Galaxy S3 Battery Drain Problem

[TommasoMauro]

I received a beautiful Galaxy S3 two days ago and it is absolutely stunning!  Unfortunately, the battery drains so fast that it is a huge let down... I read online here http://www.androidauthority.com/galaxy-s3-battery-drain-issue-fix-97838/ about the issue and it describes my situation exactly.

I have shut off all of the data and sync features (meaning no internet access or e-mail) and turned on all power saving options available and, with a full charge, the battery is showing a 77% capacity left after 4 hours with 5 hours left to go.  God forbid I start making calls!  So, basically, I have a very nice plastic phone for now :-(

Is anyone else having these problems???

[smooth4lyfe]

Hmmmm havent noticed it on mine....do you have the international version?

Also there is a fix to the problem on the bottom of the page of that link you provided....u can try that if you are willing to be tech savvy

[chrishd32]

I had the same issue when I first recieved my Galaxy S3, but there are some easy steps that helped me save battery life to the point that I now have a phone that survives a full day of use. First, launch the S- Voice crap of "Siri" imitation that Samsung included and go to its settings. Once there turn off the wake up command. This feature really drains the battery and I find it so unnecessary to have on in the first place. The only thing it does is allow you to jump into S Voice by stating a command but you can easily do this by double tapping the home button. 

The second thing to do is to turn off the LTE radio and continue using the phone on 3g and 4G HSDPA+, actually if you dont live in an LTE area you are better off turning it off anyways since the phone will constantly be looking for LTE signal even if you dont live in an LTE area. The constant search for LTE network is a huge power drainer. I personally live in an LTE area (New York City) and I love the speeds it provides but yet I have it turned off for most of the day and only turn it on when I need the fast download speeds. You can do this by creating a second APN under Access Points. 

[TommasoMauro]

Thank you for your reply... I pre-ordered the phone from AT&T in the US earlier this month.  I have model number SGH I747.  if I shut all the data communication off, then I actually have a phone that can be used the entire day and keeps its charge all night, but if I turn on the data, then the battery evaporates :-)

[TommasoMauro]

Appreciate that! I did the S-Voice change and have also turned off the LTE..

[JFizDaWiz]

My buddy got this phone and was on hour 36 with 20% battery. Phone sounds awesome

[yorkie10]

I have At&t Galaxy S3 and experiencing battery drain problem. In 10 hours, the GS3 battery has only 20% left. I did not use much at all. I also noticed the phone is a little hot even though the phone is not used. I also notice connection issue with 4GLTE, WIFI and Bluetooth. I have to turn off and on to make them working again.

[oliverdstone]

chrishd32, What are the proper setting for a new APN which will disable LTE. I'm trying to figure out how to disable 4G/LTE and only use 3G. I live in an area where 4g is one bar if not none. Speedtest.net app is only showing 800 kbs and my signal strengh is around -105 dBm. Thank you.

[smooth4lyfe]

How I fixed my battery problem:

You guys should try JuiceDefender...the app from the Google Play store....it really helps sove the problem and you dont notice any difference in performance on the phone...they have a free one, but the Plus version is worth it

Lower your screen brightness to about 10% instead of like 30% which people usually do...its still really bright at 10% and visible. DO NOT use Auto Brightness

Dont have your email, weather or any widget check every 15 min for an update, that takes power...i have mine check every hour...u dont need to be reminded that frequently

[gkamer]

I searched the web for storys about the batery problem some folks are reporting with their new Samsung Galaxy 3 phones and found this story:

Battery Issues

Not sure if this is the cause of everyones problems might it might be a place to start.

[jim200]

I bought Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate 5 days ago after reading the specifications of the phone. The good: it has nice interface.
Now the bad: The battery charge lasts 36 hours vs specified 250 hours.
Here is the info from the specs:
Battery
Talk: 7 hours max.   (420 minutes)
Standby: 250 hours max.   (10.4 days)
1750 mAh LiIon, Removable
I actually did not use this phone to make calls, play games, or anything other than checking the battery every few hours. The phone lasted on one battery charge 36 hours. Little math shows, it is 15% of the specified time. I contacted ATT support and they said they don't know how to make the phone to be on standby so that it will last 250 hours. (By the way I would accept 150 or 100 hours). ATT said ask Samsung. So I called Samsung. Let me say that before this experience I had Samsung in a high respect. I called Samsung and spoke with supervisor Josia. He told me that Samsung considers a phone delivering 15% of specified performance perfectly good. I asked him how do I get 250 hours. He did not know. Conclusion: The specification of 250 hours is total fraud.

[redpoint73 ACE - Professor]

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jim200 wrote:

I bought Samsung Galaxy Exhilarate 5 days ago after reading the specifications of the phone. The good: it has nice interface.
Now the bad: The battery charge lasts 36 hours vs specified 250 hours.
Here is the info from the specs:
Battery
Talk: 7 hours max.   (420 minutes)
Standby: 250 hours max.   (10.4 days)
1750 mAh LiIon, Removable
I actually did not use this phone to make calls, play games, or anything other than checking the battery every few hours. The phone lasted on one battery charge 36 hours. Little math shows, it is 15% of the specified time. I contacted ATT support and they said they don't know how to make the phone to be on standby so that it will last 250 hours. (By the way I would accept 150 or 100 hours). ATT said ask Samsung. So I called Samsung. Let me say that before this experience I had Samsung in a high respect. I called Samsung and spoke with supervisor Josia. He told me that Samsung considers a phone delivering 15% of specified performance perfectly good. I asked him how do I get 250 hours. He did not know. Conclusion: The specification of 250 hours is total fraud.

---

Standby means the phone is powered on, but in airplane mode and screen off.  Yes, this specification is pretty much irrelevant, since the phone is useless in airplane mode, and if you turn the screen on, its no longer in "standby".   Specs for battery life given by manufacturers is mostly irrelevent and close to worthless.  Your best bet before buying is to read online reviews that discuss battery life.

Smartphones are pretty much designed to get your through the day, and charge them every night.  So in those terms, 36 hours is not bad.  But it completely depends on how you use your phone.  For example, most smartphones will only get you 4-5 hours of heavy use, with the screen on the whole time.

[maheshtvm]

guys.. Samsung has a serious problem to fix (other than Iphone lawsuit :-)

AFter all the pomp raised with S3, the battery drain issue is just a shame.  I feel like cheated into this.  I own two S3s and now I regret it.

I am being told things like turn off wireless, turn off 4G, etc etc... you know I wouldn't have bought an S3, if I wanted to turn off all features and use this like a candy phone from 15 years ago!!

All the carriers including ATT have bragged so much about these phone features... just a shame.

I travel a lot and this is now a useless toy for me with need to charge it every 4 hrs!!!   There are some online petitions going on.[Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate].

[redpoint73 ACE - Professor]

---

maheshtvm wrote:

guys.. Samsung has a serious problem to fix (other than Iphone lawsuit :-)

AFter all the pomp raised with S3, the battery drain issue is just a shame.  I feel like cheated into this.  I own two S3s and now I regret it.

I am being told things like turn off wireless, turn off 4G, etc etc... you know I wouldn't have bought an S3, if I wanted to turn off all features and use this like a candy phone from 15 years ago!!

All the carriers including ATT have bragged so much about these phone features... just a shame.

I travel a lot and this is now a useless toy for me with need to charge it every 4 hrs!!!  [Per Guidelines:  Keep it Relevant and Appropriate]..

---

Has it occurred to you, that you just may have a defective phone, and to try exchanging it?  You can exchange for a brand new one within 30 days of purchase.

There are a ton of factors that deermine battery life.  But it just may be that you have a defective unit.  You should also try taking the screen brightness off "Auto" check your push and other sync settings, etc.

[angryshortguy]

My S3 does the same thing and heats up when the problem is occuring.

It turned out to be an app trying to update, but getting stuck.

I was able to fix it by going into the updating apps, stopping the update, and starting the update again.

This "kicked it" into finishing and stopped overheating and draining my battery.

Hope this helps...

[ameykhare]

I suggest to uninstall applications that you rarely use. If the application has web version and providing the same features go for it. Bookmark it for easy access.

[Kay2013LSKC]

I've had my SG3 for about 6 months. I was told battery charge would depend on time used an amount of apps an files etc that you have on phone as to how often you will need to charge. I use mine a lot during the day and evening. So that I just have time to charge it before bed. If I don't use it much the battery will last me 2 to 3 days. The only thing I have done is turn on battery saver. The other I try to do each day is turn off my phone for a couple of minutes. That way my phone can receive up grades and dates. I was told if I did this each day it would help. I have done this an I enjoy my phone so much. I would not trade sg3 for another phone at this point. I have been checking out the s note 2... my buy one in few months...

[jesse6895]

I had this exact issue. Just by not using my phone, my battery was discharging at a rate of 1% every 10 minutes, even as all applications were closed, network disabled, wifi disabled, sync off, power saving mode on and not using the phone.

I downloaded Wakelock Detector and through that I could see that even while the phone was not in use, there were processes continuously running and the CPU was continuously working, such that 95% of the time the CPU was working and less than 5% was the phone actually in standby mode, or in other words asleep where the battery power is conserved.

Namely, the Google Location Services process was continuously running, despite having location services in the settings disabled. The resolution for me was to go to settings -> application manager -> all -> and disabling any application I didn't use, especially daemon processes, and google maps. Now the battery drain rate is about 1% every 2 hours when not in use.