Help Drastically worse battery life after 4.4.2 update

[Droid727]

About two weeks ago, Rogers (my carrier in Canada) put through an update which I believe was for 4.4.2 Kit Kat (that is what I am currently showing as installed). About a week ago I noticed my battery life was drastically worse than before. My phone would lose about 4-5% per hour even without being used. My battery info shows that the majority of the use is from Android OS which seems to be keeping the phone awake. That's most likely the reason I am getting such poor life. I saw several posts suggesting I clear the cache and re/re the battery. When I do this, the battery life is much better however this is short lived. Within about 36 hours (including time spent charging) the battery life worsens again. Also of importance is the battery temperature feels warmer/hotter than usual during the high discharging periods (even with the screen off).

What is going on with Android OS that it is keeping the phone awake 90% of the time? There has to have been something in the last update that caused this sudden battery life issue.

This is not an issue of having Wifi, Location Services, or BT turned on. I have a Wifi app that only turns the wifi on when near a known network location, my location services are off, and my BT is always on (however it has never caused excess battery drain).

 

[fontburn]

Same here - since the last update my battery is going down some days by 50% in 4 hours.

Yesterday Andoid OS used 44% of battery even though it was left in the house. nothing said it was being kept awake.

Almost identical settings. Wifi on all the time, GPS off, BT on, Syncs mostly manual.

 

[Nick The Great]

My battery life is awful as well. I have installed Tasker in the meantime, but it doesn't appear to be sucking much battery to account for this.

I also had NFC on a lot, and I turned it off, and still have the bad battery life.

 

[fontburn]

I'm actually tempted to root it just to get older or new version on as this is doing my head in.

 

[Droid727]

Here are my screenshots + Kernel process export from GSam Battery Monitor. If the formatting for the export .txt file is not good, save the file to your desktop and open it with wordpad.

Can anyone analyze this and let me know what's messing up my battery life?

Thanks

 

[ironass]

http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s4/836936-update-problems-dummies-guide.html

 

[Droid727]

Is there anything to be identified from the stuff I posted? I prefer not to do a factory reset. As noted, the battery life improved after I did a cache clear however a day or so later it went back to being lousy.

 

[Droid727]

Update: I did a factory reset. We'll see if this helps.

 

[ironass]

Update: I did a factory reset. We'll see if this helps.

Good luck!

Don't forget to check the phone out before loading any apps, to determine if the firmware is OK, or not, as per #2.3 & #2.6 of Update Problems - Dummies Guide

 

[RunJumpFall]

Well that happened to me last week too. I used to lose around %15 per hour. I thought my battery was dead. After rebooting it, it went back to normal.

 

[Droid727]

Update: Battery life is still bad after the factory reset. I formatted my SD card (however none of my apps appeared to have been affected). When I did the factory reset, some of my apps were still installed (and some were not). I don't think this is an issue with the apps themselves but rather the new firmware that is not liking something. It really frustrates me the I cannot figure out what app(s) are conflicting with the phone. My battery meter is still showing Android OS are the main consumer of power.

 

[ironass]

Update: Battery life is still bad after the factory reset. I formatted my SD card (however none of my apps appeared to have been affected). When I did the factory reset, some of my apps were still installed (and some were not). I don't think this is an issue with the apps themselves but rather the new firmware that is not liking something. It really frustrates me the I cannot figure out what app(s) are conflicting with the phone. My battery meter is still showing Android OS are the main consumer of power.

It sounds as though you Factory Data Reset and formatted your external SD card but did not format the Internal SD storage as per #2.4 of Update Problems - Dummies Guide. This would acount for some apps and or settings still being present.

 

[fontburn]

PDA: NG8
Phone: NG8
CSC: NG2 (BTU)

@RunJumpFall - yes this appears to do the trick until something is started on the phone some say mediaserver. Then battery drain reoccurs. I've read somewhere that the the OS keeps a services/task open/active until the phone is restarted. If I find it I'll post it here.

Might do a reset now and see what happens.

 

[fontburn]

on thing I've now noticed before I do a factory reset is the CSC is newer on the firmware from Samfirmware - I've flashed this with Odin and Kies confirms this as the newer CSC:NH2 (BTU)

I'll run this tonight and see what the battery stats say. The screen used to be the biggest drain but now this is in 3rd or 4th place after Android OS and Android System. If during the night these figures stay high I'll reset the device.

 

[ironass]

on thing I've now noticed before I do a factory reset is the CSC is newer on the firmware from Samfirmware - I've flashed this with Odin and Kies confirms this as the newer CSC:NH2 (BTU)

How odd!

The latest stock Samsung firmware release for the i9505 for CSC code BTU, unbranded, United Kingdom, is showing as NG8 on SamMobile...

Model: GT-I9505
Model name: GALAXY S4 LTE
Country: United Kingdom
Version: Android 4.4.2
Changelist: 2309103
Build date: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 10:16:57 +0000
Product Code: BTU
PDA: I9505XXUGNG8
CSC: I9505BTUGNG2
MODEM: I9505XXUGNG8

I wonder what you have flashed? :hmmmm:

 

[Droid727]

I seem to have figured out the issue (or at least possibly part of it). After going into Google Settings and turning off the option to have the phone always listen for voice commands my battery life improved. Now it seems I am losing perhaps 2-4% per hour idle and the Android OS usage is lower. I'll keep an eye on it and report back.

 

[fontburn]

@ironass - Attached is the Samfirmware I installed.
@Droid727 - I've now re unticked this setting. wonder what will happen now.

 

[fontburn]

@ironass - Attached is the Samfirmware I installed.
@Droid727 - I've now re unticked this setting. wonder what will happen now.

 

[ironass]

@ironass - Attached is the Samfirmware I installed.
@Droid727 - I've now re unticked this setting. wonder what will happen now.

View attachment 77683

Like I said... NG8. Not NH2.

The PDA is the actual firmware build. The CSC is just the location, model, language pack, code. In your case... the Black Edition, (YXY).

 

[fontburn]

Well the Black Edition is gone dark on me.

Full factory reset - still chewing up battery - 31 mins of very very light use (checking the battery report mainly) and 4% used.

Think I might have to start looking at CM soon. Any ideas on timescale for 4.4.4 or 5 is coming out for the S4, even if its ball park.

 

[fontburn]

Well the Black Edition is gone dark on me.

Full factory reset - still chewing up battery - 31 mins of very very light use (checking the battery report mainly) and 4% used.

Think I might have to start looking at CM soon. Any ideas on timescale for 4.4.4 or 5 is coming out for the S4, even if its ball park.

 

[ironass]

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2624467

http://www.latintimes.com/android-5...genmod-12-download-now-available-video-276774