Serious Battery Issues

[dickharper]

My Galaxy S4 is having some battery problems. It has a battery life of about 12 hours, even when idle most of the time. Here are some screenshots.








As you can see, my GS4 is awake about 97% of the time. It's never in Deep Sleep, which is the reason, I think, for which the battery life isn't long.

I have tried numerous battery saver apps, I've used wakelock detector and managed to have much fewer wakelocks than I do now. But none of this seems to matter. Android OS is draining my bettery and it seems like the rest of the apps aren't the problem. What can I do to prevent Android OS from draining my battery so much? How can I avoid having my phone awake all the time? even when idle. A couple of times my phone has lasted over a 24h without recharging, all on it's own, which shows me that it does in fact have the capability to do so, but somehow most of the time the battery life is really bad.

 

[FoxKat]

Unfortunately I experienced the same issues as you and a full factory data reset was unsuccessful in resolving it. I was initially forced to purchase 2 backup batteries but eventually got tired of swapping batteries all the time. It would be fully charged at 8:30-9:00am and be completely dead by around 6:00pm, even if just sitting on the desk and not even used the entire time. Just like yours, mine would show awake most of the day, even with the screen off.

I wish I had some helpful information for you but for me, I jumped ship. Perhaps there are some others out there who are more experienced with the S4 than I (I only had mine about 2 months), and maybe they can help you to resolve this problem. I never really got the opportunity to since when the OS upgrade came, it bricked my phone. So unfortunately for me, the failed update forced my hand.

 

[leeshor]

I regularly get 2 days battery from my S4. Unfortunately WLD isn't really telling you what's sucking it down. Keep in mind that it's all based on how you use your phone, 12 hours of gaming or movies would make that normal. With that said, I'm an extreme situation and don't expect more than a handful of people to get near me. Nothing syncs on its own on my S4, only when I ask. Google+ can be really hard on that. My contacts don't even sync until I open the contacts app. Same with my mail. No haptic feedback, no auto updating apps and other things along those lines work well., Using the phone only as a phone probably uses less battery than anything if you have a relatively strong signal and you're on 4G. 3G kills it..

[edit] One of the very worst battery drains can come from a less than optimal SD card. Almost forgot that tidbit.

 

[dickharper]

I think I figured out the culprit. It's the l2_hsic wakelock. it is keeping my phone awake all the time. Is there a thread where you can point me towards to find more info on this? I've seen people saying they had to use a new ROM or something, I'm quite new to this and it's all gibberish to me, I don't know what a ROM is or a kernel.

 

[TOMMYBOT]

I am having the same problem with my girlfriends s4 I talked with samsung and they told me to send it in to them. So I'm looking now to pick up a little phone for her to get by with

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

 

[bbtkd]

I think I figured out the culprit. It's the l2_hsic wakelock. it is keeping my phone awake all the time. Is there a thread where you can point me towards to find more info on this? I've seen people saying they had to use a new ROM or something, I'm quite new to this and it's all gibberish to me, I don't know what a ROM is or a kernel.

ROM stands for Read Only Memory. From a hardware standpoint that is write once memory, but in this case they are referring to your operating system. There is only one supported ROM for a given phone, so changing ROM would mean either reloading the OS to see if that clears it, or loading a custom ROM, which means rooting your phone. Based on your comments about lack of experience I'd stay away from that. You may eventually end up doing a FDR (Factory Data Reset) which clears all memory and reloads. You would lose everything, but your contacts, apps, and calendar would reload. There are ways to save pictures and other things, but most application data would be gone. I would not jump right to that.

First - have you done a one minute battery pull? If not, then shut down the phone, pry off the back cover, bull the battery, and leave it out for over a minute. This should be the first thing done after an OS update/patch, or when something quirky is happening. Then if that doesn't work, I'd try a different memory card. If that does not do it, then a FDR. Lastly, if none of those help, take it in to get a new phone.

 

[bbtkd]

OK - did some research on that wakelock. Several folks on several phones and Android releases started reporting this when ICS came out. Essentially inter-processor communication having to do with USB is preventing it from sleeping. I have not tried this, so don't know if it works, or what side effects might be, but someone said this works;

settings then
more settings then
security then
there's an option called change security level
select it and then select high.
It will make all kernel wakelocks disappear.

Seems harmless enough and if it doesn't work or has side effects then you should be able to change it back. I'd try this before the FDR, but still try the battery pull and sd card swap first to see if that works. Wouldn't be surprised if either or both the SD and SIM card are USB devices, so if one of them is flaky it might trigger this wakelock.

 

[bsghs02]

I was having bad drains the last month or so. Samsung said to FDR it, i said heck no because i just had tried that myself. Told Verizon about it, and they replaced my battery, which did help me a bit. I've had the S4 since day 1 of it being on Verizon, never been damaged. As of an hour ago i said screw it and ordered a Moto X. The S4 is nice, but i need a closer to stock Android experience with just good hardware, less Samsung-ware competing with Google's stock apps. All the S4's features are awesome til you see how fast the battery drains. I don't like living off a charger or carrying spare batteries, Samsung coulda at least made an extended battery for this phone given how powerful it is, even Motorola was good about that before Google purchased them. Just sad, my first Samsung experience wasn't as i had hoped. =\

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Droid Forums

 

[bbtkd]

I was having bad drains the last month or so. Samsung said to FDR it, i said heck no because i just had tried that myself. Told Verizon about it, and they replaced my battery, which did help me a bit. ...All the S4's features are awesome til you see how fast the battery drains. I don't like living off a charger or carrying spare batteries, Samsung coulda at least made an extended battery for this phone given how powerful it is, even Motorola was good about that before Google purchased them. Just sad, my first Samsung experience wasn't as i had hoped. =\

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Droid Forums

A new battery won't help the wakelock issue, but if you had not diagnosed that then it could have had a bad battery. More likely is that the act of the battery pull is what improved it somewhat. Few people probably have any battery issue with the S4, I sure don't; mine is using a half-percent an hour when idle. A vast majority of folks are oblivious to the forums and only seek them out if they are having a problem, so by looking at the forums it just seems like a lot of people have any given issue. If you are having a battery drain issue, there are many possibilities;

A rogue app or two apps interracting
An app (add-on, or built-in) with too short of a cycle/wake time
Failing to do a battery pull after an update
Having too many unused features on (I turn off any feature I don't use)
Bad SIM or SD cards
Bad battery (least likely)
Screen too bright and/or on too much
Bad phone (very unlikely)

If you are have any battery concern at all, install Gsam Battery Monitor. This app gives an incredible amount of info about battery use. It shows % used per hour, and divides use down between apps, phone radios, wifi, phone, screen, and wakelocks. You can also drill down for more detail. If it shows anything under about 4% an hour I think you're doing OK. Use Gsam to figure out what is taking up the most power and then figure out if a setting, an app, or how you use it can be changed to reduce it. Also, if you occasionally get an unexplained fast drain, a reboot often clears it.

I am also a fan of Wi-Fi Matic, which turns your Wifi off and on depending on whether you are within range of cell towers near your established Wifis. So - when I get close to my house, it wakes up on an interval, sees the towers, and turns on my wifi. Then off again when I leave the area. I only use two Wifi locations, so it is off other than there. Many like this app, some have had issues - but I suspect they have configuration issues.

If I can get half a percent battery use when idle, you can too - unless you have a bad phone which needs replacing. That said, I'm sure some will respond saying they tried everything, then switched to phone xyz which has no issue. You go to the xyz forum, and you will find some that have battery issues with it. There is a seemingly infinite combination of circumstances that COULD cause a power problem, but a few top culprits that probably cause 95% of them.