Samsung S7 battery draining fast after Oreo update

[Becky]

Has anyone else been experiencing poor battery performance since the Android 8.0 Oreo update? My phone battery used to last a full day easily with moderate use, but now I have to charge it during the day otherwise it's running too low by the evening. Before the update I had recently formatted my phone, and I'm still in the process of getting apps set up again - in short, my usage isn't as high as it used to be but the battery performance is worse, and I'm pretty sure this coincided with the Oreo update.

Anyone else experiencing these problems with an Android phone? I guess it could be a Samsung only problem, but it would be useful to know if anyone else has had issues.

 

[V_R]

You wouldn't be the first to mention this. There are some tweaks you can do, like turning off bluetooth scanning in location settings.

Is something keeping it awake? I take it there are no clues in the battery stats? You could try installing something like GSam Battery stats and see it if show up the culprit.

Do you use the Facebook app?

I'm currently on the Android P beta on my Pixel 2XL, the battery is great! To my surprise!

 

[Becky]

That's a good point re GSam, I used to use it before I formatted my phone. Just downloaded it so we'll see what it says...

I have Bluetooth always on, it can't sync with my FitBit otherwise. This does affect the battery, but it was always on before I did the format and battery life was ok then. I don't use Facebook either.

Interesting about the Android P beta being better for battery life! I'm really starting to go off Samsung, it's always so behind. Not sure what I'd go for next though!

 

[V_R]

Tbh, the battery on my Pixel has always been good back on Nougat and Oreo, I was just expecting the beta to be less optimised as they usually are!

One thing to note, make sure something like one of the Google sync services hasn't got 'stuck' in the background and is keeping the phone awake, I've had that happen to me a few times on my Samsung tablet, not sure what causes it though...

 

[Becky]

Turns out I can't used the GSam app to tell me which apps are sucking up power because my S7 is a non-root device. I'm seeing what I can do via the Samsung power monitoring, although it gives less data than the GSam app unfortunately. Why is nothing in life ever easy?!

 

[EvanDavis]

My S7 is still on 7.0, but friends that are on 8.0 haven't said they have any issues yet.

 

[EvanDavis]

Turns out I can't used the GSam app to tell me which apps are sucking up power because my S7 is a non-root device.

GSam runs fine on my S7 and it isn't rooted

 

[Becky]

I hadn't realised you had an S7 too @EvanDavis! Are you planning on upgrading to Oreo any time soon? You'll have to let me know how you get on if you do.

GSam runs fine on my S7 and it isn't rooted

It used to run fine on mine too and gave me a full breakdown of usage by each app. I wonder if it's because you're on an older version of Android?

 

[EvanDavis]

Are you planning on upgrading to Oreo any time soon

I'll upgrade as soon as it is available for mine. I only just updated to 7.0 a couple of days ago. Last year while in South Africa I did a factory reset on my phone and now my updates seem to be out of sync with UK updates.

 

[Ian]

I really don't like the latest update - count your blessings @EvanDavis .

 

[EvanDavis]

My S7 update to 8.0 yesterday evening. All went well except I had to sign in to everything again once the update was done. Fell asleep last night listening to music and when I woke up around 7am this morning I still had 85% battery. All seems good so far. I will watch battery life over the next few days.

 

[Ian]

My S7 update to 8.0 yesterday evening. All went well except I had to sign in to everything again once the update was done. Fell asleep last night listening to music and when I woke up around 7am this morning I still had 85% battery. All seems good so far. I will watch battery life over the next few days.

Funnily enough, I was just whinging about battery life a few minutes ago (down to 70% since this morning)... so I'd be really interested to see how it goes for you in a few days. I've already done a factory reset, cache partition wipe and insatlled G-Sam - but it's still draining faster than I'd like. Fingers crossed it keeps working for you .

 

[EvanDavis]

I'm at 50% battery now. Not been using the phone but Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are logged in so getting notifications if that actually affects battery life.

 

[Becky]

I usually charge my phone overnight, apart from when my fitbit is running low on battery so I charge my phone in the evening and plug my fitbit in overnight. When I got to sleep my phone is at 100%, and when I wake up in the morning it's usually at 50% (even if I close all open apps etc). Still haven't figured out what is draining the battery but I'm going to test browsers and see if that's the problem...

 

[EvanDavis]

Well my battery has died a horrid death. I went from charging my phone once a week to twice in one day. Woke up and phone was on 13% so stuck the charger in. Short time later it was at 100% so unplugged the charger. Not even 5 hours later it was down to 33%. I wasn't using it other than Fartbook, Twatter and Instacrap being logged in. Took it to my local phone shop and they first checked the charger then the phone. Battery is not holding charge. They will do a replacement for £39.99 with receipts to prove it is a genuine Samsung battery.

My question is shouldn't Samsung have a warranty on batteries etc ??

 

[V_R]

Get rid of removable batteries they said. They're pointless they said.

Sorry to rub it in but Pie on my 2XL is great for battery life!

 

[Ian]

My question is shouldn't Samsung have a warranty on batteries etc ??

How old is the phone now @EvanDavis? May be worth pushing them to see if they'll repair it. There are some statutory rights for up to 6 years for devices like this, but I don't know how much luck you'll have. I've recently had a free out of warranty repair on my TomTom after gently pushing.

My battery has been better behaved in recent updates, but I did do a full wipe and cache clean around the same time.

Get rid of removable batteries they said. They're pointless they said.

Yup... I would buy a future phone based on this "feature"!

 

[V_R]

I should add, my other half has my old S7 Edge, and her battery as far as I know has been fine. Mind you with the amount of time she spends on Facebook and playing silly games, you would be hard pressed to discern any battery draining issues in the first place.