Why is my S3 battery suddenly draining 10x faster?!

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chelseaaaaj

8 posts

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#153798 8-Oct-2014 11:30

I bought my S3 five months ago, while the battery life has never been something to brag about over the last 2 weeks it is only lasting 4 hours after a full charge and no usage.

I downloaded a wake lock detector and then deleted all apps that I wasn't using but we're using my battery. Made no difference. I've restarted countless times, turned off just about everything and put the phone on power save but nothing is working.

The other day I took my phone off charge at 7 am, I went to check it at lunch time and I had 6% battery and the phone was really hot. I hadn't used my phone at all in that time.

It's very frustrating! While I'm writing this my phone came off an all night charge at 78% three hours ago and is now sitting at 21%. It actually seems to be doing a bit better today but it will still be dead by lunch time!

Suggestions please. Is it already time for a new phone?!

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#1149801 8-Oct-2014 11:32

If it doesn't improve with a factory reset, I would imagine the battery is on it's way out. Take it back to the store if things don't improve after a factory reset.

Batman

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#1149803 8-Oct-2014 11:33

just restart it. it happens to all my samsug all the time. some app crashed probably and cannot close itself or has gone into some kind of a loop.

timmmay

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#1149855 8-Oct-2014 12:10

Turn off location services - something like settings -> more -> location. Turn it completely off as a test, then make sure GPS is off in the drop down menu. Make sure your google play services is up to date, though it updates automatically so unsure what you can do about that. Check for updates to Android in settings -> more -> about -> check for upgrades.

What does settings ->more -> battery say is using the battery?

tripp

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#1149860 8-Oct-2014 12:13

i have had this in the past (with a samsung as well)

I found 1 of my accounts in a syncing loop.
Doing a reset fixed it

ech3lon

369 posts

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#1149865 8-Oct-2014 12:17

Check out Power Management (or similar function) in Settings and it should have a breakdown of which app / system consumes power.

I had a similar issues, no new app was installed. Turns out this process called "Media" is taking some 45% of battery.
A quick google points out a solutions and battery life returns to 'normal'

Inphinity

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#1149869 8-Oct-2014 12:19

What does the battery usage chart show as the cause of the usage? I still have my old S3, so 2.5 years old, original battery, still gets a couple days usage out of it. Certainly shouldn't be this short battery life. As others have suggested, try a factory reset.

Batman

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#1149877 8-Oct-2014 12:25

do you have outlook email set up? the outlook app can do that. if you don't want these nonsense get a nexus or htc or iphone.

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chelseaaaaj

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1149984 8-Oct-2014 14:31

I checked battery usage the other day and said Google play services was using 84% of the battery. I stopped and turned off everything I could.

I have reset the phone so will find out over the next day if it makes a difference.

MikeB4

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#1150012 8-Oct-2014 14:45

Any new Apps installed. I installed a weather App on my phone and it caused at of battery drain, I would would go from 100% at say 7am and would be below 50% by noon. Deleted the App and power consumption returned to normal, that is about two days.

chelseaaaaj

8 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1150020 8-Oct-2014 14:58

Hadn't installed any new apps for about a month or more before it started draining quickly. I did see something that makes me think it's been stuck in a syncing loop but don't know for sure. My battery has never lasted more than 12 hours from day one.

MikeB4

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#1150022 8-Oct-2014 15:01

The battery life was not one of the S3's strong points

ubergeeknz

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Vocus

#1150023 8-Oct-2014 15:03

chelseaaaaj: I checked battery usage the other day and said Google play services was using 84% of the battery. I stopped and turned off everything I could.

I have reset the phone so will find out over the next day if it makes a difference.

Have seen this too on a different Android phone. Rebooting the phone usually fixes it until it happens again. Annoying as heck.

timmmay

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#1150058 8-Oct-2014 15:47

Please go back and answer the questions everyone's asked, and tell us if you've tried the suggestions. No point us making suggestions and asking questions if you ignore them.

muppet

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#1150076 8-Oct-2014 15:59

This happens sometimes. Reboot.
I had major issues with my Note 2 untick, in Viber, I unticked "Sync Contacts". Why I'd ticked it I have no idea, it was causing no end of issues with Contacts + syncing.

Audiophiles are such twits! They buy such pointless stuff: Gold plated cables, $2000 power cords. Idiots.

OOOHHHH HYPERFIBRE!

timmmay

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#1150078 8-Oct-2014 16:01

I have my S4 (which is running WananLite) rebooting three times a week, scheduled by Llama. It helps stability.

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