battery in Settings, the numbers don't add up.
I'd have battery indicator at 70% for example, but Screen,
Android System, all other apps would add up to only 7%. So
that's a whopping 23% unaccounted for.
But here's the weird thing: it drains fast until 1%, then at 1%,
the phone is supposed to initiate automatic shutdown like it has before.
When this issue cropped up, the phone keeps going for about 6 hours
or so before shutdown is started. Checking Kernel Adiutor occasionally,
I'd see a much slower decrease in voltage which probably reflects
more accurately the power drawdown situation.
Things I've done:
-clear cache (both through File Explorer and TWRP Recovery)
-clear batterystats.bin
-calibrate battery after full charge/discharge (via Root Essentials,
which basically does the same thing as manually deleting batterystat.bin,
if I'm not mistaken)
-Resetting App Preferences via Setting/Battery
None of the above has worked. Any idea what might be wrong?
My device is a Zuk Z1, with a 4100mAh battery. It usually lasts me more
than a day on normal use, but as the attached pic shows, it's at 96%
yet without having used any apps yet, has only 2 hrs of juice left.
I've tried reflashing my ROM, wiping everything including formatting data
yet nothing has worked.
I'm a light user, as I don't play games or watch videos on my phone.
Neither do I use graphics-intensive apps. I haven't used processor-intensive apps
that require constant GPS (like Google Maps, Waze) since then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried flashing another ROM/going back to stock?

Freewander10 said:
Have you tried flashing another ROM/going back to stock?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not yet. Am going to try an AOSP-based ROM later.
I've been deleting apps piecemeal, but have faile to pinpoint the culprit.
I have almost come to the conclusion that it's the ROM that's problematic.
But if that were the case, why haven't I had the same problem since
when I first flashed this custom ROM months ago;
and why is the problem reappearing when that same ROM is re-flashed now?

OK, I've flashed 3 other ROMs: Citrus-CAF, NucleaROM and stock, and the problem persists.
By doing the above, I've crossed out the possibility of it being the ROM. Neither is it the battery
itself, because it would've shut down by itself at 1%, yet at 1% I can last 6 or 7 hours of light use.
Anyone out there have any idea?

If you get the same results, the battery is trashed. Is it aftermarket?

WestCoastSunset said:
If you get the same results, the battery is trashed. Is it aftermarket?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery? No, it's the factory original.

It would not be unusual for a battery to fail in a month or two. I've had that happen to a couple laptops where I work.

WestCoastSunset said:
It would not be unusual for a battery to fail in a month or two. I've had that happen to a couple laptops where I work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be pretty unusual for reputable companies. If ever it did happen in my case, perhaps it's a lemon batch.
Sadly, I bought this without warranty.

Not really, happens all the time in laptop world. Even with oem batteries.

Related

[Q] Please Help ! Android System Battery Drain on Nexus 5 after KitKat 4.4.2 update

Hi,
The battery life of my Nexus 5 has taken a dramatic hit since the 4.4.2 update. I think the culprit is Android System but the GSAM battery graph seems to suggest that the culprit is Android OS kernel. My Nexus 5 is on 4.4.2, unrooted, stock ROM and the build no. is KOT49H.
In short, my phone does not seem to have a wakelock issue but I can't verify because 4.4 does not allow wakelock access without root. It sleeps fine at night and in daytime when it is not in use. I only lose around 5% or less overnight with 2x battery turning off the data connection and only turning on data connection once every night. The problem is the Android System which drains at least 17% (sometimes 25%) of battery everyday and routinely sits on top my of battery usage chart with or without me actually using the phone. My usage per charge is typically around 6-7 hours with around 1 hour 45 minutes screen on time. I had extraordinary battery life before the update to 4.4.2 (lasting more than 1 day with over 3 or 4 hours screen on time). Now my battery life is completely shot. The battery graphs attached already represent one of the better days. Some days the Android system will drain at 25% or more. You will note my phone relatively slept fine without draining at night in the first 7 or 8 hours and then the battery drain started to take a nose dive after I woke up. I feel that whenever I start using the phone (with the screen being turned on), the battery drain will occur. My observations are as follows:
1. I use LTE but the reception at my home and work for LTE is not good so the radio jumps between LTE and H+ from time to time however I do not think the radio jumping contributes that much to the drain. The drain stays the same even when I am at a place with good LTE reception. I use wifi at home but i cannot connect to wifi at work (which sadly is another issue). The wifi is always off unless i use it at home. I do NOT have wifi scanning in the settings. I have wifi battery optimization on. I never use bluetooth.
2. My google now is off. My location setting is completely off with no location reporting etc..
3. My Google + auto back up is off. I do not use Facebook, Facebook messenger, Instagram, snapchat etc. I mostly use Feedly, Whatsapp, Gmails and look at stock quotes every day. I seldom take pictures, videos or listen to music.
4. I only have one widget dashclock widget. I have removed feedly and stock quote widgets from the home screen but they don't seem to affect my battery usage that much.
5. I use Automateit but only have a few rules such as setting vibrate on weekdays etc.. I do not have any profiles which are related to GPS or location which i understand would drain battery. I also use Dynamic Notification, Light Flow, Lux, Nova Launcher, Notification Toggle and the memory in general is always below 65% in the background. I also use 2x battery to save battery which is set at switching off data after I turn off the screen and it will only turn data in the background every 10 minutes.
6. I have tried safe mode and 9 out of 10 times the Android system drain remains the same. The only way to lower the Android system drain (albeit temporary) is when I turn off the phone and plug it in for a charge, then turn it on when it is full and still plugged in. After I unplug it, the Android System drain will lower to say 7 or 8 % but it will slowly creep back up to 20% within an hour or so.
7. The CPU usage overlay routinely has 9 + readings on the top when the screen is turned on (but with no app running). I think it means very high CPU usage.
8. I do not think Feedly is causing any problems. I deleted the app and the drain remains. I also do not think GSAM is that useful as pointed out by another member here. It points to one app. You delete that app and then the drain remains it will point to something else.
9. I have been using Greenify (non-root) but it does not seem to help with my battery drain as the drain might be caused by system apps or processes within the OS.
I don't know what else to do and this problem has been troubling me for more than 1 month now. Please help !
Update on 24/2/2014:
I have given up and factory reset my phone. After I reset my phone, the apps were installed via Google Play automatically. I also switched to ART. It was fine initially for at least one day. The apps were there but I did not use or enable most of them as I wanted to transfer all my data and tweaked the settings in one goal. I mostly just used Feedly, Whatsapp and Maps for navigation. Even with Maps and high accuracy GPS on, the Android System would go below 10% even though it would temporarily increase to say above 20% during navigation. This morning, I thought the battery seemed ok so I enabled Lux, Dynamic Notifications, Lightflow, Automateit, Nova Launcher and restore the settings to most of the apps.
The Android System drain came back within 2 hours and hit 25% of the total battery drain. My phone's battery dropped from 100% to 40 % in less than 5 hours and the screen on time was only around 1 hour! I never did any battery intensive actions. The most was turning on the phone to check my battery and whatsapped less than 10 messages back and forth ! Since the drain re-appeared, I have turned off completely the location setting, Google Now, sync for Google Plus, auto-backup for Google Plus. I have removed all widgets and disabled Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, Light Flow, Lux. The drain still remains the same at 23% or more.
This is driving me absolutely crazy and I am sick and tired of spending so much time and energy on sorting out the cause for drain (and to no avail!) I spent a lot more time on trying to fix the phone than really utilizing the phone for my benefit !! I just sent an email to the Google tech support and hope they will help instead of sending me generic self-help sheet. Thanks all for listening and trying to help. I am just really disappointed with Google this time.
Use bbs to get wakelock info.
Feedly has got to go too
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
rootSU said:
Use bbs to get wakelock info.
Feedly has got to go too
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your reply. My N5 is not rooted so I do not have access to wakelock stats anymore.
I have removed Feedly but the android system drain persists.
Not a lot that can be done without knowing the cause. Consider factory reset?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
rootSU said:
Not a lot that can be done without knowing the cause. Consider factory reset?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am hoping I don have to resort to factory reset and can wait for the 4.4.3 update but I guess my patience is running out.
Thanks for your help.
My missus' LG-P880 has exactly the same problem. Just started happening one day. It seems to be wakelock locator alarms according to bbs but there doesn't appear to be any reason for it. Its been driving me mad too. Luckily tho she's rooted so using app opps i disabled Google services location and it's kinda helped
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Did you try another kernel ? When I changed to franco kernel, my battery life is better.
having weak LTE signal kills the battery but it should not be this bad.
Maybe you should try a factory reset and see if the problem still persist, if not then you have an rogue app somewhere.
You can use the process of elimination.
Start with disabling Dynamic notifications and Light flow as those have high potential for battery drain.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Elias_grodin said:
I am hoping I don have to resort to factory reset and can wait for the 4.4.3 update but I guess my patience is running out.
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Restart your phone in safe mode, and see the battery drainage...maybe it can help you.
It seems good for me
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
I had this same problem the other night. Get app ops starter from the play store. In there turn location off in Google play services and android system. Note, this may impact other apps. I don't use any that I need location for so it works for me.
Sent from my Nexus 5
I had a similar issue as well. For me I turned off a couple things and it really helped:
1. Turned off Cerberus, I believe checking location too often or incorrectly or something.
2. Turned off Account sync for Play Newstand. Noticed when a sync would occur, it would hang on Newstand for much too long which I think was waking device and keeping device awake during it's long syncs. Everything else would only take a min or two total.
3. Set G+ photo sync to only sync when on wifi and charging.
4. Removed Yahoo Weather app. Noticed yahoo weather app staying alive a lot too.
5. Removed Whatsapp. Probably unnecessary really, but any of those messaging/weather/location apps that I don't use often (if ever) I removed to make sure they weren't checking location in the background.
So far, I'm at 78% battery today when I would have been at around 30-40% usually, so that combo has made a huge difference.
It's going to be different for everyone I think, but basically just make sure you don't have any excess apps checking location in the background. And at least for me there seems to be something wrong with Play Newsstand sync hanging for long periods of time.
Yea... Even i had the same issues... Latest version killes ma deep sleep mode nd also some of a rules disappeared....
I was having similar issues and was able to narrow it down to syncing Google Services...
I found that often times Google Drive would get hung up when syncing in the background and chew up my battery.
What Google Services do you have set to auto-sync? I would narrow it down to the ones you only really need to have synced in the background and have the others sync up for you when you open them.
Also, in regards to your LTE/H+ signal, have you tried to flash another radio to see if there is any improvement? A poor signal can have a pretty significant impact on battery life as well.
Lastly, as mentioned by another user, Better Battery Stats, though requiring root, will make it a lot easier to track down the culprit of the issue if it indeed a rogue app somewhere.
Try different keyboard. I've a suspicion that latest Google Keyboard is the culprit.
I was having some unexplainable with BBS (no locks, etc.) battery drain. Which can only be resolved (though temporarily) with reboot.
So, I installed alternative keyboard (Swype in my case) and using it. So far, second day I don't have battery drain.
Update
Please refer to the OP for update. Thanks all.
battery after reset
After a second factory reset, I did not install a lot of the apps which I suspect have something to do with my drain - including Swype, Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, LightFlow, Task Manager, 2x battery, Lux, Notification Toggle, Dash Clock, Automateit. I have also set my location to device only with no location history and history. I have also disabled Google Now. I have not restored my photos, music and videos to the phone yet. I have disabled sync for Google Plus, Google Drive etc.. I have also disabled auto back up for Google Plus. I am on ART.
The battery life (with around 25 % left) was around 6 hours 30 minutes or a bit more but with close to 2 hours 40 minutes screen on time. The screen was the biggest draw. Android system comes in second with around 13%. This is obviously better than before where I managed to squeeze maybe a hour or 30 minutes more but with 2x battery turned on in the background. I mostly used the phone for battery checking, whatsapp, Feedly, web surfing. I played games for around 20 minutes. I was not on wifi most of the time. Is this battery performance normal?
Thanks in advance.
Replacement offer by Google
Elias_grodin said:
After a second factory reset, I did not install a lot of the apps which I suspect have something to do with my drain - including Swype, Dynamic Notifications, Nova Launcher, LightFlow, Task Manager, 2x battery, Lux, Notification Toggle, Dash Clock, Automateit. I have also set my location to device only with no location history and history. I have also disabled Google Now. I have not restored my photos, music and videos to the phone yet. I have disabled sync for Google Plus, Google Drive etc.. I have also disabled auto back up for Google Plus. I am on ART.
The battery life (with around 25 % left) was around 6 hours 30 minutes or a bit more but with close to 2 hours 40 minutes screen on time. The screen was the biggest draw. Android system comes in second with around 13%. This is obviously better than before where I managed to squeeze maybe a hour or 30 minutes more but with 2x battery turned on in the background. I mostly used the phone for battery checking, whatsapp, Feedly, web surfing. I played games for around 20 minutes. I was not on wifi most of the time. Is this battery performance normal?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have reset the phone three times. After the third attempt, the battery drain for Android System would go back up to 20% plus. By the test of elimination, I thought I narrowed down the possible culprit to Light Flow and Dynamic Notifications. I uninstalled both of them but the battery drain remained 20% plus.
Google was willing to replace my device. I asked them whether the battery drain is likely a hardware or a software issue or a combination of both. They said (to my surprise) it is hardware issue. It seems they have come across quite a number of similar cases. I always thought it was a bug within 4.4.2 or in the google apps such as Google Play Services etc. and could be fixed by a patch or something. The phone also means a lot to me as it was a gift from my gf. I just don't want to go through the hassle of replacing the device if it is a software problem but I guess I am running out of choices unless I decide to wait for the update. What do you guys think?
It's definitely not a hardware issue. If you Google it there's threads all over the place with all different makes and models of phones having the same problem and no one can figure out why, apart from it definitely seems something to do with Google services (GmsCore.apk)
Your best option is to root your phone and use app ops and turn location access off for every app that doesn't need it. (pretty much everything apart from maps and weather apps)
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

[Q] About Battery Life

Hi,
I have a question regarding battery life of the OPO. I'm still not sure whether I have a defective battery, or some apps drains my battery like crazy (or both?). I hope you can help me with this.
In the first 2 weeks since I got it, I use my OPO for mid to heavy activities (a lot of Whatsapp, Youtube, streaming music, etc). I always start the day with 100% battery and I thought it was normal to see the battery drops to at least 20% at the end of the day. To be honest, I didn't check the battery stats in Settings even once in this time frame, and due to my heavy usage, once again I thought this was normal.
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery. I did some research and found some advice including 1) denying GPservice abilities to "keep awake" and "wake up" via privacy guard (from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-google-play-services-battery-t2832525), 2) turn off location, 3) turn off sync, but none of them seems the solution to my problem. Since then, I always check the battery usage and reset it, to see if GPservice still at the top. Sadly it still there. After I reset the stats, go to sleep directly and check it about 1 hour later, GPservice uses 40% - 60% of the battery usage, draining about 6% battery / hour.
With screen on a few minutes, it easily drops to 5th or 6th place with ~7% usage, with screen and main apps I use on the 1st and 2nd place. When I googled about this using Firefox, that's when I start worrying about something else, the battery itself. With wi-fi and low brightness (less than >20% if I convert it from the slide bar), browsing with Firefox decrease the battery 1% in 2-3 minutes, no or low usage drains 1% in about 5-6 minutes. In contrast, charging increase the battery 1% in 1 minute. Is that normal? IDK, usually bad battery increasing faster when charging and decrease significantly when in use.
Please help, especially about the excessive GPservice battery usage. And if it's possible, I prefer non-root solution for it. Thanks and sorry for my bad English.
OPO - stock rom (unrooted XNPH44S)
Google Play Services 6.7.76 (reverted back to 5.0.89 factory version but things pretty much the same)
cliffflip said:
Hi,
I have a question regarding battery life of the OPO. I'm still not sure whether I have a defective battery, or some apps drains my battery like crazy (or both?). I hope you can help me with this.
In the first 2 weeks since I got it, I use my OPO for mid to heavy activities (a lot of Whatsapp, Youtube, streaming music, etc). I always start the day with 100% battery and I thought it was normal to see the battery drops to at least 20% at the end of the day. To be honest, I didn't check the battery stats in Settings even once in this time frame, and due to my heavy usage, once again I thought this was normal.
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery. I did some research and found some advice including 1) denying GPservice abilities to "keep awake" and "wake up" via privacy guard (from this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/oneplus-one/general/guide-google-play-services-battery-t2832525), 2) turn off location, 3) turn off sync, but none of them seems the solution to my problem. Since then, I always check the battery usage and reset it, to see if GPservice still at the top. Sadly it still there. After I reset the stats, go to sleep directly and check it about 1 hour later, GPservice uses 40% - 60% of the battery usage, draining about 6% battery / hour.
With screen on a few minutes, it easily drops to 5th or 6th place with ~7% usage, with screen and main apps I use on the 1st and 2nd place. When I googled about this using Firefox, that's when I start worrying about something else, the battery itself. With wi-fi and low brightness (less than >20% if I convert it from the slide bar), browsing with Firefox decrease the battery 1% in 2-3 minutes, no or low usage drains 1% in about 5-6 minutes. In contrast, charging increase the battery 1% in 1 minute. Is that normal? IDK, usually bad battery increasing faster when charging and decrease significantly when in use.
Please help, especially about the excessive GPservice battery usage. And if it's possible, I prefer non-root solution for it. Thanks and sorry for my bad English.
OPO - stock rom (unrooted XNPH44S)
Google Play Services 6.7.76 (reverted back to 5.0.89 factory version but things pretty much the same)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely sounds like somethings not right, what apps do you have that access or could potentially access your location? If you're still not having any luck, as a last resort you could try a fresh install of CM11S and install your apps one by one to see if you can determine if any are responsible for sucking battery.
Give the below app a try:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playfulgeeks.gservicefix&hl=en_GB
Install Gsam to see if you can gain any more insight into whats causing battery drain.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm
cliffflip said:
Hi,
Until one night I decided to plug the charger earlier than usual, unplug it around 11pm (w/ 100% battery), then I fell asleep. I was shocked the next morning (8am) when I saw the battery has decreased to 65% with no activities whatsoever. I check the battery usage in Settings and then saw Google Play Services (GPservice) at the top of the list with 45% usage, with "keep awake" time almost identical to total time on battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you try to use this App: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
there you can see which app prevents your phone from going to sleep (partial Wakelocks)
gsmyth said:
Definitely sounds like somethings not right, what apps do you have that access or could potentially access your location? If you're still not having any luck, as a last resort you could try a fresh install of CM11S and install your apps one by one to see if you can determine if any are responsible for sucking battery.
Give the below app a try:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.playfulgeeks.gservicefix&hl=en_GB
Install Gsam to see if you can gain any more insight into whats causing battery drain.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maps, Google Fit, Google Now, among other things.
CMIIW but I read somewhere that GServicefix does the same like privacy guard, denying some service to keep awake, wake up, etc.
So I installed Gsam and run it about 1 hour. Interestingly in there, Kernel (Android OS) is on the top the % list with 60% usage (mostly phone in idle/sleep). When I switch sorting to Kernel Wakelocks, it shows event0-798 & event2-798 as the top 2 wakelocks with around 7000 wakelocks. I'll update in few hours, thanks.
drcyber said:
did you try to use this App: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
there you can see which app prevents your phone from going to sleep (partial Wakelocks)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From what I read on the Play Store description, Kitkat and above requires root?
cliffflip said:
Maps, Google Fit, Google Now, among other things.
So I installed Gsam and run it about 1 hour. Interestingly in there, Kernel (Android OS) is on the top the % list with 60% usage (mostly phone in idle/sleep). When I switch sorting to Kernel Wakelocks, it shows event0-798 & event2-798 as the top 2 wakelocks with around 7000 wakelocks. I'll update in few hours, thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please post screenshot of gsam
Try clear cache+dalvic cache in recovery
Hi, sorry for the late reply.
It seems reboot the phone a few times solves the problem. Battery usage now seems normal when idle, even with location & sync turned on.

Why do Android System, Android OS, & Bluetooth account for majority of battery drain?

Why do Android System, Android OS, & Bluetooth account for majority of battery drain?
On my old Galaxy S4, I found that the screen was almost always the highest battery drain -- and if I saw some app using close to or more than the screen, then I knew something was wrong. However, with my Galaxy S5 (running OptimalROM 13.1), I am consistently seeing Android System is the highest drain, followed by Android OS -- at times I'm getting only 10 to 12 hours of life, but other times I get over a day -- in both cases, it's the Android System and Android OS using the bulk of the power, never an app.
I also see some odd things like Bluetooth using nearly 10%, even though it isn't connected to any devices the entire day -- why would it use that much on standby?
I also see Google Services sometimes using over 10% -- I think that was while I had Google Maps in the background (not navigating).
Nerva said:
On my old Galaxy S4, I found that the screen was almost always the highest battery drain -- and if I saw some app using close to or more than the screen, then I knew something was wrong. However, with my Galaxy S5 (running OptimalROM 13.1), I am consistently seeing Android System is the highest drain, followed by Android OS -- at times I'm getting only 10 to 12 hours of life, but other times I get over a day -- in both cases, it's the Android System and Android OS using the bulk of the power, never an app.
I also see some odd things like Bluetooth using nearly 10%, even though it isn't connected to any devices the entire day -- why would it use that much on standby?
I also see Google Services sometimes using over 10% -- I think that was while I had Google Maps in the background (not navigating).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe that is the new normal. Unfortunately, "Andoid System" in our battery stats is nonspecific: that heading actually covers dozens of little apps and functions. With each successive generation, the phones try to have more features.
You can get a little better idea with GSam Battery Monitor: by clicking on the "Android System", it brings up another window showing you all of these processes. That doesn't mean you'll be able to do much about it, though.
I was able to solve one major problem with ridiculous battery drain by looking more closely: I have a lot of mp3s and pictures on my sdcard. Android system was scanning them, but Samsung indexing service was also scanning them for no useful purpose, and every time I rebooted it would start chewing on them again. I froze the samsung indexing service and the battery life improved by many hours per day.
Where do I disable the Samsung Indexing Service? I doubt it's causing problems, but it's useless to me.
Nerva said:
Where do I disable the Samsung Indexing Service? I doubt it's causing problems, but it's useless to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The safest way is to use Titanium Backup to "freeze" IndexService and, optionally, "S Finder". If you run into any issues, you can re-enable them easily by "defrosting" them.
Disabling them doesn't affect me at all because I use a file explorer to browse to my files directly.
OK, I installed GSam Battery Monitor a few weeks ago. Today I am dumbfounded by what my phone is doing -- after undocking it for just two hours and not using it at all, I notice it is hot in my pocket, so I pull it out and see the battery has already dropped to 78%. I check the list of open apps, and there's not much there -- my phone dialer, Camera, Chrome (with no pages open), and Messaging -- that's it.
I check the GSam battery usage, and it says the screen is using 2%, the cell radio 2%, the WiFi 1%, and the rest is "App Usage" -- I click on apps, and Kernel (Android OS) is using ~60%, Bluetooth is using 22%, and Android System is using ~10% -- so they combine for 90% of "App Usage". My Bluetooth is "on" but not connected to anything -- indeed, it is paired with only one device, which I have not even turned on in months -- the phone is getting all of its data via WiFi, which is only using 1%, yet the Bluetooth with nothing to do is using 22%!
What the hell is going on?
Nerva said:
OK, I installed GSam Battery Monitor a few weeks ago. Today I am dumbfounded by what my phone is doing -- after undocking it for just two hours and not using it at all, I notice it is hot in my pocket, so I pull it out and see the battery has already dropped to 78%. I check the list of open apps, and there's not much there -- my phone dialer, Camera, Chrome (with no pages open), and Messaging -- that's it.
I check the GSam battery usage, and it says the screen is using 2%, the cell radio 2%, the WiFi 1%, and the rest is "App Usage" -- I click on apps, and Kernel (Android OS) is using ~60%, Bluetooth is using 22%, and Android System is using ~10% -- so they combine for 90% of "App Usage". My Bluetooth is "on" but not connected to anything -- indeed, it is paired with only one device, which I have not even turned on in months -- the phone is getting all of its data via WiFi, which is only using 1%, yet the Bluetooth with nothing to do is using 22%!
What the hell is going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know that sometimes it gets hung up if it encounters a corrupted media file while scanning for them, and that produces the symptoms you're describing. Scan your SDcard (it's fastest to do it on a computer, but there are many ways to accomplish this) for any files that are of size "0 kb" (that is, zero kb) and delete them. See if that resolves your issue.
Also try clearing cache and dalvik cache, just because that can alleviate strange problems for no discernable reason.

Battery life considerably worse after update to 9.0

OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Click the three dots in the top right and choose battery usage.
As for battery life, mine has improved greatly on Android P
NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok here. 62% drop over night doing nothing suggests you have a rogue app in there. I'm assuming you have ok cellular coverage and nothing has changed there by coincidence. I would reboot and force close every app you have that's not essential overnight and try again. Swipe up from home and clearing those apps doesn't force close the apps. Greenify is an app that (in manual mode) will make it easy to select as many apps as you want and force close the lot of them. If that improves the situation you can then begin to work out which app(s) might be doing bad stuff whilst you sleep...
Battery on my P2 has significantly improved with Pie even if I didn't have any major problem with 8.1 either. Overnight drain 3-4%. After regular use after a full day I easily exceed 5h SOT. Everything stock with just Greenify in non root mode. I couldn't be happier, best Android release so far for me.
NickJHP said:
OTA update to 9.0 available a couple of days ago so I let it install. Since then, I've seen considerably quicker draining of the battery, with my usage of the phone being much the same as before. For example, when I went to sleep last night the battery was at 64%, and there were no apps running according to a swipe up from Home, but when I woke this morning, battery was down to 2%. I normally charge once a day, and previously the battery was hardly ever below 50% after 24 hours - I'm a pretty light user.
As an aside, with 9.0 there no longer appears to be possible under battery usage information in Settings to see the percentage of battery that has been used by the various apps and processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had my p2 installed with PIE for about 2 days now. I suggest giving it a week (which is what I'm doing) and then getting a full overview of how my battery is performing. Usually, after any major OS updates, being that apps are trying to utilize your resources and a new version of Android would try to allocate and learn your usage (in this case battery), you'd get a much better definitive idea of your overall performance.
I also think that since its now available, turn on Adaptive Battery mode. After a day of upgrading the OS, Adaptive battery at my 26 hr mark of upgrade said that one of my apps was taking in a lot of resources to be used in the background (ES File Explorer). I made AB to stop ES from taking battery resources.
So in conclusion, if it a week and then you'll be able to get a better overall understanding of whether your battery REALLY has gotten worse or better.
Hope this helps!
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
Exact same problem here after updating. Even tried a factory reset in case it was an updating issue. Same problem. My battery is currently at 43% 4 hours after a full charge. And I've barely used it. This is really poor.
No new apps installed.
My Oreo battery life was great. I'll try shutting off adaptive battery as suggested - but seems a real shame if one of the flagship battery saving features is doing the total opposite on Google's current flagship phone!
Doesn't seem to be a massively common issue so not sure if a likelihood of a patch either
Just a quick update - Google play services has now become the biggest drain on my battery, just as it was before I factory reset after the first install...
Anyone else had the same?
gbmasterdoctor said:
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
---------- Post added at 02:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:53 PM ----------
Interestingly, my battery was dropping really quickly too after the update to DP3, I switched off Adaptive Battery and it fixed the issue completely.
I tried it again with Android Pie and the issue resumed, so I turned it back off. Maybe try this too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue and did the same thing... until dp3 and my battery usage was terrible again even with adaptive battery turned off. I ended up turning it on again and after about a week my battery usage was back where it was before. So there doesn't seem to be a magic bullet here. FWIW app usage offered no insight as to what was causing the drain in the first place.
MaxNXS said:
Battery on my P2 has significantly improved with Pie
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS.
I got like 8+ hours of SOT.... no mobile network though, all day wifi use only.
I have this issue. Dropped about 40% over night. I found that turning wifi off stopped the drain completely. I did not have this problem with Oreo at all so it's not the networks im connecting to. Weird thing is this did not happen when I first installed Pie. This started happening about 3 days into installing. Also, I put it in safe mode and saw the same drain with wifi on vs off.
Hi guys,
I seem to have fixed my terrible battery life!
The below might be worth a try if you're still suffering from it.
I noticed in GSAM that RCSphone was the front runner in battery drain so did a little research and found this site.
SOLUTION: Turn off app preview messages (settings / google / app preview messages). Apparently its only function is to allow Allo messages to be received without the app. To me, totally pointless as i don't know - nor have ever met - a single person who uses it.
I've gone from draining 8-10% an hour (screen off) to around 2.5%/hour and from 1hr 35 total SOT to 3hrs 39 minutes with 32% left (and an hour of that was Google maps navigating, so a proper work out for the phone).
Do give it a try and let me know if it works for you.
Although there's room for improvement (idle 2.5%/h seems high to me!) and it's ludicrous that I should have spent several hours finding a fix for this on 100% stock android, I'm very happy to have a usable battery life back again...
Adam.
UPDATE: Seems like in the night I lost 40% again. Idle drain climbed it's way up to 5.6% in the night. Still an improvement from where it was before, but not quite as good as it first appeared...
WibblyW said:
Ok here. 62% drop over night doing nothing suggests you have a rogue app in there. I'm assuming you have ok cellular coverage and nothing has changed there by coincidence. I would reboot and force close every app you have that's not essential overnight and try again. Swipe up from home and clearing those apps doesn't force close the apps. Greenify is an app that (in manual mode) will make it easy to select as many apps as you want and force close the lot of them. If that improves the situation you can then begin to work out which app(s) might be doing bad stuff whilst you sleep...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Burkules I drop 0.4 - 0.7%/hr over night with Bluetooth off/Wifi on/strong cellular signal. Much the same as it was with Oreo. Not quite sure why's there's such a big range (almost 2x) but either way it's ok for me. Did you try the technique above?
WibblyW said:
@Burkules I drop 0.4 - 0.7%/hr over night with Bluetooth off/Wifi on/strong cellular signal. Much the same as it was with Oreo. Not quite sure why's there's such a big range (almost 2x) but either way it's ok for me. Did you try the technique above?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers for getting back on this.
I left it on safe mode the other night and it still drained absurdly fast, which suggests to me it's a google system drain rather than rogue app, but will try again with app preview now switched off. Likewise will try greenify again and report back.
Burkules said:
Cheers for getting back on this.
I left it on safe mode the other night and it still drained absurdly fast, which suggests to me it's a google system drain rather than rogue app, but will try again with app preview now switched off. Likewise will try greenify again and report back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Likewise maybe app preview set to off will help me even more. If I recall correctly rogue apps can cause some google system apps to wake up, but perhaps not in safe mode...
WibblyW said:
Likewise maybe app preview set to off will help me even more. If I recall correctly rogue apps can cause some google system apps to wake up, but perhaps not in safe mode...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, switched off adaptive battery again (i'd enabled it after my short-lived miracle recovery the other day) and now I'm down to 4%/hour. Which is better but still really high for idling! Cleared cache and data in Google play services for good measure too as it still comes up super high on the list of battery drainers.
Booting into safe mode now to check the drain without adaptive there and will report back...
UPDATE: Exactly the same drain in safe mode. This is a straight up google problem....
Burkules said:
So, switched off adaptive battery again (i'd enabled it after my short-lived miracle recovery the other day) and now I'm down to 4%/hour. Which is better but still really high for idling! Cleared cache and data in Google play services for good measure too as it still comes up super high on the list of battery drainers.
Booting into safe mode now to check the drain without adaptive there and will report back...
UPDATE: Exactly the same drain in safe mode. This is a straight up google problem....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to force close every app you've downloaded too?
WibblyW said:
Have you tried to force close every app you've downloaded too?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried this - but if the battery drain is the same in safe mode (with only google/system apps running) I can't see how it will make a difference. Ill be in rehearsal for several hours today so will force close everything and will then be leaving my phone idling for a few hours anyway.
I signup up to the google play services beta yesterday, and google play services no longer appears as one of the top battery users... but the battery drain is the same and the numbers given in *all* battery apps (Gsam/accubattery/system) don't add up to anything close to the actual % drain. System battery displays 15% of usage (with 'full device usage' on show) when the battery is quite evidently at 48% from full charge. Total cluster****. So pissed off I updated.
Have you seen any improvement in yours with any of these workarounds?
Burkules said:
Haven't tried this - but if the battery drain is the same in safe mode (with only google/system apps running) I can't see how it will make a difference. Ill be in rehearsal for several hours today so will force close everything and will then be leaving my phone idling for a few hours anyway.
I signup up to the google play services beta yesterday, and google play services no longer appears as one of the top battery users... but the battery drain is the same and the numbers given in *all* battery apps (Gsam/accubattery/system) don't add up to anything close to the actual % drain. System battery displays 15% of usage (with 'full device usage' on show) when the battery is quite evidently at 48% from full charge. Total cluster****. So pissed off I updated.
Have you seen any improvement in yours with any of these workarounds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nothing to lose by trying. And as I said, Greenify makes it easy/quick to do. Force closing is almost as good as uninstalling those apps as the vast majority of installed apps won't restart or run in background until you use them for the first time again. In my experience, quiescent battery consumption (e.g. noticed over night):
Is vastly affected negatively by poor cellular signal strength. Marginal coverage can really drain the battery fast.
Gradually gets worse between reboots
Can be improved (once it degrades) if you force close all the apps you've installed, and swipe away the background apps just before you go to bed!
If quiescent consumption suddenly rises I can normally fix it by force closing all the apps (not being sure which was the one gone rogue/suddenly misbehaving)
At night I generally have excellent cellular coverage, good WiFi, and Bluetooth is off. NFC is always off
I don't enable sync on 2 of the 3 Gmail accounts I have configured
I disable notifications from any apps I don't actually need them from
Quiescent battery consumption is between, say, 0.4% and, 0.7%/hr at home, around 2 to 3%/hr when out and about which I put down to all background data being driven over 4G instead of Wifi, and variable cellular coverage
I've not noticed quiescent battery consumption change between Oreo and Pie, but this may be because I keep force closing apps at night and not giving adaptive battery (which I have on) a chance to have the same effect intelligently
Turning off app preview messages has made no practical different for me
I'm completely stock (stock launcher, not rooted, etc.)
If you can't fix it, at least a factory reset as the next experiment has the option to restore *most* of what was there before (so long as you have had the backup setting enabled). But because not everything is restored it's still a pain. And if that doesn't work it's another factory reset and test and then restore everything manually and gradually :-S. But I think you already tried that?
Burkules said:
Hi guys,
I seem to have fixed my terrible battery life!
The below might be worth a try if you're still suffering from it.
I noticed in GSAM that RCSphone was the front runner in battery drain so did a little research and found this site.
SOLUTION: Turn off app preview messages (settings / google / app preview messages). Apparently its only function is to allow Allo messages to be received without the app. To me, totally pointless as i don't know - nor have ever met - a single person who uses it.
Thanks, just tried that as well and my battery has stayed resolutely at 68% on idle beside me for the last few hours, previously it had gone from 100% down to 69% in about 4 hours whilst similarly doing nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

New phone with no apps added, phone disabled, screen off, drains far too much battery

Hi
I've got a brand new PH-1 and haven't yet had time to set it up properly, only started it up, let it update software and used for an hour or so before testing the idle battery drain.
I haven't installed any apps or changed any settings other than to disable the google app (to prevent it listening for or responding to "ok google"). I tried out the 360 camera, signed in to gmail and browsed a few websites, before charging back to full and restarting the phone before this test anyway.
But leaving it idle with the screen off and with phone network disabled (there's not even a SIM inserted), only wifi on with good signal, it lost 65% battery in under 22 hours. Screen on time was less than five minutes.
Is this a hardware issue I should RMA, or is it considered normal? If this is normal and there's no easy fix, I'll probably end up having to return the phone anyway for a refund, because if it can't even last a day and half in idle there's no way it would last a reasonable amount of time with normal usage.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Since there isn't a sim card installed, try going to airplane mode and then turning WIFI on.
I am getting about 1.2% drain with cell network and wifi enabled along with all my standard apps installed.
On a typical day with 1-2h SOT, I usually have 60-70% battery left at midnight. I'd try to reset the phone, and then testing again - occasionally a system update will end up doing something funny
I left it overnight with airplane mode on, so even wifi was off, and it's a little better but not by much. Screen on time was one minute.
With airplane mode on, screen off, no dodgy apps, the phone really shouldn't be doing anything to drain battery.
I'll try a full factory reset and see what happens.
Just to follow up, a full factory reset seems to have fixed the issue. Even after doing the same things I had done before (connected to wifi, updated, logged in to gmail, etc) the battery now drains at a much more sensible rate.
Very strange that a factory reset made a difference since it was new from the factory when I had the issue, but I guess something strange happened in the update like dsip suggested.
Thanks for the help!
nickwp said:
Just to follow up, a full factory reset seems to have fixed the issue. Even after doing the same things I had done before (connected to wifi, updated, logged in to gmail, etc) the battery now drains at a much more sensible rate.
Very strange that a factory reset made a difference since it was new from the factory when I had the issue, but I guess something strange happened in the update like dsip suggested.
Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's ? percent normal behavior. Anytime you flash a ROM (new phone =new ROM) you need to wait a bare minimum of a charge cycle (more like three in my experience) before you get the slightest idea what your actual battery drain is going to look like. think of it like breaking in the engine on a new car.
Sent from my mata using XDA Labs

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