Help Google Play sucking up my battery

[jhonb]

Any reason why Google play is all of the sudden sucking my battery dry?

This has been happening for about a week now. I thought maybe the upgrade to 4.3.3 would help, but today I am having the same issue.

I have an unrooted phone with stock everything And all apps are up to date.

 

[Rukbat]

Are you sure it's "sucking your battery dry", or is it just the highest listed user? If your total battery drain is 1%/hour, and Google Play is listed as 75%, it may look as if GP is using all your battery up, but what it actually means is that GP is using 75% of that 1% being used. (Which would give you about 50 hours between charges if you recharged at the 50% point.)

 

[jhonb]

Are you sure it's "sucking your battery dry", or is it just the highest listed user? If your total battery drain is 1%/hour, and Google Play is listed as 75%, it may look as if GP is using all your battery up, but what it actually means is that GP is using 75% of that 1% being used. (Which would give you about 50 hours between charges if you recharged at the 50% point.)

The phone gets light use during the day. After being on battery for about 7 hours with little use, I am at 64%. I usually have 80% or more at 4:00 when I go home.

it reads
21% Google play service
13% Android System
13% OS
12% Cell Standby
1% Phone Idle
9% Screen\
etc

 

[John Bean]

That does seem very high. My lightly-used N4 currently reports this:

94% - Not charging

10h 0m 21s on battery

Phone idle 21%
Screen 19%
Mobile standby 18%
Wi-Fi 12%
Google Play Services 7%
Android system 6%
etc...

I've had high Google services because of faults - it tends to go into an infinite loop in some network fault conditions - but a reboot always fixes it. In any case it hasn't done this with any version of KitKat, it was only a real problem on one of the Jelly Bean versions.

 

[SiempreTuna]

Just realised I forgot to charge my phone last night

66% - Not charging

22h 54m 23s on battery

Google Services is my #4 at 8% - I don't see Play services in the list at all, despite updating at least one app yesterday.

Sounds to me like Play services is playing up - I think I would restart the phone, see if that helps.

 

[jhonb]

At home this weekend, I had no issues with the battery. 80% at the end of the day with light use. Back to work this am, I am at 66% at 1:00. I am going to try shutting off the wifi when I leave the house tomorrow and see if that helps.

 

[John Bean]

Good thinking. But rather than disabling it try checking the "Avoid poor connections" in the "Advanced" settings in the wi-fi menu and see if that helps. I suspect you're picking up some weak public wi-fi that Google thinks it can use (but can't) causing lots of failed retries and associated excessive battery use.

If it makes no difference try disabling wi-fi altogether as you first suggested, but you'll need to remember to turn it on and off which can be a pain; the setting I mentioned is a simple set and forget... if it works for you.

 

[jhonb]

Good thinking. But rather than disabling it try checking the "Avoid poor connections" in the "Advanced" settings in the wi-fi menu and see if that helps. I suspect you're picking up some weak public wi-fi that Google thinks it can use (but can't) causing lots of failed retries and associated excessive battery use.

If it makes no difference try disabling wi-fi altogether as you first suggested, but you'll need to remember to turn it on and off which can be a pain; the setting I mentioned is a simple set and forget... if it works for you.

Thanks, I will give it a try. (It was not already checked)

 

[lunatic59]

I was out of town this past weekend and noticed a greater-than-normal power drain. Google Play Services did seem to be the culprit but as soon as I disabled location services, the drain went completely away. I am going to re-enable location services one by one, until I find the one that is causing the problem ... hopefully.

 

[jhonb]

I was out of town this past weekend and noticed a greater-than-normal power drain. Google Play Services did seem to be the culprit but as soon as I disabled location services, the drain went completely away. I am going to re-enable location services one by one, until I find the one that is causing the problem ... hopefully.

Let me know what you find.