Help Sudden mysterious battery drain

[victek]

All of a sudden the battery of my DNA is draining much more quickly. For instance, yesterday evening I charged it to 100% and then unplugged it overnight. I use Juice Defender and it turns off everything overnight - no account checking or syncing occurs. This morning the charge was down to 66% Normally the phone would only lose 3% - 4% overnight. Battery usage under settings shows the kernel at 70%. All of the installed apps show very little usage. I've rebooted the phone a couple of times, but that didn't help. Any suggestions as to how to troubleshoot this? TIA

 

[funkbucket007]

All of a sudden the battery of my DNA is draining much more quickly. For instance, yesterday evening I charged it to 100% and then unplugged it overnight. I use Juice Defender and it turns off everything overnight - no account checking or syncing occurs. This morning the charge was down to 66% Normally the phone would only lose 3% - 4% overnight. Battery usage under settings shows the kernel at 70%. All of the installed apps show very little usage. I've rebooted the phone a couple of times, but that didn't help. Any suggestions as to how to troubleshoot this? TIA

You on the stock build or a custom ROM?

Regardless, try GSam Battery Monitor and/or Better Battery Stats Pro to see what's causing it. I had a kernel issue that was keeping mine from seeing deep sleep and found this all out by using these apps. Flashed a new kernel and all is well. Just did 28h/31m/15s from 100% - 3% with 3h/30m screen on time yesterday.

 

[victek]

You on the stock build or a custom ROM?

Regardless, try GSam Battery Monitor and/or Better Battery Stats Pro to see what's causing it. I had a kernel issue that was keeping mine from seeing deep sleep and found this all out by using these apps. Flashed a new kernel and all is well. Just did 28h/31m/15s from 100% - 3% with 3h/30m screen on time yesterday.

I'm using the stock build and I do have GSam loaded. At the moment GSam says the kernel is using 49% How can I tell if something is preventing the phone from sleeping?

 

[funkbucket007]

I'm using the stock build and I do have GSam loaded. At the moment GSam says the kernel is using 49% How can I tell if something is preventing the phone from sleeping?

PM sent. Is the kernel at 49% the most active thing it's showing (percentage-wise)? What kind of battery life are you seeing and what's your screen on time?

 

[WuBoy]

Have you tried restarting the phone? Sounds too simple I know, but one time my battery was draining ridiculously fast. I tried a bunch of stuff to stop it and in the end a reset is what did the job.

 

[sch911]

It it were me I'd dump JD. Have had/heard of nothing but issues on this phone with it. The DNA does pretty great without any task killer IMHO....

 

[victek]

It it were me I'd dump JD. Have had/heard of nothing but issues on this phone with it. The DNA does pretty great without any task killer IMHO....

Perhaps you're confusing Juice Defender with some other app - it doesn't kill tasks.

 

[victek]

PM sent. Is the kernel at 49% the most active thing it's showing (percentage-wise)? What kind of battery life are you seeing and what's your screen on time?

Thanks for the PM. I allowed the battery to completely drain before fully charging it again. The discharge rate appeared to be normal afterward and 24 hours later it still is. Better Battery Stats is showing the phone spending a lot of time in deep sleep. Can't say the problem is fixed (since I never figured out what it was ) but it does seem to have resolved on its own.

 

[sch911]

Perhaps you're confusing Juice Defender with some other app - it doesn't kill tasks.

Call it what you will, JD doesn't like the DNA.

 

[victek]

Call it what you will, JD doesn't like the DNA.

I've been running Juice Defender Ultimate on my DNA for months without a problem, so I don't know what you mean.

 

[Bearcats]

Call it what you will, JD doesn't like the DNA.

I was trying to streamline my DNA and at the suggestion of another member I popped on JD. I started having issues and removed it and the issues went away.

So I am another "odd guy" that had issues with JD being a hog and not a useful tool on the DNA.

 

[victek]

I was trying to streamline my DNA and at the suggestion of another member I popped on JD. I started having issues and removed it and the issues went away.

So I am another "odd guy" that had issues with JD being a hog and not a useful tool on the DNA.

If you like we can have a discussion about Juice Defender and what it does and doesn't do, but my point was making a general statement that "Juice Defender doesn't like the DNA" is inaccurate. It is a common situation that software works well for some people and not others - there are a many variables. What exactly was the problem for you?

 

[Bearcats]

If you like we can have a discussion about Juice Defender and what it does and doesn't do, but my point was making a general statement that "Juice Defender doesn't like the DNA" is inaccurate. It is a common situation that software works well for some people and not others - there are a many variables. What exactly was the problem for you?

Mine was to locate battery draw/see what was keeping the phone awake/running. I was looking for small % type items. JD added a lot of overhead and did not help locate anything that I didn't already know about. Also my phone froze on occasion. I dont root or have custom launchers.

So it was not worth using to me and I removed it.

 

[victek]

Mine was to locate battery draw/see what was keeping the phone awake/running. I was looking for small % type items. JD added a lot of overhead and did not help locate anything that I didn't already know about. Also my phone froze on occasion. I don't root or have custom launchers.

So it was not worth using to me and I removed it.

I would agree that Juice Defender is not the best app for itemizing battery usage. Something like GSam is the way to go for that. All apps that run a persistent service introduce some overhead. That said JD is not even showing on the stock battery usage app at the moment. If it was eating your battery then something was wrong. I use the latest beta since it has the most current fixes.

 

[Bearcats]

I would agree that Juice Defender is not the best app for itemizing battery usage. Something like GSam is the way to go for that. All apps that run a persistent service introduce some overhead. That said JD is not even showing on the stock battery usage app at the moment. If it was eating your battery then something was wrong. I use the latest beta since it has the most current fixes.

Meh, it wasn't a panic point for me. I can typically get 40-48 hours of use before charging. That's good enough for me.

 

[endxgame]

You on the stock build or a custom ROM?

Regardless, try GSam Battery Monitor and/or Better Battery Stats Pro to see what's causing it. I had a kernel issue that was keeping mine from seeing deep sleep and found this all out by using these apps. Flashed a new kernel and all is well. Just did 28h/31m/15s from 100% - 3% with 3h/30m screen on time yesterday.

Hello,

I'm having the same issue and I'm very new at troubleshooting my phone so I'm sorry if I seem kind of ******ed. I have the GSam Battery Monitor and the kernel is killing my battery. I can't even get four hours on my phone from 100% and I've done a few factory resets and there's absolutely nothing downloaded except the battery monitor, I have sync turned off, and haven't even logged into anything other than gmail. It's making my device completely useless.

Anyway, how do you flash a new kernel? I've been looking around online and I'm not sure if I'm not looking for the right thing or I just don't even recognize the answer when I've found it.

Any help would be really appreciated. As you guys probably know, Verizon isn't letting anyone keep their unlimited data plans and I got a new phone by upgrading a line on my brother's account and then transferring the device to mine. I got to keep my unlimited data but Verizon won't honor the warranty because of it. So, I've got to figure out how to fix this on my own or pay for an insurance replacement.

Thanks for any help you can offer even if it's just pointing me in the right direction!

 

[panther2469]

im having the same problem all if a sudden bad battery life and i also noticed my camera is using 50% and i havent even used it.

 

[doneve141]

I have been experiencing the sudden battery drain as well. I have been looking at apps as the cause. My wife is also having the problem on her Sprint GS3. I am suspecting it's android itself. Gsam confirms the kernel is the drain. We have both recieved updates recently from our carriers. I'm not rooted and have done reboots on both phones many times.
Without rooting are there any suggestions?

 

[Hoosiermama]

Google Services Bug Causing Location Issues For HTC Owners, Google Working On A Fix

I found this tonight. My battery had been draining quickly for a couple of weeks (much more than normal anyway). This morning it went from 100% to 67% in a matter of hours. Since following these directions, it's drained very little.

Worth a shot anyway!

 

[doneve141]

After installing G Sam my battery problems have gone away. My wife says hers is better but not gone. I read the post above and the article that the link takes you to. That describes our problem. Hopefully there will be a patch come out that will permanently fix the problem.

 

[kmoo]

So glad I found this thread and that I have company in my misery. I'm having the exact same problem as the originator, victek. Suddenly about two weeks ago, my DNA started inexplicably rapidly losing charge.

Regarding the questions/suggestions in this thread so far:
*I'm on the stock build, not rooted.
*I've powered off and restarted my phone several times in the last couple of weeks; didn't help.
*I allowed the battery to completely drain before recharging; didn't help -- too bad since this seems to be what worked for victek!
*I've installed GSam Battery Monitor (cool app!); it shows me that my kernel is the big battery-suck at around 70% most of the time.
*That Google Services Bug described in a link above isn't an issue.

I've seen that some folks have solved this problem by "flashing a new kernel" -- this is Greek to me, and I don't think I want to try it since I understand it voids the warranty.

How can I figure out what the cause of the battery drain is (using info from GSam somehow?), and most importantly, how can I get this rapid draining to stop? My DNA has become almost unusable!

Thanks much for any advice.

 

[hilmar2k]

Have you turned off location reporting in Maps?

 

[kmoo]

Thanks for reminding me -- Since my first post, I've turned off all location services, disabled the Facebook app, and done a hard reboot (where you press the power and volume-down buttons simultaneously). It's only been a little while, but so far the battery drain seems to have slowed down, and the kernel is sucking only 32%, way down from 70%. I'll post a follow-up once I'm sure it's OK. No idea what caused the battery to suddenly start its rapid draining a couple of weeks ago, and no idea which of my steps fixed it (if indeed it's fixed)...

 

[kmoo]

Well, it's a day later and my battery drain really seems to have returned to normal. Big relief! It seems that one (or more) of the three steps I took yesterday did the trick:
*Turned off all location services
*Disabled the Facebook app
*Did a hard reboot (press the power and volume-down buttons simultaneously)

Hope this helps someone still suffering from this mysterious problem.