Help 2.3.6 Battery life sucks

[Optimator]

Does simply turning the phone off and back on accomplish a reboot, or is there more to it than that? Yesterday I let the phone go all the way down, then charged it up to 100%. I turned it off, disconnected from the charger, turned it back on, and then set it down and didn't touch it again until this morning. After 18h, 16m on battery with no use whatsoever, I'm down to 22% battery life. Task monitor shows that 97% of the battery went to Android OS and 2% went to phone standby, and that's it. When I was on 2.3.4, I would have 60-70% battery left after this much time. There's clearly something wrong here. How do I revert back to a previous version of the OS? For now I'll let it go the rest of the way down and then pull the battery and replace it before recharging, but if that doesn't do it then reverting to the previous OS may be the only thing left.

 

[meackerman]

I've been thinking battery life has sucked since the upgrade, now you all are confirming it.

It got a deep cycle today so I'll see if it helps.

 

[IndyDave]

I've deep cycled two days in a row, and hasn't made any difference.

 

[mratlndmrk]

in 2.3.6 there seems to be a wifi bug that is draining the battery. Some people have said that recalibrating the battery fixes it for them but that seems to be a placebo effect and a simple reboot would have produced the same results. I have tested this and it is true, at least for me.

I have sporadically had the same issue. Sometimes I can go two days without charging and the next day Android OS burns my battery bad. A reboot seems to cure the problem each time. I have also found that it is indeed related to wifi as I can also cure the issue by turning wifi off. Something seems to be getting "stuck".

 

[rmreid]

I have sporadically had the same issue. Sometimes I can go two days without charging and the next day Android OS burns my battery bad. A reboot seems to cure the problem each time. I have also found that it is indeed related to wifi as I can also cure the issue by turning wifi off. Something seems to be getting "stuck".

hmmmm, thanks mratlndmark, I will need to check this theory out by not using WiFi for a day and see if it improves the battery life!

 

[Infamous05gt]

ok two full cycles later my battery is still horrible. It came off of the charger this morning at 9:16am it is now 7:27 pm and I am down to 23% and the kicker was today I barely used the phone. I spent most of the day measuring out for a fence for the backyard and putting a lead up for my dog. The phone sat on the coffee table almost all day


Edit: Just checked what was using the battery/ Android os is the culprit for me as well.

 

[IndyDave]

Like I said in previous post, I deep cycled the battery two days in a row, removed the battery before starting the phone, turned off wifi and back on... and then today did absolutely nothing with the phone but let it sit there - no calls, text, nothing. After 5.5 hours, down to 66%, and Android OS is behind it.

 

[meackerman]

Charged mine back up last night after it went dead. Turned off Wifi and GPS, looked at it this morning and it had only used 2%. Compared to the previous night where I charged it up and went to bed it had used around 70% with wifi and gps on.

 

[rmreid]

Charged mine back up last night after it went dead. Turned off Wifi and GPS, looked at it this morning and it had only used 2%. Compared to the previous night where I charged it up and went to bed it had used around 70% with wifi and gps on.

I have to agree turning off WiFi seems to have helped me as well, no longer is Android OS my biggest battery hog and battery life is up considerably after 5 hours of normal use.
Not a "techie" so I'm not sure what is up with the WiFi bug as mentioned by mratlndmrk above?

Good short term fix, but since I am not on an unlimited data plan I rely on WiFi for the majority of my data usage.

1/3/12: Seems to be no doubt in my non techincal testing that something in the WiFi is off in 2.3.6: Battery life is much better keeping WiFi turned off and Android OS battery % has dropped down to 11% on average vs 83% with WiFi turned on.
I guess it could be a coincidence, but to me it seems to confirm what mratlndmrk stated in his post

 

[Tarnlight]

I am also having this battery drain problem- which I believe is wifi related.
You should be aware that there is an interesting mindset at both AT&T, and Samsung customer support. When you call to report this- or any other- issue, they will say that they don't have any record in their data base of this problem. "How is this possible?" I ask them. "There are whole threads refering to people who have contacted you on this subject," I inform them. They claim no knowledge of this.
Turns out, what is happening is that when you tell them about the problem, they say that they will note it to YOUR account. I suggest to them that if 1000 people are calling with an issue, and all they ever do is to note it to each individual's account, of course they will never have a data base which indicates a common problem which must be addressed. At that point they usually just say "Is there anything else I can help you with," or words to that effect.
Oh well!

 

[Infamous05gt]

Ok SO I don't understand this. My battery was going great today with wifi and bluetooth turned off. Then on my way home I was at 57 percent and I turned off the phone to see if volume + was working properly and turned it back on to 14% battery remaining. What the crap happened.

 

[Spbeyond]

Im so ticked about my battery life after the update. I use little to 0 wifi and never have it on when Im not using it. My battery life went from EASILY 1 day while using it to now being at 24% at 8 hours 50 minutes. With very little use! Android os 34% Display 34% Messaging and standby and Android system are the rest.... WTF Sorry battery life was just one of the things I loved most about the GS2 and now its GONE! I hope someone is listening and working on this problem.

 

[rmreid]

I am also having this battery drain problem- which I believe is wifi related.
You should be aware that there is an interesting mindset at both AT&T, and Samsung customer support. When you call to report this- or any other- issue, they will say that they don't have any record in their data base of this problem. "How is this possible?" I ask them. "There are whole threads refering to people who have contacted you on this subject," I inform them. They claim no knowledge of this.
Turns out, what is happening is that when you tell them about the problem, they say that they will note it to YOUR account. I suggest to them that if 1000 people are calling with an issue, and all they ever do is to note it to each individual's account, of course they will never have a data base which indicates a common problem which must be addressed. At that point they usually just say "Is there anything else I can help you with," or words to that effect.
Oh well!

Agreed, I've called both AT&T Tech Support and Samsung Customer Service each on 2 occasions and heard the same thing

 

[dwykofka]

I think we need to be the squeaky wheel here guys.
Perhaps we can start here: https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileUS

 

[rmreid]

I think we need to be the squeaky wheel here guys.
Perhaps we can start here: https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileUS

Agree 200% I need to get a twitter account and tweet (I think that is the correct term?)

 

[rush67]

They told me they did not know anything about it I was the first to tell them.It is hard for me to believe with all of the posts here and some of my family and friends that have the same phone same prob......would a task killer app help??????

 

[Infamous05gt]

Ok so I might post this in the wrong section but today was my first day running 2.3.6 with UnNamed rom v 2.2.1 and I must say! WOW!!!! Night and day difference. After all day of moderate use I am at 57% battery. This is also with wifi turned off as well as auto sync. Damn good rom.

 

[IndyDave]

I knew i was going to be deskbound today, so when I pulled my phone off the charger I turned off the wifi, and just let it sit there. also turned off email polling, and lucked out with only 2 very short calls. After 12 hours I still had 90% of my battery left, the biggest user being the display, and Android OS 4th or 5th on the list. So yup, its obviously something goobered up in the wifi with 2.3.6.

 

[(G)]

I think we need to be the squeaky wheel here guys.
Perhaps we can start here: https://twitter.com/SamsungMobileUS

EXCELLENT idea! I just left them a tweet about battery life in 2.3.6. They can't say "We've never heard that before" any more!

 

[jdCaptivate]

I'm going to post this to my twitter, every day. Try to use the same keywords. I'm a noob Twitterer (?) Tweeter (?), so if someone has better idea, let us know.

@Samsungtweets 1000s cant b wrong! 2.3.6 update 4 #GSII #i777 sucks battery life w/ bug'd #WiFi. #Samsung claims no knowledge of #bug!

I think the idea, of having to actively turn on/off Wifi, when I specifically want it to wake/sleep, when I turn on/off my screen... is horse dung and certainly not what I paid for. It is not on me, to flash a ROM (which I eventually will do, when I get bored with stock), or roll back updates to fix problem. This is a Samsung issue and they need to issue a fix immediately.

EDIT: Add @GalaxySsupport and send 2 tweets. Swarm these guys.

 

[rmreid]

I'm going to post this to my twitter, every day. Try to use the same keywords. I'm a noob Twitterer (?) Tweeter (?), so if someone has better idea, let us know.

I think the idea, of having to actively turn on/off Wifi, when I specifically want it to wake/sleep, when I turn on/off my screen... is horse dung and certainly not what I paid for. It is not on me, to flash a ROM (which I eventually will do, when I get bored with stock), or roll back updates to fix problem. This is a Samsung issue and they need to issue a fix immediately.

EDIT: Add @GalaxySsupport and send 2 tweets. Swarm these guys.

I did receive a tweet back from Galaxy Support today, which stated stay tuned for updates. We shall see

 

[Ringside]

I also tested my phone. After installing 2.3.6 and having wifi on I was barely getting a through a day without needing to recharge. I have had my phone set to wifi off for 2 days and I'm still on 50% battery. I am a pretty light user compared to a lot of you out there so this must REALLY be annoying to heavy users.

Hopefully this gets fixed very soon.

 

[jdCaptivate]

Ok SO I don't understand this. My battery was going great today with wifi and bluetooth turned off. Then on my way home I was at 57 percent and I turned off the phone to see if volume + was working properly and turned it back on to 14% battery remaining. What the crap happened.

I've had this happen SEVERAL times. I usually show a 20% drop, if I reboot.

 

[werds]

I'm going to post this to my twitter, every day. Try to use the same keywords. I'm a noob Twitterer (?) Tweeter (?), so if someone has better idea, let us know.

I think the idea, of having to actively turn on/off Wifi, when I specifically want it to wake/sleep, when I turn on/off my screen... is horse dung and certainly not what I paid for. It is not on me, to flash a ROM (which I eventually will do, when I get bored with stock), or roll back updates to fix problem. This is a Samsung issue and they need to issue a fix immediately.

EDIT: Add @GalaxySsupport and send 2 tweets. Swarm these guys.

Yea, I am running a custom ROM and now actively shut off my wifi and data whenever I am not using it in order to maintain decent battery life throughout the normal day. As many things there as there are for me to love about my SGS2, coming from an iphone 4 the having to actively turn wifi and data off and on in order to get similar daily use as my iphone is annoying

Thankfully enough though I am in love with the flexibility of android because of custom roms and communities such as this one that the wifi and data thing is a minor concern. I am only glad that my wife who is on Froyo with her android based phone has zero issues with battery life - otherwise I would have to be in a world of her as for her a phone is an appliance it should just work!

 

[iHuman]

Okay, the issue is definitely in the wifi. I just turned off wifi and my battery life massively improved.