Help Severe battery drain on Galaxy S3

[Ford Sarnmenington]

Hello:

I have a Galaxy S3 that I've been very pleased with until recently. For the past couple of months, the battery wouldn't seem to hold a charge. I figured the 2-year old ZeroLemon battery I had installed was at the end of its life-span, so I bought another ZeroLemon battery as a replacement. Now, once the battery has been on the charger overnight, it reaches 100% and if I immediately unplug it and let it just sit (in Power Saving mode, no less) after a mere 2 hours or so of literally just sitting there, once I pick it up again the battery life reads from 70% to as low as 55%. I immediately check the battery use indicator in "Settings" and it tells me that 39% of battery usage is from "Android System" and 30% of usage is from "Android OS" when all it's been doing is sitting there idle and draining away half its power. This just started happening a couple months ago and it's driving me crazy! Could it be a hardware issue? An update I'm not aware of? Please help!

 

[svim]

Hopefully there's just some glitchy background process that's been tapping your battery as of late. Restart your S3 in Safe Mode and see if battery drain is still a problem. Safe Mode is Android running without pre-loading anything you've installed or services you use.
http://www.samsung.com/pk/support/skp/faq/868663
If the battery is more or less OK, that would indicate some app you installed, or even an update to an existing app, might be causing your problem. The Android operating system itself is apparently OK, it's just some added app or process that's the source and you'll have some sleuthing to do to diagnose the problem. Think back to right before the problem started happening.
If the battery is still draining faster than usual however, try wiping the system cache partition. The system cache partition is completely separate from the general user data partition, where your files are stored, so you don't have to worry about losing any personal data. To clear the system cache partition you need to boot your phone into its Recovery Mode. Power off your S3, and then restart it simultaneously holding down the Volume Up, the Home, and the Power buttons. When your phone vibrates you can release the Power button but keep pressing on the Volume Up and Home buttons until it starts up in Recovery Mode. Use the keys indicated to navigate the text-only menus and select the 'wipe system cache' option'. This will only take a few seconds and then just reboot your phone.

 

[Ford Sarnmenington]

Thank you for the reply. I will try your suggestions and hope that solves the problem. Frankly, I'm astounded by just how fast the drain is happening - this morning I unplugged the fully-charged phone and was flabbergasted to see that it's capacity had fallen to 54% in just 18 minutes.

I have to wonder though - why wouldn't the "glitchy background process" you suggest not appear on the Batter Usage screen?

 

[svim]

I have to wonder though - why wouldn't the "glitchy background process" you suggest not appear on the Batter Usage screen?

I don't know really just what the exact problem is, I'm just guessing for the most part. The Battery usage screen will show you the operating system and apps, but there are typically dozens of things that are often running on your phone in the background. If you look at your Settings >> Application manager and swipe over to the ALL column you can see a listing of a lot of apps and libraries that aren't things you interact with but may be running as a background process. Something like your recent battery drain problem could be fixed by some simple maintenance tasks, or it could be an app has triggered a 'wakelock'
http://www.guidingtech.com/45384/android-wakelocks/

 

[Ford Sarnmenington]

Ah. Thanks for that. I truly appreciate your response.

I think the problem may have been a vampiric app after all - I went in and deleted quite a few and, at least for this morning, the problem seems to have stopped.

 

[Daveboy67]

We have the same issue with my partner's S3. Just a few weeks ago, started to switch off overnight. Battery drained! Sometimes it switches off, and when re-started (often having to take battery out and put back in) it has drained to approx. 40%. We have bought a new battery and same issues. Seems there is nothing wrong with either battery.
Tried having it in SAFE MODE, same problem! Obviously no word of an answer from Samsung themselves
Next step is to try a factory re-set which is a pain in the a##e!
Has anyone got a definitive answer out there?
Useful advice greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Ford Sarnmenington]

My problem continues as well - I thought a vampiric app was the problem but even after uninstalling a couple apps I thought were the trouble the severe battery drain continues. It's very frustrating. I think there may be some sort of wakelock problem (as the poster above suggests) but I really have no idea. Very, very frustrating.

 

[Daveboy67]

About time Android software sorted this out! - I rebooted my partner's phone doing a factory reset - Worked for nearly a day before Android software (NOT downloaded apps) drained the battery. Doing it several times a day and it is ALWAYS Android - Kernal (Android OS), or Android System or a few other Android apps causing the drain. WHY are Android forcing me to buy a new phone????

 

[mikedt]

Is this an old thread that's been necrobumped? But anyway, Galaxy S3 has been around for coming on four years now, so it could be just simply that the battery has had it. Fortunately they're easily user replaceable.

 

[Daveboy67]

Is this an old thread that's been necrobumped? But anyway, Galaxy S3 has been around for coming on four years now, so it could be just simply that the battery has had it. Fortunately they're easily user replaceable.

Not sure what "necrobumped" means, but all I can tell you is that I'm just trying to find a way to have use of a phone that should be functioning perfectly, despite however long it has been around. Trust me on this, it is NOT the battery, nor the replacement battery - From use of GSAM I can see that it IS Android software.
When operating normally (i'm guessing) Kernel (Android OS) using 32 % of battery consumption.
When the battery drains down in about an hour or so, the Android systems, either singularly or in conjunction are responsible for between 99 and 100% battery usage.
That suggest fairly clearly, that it is Android software causing the issue.
The reason it may be old threads being used over and over is that no-one has come up with a solution for an issue that should not be happening.

 

[svim]

...WHY are Android forcing me to buy a new phone????

Android is just the operating system, it can't force anyone to buy a new phone. Even Google, who develops and maintains Android, has no reason to make anyone buy a new phone either. Google doesn't charge the phone manufacturers or carriers anything to use Android so there's no financial incentive. Samsung is probably a better target for your frustrations.

...That suggest fairly clearly, that it is Android software causing the issue.

As far as items like 'Android OS' and 'Android System' showing in the Battery stats, at some point it's just a matter of there has to be an operating system involved -- with no operating system you just have an inert device with no functionality. Take any Windows PC, or Mac, or Linux, or an iPhone and there's going to be an operating system using system resources.

 

[mydian]

Not sure what "necrobumped" means, but all I can tell you is that I'm just trying to find a way to have use of a phone that should be functioning perfectly, despite however long it has been around. Trust me on this, it is NOT the battery, nor the replacement battery - From use of GSAM I can see that it IS Android software.
When operating normally (i'm guessing) Kernel (Android OS) using 32 % of battery consumption.
When the battery drains down in about an hour or so, the Android systems, either singularly or in conjunction are responsible for between 99 and 100% battery usage.
That suggest fairly clearly, that it is Android software causing the issue.
The reason it may be old threads being used over and over is that no-one has come up with a solution for an issue that should not be happening.

What kind of screen time is showing in the battery stats? Obviously if the phone isn't being used much the operating system will be the main battery consumer. Another thing I have learned is that if location reporting is on, then Android system uses a lot more battery. And even if it's not, having location on, even in power saving, causes Android System to use more battery. Try making sure all location services are off for a day and see what kind of results you get.

Aside from a security update last year, depending on the carrier, this phone hasn't received a large software update since 2014 from Samsung. It's kind of hard to blame Google or Samsung for pushing an update you make you get a new phone when it hasn't had any updates in a very long time.

 

[mikedt]

Android is just the operating system, it can't force anyone to buy a new phone...

It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear....

 

[Ford Sarnmenington]

Not sure if this applies to everyone (or anyone) who replied, but it turns out my problem was solved by calibrating the battery level on the phone. Thusly: https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-calibrate-the-battery-on-your-android-device

 

[svim]

Not sure if this applies to everyone (or anyone) who replied, but it turns out my problem was solved by calibrating the battery level on the phone. Thusly: https://www.androidpit.com/how-to-calibrate-the-battery-on-your-android-device

Pretty good article. I'll admit I clicked on the link being skeptical of a lot of things I read online about smartphone batteries but I think this author did a nice job presenting a balance of information -- not too opinionated with a mix of what we all need to accept, it's really rare to find a fix that applies to everybody's specific problem.