Help Battery life horrible after new update

[dyrelogan]

I have read forums that say you have to go to the Verizon website to activate the VoLTE just so you can turn it off on your device, which I think is stupid because what about those people who no longer have a Verizon account who can't sign on to verizonwireless.com and activate this feature to be able to turn it off so your phone doesn't die fast? Also, I live in Thailand now with zero plans of coming back to the USA so there is nothing I can do to get my battery life back? Please help? I've hardly used my phone today and it's at like 66% after a full charge after only 4 hours! There has to be a workaround so that non customers don't have to live with this horrible battery life now that Verizon did something so stupid. I really think it's stupid they made this move and made it difficult for people who no longer have the service but still use the phone to actually use the phone all day like I used to be able to. I can't use thus phone anymore past a few hours because it dies too fast now that thus VoLTE service I'll never use is activated without any way of turning it off. Sorry for my rant. I have no idea what to do.

 

[doogald]

Battery life is no different for me since the update. I have not activated volte on my account. The service is off by default - you have to turn it on. And volte is only used on verizon's network anyway. That's not your problem.

Look at the settings, battery usage chart and see if there is an app that is using a lot of battery. Tap the graph itself and you will also see a bar graph that says awake that shows if the phone is being held awake. If so, then i suspect that this is your problem. You can also try starting in safe mode (long press power to bring up the choice to shut down, the long press on that option to bring up a dialog to allow safe mode restart.)

Honestly, this is a phone Verizon made for Verizon customers to use on their service. It was never intended to be sold for non-Verizon use. That said, many Verizon customers travel internationally and it would be terrible if this update ended up making global use worse. I hope you figure it out.

 

[dyrelogan]

Thank you doogald. I do realize that this is a Verizon phone made to use on their network, but they made it a global phone and I just don't have the money to buy a phone here and do away with this one. The battery issue only started happening once I installed the 23.3 update a day or so ago. I looked online and have discovered that others are having this same issue. They were saying the same thing that the only way to turn it off was to go online to your account and activate it via the website and then you will be able to see it in the settings on your phone. It's not even on my phone to turn off. I'm using a sim card from this country. Wonderful Verizon has removed the ability to contact them via email so there's no way I can contact them unless chat will work. I can't call as 800 numbers font work from here. My battery went from 66% to 6% in a matter of an hour. The Maxx is now no better than iPhone or Samsung with their poor battery life now only this one is worse and I just won't be able to use it for more than a couple hours now that it dies quickly. Again, I have not experienced this since I updated. It only did this when I updated. It's been great up until this new corruptdate.

 

[doogald]

Thank you doogald. I do realize that this is a Verizon phone made to use on their network, but they made it a global phone and I just don't have the money to buy a phone here and do away with this one. The battery issue only started happening once I installed the 23.3 update a day or so ago. I looked online and have discovered that others are having this same issue. They were saying the same thing that the only way to turn it off was to go online to your account and activate it via the website and then you will be able to see it in the settings on your phone.

I didn't explain well enough. The people who are complaining about poor battery life and solving it by switching off advanced calling are all people who turned on the feature on their account once already. After doing so they discovered that volte was draining the phone while on calls so they went back and turned it off.

If you never turned on the feature, it is already off by default. That's not going to be a solution for you anyway.

Go to settings, battery. Can you make a screen shot of that display and post it? Also, if you tap the graph another screen is shown. A screenshot of that may help, too. It will help if you let the phone run on battery for a while before you make the screenshots. (You make a screen shot by holding power and volume down for a few seconds until you see the animation, and you'll hear a shutter sound if you have sound turned on.)

If safe mode doesn't help, then the last step would be to back up your photos and videos and then try a factory data reset and set the phone up from scratch again and see if the battery drain continues.

I've read two people who complained of battery drain after the update from an app called EAB Application, which I think is the exchange address book sync service for contacts. Both people don't use exchange sync, so that was weird, but in both cases I think restarting the phone stopped the battery drain.

Again, I don't think that this radio update should have made it that much worse. I do think you have a battery drain problem with an app, and hopefully those settings, battery screen shots will help pinpoint the cause.

 

[dyrelogan]

OK here is the screenshot of the battery display. I have screen brightness practically all the way down and now I just slid it completely down. I have never had it higher than maybe about 15-20% brightness. I will take another screenshot in a little bit and post that. I hardly have anything installed and have been deleting apps that I felt was causing another issue people are having which is the black screen of death. It's only been recently turning the phone off by itself and showing battery life of zero but when I turn it back on the battery life is saying normal all the way up to 80% or around there! I think next time I'll buy Samsung or something else. I've had nothing but trouble with Motorola. No one wants the company. They keep selling it off to one company or another. Hopefully it will stay with Google and hopefully Google can salvage it. Droid Maxx hasn't given me this much trouble before Kitkat. After Kitkat I've experienced these issues. I forgot to me too bsod but it happened earlier today and sometimes it happens frequently throughout the day. I've read it's a software issue. I've read people uninstall certain apps and everything is great after that. But I have no idea what is causing it.

 

[Thom]

Jumping in ... did you try running in Safe Mode as was suggested? This would tell you if it was caused by an app that you added/

When you updated from 4.4 to 4.4.4 did you do a Factory Data Reset? It is strongly recommended after a major update. If you did then it should NOT be needed after the 23.3.24 update. If you didn't then I think you need to.

I also have seen no change in battery use and I never activated VoLTE.

... Thom

 

[doogald]

It's almost like your screen is not turning itself off. I'd say that has nothing to do with VoLTE. Tapping the graph like I mentioned earlier will show a graph of how much the display is on.

Settings, display, sleep. What is the display timeout? Also, did you turn on developer mode by going into settings, about phone and tapping the build number several times? I believe there is a setting in there that keeps the screen lit.

But, you can see from that graph, it's a sudden drop in battery. Before that the battery was fine.

 

[dyrelogan]

This is a significant drop.

 

[doogald]

Ok, now I'm wondering if it's a battery calibration issue. Try to find a time when this is convenient, but charge the phone fully and then use it until the phone shuts off the display on its own (turn off the battery saver if you have it on) and then charge it to 100% without pulling it from power. See if that changes the way the battery behaves.

 

[dyrelogan]

OK I will do that. I turned off battery saver. I will see how it reacts all day. The Maxx has always been the best phone I've owned, aside from iPhone (ease of use and fluid UI) out of all phones I've owned pertaining to speed, battery, memory and all these features you've come to love from Motorola. I won't be able to get this fixed here in Thailand as they will probably not have the parts to repair it since this is a Verizon only flagship phone. I just unplugged it at about 7:15 am and will monitor it all day.

 

[doogald]

Good luck, I hope it helps. I like to do that procedure once every two or three months and realized after typing that I haven't done it in a long time. I'm going to do this myself this week.

 

[dyrelogan]

Well I took it one step further. I turned off notifications for all third party apps and apps that I just don't use and force stopped them. So far my phone is saying 89%. It dropped 11% in about 2 hours and much of that is because I was viewing Facebook and turning off those apps and texting here. I let the phone sit for about 30-45 minutes and it only dropped 1% while idle. I think with some devices this new update will affect the battery life as I have seen fixes by companies for those who experience issues but I have not experienced them myself. And the release notes say "for those experiencing this issue..." So perhaps Verizon will address this issue before lollipop comes out very soon. Should be all this month that our devices will get the 5.0 update according to all the news. I am weary in installing it as 4.4 really wreaked havoc on my previous Maxx's that I had to turn them in for an exchange and refuse the update every 12 hours or so.

 

[dyrelogan]

So far so good after doing what you said. The phone has not shut off by itself all day for these 8 1/2 hours so far yet the phone should be more than 74% for all I've been doing with it.

 

[dyrelogan]

OK everything seems hunky dory now, but I am now experiencing yet another issue. I guess I'll post a new thread for this new issue. Starting to gate Verizon more and more now.

 

[Old Member]

I didn't explain well enough. The people who are complaining about poor battery life and solving it by switching off advanced calling are all people who turned on the feature on their account once already. After doing so they discovered that volte was draining the phone while on calls so they went back and turned it off.

If you never turned on the feature, it is already off by default. That's not going to be a solution for you anyway.

Go to settings, battery. Can you make a screen shot of that display and post it? Also, if you tap the graph another screen is shown. A screenshot of that may help, too. It will help if you let the phone run on battery for a while before you make the screenshots. (You make a screen shot by holding power and volume down for a few seconds until you see the animation, and you'll hear a shutter sound if you have sound turned on.)

If safe mode doesn't help, then the last step would be to back up your photos and videos and then try a factory data reset and set the phone up from scratch again and see if the battery drain continues.

I've read two people who complained of battery drain after the update from an app called EAB Application, which I think is the exchange address book sync service for contacts. Both people don't use exchange sync, so that was weird, but in both cases I think restarting the phone stopped the battery drain.

Again, I don't think that this radio update should have made it that much worse. I do think you have a battery drain problem with an app, and hopefully those settings, battery screen shots will help pinpoint the cause.

Doogald, this update has absolutely killed my battery life too. I can't go a full day without charging now. Even with charging for 30-40 minutes when I get home around 4:00, my phone is below 15% when I go to bed at night.

I dropped the Advanced Calling 1.0 because it kept dropping me. Without it I can call without problem from my living room. With it I have gone back to the old "Can you hear me now?" and most of the time the answer is no. Then the line is dropped. I've tried it twice, once after the soak and then again after it went live to everyone. It is not ready for prime time here in east Cincy.

I tried wiping cache today, I will report back if that fixes my issues. If not then regrettably it will be a FDR. If that doesn't fix it then I guess it's up to Verizon and Moto to go back to the drawing board and send an update. Hopefully that will come with Lollipop. Who knows. I'm jumping on the Nexus 6 but really hoped this phone could stay in my active rotation because the battery life has always been so stellar.

 

[Thom]

As I asked someone else in #6 above ... di you do a Factory Data Reset after you installed the 4.4 to 4.4.4 update (not the last update)?

The suspicion is that you didn't do one and a problem was introduced at that time that is surfacing now.

Your response could help others.

... Thom

 

[doogald]

Sorry to hear that. Hopefully you have it solved.

Honestly, my battery life has been the same (I never turned on advanced calling). The only exceptions were when I installed the Google Fit app, which drained my battery an extra 6% per hour while I was exercising (I've since removed it, because I'm pretty sure that I exercise enough and the actual number of steps, etc., seems not so important), and the Google Inbox app. I just received my invite to that yesterday, and, again, it doubled my battery drain both last night after I installed it and then this morning (my phone drained 6% in the first hour I was awake and I turned it on once for about 10 seconds to see what the weather temperature notification was.) I uninstalled that as soon as I saw the battery drain.

So, I've seen bad battery for periods since the install, both due to app installs, and uninstalling fixed both.

 

[Old Member]

As I asked someone else in #6 above ... di you do a Factory Data Reset after you installed the 4.4 to 4.4.4 update (not the last update)?

The suspicion is that you didn't do one and a problem was introduced at that time that is surfacing now.

Your response could help others.

... Thom

I have done a factory reset after every update.

 

[Thom]

If You are not root-ed I don't see where multiple Factory Data Resets after a major upgrade do anything.

Did you try running in Safe Mode (disabling all apps you added without uninstalling them)?

If the problem goes away it is caused by an app(s) that you added.

If it doesn't go away I would talk to Verizon.

... Thom

 

[dyrelogan]

Thom, I don't think you can root Kitkat yet. I did a search to see what rooting does and there are many forums where they are offering money for any developer who can root Kitkat successfully.

I will probably factory restore my phone after lollipop finally arrived so I v don't have to factory restore twice in so many days or weeks.

 

[Thom]

YEs ... the point was ... there seems to be little value in doing multiple Factory Data Resets between major releases.

I always do one after each major upgrade.

... Thom

 

[Old Member]

YEs ... the point was ... there seems to be little value in doing multiple Factory Data Resets between major releases.

I always do one after each major upgrade.

... Thom

I don't do multiple FDR either. I hate doing them, but I've done one after each major update.

 

[Old Member]

This is my battery life as of today. It's pretty typical since the update.

 

[doogald]

You have a lot of awake time without the screen being on. Is that all voice calls? Are you sure you've deactivated advanced calling?

Also, the Motorola services being high is something I never see on my phone. Which Moto services are you using? Moto connect maybe? Do you use the moto service to locate and lock a lost phone?

 

[Old Member]

You have a lot of awake time without the screen being on. Is that all voice calls? Are you sure you've deactivated advanced calling?

Also, the Motorola services being high is something I never see on my phone. Which Moto services are you using? Moto connect maybe? Do you use the moto service to locate and lock a lost phone?

This phone has always had a lot of awake time that I couldn't account for. Even before this last update. Moto services never used to be anything that I ever saw. I'm just not sure. I'm going to take your advice and tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'm going to reboot my phone in safe mode for the entire day and see what happens. I'll report back.

Also, for sure I've turned Advanced Calling off.