Help Charging Woes

[Girevik]

I started noticing weird stuff after my upgrade to Kit Kat, but I can't say for sure it's related.

The first thing I noticed is that the phone was draining battery while using my GPS ap even while plugged in. It used to charge while GPS was in use. I bought a new 2.1 A charger and the jury is out on that...it seems sporadic.

Now I'm noticing that sometimes I will plug it in and it shows charging, but the battery percent hardly moves at all. If I restart the phone, it seems to start acting better. Can anyone suggest what might be going on here? I have done a factory reset since the upgrade.

 

[hatredg0d]

After any major android update (like kit kat) it is recommend to perform a factory reset. This exact issue seems to come up a few times a month.

You will not experience faster charging using a 2.1A charger because the phone is still only going to draw 1A.

EDIT; Just saw you did do a factory reset.. maybe an app causing the battery drain.

 

[Girevik]

That's what I'm trying to figure out. WHAT is causing this drain and is there anything that can be done about it. Strange thing is, sometimes when I plug my phone in while using GPS it charges, but most often in drains.

How can I identify, and hopefully eliminate, whatever is causing the drain? I don't usually notice a big drain while it's sleeping, but occasionally it will go from full to empty overnight.

Also, is there a way to verify that it is pulling the full 1A from the charger? All the aps I've seen show the net gain or loss (so even when I've got it plugged in it shows "discharging" if it's using faster than it's charging).

 

[Madbat]

On this phone (s3) its mostly the screen eating up battery since the KitKat update. Kitkat's main focus was project butter, to increase smoothness of the operating system. Unfortunately it negatively affected the battery life. The focus of the next android update (L) will be project Volta to improve battery life. Of course we will never get it, unless developers make us a custom version to use on rooted s3's

 

[Girevik]

On this phone (s3) its mostly the screen eating up battery since the KitKat update. Kitkat's main focus was project butter, to increase smoothness of the operating system. Unfortunately it negatively affected the battery life. The focus of the next android update (L) will be project Volta to improve battery life. Of course we will never get it, unless developers make us a custom version to use on rooted s3's

Actually, according to GSam battery montitor it's something in "Android System' that's eating most of my battery.

Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to upgrade sometime in the next several months. So the question is whether it will be the Galaxy S5 or Lg G3. Whichever is cheapest at the time.

 

[Madbat]

Actually, according to GSam battery montitor it's something in "Android System' that's eating most of my battery.

Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to upgrade sometime in the next several months. So the question is whether it will be the Galaxy S5 or Lg G3. Whichever is cheapest at the time.

I had the same thing after update. Android system. I did a factory reset and after about a week it was fine.

 

[Girevik]

Unfortunately a factory reset didn't help me. I still get battery drain while plugged in and using GPS. Before Kit-Kat it charged at a pretty good pace. That's gonna bite it I have to take a trip more than an hour or so.

 

[Girevik]

Wow...now I'm sitting here with it plugged in at my desk and it's STILL discharging even without the GPS software. This is getting very frustrating. Is there no way to tell what is using all the juice?

 

[Netcat]

Sometimes a damaged usb connector on your phone can cause the phone to charge in "USB" mode instead of AC mode. This will cause the phone to charge using only half the normal current. You can check this by going to settings/more/battery. Above the graph it shows the battery percentage and the words "Not charging", or "Charging(USB)", or "Charging(AC). When your phone is plugged into your stock charger OR a good quality car charger, it should show "Charging(AC)". This means that it is charging at 1A/hr. Anytime it show's Charging(AC), the phone is charging at 1A. When the phone is plugged into your computers USB port, it should show "Charging(USB) and it will be charging at only 500mA/hr, or half the power. This can also happen if the USB connector gets damaged or dirty, or it's plugged into a cheap car adapter. Check it out on your phone and see if it shows Charging(USB) or Charging(AC).

Also, try holding down the home button until the task manager pops up, then hit the "X" in the bottom, right corner. That will kill any running apps that might be draining your battery. Try this just before charging your phone.

 

[Girevik]

It's definitely charging in AC mode, and I close down all the aps frequently since this has started happening.

When I restarting the phone is the only thing that seems take care of the issue, which makes me think it's something in the OS that's running wild.