The Truth About Your Battery

[emilyt93]

Got my SIII A few days ago & I love it. I wouldn't say I have any problems with it, but just wondering if any of you are experiencing what I am. So first thing is battery life, It takes about an hour, maybe an hour & a half to get fully charged when it's about 5% battery life. My son was playing games on it last night starting at 100% (Wifi was off & screen brightness was at about 5%) & he played for about 35 minutes straight, the battery life got down to 80% after those 35 minutes. Does this sound about normal for the battery life? Also, I watched a few Youtube videos about this phone & Some users asked the S Voice a question like "How many days until christmas" and the answer it gave was the right answer. Now I asked the same thing, but it said "I'm sorry I don't have that answer would you like to search the web" So I'm not sure why It didn't give me an answer like it did for the guy on The video. Not sure if it's Just different Providers Or what. I have AT&T by the way. But just let me know how your SIII is doing & if you have any tips to save battery life or anything else. I usually have wifi on when I'm at home or school. When I'm inside my brightness is usually off or barely on. Power saving mode I also have that on. I use my Task manager to Close unwanted apps. I just wanna make sure this is a normal thing for the SIII, don't think mine has a defect but still, just curious. Thanks

 

[emilyt93]

What I do for some reason because I think it really does something, I put it on the charger every night So it will be full in the morning. When I wake up, I turn the phone off, still leaving it plugged in. Do what I do to get ready in the morning, when I'm done I turn the phone back on, make sure it's at 100% When I take it off. I use my Task manager and close all of the apps. I go into my apps & force close any running apps that I am not using or don't need running. Honestly, I don't know if this really helps or anything but I've been doing it before my SIII. Does anyone else do this?

 

[johnnylighton]

I use my Task manager and close all of the apps. I go into my apps & force close any running apps that I am not using or don't need running. Honestly, I don't know if this really helps or anything but I've been doing it before my SIII. Does anyone else do this?

I do it sometimes because I am afraid an app is running in the background when I don't want it to, but it's been well-discussed here that this procedure doesn't save any battery and probably costs some. Android is very good at stopping apps from using battery once you've switched apps or returned to the home screen. It keeps the apps you use most loaded into memory, and if you close them with the task manager then (1) it will be confused about the apps it should keep loaded, and (2) when you open those apps again it will take battery and time to reload them.

What is important, though, is to be aware of all the apps you have and which ones sync. You should set the sync rate for those apps to the lowest number you are comfortable with. So, for example, I set my Facebook refresh interval to "never" (it synchs when I go to the app), and my email only syncs when I press the sync button. I also disabled a bunch of Samsung apps and removed my Samsung account so it won't sync.

 

[paroots]

I also disabled a bunch of Samsung apps and removed my Samsung account so it won't sync.

Can you explain what are the Samsung apps and account? Perhaps you're referring to Google apps and account? I have the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (gsm) which may explain my confusion!
Pete

 

[dan55]

there are few apps listed starting with 'Samsung's.
stuff like data sync etc. not sure what they do.

I'm not find battery as good as I was hoping...but then
maybe I'm just liking the phone too much and playing
with our all the time :-D

 

[dbpaddler]

I cant agree with that. I've been trying lots of different methods to extend my battery life, but the most effective way I've found is to turn off WiFi, GPS & Mobile Data when I do not need it. By doing this I can extend my battery life by at least 25%.

It's mobile data that's doing it. The rest are negligible.

 

[Tikob25]

Some where here it was mentioned to reset phone to factory. Decided to do this over the weekend mostly because it was my first android so I played and experimented with the phone. Wanting to start fresh and knowing what apps I used did the reset.

I was lucky to get 24 hours from my battery and I'm not a heavy user. Listen to music at work and send the odd text, photo, etc.

After reset notice a difference after a few hours. My battery life almost doubled and I have no idea why a reset would do this but very happy with battery life on the s3 now.

Thanks dude. I tried this and I find that my battery life is a lot better. I slowly started installing apps and so far so good.

One thing I have noticed though is that I havent put any music on my phone yet and I noticed using GSAM that mediaserver service was holding my phone awake for 1h 48 minutes after my phone has been on for like 20 hours+.

I dont know if it matters since my battery life is better after factory reset but seeing that mediaserver is keeping my phone awake for more than an hour wasnt sure if that was normal or not

Thanks

 

[smallclone]

Held Awake: This is the amount of time that the phone appears to be sleeping (screen is off), but some application is preventing the phone from going into a deep sleep. This is one of the chief indicators of unneeded battery drain. This is similar to the 'Idle' value in the built-in battery usage, however we don't include the screen on time to help with clarity.

My held awake time is 1.8% - But it's the middle of the day.

So do I need to check it after a night?

 

[Aglipman]

I have looking at this battery thing a little bit seeing if I can eke some more out.

Downloaded the infamous GSAM.

I charged yesterday and left overnight without really using it.
A few text, emails etc.
I did the tip of charging fully and then unlock the screen before removing the cable as there was a suggestion this may cause an issue with wakelock.
Anyway.

I left data, email, notifications on.
I only reduced the volume to vibrate.
I had 2 gmails at 3:38 in the morning and my phone was flashing at 6:50.

I took a few screenshots.

These last one was interesting as it appears to me to show that WITHOUT a good signal, it doesnt use much battery?

 

[smallclone]

My phone clicks into airplane mode for 7 hours when I'm in bed.

Some nights it uses 2% overnight and some nigts it sues 10% overnight. Why?

 

[Aglipman]

My phone clicks into airplane mode for 7 hours when I'm in bed.

Some nights it uses 2% overnight and some nigts it sues 10% overnight. Why?

Maybe something is running in the background causing it to wake and not deep sleep.

 

[Aglipman]

If you look at my Third image, View Num Times Waking Device, the weather app has fired up 18 times, once per hour as my settings.
Check yours and see if something looks out of sync.

 

[smallclone]

If you look at my Third image, View Num Times Waking Device, the weather app has fired up 18 times, once per hour as my settings.
Check yours and see if something looks out of sync.

Wowzer. You reckon it's ebay?

 

[Aglipman]

Wowzer. You reckon it's ebay?

Its certainly a place to start.

Just think in your own mind "in those 42 minutes it been on is the 45 times related to eBay too much"
What I would say, in my limited experience, don't start removing everything in one go cos you wont know exactly what has changed.

Change one thing per day and give it a test.
I haven't used the blocking mode yet (to reduce power and connectivity overnight) as I want to see what effect these other things have.

 

[smallclone]

Just think in your own mind "in those 42 minutes it been on is the 45 times related to eBay too much"
.

Considering I didn't open it once and barely use it, then yes x1000000

 

[eighteesix]

Wondering if people can help me analyze this. I unplugged at 100% around 7pm. Now at noon the following day its dead. Little use last night. Overnight it lost a little over 10%. Below average use throughout the day, no Wifi, no email checking. Am i getting good battery life, or at least average? I should be getting above average with my use today. 16 hrs of battery life this charge.

Bigger questions: Why did the phone radio use over 45% of my battery?! poor service? And why the hell did the system, google services, and maps wake my phone for a combined 380+ times? everything else is negligible.

 

[TadeoNYC]

You need to pull up the graph of your signal strength and check the timeline against your location. My signal at home is crap, even on 3g which I can compare directly with my wife's iPhone 4.

 

[Aglipman]

With the first screenshot, click on the second icon along the bottom to give you the graph, these should show you the signal strength. If its poor signal then maybe there is something there.

 

[eighteesix]

You need to pull up the graph of your signal strength and check the timeline against your location. My signal at home is crap, even on 3g which I can compare directly with my wife's iPhone 4.

i plugged in my phone so the graph reset. or did it? i dont know exactly how this app stores data. anyway, i just switched from an iPhone 4 and i frequently had little to no reception in my apt. Now with my GS3 i have fantastic reception... but apparently, at what cost? lots of battery life i suppose.

 

[Aglipman]

You need to pull up the graph of your signal strength and check the timeline against your location. My signal at home is crap, even on 3g which I can compare directly with my wife's iPhone 4.

Snap!

Great mind tap a like

 

[eighteesix]

Alright here are two shots. Looks like while i was sleeping it just flatlined at a medium reception? Im not really sure what the reception graph implies.

second ss just reinforcing cell usage. very annoying that its so high. why is it so high?

 

[dennygreen]

I'm having a similar problem with my signal. After 9.5 hours at work with a consistent decent signal, I come home with 40% of my battery remaining which I figure should last me the rest of the night since I'll switch to wifi and not use it much.

But then apparently the signal jumps all over the place which is causing my battery to nosedive and need a charge a couple hours later. It doesn't make much sense since I work a block away from home, and when I look at the status screen at any given time in both places, it says similar numbers. between -88 and -92 and 54 asu. I've been in spots that are worse than -100 and according to gsam, it doesn't jump around as much as when I'm home.

If you look at this gsam shot, the parts where it plummets are the parts of my day where I'm home. In the morning, half hour lunch, and at the end of the day.

If you look at the history screen shots, you can see that when I'm home (the times where wifi is on), the signal bar goes from solid green to yellow, etc and back to green repeatedly.

The Verizon store guy thought it was completely normal, and said Samsung antennas suck.

 

[Aglipman]

Just to make you sick!

Ok, to be honest it lasted a whole weekend. I didnt use it much apart from a few emails and texts etc.

Dennygreen, I check mine just now.

You seem to have a lot of awake time. Mine is much less awake maybe meaning that yours isnt going into a deep sleep.

Anyone else got any inspiration?

 

[dennygreen]

yeah I don't let mine sleep at all. Pretty much from the time I take it off the charger in the morning till I'm done with work its doing something. podcasts, music, texting, browsing etc.

I'm just kinda annoyed that the battery drains so much faster at home on wifi with less use than at work on lte with a lot of use. It seems to be a result of this jumping signal thing.


aglipman: can you post a screenshot of your phone signal graph is gsam for me?

 

[Aglipman]

yeah I don't let mine sleep at all. Pretty much from the time I take it off the charger in the morning till I'm done with work its doing something. podcasts, music, texting, browsing etc.

I'm just kinda annoyed that the battery drains so much faster at home on wifi with less use than at work on lte with a lot of use. It seems to be a result of this jumping signal thing.


aglipman: can you post a screenshot of your phone signal graph is gsam for me?

This is from last week.
currently on charge but indicative.
Also this was in fly mode (as a test ) overnight.