• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Android OS Battery Drain

bobo5884

Member
Dec 18, 2009
85
8
MD
Anyone else notice an issue with this? I have had the phone since the day it came out and everything has been fine. A week ago I started noticing that at work by lunch my phone would be below 50% battery and saw that the Android OS and System were higher uses than my screen on time. In some cases, twice as much!

Anyone find a fix for this?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Alexander K
Thanks for the link. But i was happy getting 1 day of battery out of the phone keeping most things active. I dont want to turn it into a dud. Something changed or is stuck on that is making the battery drain faster this week. I was just hoping to see if someone found out what it could be.

I deleted a couple apps from recently installing but no effect.
 
Upvote 0
Reporting back that appearently pulling the battery fixed the situation.

The screen is now back to being the highest drain. Been off the charger for almost 12 hours..low usage today...79% left.

These are my better battery stats from the other day, looks like the phone was staying awake all day....even with the screen off.

Screenshot_2014-05-23-17-06-59.png


Screenshot_2014-05-23-17-06-49.png
 
Upvote 0
Strangely enough ive just been in a meeting at work and my S5 was in my pocket. I actually felt the heat on my chest , took the phone out of my pocket and everything was like one of those pocket warmers.There`s no chance that this is normal....and on idle with everything switched off.
Ive only had the phone a week and im seriously considering putting it on ebay and keeping my S3.
On the weekend my battery went from 100% to 60% overnight and the day after 100% to shut down in 6 hours.
Ive just got home from work and a new high power battery (4350 mah) was in the post ( ebay ) Shouldn't have to resort to this with a brand new phone.
Battery doctor and Advanced task killer already installed and all non essentials already disabled.
ANY HELP APPRECIATED THANK YOU.
 
Upvote 0
I've been having a similar problem. I've had the phone for about a month and would usually get about 2 days of moderate usage out of it without having to do anything special. browsing Chrome and Facebook at home via WiFi and using the Kid's App and passing it to my kids for half an hour while making dinner.

No, i'm lucky to get 18hrs of standby out of the phone. Last night i did a full factory reset to my phone, only updated the apps that came as a default on my phone, plus Facebook and Messenger. After that i waited until the batter hit 15%, shut it down, pulled the battery, replaced and let it charge all night.

The phone has been off the charger for 3 hrs and it is down to 80%.

I am very strict about waiting for my phone to hit 15% before turning it off and recharging. I didn't follow this regiment only once where i had gotten to 50% the night before taking my sons to the zoo for the first time and that was when i started having problems.

The phone originally took between 3 and 4 hrs to charge, but now only take about 2 hrs to go from 15% to full. This drop in charge time is about equal to the drop in life time. Going to hit up the Verizon store on the way home to see if i can get a replacement battery.
 
Upvote 0
I am very strict about waiting for my phone to hit 15% before turning it off and recharging. I didn't follow this regiment only once where i had gotten to 50% the night before taking my sons to the zoo for the first time and that was when i started having problems.

The phone originally took between 3 and 4 hrs to charge, but now only take about 2 hrs to go from 15% to full. This drop in charge time is about equal to the drop in life time. Going to hit up the Verizon store on the way home to see if i can get a replacement battery.

1st, you have a misconception about "when to recharge" the phone.
You can recharge modern cellphone batteries anytime you please. The old adage of having to wait until it was discharged to prevent it forming a "memory effect" is history and has been for years.

That only applies to the very old NiCad batteries. so quit worrying about when you top off the battery.

2nd, my battery and most of the ones I read about will recharge from approx 15-20% to full 100% in about 90 minutes WITH THE OEM CHARGER MODULE.
This is critical. The older charger modules and some of the older USB charging cords are under rated for the S5. The S5 phone's battery requires a 2.1 amp charger source to properly charge in the normal amount of time.

My older cords that I used with my Galaxy S take several hours to charge the battery. Those a/c adapters were only good for maybe 1 amp, and some are 0.75 amp. just about useless for charging the newer higher capacity batteries quickly. If you are patient, they will eventually charge it up.

I have a Wireless charging pad. It takes many hours to recharge the battery. How many? Don't know, I only use it when I am sleeping so it don't matter.

Black Qi Standard Wireless Charger Charging Pad Receiver for Samsung Galaxy S5 | eBay

This one charges at about 500-600 mAh although a charger reporting app claims it charges at 750 mA. I think the app is bogus.
 
Upvote 0
I have a Wireless charging pad. It takes many hours to recharge the battery. How many? Don't know, I only use it when I am sleeping so it don't matter.

Black Qi Standard Wireless Charger Charging Pad Receiver for Samsung Galaxy S5 | eBay

This one charges at about 500-600 mAh although a charger reporting app claims it charges at 750 mA. I think the app is bogus.

Does that wireless charger combo work with an OtterBox Defender? Or would i need to get a different case to use that?

Also, i understand that the old way of charging the phone "shouldn't" affect the life of the battery, but sometimes it does. Since only received the phone approximately a month ago, i had been trying to stick with that just to ease my own mind and see if it resolved my problem once i realized the battery life had plummeted.
 
Upvote 0
The instructions that came with the Qi charger are terse and laced with translation errors from an unknown "country of origin."

Without a case on the phone, it will immediately start charging.

With my Speck CandyShell Grip case it takes a while for it to start the charging cycle. No rhyme or reason this way. Sometimes 15 seconds, other times 3 minutes, but when it does start to charge it tops off the battery.

I'm guessing the Speck CandyShell Grip case at about 3 mm thick, I don't have a caliper to measure the center thickness.

I suspicion your battery life issue is due to apps running you might not be aware.



Take a look at Application Manager/ALL and turn off apps you don't need. And some of the Android processes can be turned off w/o bad effects.



I have turned off the following on a Verizon phone:
Accessories, Amazon, Amazon App suite, Amazon Kindle, Amazon MP3, Appstore, Audible, BlurbCheckout, Bubbles, FamilyBase Companion, Flipboard, Message+, Messages, MyMagazine, NFL Mobile, Picasa Uploader, S Health, Smart Remote, Travel Wallpaper, Verizon Support & Protection (McAfee), VZ Navigator (pay for fee Navigation.... Google maps is free)


Google branded that I turned
OFF:

Calendar Sync, Contacts Sync, Play Games, Play Movies & TV, Play Music, Play Newstand, Hangouts, Isis Mobile Wallet



After I trimmed all that fat off the phone, the battery drain immediately improved a lot. Even with GPS and DATA left on.

In addition, I manually turn off GPS, Data, Sync, WiFi, and Bluetooth before I close the Lockscreen. For me, I have no need for any background internet traffic with the phone "hung up" and idle. I only read emails on the home desktop PC.

I am experiencing 3 full days minimum between charges, and once it went 5 days before I "caved in" and put it on the "brand new" Qi Wireless charger to see if it would work.

The phone and messaging work just fine with data turned off.
I use the GoSMS Pro message app.
 
Upvote 0
I have been fighting this issue since I got my S5 about 5 weeks ago. With the phone asleep, on my desk, and doing nothing, the battery lasts about 10-12 hours and the phone is always very warm.

If I take my phone with me in the car (but never turn it on) the battery has run down to 5% or lower, in 5 hours on several occasions. My screen is virtually never on, and I regularly kill backgound Apps to minimize what might be running.

Three days ago a new firmware update was pushed out to my phone and after that instead of the battery falling 10-15% per hour it went down to 2-3% per hour and I was a happy camper, but yesterday everything seemed to revert to old bad habits (I had made no phone changes) and the battery ran down in a little over 4 hours.

The phone is now running warm again and when the phone is plugged into my computer the USB port charge current isn't enough to charge the phone. The charge level just stays about where it was before being plugged in.

Bad phone? Bad battery? Bad firmware?

:-(
 
Upvote 0
edit


Not sure why the image doesn't show up as the address is valid.

If you right click and select show image, it does appear.

Google Play Services is the biggest user at the moment and the battery life forecast is only 6 seconds!!!

When I initially connected the S5 to my computer USB bus, the charge level was at 81% and after an hour on the USB bus the level has fallen to 74%. The USB charge current can't even keep up with the phone's needs, which is just sitting there on the desktop in an idle state, and the screen is black and off.
 
Upvote 0
After charging the S5 all night, this morning I killed all background processes,removed the battery, waited 15 seconds and then reinstalled the battery and restarted the phone.

The Battery Monitor shows 1 min 48 sec of battery life remaining! The biggest user is "Android System" at 25%; Google Services at 21%; Android OS at 14%; Screen at 9%; and 11% consumed by three other processes.

If I can get the Insert Picture to work here, following is a screen capture. For some reason my inserted pictures appear as a "broken" picture icon, but when right clicked on and "Open Image in New Tab" selected, the picture can be viewed. :-( I can find no way yet to fix this conundrum).
S5bat2_zps7155500e.png.html
 
Upvote 0
I suspicion your battery life issue is due to apps running you might not be aware.

Take a look at Application Manager/ALL and turn off apps you don't need. And some of the Android processes can be turned off w/o bad effects.

I have turned off the following on a Verizon phone:
Accessories, Amazon, Amazon App suite, Amazon Kindle, Amazon MP3, Appstore, Audible, BlurbCheckout, Bubbles, FamilyBase Companion, Flipboard, Message+, Messages, MyMagazine, NFL Mobile, Picasa Uploader, S Health, Smart Remote, Travel Wallpaper, Verizon Support & Protection (McAfee), VZ Navigator (pay for fee Navigation.... Google maps is free)


Google branded:


Calendar Sync, Contacts Sync, Play Games, Play Movies & TV, Play Music, Play Newstand, Hangouts, Isis Mobile Wallet

After I trimmed all that fat off the phone, the battery drain immediately improved a lot. Even with GPS and DATA left on.

In addition, I manually turn off GPS, Data, Sync, WiFi, and Bluetooth before I close the Lockscreen. For me, I have no need for any background internet traffic with the phone "hung up" and idle. I only read emails on the home desktop PC.

I am experiencing 3 full days minimum between charges, and once it went 5 days before I "caved in" and put it on the "brand new" Qi Wireless charger to see if it would work.

The phone and messaging work just fine with data turned off.
I use the GoSMS Pro message app.

^ What he said :)

In particular, uncheck "sync" from your settings menu, set "location" to power saving and disable/stop/uninstall ALL Amazon apps (they are simply HUGE battery killers), all Samsung/Verizon crapware apps (including S-Voice, S-Health, Vz Navigator, etc, etc.) and any other apps that you can't readily identify and/or don't use. Don't worry, you can always use them in the future if you choose to do so.

Finally, install Juice Defender (free in the Play Store) and set it on "Balanced" (the least aggressive of the pre-programmed settings) and begin enjoying your phone again. I'm now averaging 24-28 hours of moderate use time on one charge.
 
Upvote 0
I have been fighting this issue since I got my S5 about 5 weeks ago. With the phone asleep, on my desk, and doing nothing, the battery lasts about 10-12 hours and the phone is always very warm.

If I take my phone with me in the car (but never turn it on) the battery has run down to 5% or lower, in 5 hours on several occasions. My screen is virtually never on, and I regularly kill backgound Apps to minimize what might be running.

Three days ago a new firmware update was pushed out to my phone and after that instead of the battery falling 10-15% per hour it went down to 2-3% per hour and I was a happy camper, but yesterday everything seemed to revert to old bad habits (I had made no phone changes) and the battery ran down in a little over 4 hours.

The phone is now running warm again and when the phone is plugged into my computer the USB port charge current isn't enough to charge the phone. The charge level just stays about where it was before being plugged in.

Bad phone? Bad battery? Bad firmware?

:-(

Turn off/uninstall ALL Amazon and Vz stuff from your app manager, set location to "power saving" turn off sync and bluetooth (unless you're in the car) and I guarantee you your problems go away.

Also install Juice Defender (free from Play Store) and set it to "Balanced," hit "enable" and you're done.
 
Upvote 0
I am using a PC for Forum entries. I opened a Photobucket account and transferred the last image there that I had previously tried to insert. Photobucket made no difference. The image icon still appears broken, but the image can be opened.

Some forums don't permit new users to post images. Could that be the issue here?
 
Upvote 0
Installed Juice Defender and uninstalled every App I could find that I wasn't using. My phone is a Open (non contract) phone with no junkware on it except what Samsung installs, so I am thankfully free of most of the crap that has been mentioned above.

After only 30 minutes on Juice Defender, the phone is cool to the touch and the charge rate has dropped ~1-2% (but I've had it on to check settings for a bit).

This is encouraging. I look forward to seeing what unfolds.
[:)}
 
Upvote 0

BEST TECH IN 2023

We've been tracking upcoming products and ranking the best tech since 2007. Thanks for trusting our opinion: we get rewarded through affiliate links that earn us a commission and we invite you to learn more about us.

Smartphones