Database Users

Google Maps is Killing Battery - Just Started

In the last few days, my battery has been eaten alive. And when I checked the culprit, the phone says it's Maps (Google Maps). This behavior just started a few days ago. I have GPS turned off and as far as I can tell, Maps is inactive. Has anyone else experienced this and is there a fix?

oooh...i have this problem too. it started a few days ago and google maps is showing usage as high as 85% and my battery is getting eaten up so fast. it never did that before...i wonder if it's from the update (I'm pretty sure i loaded an update just before it started but i can't remember)
anyone know how to fix this? I LOVE google maps and can't stop using it but i don't like my diminished battery, especially after finally getting great life out of it!

Spot on--I also did an update, but can't recall exactly when. If you go to the Manage Applications option and select Maps, there is an option for uninstalling the update. I did that and I'm going to see what effect that has.

By the way, another way this problem manifests itself is that it takes about twice as long to charge the phone as it did just a few days ago. So whatever is eating the battery (I still think its Maps) continues to draw lots of power when the phone is trying to charge.

pixelpop said:
By the way, another way this problem manifests itself is that it takes about twice as long to charge the phone as it did just a few days ago. So whatever is eating the battery (I still think its Maps) continues to draw lots of power when the phone is trying to charge.
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I can confirm that Google Map = battery killer.

Same battery eating symptoms, I also uninstalled updates and am gonna see what the effects are.
Sent from my HTC Evo 4G using the XDA App

This issue is getting a lot of user group exposure--wonder why no one here has commented on it? Rather than post a bunch of links, just Google "google maps android battery" and read up on it. Bottom line: apparently a reboot fixes the issue until you use Maps again. Then you have to reboot again. Sure hope Google is on top of this one!

I uninstalled the upgrade. What it does after the upgrade, is that if you kill it, it comes back in less than a second. It's there again. And it will never go away. At least with this app we have the option of uninstalling the upgrade. It's taking a lot of resources, and I seldom use it.... not worth it

Dunno if this is related, but when Yelp had an update a little while ago it was eating my battery up similarly, under battery use "Maps" would be in the 70-90% range of use.
They fixed this in a update a few days later, I'm sure this could also be taken care of.
By the way, I have done the froyo update and did a download of the latest maps and haven't noticed anything unusual in the battery use relating to maps, and I used the map app to find a few things.

Google Maps just received a significant update a few days ago with integration of Google Places directory...Looking in System Panel I see that there's a com.google.android.apps.maps: MapsBackgroundService...Dunno if that's been there I only just got System Panel 2 days ago.

I just uninstalled the maps update and noticed that the size of the program decreased from 8mb to about 2.5mb. I have also noticed a huge difference in my battery life as well since installing the update. Hopefully uninstalling it helps.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

firemedic624 said:
I just uninstalled the maps update and noticed that the size of the program decreased from 8mb to about 2.5mb. I have also noticed a huge difference in my battery life as well since installing the update. Hopefully uninstalling it helps.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you check Maps 4.4.0 reviews on Market, some others users have reported this problem.
Way to go Google Maps Android team!

Thought I was the only one having this problem. I actually just checked and its is up to 93%. They need to have it so you can quit it like you can navigation.

Sokesleezy said:
Thought I was the only one having this problem. I actually just checked and its is up to 93%. They need to have it so you can quit it like you can navigation.
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Click to collapse
Settings >> Applications >> Manage Applications >> Running tab >> Maps >> Force Quit

Having same issue, I guess this was occurring months ago too. It didn't do this originally, now it just runs and runs. If you do a reboot it stops it completely...but that sucks. Hopefully we'll see an update SOON. I feel bad for people that don't really know about this or are very technical. They just say, oh my EVO sucks on battery life.

I had unistalled the update and reboot the phone and the battery life seems to be back to where it was (not great, but manageable). I just turned my phone on and had a notice that an update is available for Googler Maps. Does anyone know if this update was the one that was killing my battery or maybe, perhaps, I hope this update fixes the battery problem?

pixelpop said:
I had unistalled the update and reboot the phone and the battery life seems to be back to where it was (not great, but manageable). I just turned my phone on and had a notice that an update is available for Googler Maps. Does anyone know if this update was the one that was killing my battery or maybe, perhaps, I hope this update fixes the battery problem?
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Nope, checked the market. Last update was 5 days ago.

This was happening to me occasionally, before the update. It happened almost every time I used google navigation (still shows up as "maps" in the battery screen). I found that I have to go to menu, exit on navigation to close it. Clicking the "back" button on the phone doesn't seem to properly exit it.
I haven't noticed it happening any more often since the update.
Dave

Google maps eating battery power solved!?
Have 7" Samsung tab and Galaxy S phone, both on Gingerbread and both with google maps 5.9.0. Tab's power usage was 2%. phone 20%!
Uninstalled google maps updates on the phone and power usage was so small it did not register on usage menu. Reinstalled updates and - hey presto - power usage just 2%, the same as the tab. Reckon its update piled on update that caused corruption and the massive increase in battery usage.
Try it. It only takes a few minutes!

My phone seems to be possessed - apps from hell!

Hey guys - I am having a problem with my phone, and I am hoping someone can help? (Running stock/no-root, w/2.3.4)
A few weeks prior to the 2.3.4 release (while on 2.3.3), I noticed that an app called Bump was constantly running in the background (even though I had never launched the app before), and I'd have to constantly go in and manually kill it.
*Also I should note, Google Maps was another constant running app, that I would have to manually kill along with the Bump app.
This got tiresome, and since I wasn't using Bump anyway, I went ahead and uninstalled it. I figured that a recent update to the app/Bump, was the cause. After removing the Bump app, the problem went away (as well as the Google Maps stopped running in the background too - odd I know).
Anyway, the problem is back, but much worse this time - as this past couple of days, my phone is now running a bunch of apps in the background out of the blue!
1) Tango
2) To Market Lite
3) Google Market (even though I have Accounts & Sync/Background Data turned off)
4) Google Music
5) YouTube
6) Photaf
*Note: I have not launched any of the apps listed above in awhile, except for Google Market, which I turn on Background Data for this, and then turn off when I am done.
I have since removed Tango, but it hasn't solved the problem. It seems to happen the most when I turn my phone on (after I reboot, or if I charge over night with the phone turned off), but also will happen when phone is on during the day - with no reboot.
Anyone have an idea what's causing this, or how to fix it? TIA!

The best way to fix this is to stop worrying about it.
Apps do sometimes run in the background or have services waiting for some events to happen - it actuially HELPS battery life and performance and barely consumes any CPU cycles until something happens that triggers the app.
Killing them will drain your battery and make you crazy, more than letting the apps work as designed will.

patrixl said:
The best way to fix this is to stop worrying about it.
Apps do sometimes run in the background or have services waiting for some events to happen - it actuially HELPS battery life and performance and barely consumes any CPU cycles until something happens that triggers the app.
Killing them will drain your battery and make you crazy, more than letting the apps work as designed will.
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Thank you for the feedback. I just found it odd that this just started happening, especially since some of the apps running were apps I haven't launched in ages (or ever used).
Also (and I forgot to mention in my post above), that a couple of the apps were running so hardcore - that it set off the alarm in Watchdog, as an app draining my battery and memory - telling me to kill it. So idk what to think, other than I find this behavior a bit odd.

Many of them are set to run based on conditions, like bootup, wifi on, widget added, etc. If you hate it, download autostarts from the market.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA Premium App

i have a similar issue but as stated above i just leave them alone

Unused Google Maps still eats my battery?

Hi Folks
I did search for this before posting..
I have a SGS andriod v.2.3.3. My phone is set up:
Using Stock samsung SMS, MMS and dialer interfaces.
GPS and WiFi Off (except when i need Wifi)
Background data and auto-sync OFF
Latitude Signed Out.
Yet for some reason Google Maps is always running, even if I force kill it, it still reboots after about 2 mins and its using 45% of my battery resources. My battery only lasts about 36 hours of casual light use and is on standby when im in bed.
I have been thinking of turning off "Use WIreless Networks", but do i need to?.
I dont use Google Maps, as i dont drive and dont really travel many places beyond work or friends. I very rarely if every use Pyont or latitude.
I do love this phone and I know Google like to know where and who you are, but is there any way of dumping or swtiching off google Maps and maybe switching to better Mapping, because even though i dont use GPS today, Im not saying I never will.
Many Thanks
Night

very strange. its not normal for google maps to do that. maybe you should try a new rom like jvq.
you can get rid of google maps entirely if you have root, just delete it from the system/apps folder. but i don't really reommend this. Im sure there must be another way to fix ur problem.

Ya i had the same problem since i last updated maps. Uninstalling the update did the trick

Download the Autostarts app. It can kill and app from staring up in various states, like just afer start up, switching connectivity (like wifi to 3G) and many others. You'd be surprised at what's running on your phone and when it starts up.

Many thanks for both replies...
Ill remove the update and report back., but give me a few days though .
There are many threads all over the web about this Google Maps problem, but ill have a look at the ROMs Thanks.
I did buy this phone pre-owned and just replaced the battery (official Samsung 1500mah one), but its still drinking it.
My HTC Wildfire got 5 days out of its battery with the settings above, to be fair, now that SamsungApps are buying up android apps such as Angry birds, accuweather & clock, Sms widgets & news.. I wonder if I need android at all.
A few questions..
Do I need "Use Wireless Networks" switched on for the phone itself. I have read of folk using GPS ON instead.
I do realise that google android powers the phone so dumping their maps may affect the phone & sms itself, but Is there an alternative to Google Maps, which whern active might deactivate theirs.
Thanks
Night
Thanks Devenblue4u.... sorry, you were typing as I was replying.. hehe. Will definetly try this because ReChild App Killer isnt that good.
Night

Ok, Ran a few battery tests and using the settings in my OP, I also turned off "Use Wireless Networks" and got the Battery to 3days, 17hours, which is good.
I did try the Autostarts app as well, but it kept locking uyp and resetting my phone.
I uninstalled Googles update, but that didnt help.
TO test I.. Force stop all the 3 instances of google Maps > Clear maps Cache > Turn off Wireless Networks, and this seems to stop Maps from searching my position.
Although this solves my battery issue, which is great.. It does just become a Samsung Wave, which means, I have to turn it all back on again to do any of the Galaxys good stuff, which makes me wonder if im not crippling my phone.
Any thoughts from anyone would be great
Cheers
Night

As suggested m8, flash another rom, look for something that has good reports in the thread comments, jvq as mentioned.

NightOrchid, there's nothing wrong with your phone. It's a bug in Google Maps since 5.4.0. If you check the user reviews on Android Market, you'll see that many people have the same problem. Mine also uses a chunk of the battery when I don't even use it. The phone reports that it keeps using the GPS with Latitude turned off. I have to force-stop it twice after restarting the phone.

Uncheck the network location and kill the Map's Network Location Service from running apps.
This worked for me on JVQ, Maps 5.7 (modded version for world navigation)

Try Autorun Manager if Autostarts failed. In Advanced mode, you can search for Maps and disable event triggers like startup, application removed, replaced and installed. And if it's running as service, don't kill it by task killer, use the built-in one, just force stop and you'll be okay.

Android OS eating my battery up..why?

Hello everyone...
so I got the S4 about a week and a half ago and I really love it. When I first got it the battery life was great and the screen was the top killer of my battery as expected. But over the past 4 days the android os has been taking up 65% of my battery. I feel like it might be an app but then why would an app show under android os? Anyone have ideas or tip?

That happened to me on a custom rom, but not on stock. Which are you on?

I am on stock I have not rooted it as of yet.

I'd personally recommend rooting and then installing both Greenify and Better Battery Stats. Most likely it's an app running in the background and/or waking your phone up. A couple common things to watch out for:
- What are your location settings in both Maps and Facebook? Both are notorious for waking your phone up (sometimes 100 times per hour) to repeatedly report your location. If they are set to report from your device, I would turn location off and see if it fixes your battery issue.
- Google Now (to a lesser extent that Facebook and Maps) tends to search for your location as well. I personally turn Google Now off.

mjs2011 said:
I'd personally recommend rooting and then installing both Greenify and Better Battery Stats. Most likely it's an app running in the background and/or waking your phone up. A couple common things to watch out for:
- What are your location settings in both Maps and Facebook? Both are notorious for waking your phone up (sometimes 100 times per hour) to repeatedly report your location. If they are set to report from your device, I would turn location off and see if it fixes your battery issue.
- Google Now (to a lesser extent that Facebook and Maps) tends to search for your location as well. I personally turn Google Now off.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the help, i will try that...but would both of those things show up under Android OS?

i think it is normal if you do not use your phone usually , android os should is the opera system of you smart phone.

Google now widget causing high CPU usage

I have a moto pure running 6.0. Recently I ran into an issue with the google search bar crashing every time i tried a search. I went an uninstalled the google app, rebooted and reinstalled. This resolved the crash with google search but started another issue.
I was having the google app being my number 2 battery user with high CPU pretty much spot on matching the screen time - the device was warm and battery life reduced by 3x from my normal. I installed a CPU monitoring app and noticed that the CPU usage was about 15% continuous for the google search bar googleqicksearchbox:search and googlequicksearchbox together take about 15% and don't stop.
I've tried:
uninstalling the google app, reboot, reinstall
cleared caches for the google app
cleared caches for the google now launcher
uninstalled and reinstalled the google now launcher
Nothing resolved the issue until i did this:
If i remove the google app 4x3 widget the CPU returns to normal - battery returns to normal.
So, it appears to be related to the widget. Does anyone have any other ideas on how to resolve this so i can use the widget? I figure I might be stuck with having to factory reset to resolve.

Google App update constantly listens to audio.
You see it too?
There seems to have been an update on 2/19/16 that broke it, and my own device seems to have picked up the update on 2/26. I noticed that the battery was draining very quickly for the past couple of days, even when idle with the screen off, though it wasn't warm or anything as is usually the case when something goes awry. GSam Battery Stats showed the usual mess of inexplicable Googleness chomping at things, using sensors, and being Googley, but nothing grossly out of the ordinary.
And with the screen on, doing the usual non-intensive things I do, I could watch the battery percentage drop precipitously: 4 percent in a few minutes.
I was using Google Now Launcher, and figured that might be related. I switched to a different launcher, no change. Rebooted for good measure and to make sure Google Now Launcher was definitely not running, no change.
Then I froze the Google App in TiBackup, and the problem went away.
I honed into it being Google App by using top. In a terminal: top -t -b 16. Screenshot: i.imgur.com/19bVXsG.png (no link because I'm too n00b here).
Of note in the screenshot is PID 14272. It's got a lot of threads going, which is not unexpected.
What was unexpected is that some of them were listening to audio. The thread names are abbreviated by top, but one of the threads (14582) is MicrophoneReade which occasionally showed some CPU usage. Another constantly-active thread (14581) is MicroRecognitio, a name which implies TTS. And PID 787, /system/bin/mediaserver, was pretty insistent on using CPU as well with its thread (14584) called AudioIn_2D, verifying that audio was being recorded.
All of this disappeared from top when I froze Google App.
To be clear, I don't use the "OK Google" always-listening function because it drains the battery quickly on my device, but I did have "OK Google" enabled on the home screen. However that shouldn't be happening with another launcher that has no (zero) widgets enabled at all.
So it shouldn't have been listening at all, but it was listening all the time. And this was apparently computationally expensive, and thus hungry for battery.
Samsung Galaxy S5, VZW, running MOAR and Xposed.

My particular issue seems to be related to the 4x3 google now widget. I can use the Google now launcher just fine, till I add that widget then a things go to hell... I really like that widget...

This same thing happened to me on my M9 starting on 2/26. It was getting seriously hot (110-120F) all the time and battery was draining at 33% an hour idle. Navigation was also very choppy and slow. Verizon actually sent me a replacement phone due to the constant over heating and factory resets. Once i got my new one I didn't restore from backup and loaded apps one by one. Sure enough as soon as the NOW widget was added, the phone slowed down and heated up.
With the widget off now for 2 days i am getting my usual 12 hours battery and the temp hasn't gone over 100 F.

Big news from my perspective. Last night I got a Google app update. Today the widget no longer slows down the phone /no more hot phone. Seems like the update fixed it for me... Time will tell.

That's why I don't use that crap! lol. Spies I tell you, spies.

Big news from my perspective. Last night I got a Google app update. Today the widget no longer slows down the phone /no more hot phone. Seems like the update fixed it for me... Time will tell.