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My battery capacity has fallen off of a cliff

rickaltman

rickaltman

Member
On Monday, my Galaxy Note 8 was functioning perfectly fine. Now three years old, its battery doesn't quite last all day any longer, but that was manageable. Tuesday morning was a whole different story. It began dropping about 1% every 90 seconds. It was at about 20% by noon, and then after a recharge, dropped down to 8% by about 6:00p. So literally overnight, my phone's battery capacity has rendered the phone almost unusable.

I can think of no freshly installed app that could be responsible. I am willing to hard-reset the phone, but I don't really have any confirmation of that addressing this. So that is my first question: are there battery conditions like what I am describing that are addressed with a factory reset?

What else should I know as I troubleshoot this?
 
Thank you, Dannydet -- I have watched the videos for replacing the battery. Way beyond my patience and probably my capability. Is it worth trying a factory reset? Might that address this?
 
Yes unfortunately lithium-ion batterys hve a given amount of charges , 3 to 4 years is generally when they start to fail. I call it engineering obsolescence. Remember a few years back? All the commercials had dropping there phone in water or we swimming with their Android taking pics.
However, just to rule out other possibilities. Fylly charge you S8 and boot into Safe mode. If you no longer notice battery issues , chances are its a user app creating the issues.

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nk...380057.m4084.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XS8+ex.TRS0

I can't recommend any specific brand battery case but its an option and much less costly than buying a new Samsung flagship .

rickaltman said:
Thank you, Dannydet -- I have watched the videos for replacing the battery. Way beyond my patience and probably my capability. Is it worth trying a factory reset? Might that address this?
Click to expand...

Just make sure you remember your Google account password or you'll be lock out of your S8. Its a security feature called FRP lock.
 
Many thanks to those who suggested that I try Safe Mode. I have been in Safe Mode for over two hours and my battery is at 96% -- that is more like it.

So now what do I do with that information? Does that necessarily tell me that one of the apps that Safe Mode has disabled is sucking me dry? Or might there be other factors that Safe Mode addresses? I am grateful for your continued advice on this.
 
If you hadn't tried just restarting your Note before, that's a recommended thing to try whenever there's a problem. If that solves the problem, it was likely to be just a one-off software glitch. If didn't, than at least you know there is an actual problem to look into.

When running in Safe Mode, only the base Android operating system gets loaded into memory during the start-up process. No third-party apps or services get pre-loaded the way they do when you start up normally. So if you battery life is more typical while running in Safe Mode it's probably due to some app you've installed. You then need to determine which app, mostly by process-of-elimination. Take into account what app you've installed recently around the same time the problem occurred. Or if an app was updated around that time -- app updates don't typically create such problems but it's not an impossibility. But again, the battery drain issue might not even be an issue. Restart your phone normally and see how your battery drain is working out.

If you do opt to do a Factory Reset, don't forget to do a full backup first. Use Samsung's Smart Switch utility, it will make restoring your data a lot less of a hassle.
https://www.samsung.com/us/smart-switch/
 
Svim, rest assured that a restart is the first thing I tried, to no avail. Follow-up question for you: In trying to chase down which app might have gone rogue, must I uninstall them, or can I force-stop or disable them in some way?
 
rickaltman said:
Many thanks to those who suggested that I try Safe Mode. I have been in Safe Mode for over two hours and my battery is at 96% -- that is more like it.

So now what do I do with that information? Does that necessarily tell me that one of the apps that Safe Mode has disabled is sucking me dry? Or might there be other factors that Safe Mode addresses? I am grateful for your continued advice on this.
Click to expand...

Your welxome @rickaltman :)

When you boot your Android phone into safe mode, all third-party apps, widgets downloaded and set up, and any related system modifications are removed . Only the default system apps would be loaded. If your device is works without problems in safe mode, it likely means that a third-party app installed on your device is the cause.
 
Its also a good idea to delete the app data before deleting the app itself. You could disable the suspected apps ans tgat may bw all it takes to weed out the couplet app.
My step father has an S8 . He has this believe that installing 2 or 3 battery saver apps and 2 or 3 anti virus apps is aomehow necessary. :) Within a few months or less, I notice his is lag , lag laggy and my Note 4 zippity , zip zip. I should mention my N4 is rooted with an overclocked kernel just to be fair , you know full disclosure lol. Anyway, hes all frustrated and poking the screen hard and repetitively. I tell him , are you ready for m to fix it for you? Two weeks later he walks of to me , hand me his phone saying "please fix it".
 
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Look in your Settings >> Battery menu and in the listing of apps and their usage, is anything standing out as being significant?
There's also a 'Running services' option that shows a more comprehensive listing. You need to enable Developer Options to access that option:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/android-apps-background-kill/

Otherwise a Factory Reset might help, of if you're comfortable with tearing down your phone, and have the necessary tools, the iFixit site has a good step-by-step guide on replacing the battery for your model:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Samsung+Galaxy+Note8+Battery+Replacement/112251
You battery should be doing at least a little better after three years, but it is possible it is starting to fail. Battery life longevity can be affected by how you treat it too. It's not just aging in general that all smartphone batteries go through, but if you've ran it down to single digits frequently that will age it a lot quicker if you instead just charged it on a more frequent basis.
 
Many thanks to all of you for helping me with this. I successfully reset my phone and today, five hours in to my day, I sit happily at 91%. While I might have tracked down the rogue app responsible for the drain, I concluded that a factory reset would be easier, especially with all of the backup/restore options at my disposal. Indeed, I did it all in the space of two Seinfeld episodes.

I have also concluded that this should be an annual ritual, like spring cleaning.
 
I usually do a factory reset once a month
 

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