Help What's wrong with my phone's battery life?

[Dhysics]

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900F and I think something is wrong with my battery or phone.


I never get past 3 hours of on-screen time usage whatever the use case.

Usual scenario:
Location/Bluetooth/Wifi/NFC/Sync/Printing Services/Motion Settings - All turned off
Display - 15 seconds timeout. 25% brightness
Sound - lowest settings for vibration
Mobile Data - 4g or 3g on most of the time

Apps I use most of the time
Clash of Clans
Spotify

I also notice that the phone gets warm, but there are also cases where it gets HOT.

Today, I just got my battery replaced, I took it to a service center but they didn't check the phone they just replaced the battery.

Here are some battery stats:


Please help on what I should do next.

 

[ironass]

See how the new battery fares. You may have had a faulty battery, before. You could re-calibrate the battery chip, as per #1.6 of S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide and then give it a few charging cycles to settle down. Clash of Clans and Spotify are right up there with FaceBook, Twitter and Google Now for battery draining.

 

[Dhysics]

Sorry I forgot to mention I was running on 4.4.2 kitkat stock.
and my device is not rooted.
Thank you for your reply

 

[bIOforger]

I'm sorry but that is good screen time if youre playing clash of clans, dont forget not only is the batt getting sucked hard by the screen, the CPU is also getting a workout by the game as well. I'm not sure why you would expect it to be much better. If you have a clans addiction problem i suggest you install bluestacks and play it on a PC and give your phone a break

 

[ironass]

Now... I wonder what the first sentence of that link says... in bold, red, letters?

"The following procedures from #1.3 onwards can also be used on non Lollipop firmwares."

 

[Dhysics]

Sorry, I didn't see it.
I'll try #1.6 to recalibrate.

Is it really normal?
I even tried to go a day or two without clash of clans but I am still not able to get more than 3 hours of on time.

 

[EarlyMon]

See this right here?

That's just wrong.

That says that you have something holding your phone awake when you're not using it - unless that's a picture of when you were on the phone talking with the screen mostly off for a few hours.

Here's another one that's interesting -

That's showing that when wifi and screen are on that you've accelerated the power drop vs. mobile data and screen on.

And both are showing that your mobile signal is all over the place.

This is closer to what yours ought to look like -

(That's from an HTC, so what, Android is Android.)

Note that the system is awake on a well-behaved system only when the screen is, wifi is not an issue, and although the graph sucks some, note the gold/gray transitions in the mobile signal quality corresponding to minor battery fluctuations.

Doing that netted me 8 hours screen on time for the above.

Spoiler: If you doubt it...

My opinion -

0. You're losing a lot of juice in all the wrong places and screen on time is a symptom.

1. Get GSam Battery Monitor so you can see what's really going on - not just power vs apps and time, but something about wakelocks - what's holding the phone open so badly.

2. Given that whacky mobile signal, I'd try to monitor the power vs radio signal curves first. Poor reception will hold your phone awake.

3. If the radio signals are high and power is still dropping quickly, then perhaps try running the phone in safe mode. If you don't run your add ons and the power stabilizes, then it's your add ons.

4. I'll betcha dollars to donuts this is not a calibration issue, no disrespect @ironass.

 

[Dhysics]

Thank you for the detailed explanation EarlyMon,

Say for example, I am listening to songs while the screen is off, would that be the cause why the phone is being kept awake?

As I am typing this, I'm downloading GSam Battery Monitor on my phone. Does it require root access?

I agree the mobile signal is weak where I stay, I guess there's no way around that fact?

 

[EarlyMon]

Yep, music while screen off would keep it awake - the gentle slope losing power slowly in the first graph - about 2/3 of the way in, above the "50s" in the graph - that would be acceptable.

GSam doesn't require root. If you have root you can add to it with an independent app called Wakelock Detector.

And if your mobile signal is weak - definitely start your monitoring there, Rome wasn't built in a day, just watch that for the first full off-charger period, let's see what that says.

The computer side of Android running KitKat:

Android = real-time, compact Linux + Dalvik Virtual Machine + apps that run in the Dalvik and call on Linux/system services

The phone side of Android:

Phone operations priority >> Android computer side (where >> means much, much greater)

All of the process monitors assume that it's all about the mini-computer side of Android.

If the radios want, the radios get, and that will always come first, and weak signals kick in processes to scan, scan, scan for better and use whatever power is necessary - unless you're in Airplane Mode.

 

[AZgl1500]

I am going to show you how battery life can be extended greatly by a totally different "use scenario". And also by a rigorous control of turning off the internet when the phone is asleep, I use MacroDroid to do that. See my signature.

The first will be my S5 which I use quite a bit, I pull it out, wake it up and whip out WiFi 360 to do testing on a network.... did that all day long today.... other times, I make 2 or 3 phone calls, catch up on reading the locals newspaper and then a bit of email.

The second screenshot is of my wife's S5. Her use scenario is "pick it up when she hears it ring". Period
The wife's phone also has MacroDroid controlling the internet. If not in use, the internet is OFF>
!

as I said, this is to show you that you are keeping your phone awake too much, and using very power hungry apps. If that is your priority, fine, but the your battery is doing all it can do. Live with it.

____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON

 

[Dhysics]

I'll post the stats from Gsam later.

If this is really the normal battery life, I'm really disappointed.
My friend's S5 has an amazing battery life, and we have similar use.
He also plays a lot of Clash of Clans but I look at his battery usage and at 3 hours onscreen time he's only at 50% battery.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'll post the stats from Gsam later.

If this is really the normal battery life, I'm really disappointed.
My friend's S5 has an amazing battery life, and we have similar use.
He also plays a lot of Clash of Clans but I look at his battery usage and at 3 hours onscreen time he's only at 50% battery.

Post pictures of battery vs radio signal, don't get discouraged.

 

[frosthax1]

normal usage is clash of clans listening to music with screeen off(how long on each)you say clash of clans uses 50 percent of battery on 3 hrs on your friends phone,so how many hours you use?standby time can last for days because nothings running but if your playing games for 6 hrs straight and such 3 hours on a 50 percent so 6 hours be 0 right?

listening to music,depending how long is also a drain,facebook etc.i think your just focusing on one app or just not realising you have a clash of clans addiction.its not supposed to last long if your constantly using it nonstop for hours

 

[Vixer]

I don't use my s5 a lot, mainly for texting and calls. Since I have uninstalled the Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone and access both using the Dolphin browser my battery life has increased by at least 2 days.

 

[Dhysics]

Sorry for the late feedback, here's what I have so far on my battery stats,

I want to note that I've also been experiencing the dreaded qq-daemon-camera bug which sucks the battery as well sometimes.

normal usage is clash of clans listening to music with screeen off(how long on each)you say clash of clans uses 50 percent of battery on 3 hrs on your friends phone,so how many hours you use?standby time can last for days because nothings running but if your playing games for 6 hrs straight and such 3 hours on a 50 percent so 6 hours be 0 right?

listening to music,depending how long is also a drain,facebook etc.i think your just focusing on one app or just not realising you have a clash of clans addiction.its not supposed to last long if your constantly using it nonstop for hours

Let's say for the 3 hours of onscreen time I get, 2 hours of that would be from Clash of Clans.
I don't use facebook, I rarely browse the internet.
Mostly it's just really Spotify, Clash of Clans or Viber that is used on my phone.

 

[Dhysics]

More stats

 

[Dhysics]

I don't use my s5 a lot, mainly for texting and calls. Since I have uninstalled the Facebook and Twitter apps from my phone and access both using the Dolphin browser my battery life has increased by at least 2 days.

That's an impressive battery life, what's your on-screen time?

 

[Vixer]

That's an impressive battery life, what's your on-screen time?

Approximately 5-6 hours of texting, calling, or periodically checking Facebook or Twitter, using a browser. When I stream or play music I keep it on the charger.

 

[bIOforger]

Approximately 5-6 hours of texting, calling, or periodically checking Facebook or Twitter, using a browser. When I stream or play music I keep it on the charger.

So do all your screenies include that charging time when streaming or playing music? If so they aren't an accurate indication of your uptime/screentime off the charger.

 

[Vixer]

So do all your screenies include that charging time when streaming or playing music? If so they aren't an accurate indication of your uptime/screentime off the charger.

I haven't streamed/played any music in over two weeks. That is a real percentage for my unplugged phone.

 

[Dhysics]

More battery stats, haven't used the phone much.

What do you guys think?

 

[Yisuke]

I have been having the same problem my battery dies too quickly. Idk if it's my battery or my phone

 

[AZgl1500]

25% screen time makes it seem that the screen was alive about 1 hr 15 minutes of the total 5 hrs use since charge. Were you doing things that would really keep the cpu active a lot?

Are all of your apps up to date? If not, Is there a lot of background activity going on?

Both of my Galaxy S5 phones have auto-updates turned off, we don't play games on them much. Wife does a bit, I don't at all. Her phone gets about 8 or 9 days per charge. My phone does about 2 days on average unless I get really busy with mapping stuff, then it uses about 70% in about 10 hours.
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, KK 4.4.4, ART
MyPhoneExplorer saves your tailbone
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns WiFi & Data ON

 

[Yisuke]

All I do is pretty much use kik or snapchat maybe line and instagram once in a while I don't play any games.

Yes all my apps are up to date I have auto update off as well . I don't think there is that much background activity going on but I may be wrong.

 

[AZgl1500]

Have you tried doing a cache Partition clear?

Powered off:
Hold vol up, home key down, Power Button on until it vibrates or lights up.
release, use Vol key to navigate to Clear Cache.

totally safe, no data loss.

Failing that, I would backup up everything you want to keep to your PC and do a Factory Reset.

that entails rebuilding it again of course.