Help battery flatlines overnight!?

andrdfanwannab · Aug 21, 2012

I was wondering if anyone have had overnight battery issues or have found a solution.
I recently upgraded to he samsung gs3 for att and have been having a huge problem withe the battery which makes it impossible to rely on the phone while i am sleeping (emergency calls, alarm, etc.).
The problem comes from me waking up to a dead phone a few time, which also has caused me to miss appointments due to the alarm not going off.
It appears that the battery completely discharges overnight or near the morning.
I am not allow to post my screenshot so ill reference a post here at android forum:
androidforums(dot com)/samsung-galaxy-s3/581421-overnight-battery-drains-50-70-a.html
I an experincing a similar problem where the battery discharges a steady rate until a point in the night where it nise dives. Also note that during this dive the phone is awake nor is the screen on.
My wifi and data is turned off, and power save turned on
This has happened with my alarm on and off

Oddly enough this does not happen every night and never happens when i have my phone with me during the day.
The only changes ive made to the phone since unboxing is switch over my sdcard from my old phone and download 2 apps (beejive and Tango).
And the only thing i can think of that changes at night and during the day is where the phone is placed (on top of my wallet which is on top of my desktop circuitbreaker) and the phone being used slightly more (i dont use the phone very often).

This is the second gs3 behaving this way, i have already returned the first one that had this problem and got this one which is having the same problem!?

Ive tried searching for solutions or information on this with no luck, so any help would be amazing.

Thanks

Szadzik · Aug 22, 2012

Solution a: Setup profiles in app like Tasker or Proference to turn data off for the night.
Solution b: connect it to charger for the night.

Metfanant · Aug 22, 2012

andrdfanwannab said:
I was wondering if anyone have had overnight battery issues or have found a solution.
I recently upgraded to he samsung gs3 for att and have been having a huge problem withe the battery which makes it impossible to rely on the phone while i am sleeping (emergency calls, alarm, etc.).
The problem comes from me waking up to a dead phone a few time, which also has caused me to miss appointments due to the alarm not going off.
It appears that the battery completely discharges overnight or near the morning.
I am not allow to post my screenshot so ill reference a post here at android forum:
androidforums(dot com)/samsung-galaxy-s3/581421-overnight-battery-drains-50-70-a.html
I an experincing a similar problem where the battery discharges a steady rate until a point in the night where it nise dives. Also note that during this dive the phone is awake nor is the screen on.
My wifi and data is turned off, and power save turned on
This has happened with my alarm on and off

Oddly enough this does not happen every night and never happens when i have my phone with me during the day.
The only changes ive made to the phone since unboxing is switch over my sdcard from my old phone and download 2 apps (beejive and Tango).
And the only thing i can think of that changes at night and during the day is where the phone is placed (on top of my wallet which is on top of my desktop circuitbreaker) and the phone being used slightly more (i dont use the phone very often).

This is the second gs3 behaving this way, i have already returned the first one that had this problem and got this one which is having the same problem!?

Ive tried searching for solutions or information on this with no luck, so any help would be amazing.

Thanks

1. If you have narrowed down a common variable (where the phone is sitting) why not change it, and see what happens?
2. Why not plug the phone in at night?

andrdfanwannab · Aug 23, 2012

Szadzik said:
Solution a: Setup profiles in app like Tasker or Proference to turn data off for the night.
Solution b: connect it to charger for the night.

The data is off all night.

Metfanant said:
1. If you have narrowed down a common variable (where the phone is sitting) why not change it, and see what happens?
2. Why not plug the phone in at night?

Yes, i am tryig to place it elsewhere, but just thought id post in the meantime to see if anyone else had this problem.
Although i dont know how moving it will make the difference.
Maybe this just happens at a point in time during the night.
Is there anything i can put on the phone to log what the phone tries to do during the course of the night?

Thanks

justaneonlol · Aug 23, 2012

Just leave it on the charger at night. Too much logic.

andrdfanwannab · Aug 23, 2012

justaneonlol said:
Just leave it on the charger at night. Too much logic.

All my electronics that functions on batteries have had its battery life shortened due to charging overnight or forgetting to unplug. I just got the phone, too soon to wear down the battery. And why charge overnight when on a good night (those days that it doea not nosedive) it drains roughly 3-5%.

Also, im looking to solve the issue not ignore it.

Szadzik · Aug 23, 2012

andrdfanwannab said:
All my electronics that functions on batteries have had its battery life shortened due to charging overnight or forgetting to unplug. I just got the phone, too soon to wear down the battery. And why charge overnight when on a good night (those days that it doea not nosedive) it drains roughly 3-5%.

Also, im looking to solve the issue not ignore it.

Use a monitoring app like system panel and see what app drains the battery. Then freeze it from app manager or titanium backup.

Glamdring · Aug 23, 2012

This has just started to happen to my S3. Until now I've been getting 3 days of use out of it. Now I can charge in the evening, unplug and - with wi-fi and 3G turned off, it's flat by 2 the next afternoon.
Last evening I unplugged it on full charge 100%. By 12:30 when I went to bed it had lost 20% with minimal use. This is, I emphasise, a change in its behaviour and I'm wondering if the battery has simply failed.
I also wonder if it's anything to do with last week's software update. I'm on T-Mobile.

John P · Aug 23, 2012

Also, im looking to solve the issue not ignore it.

I am having the exact same problem with battery draining overnight, only mine will drain every time the screen is off, not just at night. Over a 7-8 hour sleep period it will consistently lose between 40-60% of its battery, I agree with your sentiment that you want the problem solved as its very annoying.
I contacted Samsung about my issue, and they have advised me on optimised S3 settings, to no avail, but they said they are aware of this problem affecting handsets in the UK, and they are working on on fix via a firmware update. By the sounds of it though, as I have read posts on many forums the problem is not only UK handsets but a worldwide issue.

Heres the response I received from Samsung;

"Dear John,

Thank you for contacting Samsung and I have pleasure in providing the following assistance.

We are sorry about the issue you are experiencing with your Samsung Galaxy S III handset.
We are aware of this issue that is affecting some handsets within the UK. We are currently developing a fix for this issue and we will be rolling it out via a firmware update in due course.
We apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

If you require any further assistance, please contact Samsung again and we will be more than happy to help.

Kind regards,
Online Support Team
SAMSUNG Customer Support Centre"

I received that on 3rd August, and no update has been released as yet, fingers crossed they fix the issue soon, as standby battery life is terrible, but I find the battery life when I'm actually using the phone is very good.
Maybe the suspected imminent release of the Jelly Bean update will solve the issue?

John

Shotgun84 · Aug 23, 2012

That drain isn't normal, I lose 1% battery at the most during the night.

I'm not sure if this old gs2 trick will work on the gs3 but maybe worth a try. Turn your phone off and charge fully, then unplug and remove the battery for a couple of minutes and then put your phone back together and turn on. This should recalibrate your battery.

Also as mentioned download a monitor app such as better battery stats to see what's keeping your phone awake.
[APP] [04 Aug - V1.9.2.1] BetterBatteryStats adds battery history back to Android - xda-developers

Also download cpu spy from the play store to see how much deep sleep your phone is getting during the night

John P · Aug 23, 2012

That drain isn't normal, I lose 1% battery at the most during the night.

Hi Shotgun84, that's very interesting that your standby battery loss is far lower than mine, and your in the UK like me, so its obviously not all UK handsets that are affected. Just so I know, does yours lose 1% all night, or 1% per hour? I can only dream of such low standby usage at the moment lol.
I shall certainly try your fixes, thanks for your advise.

John

andrdfanwannab · Aug 23, 2012

Thanks for the replies.

Can the apps still be active and drain battery even if the phone is not awake?

As in the images in the post i referenced, during the dramatic decline my battery report from the settings indicates the screen was never in and the phone was hardly awake.

Shotgun84 · Aug 23, 2012

It's 1% all night, sometimes I'll wake up with the same level as when i went to sleep. I don't really do anything special before I put it down for the night, just turn off data, wifi and sync.

Shotgun84 · Aug 23, 2012

andrdfanwannab said:
Thanks for the replies.

Can the apps still be active and drain battery even if the phone is not awake?

As in the images in the post i referenced, during the dramatic decline my battery report from the settings indicates the screen was never in and the phone was hardly awake.

Apps can still be active while you're screen is off. There is a difference between the phone not being awake and deep sleep. If you use cpu spy you'll probably notice you have a lot less deep sleep than the gs3's battery stats would suggest.

Glamdring10 · Aug 23, 2012

I know this is not my thread, but whilst CPU Spy is interesting (downloaded it and had a look) it doesn't answer the problem of why this has just started to happen in the last few days. I've had very good battery life until this week.

Shotgun84 · Aug 23, 2012

I suppose cpu spy is more of a tool to see where the problem may lie. If it reports that you aren't getting a lot of deep sleep it will most likely be an app which is causing it so you can investigate further down that road with an app which identifies your wake locks. If your phone is getting a lot of deep sleep and still draining while not being used it would probably most likely be a duff battery.

Glamdring10 · Aug 23, 2012

It may be the battery; it began to go wrong from one day to the next. Thanks.

andrdfanwannab · Aug 23, 2012

Highly not the battery in my case, had them switch out the battery before i went back to trade it in for the one i have now, still happened.

I downloaded a few monitoring apps to try to find the problem. But unfortunatly (or fortunatly) it was one of those nights where it did not drain.
Cpu spy tells me that the phone was in deep sleep almost the entire night
Maybe that will change when it does start to drain again.

Today will be night #2, will update tomorrow.
Wish it was more consistant, since it's not consistant can i conclude it's not hardware.

SAL8116 · Aug 23, 2012

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SubTerran · Aug 23, 2012

I have the exact same problem, its driving me insane. And this is on Telus set in Canada, not UK. I got Juice Defender plus, and I get amazing battery life during the day, but something happens about every second night I've noticed that literally annihilates the battery. I'll go to sleep with 80% charge left, wake up in 8 hours and its dead, charge it again, and look at the battery log, and the phone isnt awake according to the log but the power just gets used up like crazy for no apparent reason.
Completely unacceptable for an 800 dollar phone! love the phone otherwise, but getting mocked by iphone fans is depressing. Cant find any other info on the internet on how to fix this mess... waiting for a magical solution from samsung is also aggravating and it might never come as Telus takes years to release firmware updates, if ever.

Rolo42 · Aug 24, 2012

Screenshots of these drains would help in collectively troubleshooting it.
CPU Spy and BetterBatteryStats are essential.

Metfanant · Aug 24, 2012

andrdfanwannab said:
Today will be night #2, will update tomorrow.
Wish it was more consistant, since it's not consistant can i conclude it's not hardware.

if its happened on multiple devices then no im going to say its NOT hardware...

- you mentioned it happened when you placed the phone in a certain place at night...have you moved the place when you keep the phone at night?

- you're really not going to do much damage to the battery by leaving it on the charger at night...somewhere (i think maybe on xda) i read that the battery is rated to lose like 10% of its capacity over the course of 1000 charge cycles...assuming you charge it every night that is 730 charges over 2 years....now of course there will be times here and there where you have to charge during the day but i doubt you will charge your phone an additional 270 times to even reach the 10%/1000 cycles number...and if you ARE that worried i would invest in a second battery that you could even swap out occasionally to keep the charge cycles down on each of them

- we really need to see screenshots...the battery graph...better battery stats (particularly the wake lock screens)...cpu spy as well...something is draining the battery

andrdfanwannab · Aug 24, 2012

Metfanant said:
if its happened on multiple devices then no im going to say its NOT hardware...

- you mentioned it happened when you placed the phone in a certain place at night...have you moved the place when you keep the phone at night?

- you're really not going to do much damage to the battery by leaving it on the charger at night...somewhere (i think maybe on xda) i read that the battery is rated to lose like 10% of its capacity over the course of 1000 charge cycles...assuming you charge it every night that is 730 charges over 2 years....now of course there will be times here and there where you have to charge during the day but i doubt you will charge your phone an additional 270 times to even reach the 10%/1000 cycles number...and if you ARE that worried i would invest in a second battery that you could even swap out occasionally to keep the charge cycles down on each of them

- we really need to see screenshots...the battery graph...better battery stats (particularly the wake lock screens)...cpu spy as well...something is draining the battery

I have NOT moved it since you have recommended getting monitoring apps.
Ive actually been leaving it in the same spot in attemp to induce the issue intentionally but with no luck. Since ive installed monitoring apps it seems like it doesnt want to misbehave. Ill continue to update for a couple of weeks.

I agree with plugging it in, but i would like to not have it eating at me when i dont have a charger with me for the night.

Ill post screenshots when i am allowed but ive referenced a post here with screenshots in my first post. And cpu spy shows 80%+ of deep sleep during the night.
Ill pay for betterbatterystats if i dont get anything from the ones i have now.
I currently have battery monitor widget, cpu spy, system panel lite, and a battery alarm to off when under5% to wake me up when it happens so i can troubleshoot in realtime.
I think these will suffice in telling me battery and app-cpu consumption right?

To those that also have the problem, do you have beejive or tango installed, and sync set to always off? Do you keep wifi and data off with power save mode on? Just trying to identify constants.

SubTerran · Aug 26, 2012

So i've uninstalled facebook app and currents app, its been now 35 hours since I had a battery meltdown... last night went to sleep with 42% power left, woke up, 38% is still there! WOHOO!!!
I do have JuiceDefender plus that kills connections during the night time, before though it never made a difference, something would kill my battery no matter what I did to the phone unless i left it plugged in.
I will re-post here in another few days if my phone continues to survive the night. If indeed this was an issue with Facebook & Currents app, then I should no longer have a battery sudden death syndrome, we'll see, so far its been promising 35 hours.

tilk23 · Aug 26, 2012

I had this happen to me once or twice before. I think Facebook is to blame . If you don't manually close Facebook and watch it in Task Manager it uses about 3-5% cpu every few seconds, at least on my phone.

Help battery flatlines overnight!?

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