Your Phone Companion 27+ % battery usage

[Bodestone]

Over the last few days my Note10+ has been discharging at nearl double the rate as normal.

Looking at the battery stats I see it is Your Phone Companion at a huge percentage of my battery usage, more than I have seen any other app:

Is anyone else experiencing this huge drain? I'd like to ask before going through the rigmorole of removing and reconnecting as it can be a pain to ensure it is all unlinked properly before reconnect as it is still not native in the windows app and you have to go to the credential store and all sorts, rather than just have an unlink option on either end.

I will run through that process and report on the results, or if it is just a bodged update that is fixed shortly and I hear nothing back about similar experiences and, hopefully a quick fix.

Oh, the extra 1% from the title to the screenshot was in the time I took to start the article and take the screenshot, drobox, clip and paste.

 

[Bodestone]

Another note, the PC that the phone is paired with for the connection is off for 90% of the phone's on time (off being actually off or having all YourPhone processes ended, including YourPhoneServer which makes the phone finally act as if the PC is off).
I tend to to that when recovering the PC from hybernation for the 5-10% it gets me on battery but on or off it now seems to be caning a quarter of my battery either way.

 

[mikedt]

"Your Phone Companion", that's an app from Microsoft isn't it, to sync the phone with a Windows PC? Never had any experience of it myself, and it's not on any devices I've got here.

Maybe there's a bug with it, that MS needs to fix?

 

[puppykickr]

This is how it would be done on my devices, yours may vary.

I have never used the app in question, so I cannot say for sure if this will interfere with its workings.

At any rate, it's worth a shot to find out, and it can't harm anything- you have the map to go back and change it back.

Settings
Apps
(show all)
Your Phone Companion
Advanced
Battery
Background restriction
Restrict
Battery optimization
(arrow down, upper right)
All apps
Your Phone Companion
Optimize

 

[Milo Williamson]

I tried paring my cell to YourPhone, and next thing I knew it was really draining the nightmare load via windows ten.

 

[Bodestone]

It's acually an MS/Samsung collaberation and from the Note10 on it has been bakes into the OS. The Android side is made by Samsung.

It's only been bad over the last few days as far as I can tell

 

[mikedt]

It's acually an MS/Samsung collaberation and from the Note10 on it has been bakes into the OS. The Android side is made by Samsung.

It's only been bad over the last few days as far as I can tell

I can confirm it's NOT baked into the OS on my Note 20 Ultra I bought a few months ago. But it is available in the Play Store. I know Microsoft and Samsung does have a partnership, and my Note20 did come with MS Office pre-installed, which wasn't baked in and could be deleted.

Your Phone Companion is not something I'd ever use anyway.

 

[mikedt]

I tried paring my cell to YourPhone, and next thing I knew it was really draining the nightmare load via windows ten.

So it does sound like an issue with the app that MS needs to fix.

 

[Bodestone]

Samsung makes the phone software, not MS.

Not sure why they backtracked but on the Note 10 it is integral to phone settings (search for pc brings the Link to Windows setting) and not a sepparate store app. It does have an entry in app settings which strangely tells me that it has used 0 battery since last charge even though the percentage is still creeping up in the shot above (33.9% now).

I wonder if there may be something twitchy with my stats as AOD is now showing nearly 20% since last charge when it has never really gone above 5. When I switch to last 7 days AOD is down to 6% and the companion is nowhere to be seen.

I find the software very useful. Watching a youtube vid on the PC copy the URL on the PC, paste it into Whatsapp on the phone.
Having a long text conversation. Bring up the phone screen on the PC and use your full sized keyboard.
I did that for the opening post so I could screenshot with the Windows snipping tool and paste straight in here from clipboard without the faf of file transfers from a phone screenshot.

 

[mikedt]

Samsung makes the phone software, not MS.

Not sure why they backtracked but on the Note 10 it is integral to phone settings (search for pc brings the Link to Windows setting) and not a sepparate store app. It does have an entry in app settings which strangely tells me that it has used 0 battery since last charge even though the percentage is still creeping up in the shot above (33.9% now).

I just did that, and there's no settings called "Link to Windows" on my Note 20 Ultra.

Maybe it was removed from later Samsungs because of problems, e.g. causing excessive battery drain? Only speculating of course.

I wonder if there may be something twitchy with my stats as AOD is now showing nearly 20% since last charge when it has never really gone above 5. When I switch to last 7 days AOD is down to 6% and the companion is nowhere to be seen.

I find the software very useful. Watching a youtube vid on the PC copy the URL on the PC, paste it into Whatsapp on the phone.
Having a long text conversation. Bring up the phone screen on the PC and use your full sized keyboard.
I did that for the opening post so I could screenshot with the Windows snipping tool and paste straight in here from clipboard without the faf of file transfers from a phone screenshot.

I wouldn't use it, simply because I don't use Windows.

 

[Bodestone]

I just did that, and there's no settings called "Link to Windows" on my Note 20 Ultra.

Maybe it was removed from later Samsungs because of problems, e.g. causing excessive battery drain? Only speculating of course.

I wouldn't use it, simply because I don't use Windows.

It's been fine for 3 years or so. Only noticed this over the last few days and OAD seems to be showing excessively high percentage on Since Last Charge but not on Last 7 Days.
Come to think of it the percentages didn't seem to reset after the last charging session.

 

[Bodestone]

I think I know what happened.

WiFi was turned off on the phone. I'd been doing some testing over mobile data and forgotten to turn it back on.
Bug in the Samsung side of the software was causing it to continuously try and connect to the PC and fail.
WiFi on and a charge cycle later and it has not reared its head in battery stats.

 

[Milo Williamson]

 

[Bodestone]

Any context for the screenshot?

 

[Milo Williamson]

Any context for the screenshot?

Ah that is from my windows p.c. it directs towards the linkage via wifi.

 

[Bodestone]

Ah that is from my windows p.c. it directs towards the linkage via wifi.

Aye. I am familiar with it. I was just wondering as to the relevance here as the problem was always on the phone side, not the windows one.

It is good to see the interface from the other side of course, but possibly a connected one could have been even more relevant to those curious as to some of the benefits:

Yes, it is pointless if you don't use Windows but kind of handy if you do.
I found AirDroid great before this as it is a browser interface and so OS agnostic.

I've punted the mobile data bug Samsung's way and it never happened when on mobile data before but before, mobile data meant I was not in range of my wifi so possibly that is also a unique condition (wifi off but in range of specified wifi network).
As far as I am aware Android can still detect wifi network IDs even when Wifi is disabled for connection as it is used for non GPS position detection.

Could the bug be that the Samsung side of the software is using Wifi detection rather than Wifi connection to initiate attempted PC communication?
It would be a rookie mistake, and would have to be an update that attempted to optimise other performance, or me just making a guess, but I do remember a notification icon flashing on and off and now I am using the companion again I am sure it was that one.

 

[Milo Williamson]

Aye. I am familiar with it. I was just wondering as to the relevance here as the problem was always on the phone side, not the windows one.

It is good to see the interface from the other side of course, but possibly a connected one could have been even more relevant to those curious as to some of the benefits:

View attachment 159082


Yes, it is pointless if you don't use Windows but kind of handy if you do.
I found AirDroid great before this as it is a browser interface and so OS agnostic.

I've punted the mobile data bug Samsung's way and it never happened when on mobile data before but before, mobile data meant I was not in range of my wifi so possibly that is also a unique condition (wifi off but in range of specified wifi network).
As far as I am aware Android can still detect wifi network IDs even when Wifi is disabled for connection as it is used for non GPS position detection.

Could the bug be that the Samsung side of the software is using Wifi detection rather than Wifi connection to initiate attempted PC communication?
It would be a rookie mistake, and would have to be an update that attempted to optimise other performance, or me just making a guess, but I do remember a notification icon flashing on and off and now I am using the companion again I am sure it was that one.

Strange my air droid does not work for me... am I doing it wrong though? You are right about that..

 

[Bodestone]

Strange my air droid does not work for me... am I doing it wrong though? You are right about that..

You need to click on Airdroid Web to get the web address for the PC and also confirm on the phone once the browser is there on the PC

 

[Bodestone]

Comfirmed that the app battery usage is now tota\lly negigable and not even on the charts.

Not been on mobile data only and in range of the wifi network used for connection so I don't know if they fixed it though.

Also, just an additional on airdroid, you need to be on the same wifi as the PC with browser or pay for an account which would suck. Did you sus the navigation for local network connection @Milo Williamson