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Help Why didn't downgrading to KitKat restore my battery to original usage?

iradog85

Lurker
I was a very happy Galaxy S5 owner until I did the Lollipop 5.0 update. After multiple calls to tech support and visits to the Verizon store, it was clear that the operating system was simply using my CPU too much and the best solution was to downgrade my firmware back to KitKat 4.4.4. Well I did just that, but I am still experiencing battery drainage as if I'm still on Lollipop. I have scoured multiple forums (including these ones) and done tons of web searches to try and figure out what to do. So many different people give different advice, it's overwhelming. My point is, I NEVER had to do anything special before and my battery life was just fine. I would use the phone, text message, use the internet, play games, videos, WHATEVER I wanted to do throughout the day and I had wonderful battery life. For instance, I would be playing games or Pandora or something and lose 1% every 30 minutes or so. Now I lose 1% every 10 minutes playing Pandora, and it goes even faster when playing games, watching videos or the like. I think it's important to note that Samsung gave me a brand new battery for my S5, so I know for sure it's not the battery. What is typical battery consumption for an S5 when apps are being used? 1% every 5-10 minutes seems outrageous to me...

I have done a factory data reset, I have wiped the cache partition, I have refrained from downloading the FaceBook app (I've read in multiple threads that it's a battery killer). I never needed to do anything special before and I don't see why I should start now (using task killer apps, or Battery Doctor, etc.). I have downloaded GSam battery monitoring because I've seen that recommended in several places, but the problem is I don't understand what I'm looking at. I don't understand what wakelock or kernel means. And if that app is running all the time, isn't it eating away at my battery anyway?

I never had to do anything special before and my battery life was just fine. Do you think I'd be better off using the warranty to trade in for a "new" S5 to truly start from scratch, or should I stick with my original one and keep trying different things? I am so beyond frustrated, I wish I could go back in time and NEVER do that blasted Lollipop update. I'm not a tech savvy person, and I wish I could find someone to sit down with me and show me all the ins and outs of my phone. Are there people I can pay to provide this type of service?
 
I just charged it to 100%, unplugged it and started using it. After only 3 minutes, it's down to 99%. In the past, it would have taken 10X longer to drain the battery a whole %. I thought it was the Lollipop upgrade that ruined my battery drainage. I don't understand why this downgrade didn't fix the issue!
 
I put it on Power Saving mode and let it sit idle. After 10 minutes of being idle it lost another 1%. This is MADDENING!!!

I powered it off and wiped cache partition, and when it booted back up it had lost another 1%. Is it normal to lose that much battery when rebooting?
 
Perfectly common to lose a bit of battery when rebooting. Don't worry about that.

Also if you are saying that it used to take 30 minutes use to drop from 100% to 99%, and you mean use rather than standby, then your battery was miscalibrated previously and you were being mislead about how long it would last. In fact looking at your original post that seems to be what you are saying there too. But 1% loss for 30 minutes of screen on usage is not real - no phone lasts 50 hours with the screen on, which is what that implies. 1% every 10 minutes, which you think is a problem, still means up to 1000 minutes screen, i.e. 16 hours, which is still twice what you would get in reality.

To be honest your current results seen far more realistic than your previous ones. So unless you really could run it two days continuously with the screen on every second of that time your battery meter was lying to you previously and has been fixed by something in the update.

(I'm assuming in all of this that you are using a regular S5 battery, not some 8000 mAh monster twice as thick as the phone itself :))

As for battery monitoring, GSam will use some power, but it's tiny. Kernel is the core of the operating system. Wakelock is when an app prevents the phone from sleeping - normal up to a point, but if an app or service goes wrong and simply stops the phone sleeping at all it's useful to know which is responsible, as that will reduce life (particularly standby life).
 
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Well, 30min for 1-2% on idle is certainly possible. I have a Galaxy V I use in my work and it goes at around that rate since I'm on vacation and it's just sitting idle with no data connection active and no incoming calls or texts.

Basically, on standby, if you are connected to the internet, 1% over 10min is certainly fine. That's how my Note 2 goes normally. Of course this goes up higher at night as I sleep when I have my phone automated to turn off internet, where I get about 2-3% per hour.

The only thing I'd think that may be causing your issue is an internet connection or background sync.
 
It just seems to me that I had a wonderfully functioning phone before and I never had to do anything special. I always had auto-sync on, I never had to worry about turning location on or off, etc. I have my texting app open for 5 minutes and it eats 3% of my battery, whereas before, 5 minutes wouldn't have even taken 1%. Can anyone break down what is TYPICAL battery consumption for the S5 with certain app usage? If I have my texting app open and I'm using it for 10 minutes, how much should I expect my battery to drain? If I'm on the phone for 30 minutes, how much should I expect my battery to drain? I've become so paranoid that my battery is draining that I am no longer enjoying my phone. :[
 
You'll probably get a better answer by posting over in our S5 forum, as that way more S5 owners will see your post and be able to give you first-hand answers.

I can tell you anecdotally that from browsing various threads over the last year I've seen people posting estimates of their screen-on time per charge varying between 3.5 hours to 6 hours. That variation can be due to what people do with their phones (e.g. gaming drains much faster than ebook reading), how bright they set the display, whether they use white or dark backgrounds (white backgrounds use much more power with AMOLED), whether using LTE, 3G or WiFi, etc, etc. But if I take 6 hours as a "typical" number that's 1% lost every 3-4 minutes on average, so what you are seeing now doesn't sound crazy to me. I'd take the total screen-on time per charge as a better estimate of lifetime than the reported drain over a couple of minutes' use as that's very prone to fluctuations, while a measurement over a longer period will be more accurate.
 
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