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Help Samsung Galaxy S3 Battery Drain

T

tortugachris

Newbie
Hi. I have had a Samsung Galaxy S3 for almost two years now, and I have seen an increasingly noticeable battery drain that has been killing my phone and driving me crazy. My phone used to last two days on idle, now it only lasts me a day without heavy usage. With heavy usage, it lasts about 5-6 hours, not that bad. But, this is when my phone is connected to my Wi-Fi. When it is connected to the 4g, the battery drains a thousand fold, decreasing from 5-6 hours to 3-4 if I'm lucky, maybe even less. I tried mostly every kind of method to improve battery life. I did a factory reset, lowered the brightness, turned on power saving, killed all the apps and RAM, and installed a battery app(DU Battery Saver) and none of these seemed to be effective. My phone also heats up when it is connected to the 4g. Is being connected to the 4g network somehow affecting my battery? Because my battery drain isn't as bad as when I'm connected to my Wi-Fi. Is the battery just getting worn out after two years? Do I need a replacement? Yesterday, while my mom was at the bank, it took her five minutes to go inside and come back out. By that time my phone dropped from 10% to 1% and I had to shut it off. What could be the cause of this insane battery drain? Thank you for answering.
 
Phone batteries last from 18-24 months in most cases. (Most people let them drain too far before charging [40%-60%] and don't condition them when new, which can shorten the life if the battery has been sitting on a shelf a long time before you got it.) Buy a new battery. They're about $10. Look on Amazon.
 
You have 3 things working against you.

1.) 2 year old Battery
2.) Android 4.3 update...know battery sucking with this update.
3.) 4g connection sucks power.

Try replacing your battery first.

After that try WiFi Matic from the market. This app turns on and connects to WiFi in known areas and turns off the mobile data and then does the reverse when you leave the area.

Also go into your settings menu and into the wifi advanced and set "Keep Wifi on during sleep to never" and uncheck the box that says "Always Allow Scanning"
 
Hi prj, thank you for the response. This has been an eye opener for me. I have one question though, ever since the 4.3 update, there is no longer an advanced Wi-Fi setting...is there another way to do the step that you just told me?
 
tortugachris said:
Hi prj, thank you for the response. This has been an eye opener for me. I have one question though, ever since the 4.3 update, there is no longer an advanced Wi-Fi setting...is there another way to do the step that you just told me?
Click to expand...

Try Settings (gear button) / Wifi / then use the Menu key to pull up Advanced Wifi from the basic Wifi menu . . . . .
 
How strong is the 4g signal in your area? A weak signal will hammer the battery and generate heat. Don't know if there's like a switch you could use to stay on 3g then switch to 4g only when you need it
 
the app you suggested doesn't seem to work, I installed it and it's not compatible with my device. Is there any other app on the playstore that serves the same function?
 
I never saw this drain caused by 4G. i have however seen mobile data itself (3G, 4G, EDGE, 1x) using a lot of battery in a fringe area. you can either live with wifi and turn mobile data off which will give back 25% of the battery life (on the S3 stock, it should get a day or at the least, 18 hours normally--it's only a 2500mAH battery), but i have found the largest causes of battery drain being 'Google Services' (in battery stats, ignore 'cell standby' it's wrong due to a still-unfixed bug). that is, Play Store, Google+, Gmail, Maps, Books, Music (with Music and Maps being the biggest culprits). i have disabled most of Google Play, leaving only the Play Store and Services Framework intact (to avoid apps i paid for claiming i am violating their license, some won't run if they cannot verify you bought them with Google) and turning their notifications off (this sometimes allows them to not run so much in the background) and turning off anything in Account management (in settings-->Google) that you don't need to sync. Google sync is the worst for battery and data plans. i turned it all off, after all, it will sync when you open the apps anyway.

this has granted me at least a day's use. i still have to charge it every night, so that takes getting used to when you have come from an iPhone or BlackBerry, known to get at least 2-3 days of standby time.

It is true the radios in our phones use the most battery--even more than the AMOLED screen! keep an eye on app permissions and try to use less that have 'keep phone from going to deep sleep' on there, these are big wakelock issues waiting to happen, and often make it utilize the mobile radios and of course, more battery. using most of the stock Samsung stuff seems to work better (the stock email app for example supports multiple accounts and has a nifty sync scheduler you can adjust to benefit your battery, be less distracting at work, etc) than the Google alternative, which prefers push sync, and can eat through an entire data plan and your battery very quickly.
 
most of what i had in 4.1.2, but has some of the S4's look and feel (thankfully they left the weather widget alone, i'm not a big fan of the overly basic weather widget in the S4 and Note 3 myself, and, with UCCW skins, i managed to bring it back to my Tab 2) and has better voice control, S-Voice works better, the lock screen light effect, the personal message, etc.

Apps basically work and act the same, the stock email has lost some of its shine (regrettably, haven't been able to get it back. i tried sideloading the original from the old ROM i had on the device, but it just keeps the newer UI--so it's baked into the ROM). it hasn't changed that much, just seems to take on a more pastel color, along some line of blue or purple, with a touch more white. i call it the 'Samsung Color theme' as that is how their app store looks now. other than that the apps have remained the same. i do have the S4's S Memo app since they actually helped the UI a bit (i like how it looks similar to the older iOS notes app, with legal pad look and simulated woodgrain, which fits well with the Nature UX theme)

stock software i use more often, with Amazon alternatives to Google Play in there (Kindle vs Google books, Samsung Music vs. Play Music, Amazon App Store vs. Google Play Store, Amazon MP3, etc). it seems to work rather well once you get used to it. i really prefer it over Google's ecosystem. I know it sounds crazy, but this particular phone works best if you don't load it up with tons of apps or games, or tons of different app store ecosystems. with Google Play in there, it tends to fight over that and Samsung stock software. two calendar apps, etc. it causes a resource conflict. the phone works best with Samsung's alternative, and Amazon doesn't sync so it doesn't cause nearly the same issues. perhaps i've grown accustomed to the Samsung offering? it works best with TouchWiz and seems far more fluid. Google never can get their apps to even *work* most of the time so i hardly use them.
 
not sure who you're replying to, i don't even use Google Play Store on my device. it's on there but i never use it because it never works right!
 
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