Help Galaxy S2 battery woes after Android 4.0.3 upgrade

[kex007]

Hello!
After upgrade my Samsung galaxy S2 to newest firmware 4.0.3 with samsung kies battery life decreases approx 100%. Before upgrade my phone on full battery charge can work 48 - 72 hours. After upgrade my samsung galaxy S 2 can work only 12-18 hours. Is this bug in firmware?

 

[ThEGr33k]

Yes. Mine is still good if not better after update! With extended battery and data/GPS on all day I can get 2 days with ease with moderate use.

I suggest checking the Task manager to see if any apps are going crazy on the CPU!

(BTW I started a thread on ICS issues, might be worth checking there!)

 

[aaronfi]

Hello, I have the international (unlocked) version of the Samsung Galaxy S2. After being upgraded to Android 4.0.3, I've had some horrible problems:

- battery life dramatically reduced, from 8+ hours to less then 90 minutes, when the phone is simply idle
- battery recharging takes 5+ hours, instead of less than 30 minutes
- third party texting software like Handcent are duplicating every outbound message twofold.

I've found similar problems mentioned on this forum; have tried a variety of solutions, but none have worked. Am hoping for suggestions... thanks!

Things I've tried thus far:
- manually disabling some of the built-in Samsung apps
- pop out the battery, push it back in (then restart the phone), to force a battery recalibration

I have automatic background app killer software installed;

According to the developer's view, 60+% of my battery is being drained by the Android OS itself.

Sounds like a very buggy upgrade?

I'm about to just completely reset the phone, but am hoping to avoid this dire course if possible.

Many thanks.

 

[Kie]

Hello!

Few things I guess. Firstly, your SGS2 should've lasted a lot longer than 8 hours previously. I used to get over a day easily with lots of tweaks, so about a day should be average (unless you're playing a lot of games). What's your usage like?

Next, your battery recharged in 30mins? Was this from 0-ish%? Because it would seem if it only took 30mins that there's a bug in your battery monitor, which is giving incorrect readings. Could also explain to low battery life.

I guess with the manually disabling of Samsung apps, that you're doing that through Settings? If so, that gets undone at a restart. It's probably not the best way to ensure the apps are really closed. I'd suggest rooting and using Titanium Backup to freeze the unwanted apps. All you need to know about rooting and freezing apps is located here.

I'm stealing ironass' words, but automatic task killers actually drain more battery than they save. I'd suggest disabling that, and also not clearing memory in RAM if you're doing that too.

The ICS upgrade in general has a poorer battery life than GB. This is in part due to a lot of new features designed to enhance the performance of the device. They didn't put as much effort into battery saving unfortunately, which is where rooting and custom ROMs/kernels comes into play.

If you're not into that sort of thing, there's a couple of things that can help save battery:

- Turn off Gmail sync, it's a battery killer
- Download BetterBatteryStats (BBS) from xda here. Restart your phone, open BBS, and leave your phone idle for an hour or so. Then go back into BBS and use the dropdown boxes to see Partial Wakelocks and Kernel Wakelocks Since Charged. You'll then see what the main culprits are for using battery while the phone is idle. If it doesn't make much sense, take a couple of screenshots and post them up and someone here should be able to interpret them
- Obvious things like disable wifi/bluetooth when not required and use automatic brightness/power saving modes where possible.

Hope that helps!

 

[aaronfi]

Will try those things and report back to this thread thanks. Rooting isn't something I've done before (nor am I afraid to try) -- but it does seem a bit extreme (?) solution - i.e. shouldn't things be "reasonable" within the vendor-supplied sandbox that is the default installation?

Yes, I had covered the basics you'd mentioned (e.g. Wifi/Bluetooth both off; background syncing mostly off, etc).

My usage runs fairly intense (videos, music streaming, etc).
But even when the phone is idle, and all those activities disabled, the battery is still slow to charge, quick to drain.

I had installed the automatic background killer initially because without it, my phone drained within ~1 hour. (With installed, I'd get 7+ hours).

 

[Kie]

I would love to see your BetterBatteryStats screen to find out what you've got running that drains your battery so horribly! Instant Messaging programs like MSN/Skype, or other programs that constantly access the 3G/wifi connection can seriously drain your battery if left running.

 

[iynCognito]

Also, as mentioned in other threads, upgrading to 4.0.3 resets the phones battery optimisation. Thus, it takes a few days for the battery usage to even out, just like when you first got your phone.

My battery life did drop initially on upgrading but after about 4 days, seems to have got back to its original level, if not slightly better.

 

[iynCognito]

Hello, I have the international (unlocked) version of the Samsung Galaxy S2. After being upgraded to Android 4.0.3, I've had some horrible problems:

- third party texting software like Handcent are duplicating every outbound message twofold.

Many thanks.

Search xda. There is a beta of Handcent (?Version 4) that solves the double message issue. Just download and install the apk and voila. Your existing Handcent settings are preserved.

 

[camalo]

Just upgraded my gs2 and my battery only lifes up to 12h IN STANDBY.
I really love ics but this doesnt work for me. Now I must charge it several times a day.
It takes lika 5h to charge it full.

Please. Help me!

 

[aaronfi]

I would love to see your BetterBatteryStats screen to find out what you've got running that drains your battery so horribly! Instant Messaging programs like MSN/Skype, or other programs that constantly access the 3G/wifi connection can seriously drain your battery if left running.

Here are my BetterBatteryStats:
Not quite sure how to read or report them.

Note: in the past 1-2 days, my battery life has somewhat improved, through no intervention on my part. Lasting around 7.5 hours now. Charging from 0 to 100% still takes 4+ hours.

The most suspicious stats:

Other --> since unplugged: 6:39:37 awake, 0:57:58 Screen On
Kernel Wakelocks --> since unplugged: 4:40:37 multipdp, 2:12:2 PowerManagerService
Partial Wakelocks --> since unplugged: 2:20:34 MAIL_SERVICE (com.android.exchange.Exchange Services)

Might this be my Outlook Exchange that's eating up all my battery? (It didn't prior to the Android OS upgrade)

Many thanks

 

[antineo69]

i just roll back to GB 2.3.5 using Odin since ICS was just waste of time and nothing special, suck battery life out of it i only get 10hr out of ot,that With extended battery 2000hz compair to GB i get 3day out off it.

 

[Superklavs]

I hav et the same problem with my Galaxy S2, after upgrading to Android 4.0.3 bettaery life seldom exceeds 10 hours. I have set my GS2 to sync. with exchange every 15 minutes during working hours and every 4 hours outside working hours. Bu no matter what settings I use, even set i to manual, e-mails are pushed to my GS2. I have tried to apply "push" when I bought my GS2, and I observed that battery life then was 10 hours, so it seemd like I'm stuck ion push mode - no matter which sync settings I'm using, which reduces battery life! Any ideas to correct this behaviour?

 

[ianramsden87]

menu->settings->battery

click on the graph, check to see how much the phone is in awake time. If it's constant then you have an app that doesn't play well with ICS.

You'll then have to go back one screen and click on each app and see what the culprit is by the keep awake display.

 

[Russell Ng]

You can get BetterBatteryStats. It identifies what causes partial wakelogs that keeps the phone awake when its not suppose to. That way you can uninstall the offending app (if possible), or if rooted freeze it.

 

[plum]

I was really worried when i upgraded to ics, my battery lefe plummeted to around 5-6 hours. It seems to be improving now, at the moment it now gone to 16 hours. But i am still monitoring the situation

 

[CargoMatatu]

I upgraded about a week ago and experienced the same battery problem as everyone else here.
It has now improved SLIGHTLY, but not much.
The real killer that I have discovered is the Exchange Mail Push function. When this is on it really pulls the plug on my battery. Hate it!
So most of the day I have Exchange Mail Push switched off. Other than that I really like the new functionalities.

 

[jonpca]

Here are my BetterBatteryStats:
Not quite sure how to read or report them.

Other --> since unplugged: 6:39:37 awake, 0:57:58 Screen On
Kernel Wakelocks --> since unplugged: 4:40:37 multipdp, 2:12:2 PowerManagerService
Partial Wakelocks --> since unplugged: 2:20:34 MAIL_SERVICE (com.android.exchange.Exchange Services)

Many thanks

Hi aaronfi. Did you make any progress on this? I am seeing the same results (although not quite as extreme as yours); similar proportion of awake compared ro screen on, and the same two culprits in Kernel Wakelocks and Partial Wakelocks!

Cheers

Jon

 

[Chri5H]

For me, the problem is Exchange email. The Exchange service goes crazy (well, runs at a steady 2-3%), and the phone gets noticably warm. If I change the exchange sync settings (e.g. from 'every 15 mins' to 'every 30 mins', or vice versa) the problem goes away for maybe 12 hours. Then I notice it getting warm again, and so change the sync frequency again. System Monitor pro records a CPU usage graph per app, so I can clearly see the Exchange Service high usage corresponds exactly to the battery plummeting.

If I wasn't so trusting, I'd say this was Google's way of persuading people to ditch their exchange servers in favour of Gmail. ;O)

Hope this gets fixed soon. I might even disable email syncing altogether and see how that goes...it's not too big a hassle I guess, the new ICS Inbox widget has a 'refresh' button onscreen so it's not too hard to check for mail manually when we want to.

 

[kostushko]

Hi there,
The same problem after update. Just found, that for some reason Voice settings were changed during update automatically. Hope, the problem with battery drain was caused by this.

You know, there is 'Wake up on command' voice-related feature with footnote 'this may drain your battery'. For some reason it was turned on...

Check it on your devices. Hope this will help.

 

[aaronfi]

Hi Jon.
Still no progress with my issue.
It takes ~10 hours to fully charge my battery, which then discharges in 3-5 hours.

It's very frustrating. I have the Voice "Wake up command" turned off, and the Exchange Service syncing set to "manual" (instead of "push").

Still no change.

Any other diagnostic or troubleshooting ideas?

 

[kimjon]

Ive had the exact same issue with my S2 since my Android 4.0 upgrade. The battery last for 4-5 hours now. Before the upgrade it lasted 12-14 hours. Ive also noticed that it gets extremely hot lately. Some times charging doest do much at all. Left it on for an hour, and when I pulled it out it still screamed that it needed charging... I read in a post some times back that a factory reset would fix the problem. I therefor tried that a week ago, and it actually helped. Phone worked like normal again, without any huge battery usage. However, today it became bad again, draining battery like a sinking ship... So now Ive factory reset it again, expecting another week of peace bofore hell breaks loose again.... *sigh*.... What I love most is the lack of ANY feedback from Android/Samsung on the problem.....

Heeelp...

 

[wrighty.uk.gor]

While i did not have any issues with the S2 i also have a Asus Transformer and had the same issue the only way i solved it was a factory reset. Problem was then solved it was a app not playing ball with ICS i could just never find out what it was. As after installing every thing from the market again it never come back

 

[RoRo1990]

I've actually seen better battery life in ics than gb i get about 8hrs more now

 

[blessing62]

Ive had the exact same issue with my S2 since my Android 4.0 upgrade. The battery last for 4-5 hours now. Before the upgrade it lasted 12-14 hours. Ive also noticed that it gets extremely hot lately. Some times charging doest do much at all. Left it on for an hour, and when I pulled it out it still screamed that it needed charging... I read in a post some times back that a factory reset would fix the problem. I therefor tried that a week ago, and it actually helped. Phone worked like normal again, without any huge battery usage. However, today it became bad again, draining battery like a sinking ship... So now Ive factory reset it again, expecting another week of peace bofore hell breaks loose again.... *sigh*.... What I love most is the lack of ANY feedback from Android/Samsung on the problem.....

Heeelp...

I had all the same problems after the upgrade. But, I started deleting programs and nothing seemed to help. Then, I was playing with the settings and saw the battery on the settings menu. One program was really chewing up the battery so I uninstalled it. Then, voila, the phone cooled off and the battery has lasted all day with a lot of use. Hooray. Just thought I would share. Also, I found built into this version is another place called Developer Options on the settings menu. It is very interesting. I tried checking some of the options for upgrades and at one point in time, there were so many flashes I couldn't even read the phone. Had to uncheck most of them.

Hope this helps.

 

[jammie1212]

I upgraded yesterday via kies on vodafone. My battery seems to be far better than when it was on gingerbread 2.3.5. Im soooo happy with the battery life. I assume that because vodafone took ages to release it that they have ironed out most of the bugs.