Best tool for troubleshooting battery usage? - Verizon Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

So, I got the bootloader unlocked, TWRP 3.0.0-0 installed, MM6.01 PF4 installed with root. I had a TWRP backup from Lollipop that I used to restore data back into MM. Now, I frequently feel a pretty warm phone and have some pretty bad battery life and I'd like to troubleshoot that and I'm wondering if there is an app that reports on battery consumption and what process or app is guilty of the consumption?
I know I could wipe apps and data and manually restore the world but I'm equally interested in trying to troubleshoot...

tgeery said:
So, I got the bootloader unlocked, TWRP 3.0.0-0 installed, MM6.01 PF4 installed with root. I had a TWRP backup from Lollipop that I used to restore data back into MM. Now, I frequently feel a pretty warm phone and have some pretty bad battery life and I'd like to troubleshoot that and I'm wondering if there is an app that reports on battery consumption and what process or app is guilty of the consumption?
I know I could wipe apps and data and manually restore the world but I'm equally interested in trying to troubleshoot...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using GSam battery monitor. It calculates battery usage whenever the phone is not plugged into a power source.
Under normal circumstances, your screen and the apps you actively use should be your main power draws. If you see supposedly background apps above them, you might need to consider an alternative. You should also contact the app's developer, because this may be easily fixable, or may be a bug that they need to fix.
Unfortunately, "Android System" will always appear to have a relatively high power use percentage under normal circumstances because it lumps all of the hundreds of processes and applets that make up the operating system into "Android System". You can open that to view these in a little more detail, but if your problem originates there you might be powerless to stop it.
One common cause of battery drain that you actually can stop if you see it is "android media process". If you have a corrupted media file on your sd card, the media process will get itself caught in a loop trying to parse and catalog it. If you see this happening, search your sd card for any media files (audio, video, or picture) with a size of 0 kb and delete them.

painiac said:
I've been using GSam battery monitor. It calculates battery usage whenever the phone is not plugged into a power source.
Under normal circumstances, your screen and the apps you actively use should be your main power draws. If you see supposedly background apps above them, you might need to consider an alternative. You should also contact the app's developer, because this may be easily fixable, or may be a bug that they need to fix.
Unfortunately, "Android System" will always appear to have a relatively high power use percentage under normal circumstances because it lumps all of the hundreds of processes and applets that make up the operating system into "Android System". You can open that to view these in a little more detail, but if your problem originates there you might be powerless to stop it.
One common cause of battery drain that you actually can stop if you see it is "android media process". If you have a corrupted media file on your sd card, the media process will get itself caught in a loop trying to parse and catalog it. If you see this happening, search your sd card for any media files (audio, video, or picture) with a size of 0 kb and delete them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for that, I appreciate the response. I'll check it out. some of my high battery usage recently has been related to having to work at a location where there is almost no signal and I know the phone is working hard to keep connected...

Related

Download Process - Cpu hog?

I've rebooted the Tab a few times, but in OS Monitor, the "Download" process is running all time time using at least 30% processor!
What's the deal; anyone know? I'm unrooted and running the latest Tw update.
Thanks!
Ended up being MediaServer running. I stopped in in Manage Applications->Running. I stopped it and my CPU went to normal levels. My home screen responses got alot better too.
I vaguely remember this issue on my Samsung Fascinate too.... MediaServer always got hung up on some type of sync'ing.
I'm having the same issue. So what is actually causing this? Any way to disable the mediaserver all together? It seems to keep re-starting itself eventually.
I haven't found a way. It doesn't affect battery life as far as I can see, but it lags my Netflix if its running because its already sapping up 50%+ CPU.
Yeah, I've noticed that the tab gets laggy when it's running, and it speeds up a lot when I kill it in OS Monitor. That's my main reason for wanting it closed. It doesn't seem to affect battery life while the screen is off, but when the screen is on (such as reading an ebook) it absolutely reduces battery life. I just tried freezing it in Titanium Backup but it resulted in all the gapps (such as Gmail) crashing and refusing to open after rebooting.
I also noticed that on some boots, it's DRM Protected Storage Content rather than Download Manager. I just froze that instead and haven't noticed any issues from it yet, but I won't know for sure until rebooting.
I'm having a very similar issue, though it's process.android.media that is causing the problems. I have to manually kill the Media Storage service several times per day. It's quite annoying.
funnelweaver said:
I'm having a very similar issue, though it's process.android.media that is causing the problems. I have to manually kill the Media Storage service several times per day. It's quite annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This Media application is what calls the Download Manager service. Killing this app also kills the service that's using alot of CPU processing.
I've noticed that I get a lot of errors in logcat pertaining to the sdcard. They are usually right around the time that a media process starts up, but I have hundreds of them throughout the log:
E/Environment( 1250): getExternalStorageState/mnt/sdcard
E/Environment( 1695): getExternalStorageState/mnt/sdcard
See attached screenshot.
It appears something is wrong with reading the sdcard, and I'm guessing this is maybe causing the media process to hang eating all the cpu?

mediaserver is killing my battery!

Mediaserver killing anyone else battery? Media server is is working while my phone is idle.
Better Battery Stats and figure out which program. Its something you loaded 100% sure... Start uninstall till you find out which one.
Are you playing music?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium
tvp480 said:
Mediaserver killing anyone else battery? Media server is is working while my phone is idle.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been in the habit since my S2 LTE i727 of clearing out my background apps. With the S4, I hold down the home button which will show all current apps, click on the icon at the right (three lines with an X). This will kill the apps you last run and should help.
rsarwar said:
I have been in the habit since my S2 LTE i727 of clearing out my background apps. With the S4, I hold down the home button which will show all current apps, click on the icon at the right (three lines with an X). This will kill the apps you last run and should help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This usually doesn't kill the background process. I had issues when I first got the phone with Google services hogging battery. Used Gsam battery to figure out what is running and then you can disable whatever you don't need. But first you have to figure out what exactly is using the battery.
I thought I read somewhere that if your SD card is bad and you are playing media off of it, it was causing something to stay awake and eat battery. Though, I could have just imagined that???
hamzer11 said:
This usually doesn't kill the background process. I had issues when I first got the phone with Google services hogging battery. Used Gsam battery to figure out what is running and then you can disable whatever you don't need. But first you have to figure out what exactly is using the battery.
I thought I read somewhere that if your SD card is bad and you are playing media off of it, it was causing something to stay awake and eat battery. Though, I could have just imagined that???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read about the SD card issue as well. I had issues initially with Google Maps eating battery, not as bad as some have reported but still it bothered me. Media Services running was a bit of a pain as well. Then I read someone mentioned that a factory reset should be done, so then I backup what little I had and did the reset. Now, the phone is much better than before along with me doing the home button, removing apps thing .. battery easily goes for 2.5 days (data usage via LTE and wifi on when needed and gaming / music) I also turn on airplane mode at night. My SD card is a 16gb Class 10 Sandisk which previously used on my S2 LTE i727 from Rogers which I formatted prior to using on the S4.
Hope my little tid bit helps
Mediaserver is a biotch. If you have a bad Media file on your card the phone looks for a way to decode whatever .ext (extension) the media file has and will continue to do so until it finds the correct decoder. When you have a bad file mediaserver continues to loop over and over until you get rid of that file. Best bet is to back up all your stuff onto your pc and format the card. Then re-load the card and this should rid of your mediaserver drain.
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[Q] Pretty bad battery life, help please?

I'm not seeing the battery life everyone does with the phone, and frankly I am not sure if it's a hardware or software issue.
For starters, I have excessive battery drain while on WiFi and not using the phone - about 3%/h according to BetterBatteryStats. It all seems to come from two particular wakelocks - sns_async_ev_wakelock (kernel) and WifiOffDelayIfNotUsed (partial). There is also BlockBeforeSleep but not as obvious as the other two. Also, while on data, I get another massive kernel wakelock - bman_dmux_wakelock.
Right now I have no relevant BBS or GSam screenshots, since my phone is still plugged in. However here's a screenshot of Battery Monitor Widget on a completely full charge - if there's anything wrong with the voltage or other data please tell me, my return window for the phone ends in a week -> screenshot
Tomorrow I will be going out and will use data, so I will post screenshots here and on the GSam thread. If anyone has any idea what I can do about this, please tell me - I absolutely love the phone and it pains me that I can't use it fully.
For what it's worth, the phone is running V10B - seems to be a Taiwan ROM.
First of all, I suggest you to
1. Install Wakelock Detector to determine exactly what is going on with your G2
2. Install CPU Spy to see if your G2 is even going into Deep Sleep as it should.
3. Install Greenefy (root needed) and hibernate all those nasty background apps you don't need running until you need them running.
Cheers!
Rayan said:
First of all, I suggest you to
1. Install Wakelock Detector to determine exactly what is going on with your G2
2. Install CPU Spy to see if your G2 is even going into Deep Sleep as it should.
3. Install Greenefy (root needed) and hibernate all those nasty background apps you don't need running until you need them running.
Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do 1. and 2. have any benefits over BBS? I would also gladly use Greenify but I am not rooted yet.
metalboy94 said:
Do 1. and 2. have any benefits over BBS? I would also gladly use Greenify but I am not rooted yet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All these apps have their own specific uses and purpose and can be used together or on their own.
The first two are for diagnostic purposes and the last one (Greenify) to avoid unnecessary data and memory consumption, thus saving battery.
Have you tried the obvious first? Starting from scratch by doing a hard reset?
Also I would really recommend you to root and get rid of all unnecessary boatware and to control things like boot up processes, startup items, fstrims, etc.
Good luck!

[Q] Android system drain after factory reset.

I'm starting to think the goodness of the Note 3 battery is becoming a joke. What I did was clear my cache partition and did a factory reset after from the recovery menu. I have not installed any other apps yet. I just set up dropbox, play books, email, etc. Normal things for normal use.
I did a reset because my battery was draining before and I thought a reset could resolve it. I need to ask for solutions as this is really giving me a headache.
Don't ask if I have turned off this or that, most probably I did as I read from multiple threads. Those threads are only guessing or otherwise throwing the OP in a loop for the search of answers.
Xda, I need your help to figure out how to SOLVE this stupid drain.
Note on the screenshot: I took that screen after 30 mins after plugging it out. It drained 2% while I was doing absolutely nothing but stare at the Android System bar graph go higher. Its like a plague for the damn phone.
---
Edit:
I installed BBS and here are screenshots of the partial and kernel wakelock. Is this normal though? This happened while I was sleeping overnight and I have not installed any apps other than BBS. This is how my stats were before and my battery is draining fast especially when I'm using my phone.
Thing is, I have set all measures possible to extend battery life non rooted and it goes down by the minute of light use.
Pokkle said:
I'm starting to think the goodness of the Note 3 battery is becoming a joke. What I did was clear my cache partition and did a factory reset after from the recovery menu. I have not installed any other apps yet. I just set up dropbox, play books, email, etc. Normal things for normal use.
I did a reset because my battery was draining before and I thought a reset could resolve it. I need to ask for solutions as this is really giving me a headache.
Don't ask if I have turned off this or that, most probably I did as I read from multiple threads. Those threads are only guessing or otherwise throwing the OP in a loop for the search of answers.
Xda, I need your help to figure out how to SOLVE this stupid drain.
Note on the screenshot: I took that screen after 30 mins after plugging it out. It drained 2% while I was doing absolutely nothing but stare at the Android System bar graph go higher. Its like a plague for the damn phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
at least should mentioned ur model n900 or n9005!?
anyway i did this for my N900 after i got battery draining once and it solve problem;
when it discharge to ~15% turn it off and connect it to charger and let it charging 100%
it can help battery to charge without using it at same time
i mentioned it before several times (in another threads) it s like re-gauging battery.
another thing u can do is flashing another stock firmware
but search for the more stable firmware.
:good:
Sorry! I have the SM-N9005. Bought from the Philippines (Smart carrier)
Pokkle said:
I'm starting to think the goodness of the Note 3 battery is becoming a joke. What I did was clear my cache partition and did a factory reset after from the recovery menu. I have not installed any other apps yet. I just set up dropbox, play books, email, etc. Normal things for normal use.
I did a reset because my battery was draining before and I thought a reset could resolve it. I need to ask for solutions as this is really giving me a headache.
Don't ask if I have turned off this or that, most probably I did as I read from multiple threads. Those threads are only guessing or otherwise throwing the OP in a loop for the search of answers.
Xda, I need your help to figure out how to SOLVE this stupid drain.
Note on the screenshot: I took that screen after 30 mins after plugging it out. It drained 2% while I was doing absolutely nothing but stare at the Android System bar graph go higher. Its like a plague for the damn phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The joys of Android!
Wakelock detector and BetterBatteryStats are your best friend in regards to stuff like that. - Usually it's Alarmmanager or something similar that causes it. What generally fixed it for me was switching ROMS
radicalisto said:
The joys of Android!
Wakelock detector and BetterBatteryStats are your best friend in regards to stuff like that. - Usually it's Alarmmanager or something similar that causes it. What generally fixed it for me was switching ROMS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The joys Android bring me alright...
I downloaded bbs and will check after I wake up!
*rooting, switching roms and other watchamacallit are out of my comfort zone atm. I am trying to read about them alright but idk, I just don't get it lol. The Note 3 is my first Android/smartphone coming from the olden mobile phone days.
Pokkle said:
Sorry! I have the SM-N9005. Bought from the Philippines (Smart carrier)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you also have a microSD or a large amount of custom files in your (internal or external) memory? Since when you do factory-reset you also clear all the preliminary indexes and caches that the system created, and it will work pretty hard to re-index all that after first reboot!
Ahh wise not messing if out of your comfort zone then, sensible guy.
However, have a good read around, you'll find after some heavy duty reading you'll probably feel alright in maybe trying rooting and debloating some apps etc. But then again, you might not. That is one of the best things about Android, you can play around to suit your needs whether novice or pro.
Also, if you do fancy rooting and need help you can post here, or you can just shoot me a PM I'll help you over the first hurdle at least if you want :good:
xclub_101 said:
Do you also have a microSD or a large amount of custom files in your (internal or external) memory? Since when you do factory-reset you also clear all the preliminary indexes and caches that the system created, and it will work pretty hard to re-index all that after first reboot!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I don't have an SD card inserted. This is my second reboot since trying to solve the problem.

[Q] TWO Android systems draining battery??

Good day to you all,
Recently after a small android update (still having version 4.4.2) I noticed the battery was draining faster than I'm used to. Before that, it was consuming roughly 1% per hour in idle. This has changed now to 3-5% per hour. Looking at the battery info I noticed the Android system was the biggest batterysucker here. Not only that, there are even TWO Android systems shown and I began to think there's something wrong here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2908920&stc=1&d=1408796626
Also looking at the wakelocks shows that my phone is barely able to get into sleepmode.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2908921&stc=1&d=1408796626
Before posting this thread I have literally tried every option to see if it could lessen the battery consumption:
- Disabled Google location reporting services
- Disabled GPS
- Disabled Google sync
- Disable Wifi when in Sleep mode
- I don't use Google Now so it's disabled
- Widen the Facebook refresh intervals to 4 hours
- Wiped the cache partition
None of the above worked and I started to think that the second Android system here might be the cause.
Should there be a second Android system consuming battery? What could be the problem here??
JohnnyGui said:
Good day to you all,
Recently after a small android update (still having version 4.4.2) I noticed the battery was draining faster than I'm used to. Before that, it was consuming roughly 1% per hour in idle. This has changed now to 3-5% per hour. Looking at the battery info I noticed the Android system was the biggest batterysucker here. Not only that, there are even TWO Android systems shown and I began to think there's something wrong here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2908920&stc=1&d=1408796626
Also looking at the wakelocks shows that my phone is barely able to get into sleepmode.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2908921&stc=1&d=1408796626
Before posting this thread I have literally tried every option to see if it could lessen the battery consumption:
- Disabled Google location reporting services
- Disabled GPS
- Disabled Google sync
- Disable Wifi when in Sleep mode
- I don't use Google Now so it's disabled
- Widen the Facebook refresh intervals to 4 hours
- Wiped the cache partition
None of the above worked and I started to think that the second Android system here might be the cause.
Should there be a second Android system consuming battery? What could be the problem here??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi ,
is hard to tell with what you show here...get an app like Better Battery Stats
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Let it run for 3-4 hours and check it , the app will tell tell you what is going on....is the only way to find the real culprit
MAX 404 said:
Hi ,
is hard to tell with what you show here...get an app like Better Battery Stats
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Let it run for 3-4 hours and check it , the app will tell tell you what is going on....is the only way to find the real culprit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will this app also show the needed info even when my phone isn't rooted? Because I'm really not into rooting it.
JohnnyGui said:
Will this app also show the needed info even when my phone isn't rooted? Because I'm really not into rooting it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate
This is from the thread :
Q:Why installing BBS as a system app as everything works with root?
A: Starting with Kikat BBS has 3 modes: without root a limited mode provides a minimal set of stats. With root the set of stats is complete but some stats (other, partial wakelocks, processes) still use a workaround. Finally with the system app BBS is fully featured without any workaround.
For this cases root is good to have as it gives you a better access to all the process running , try without root and see what kind of info you get
If it's a conciliation, my android (currently on AOSP) is also running two android systems. Not exactly the same name (Android-System and Android-Besturingssysteem), but you get the idea. You mentioned quite a few things you've already tried, but what about existing widgets and or android apps you've installed? Usually (for me anyway) battery drain is an installed app not exactly behaving nicely.
MAX 404 said:
Hi mate
This is from the thread :
Q:Why installing BBS as a system app as everything works with root?
A: Starting with Kikat BBS has 3 modes: without root a limited mode provides a minimal set of stats. With root the set of stats is complete but some stats (other, partial wakelocks, processes) still use a workaround. Finally with the system app BBS is fully featured without any workaround.
For this cases root is good to have as it gives you a better access to all the process running , try without root and see what kind of info you get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So does this mean I'm not able to see the exact cause of my wakelocks since my phone isn't rooted?? I have installed Gsam Battery monitor from Google Play, hopefully it will give me (and you guys) the relevant information after keeping my phone on idle for a while.
@Skyrider: The weird thing is that in my case, it DOES display the same name twice. Doesn't that seem weird? I can't see any Android OS (besturingssysteem) displayed.
Also, if I have a battery heavy app, shouldn't it be displayed in the battery info screen as well? I only have the Weather widget and a News widget (NU.nl) on my homescreens. Haven't installed many apps except for Facebook and a few games that barely use background processes.
JohnnyGui said:
So does this mean I'm not able to see the exact cause of my wakelocks since my phone isn't rooted?? I have installed Gsam Battery monitor from Google Play, hopefully it will give me (and you guys) the relevant information after keeping my phone on idle for a while.
@Skyrider: The weird thing is that in my case, it DOES display the same name twice. Doesn't that seem weird? I can't see any Android OS (besturingssysteem) displayed.
Also, if I have a battery heavy app, shouldn't it be displayed in the battery info screen as well? I only have the Weather widget and a News widget (NU.nl) on my homescreens. Haven't installed many apps except for Facebook and a few games that barely use background processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let us know what you find ....good luck
JohnnyGui said:
The weird thing is that in my case, it DOES display the same name twice. Doesn't that seem weird? I can't see any Android OS (besturingssysteem) displayed.
Also, if I have a battery heavy app, shouldn't it be displayed in the battery info screen as well? I only have the Weather widget and a News widget (NU.nl) on my homescreens. Haven't installed many apps except for Facebook and a few games that barely use background processes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my opinion, that's the problem with the default battery information. In my years of experience, it usually never knows the information that you need what exactly is braining the battery. If your battery is still being drained, I suggest to remove most of your apps. Only for a day orso. It should be enough to gather the information to know that at least one of your apps was the cause of it.
It's a pain to do it. But It always has helped me rather than relying on apps of which usually doesn't work out for me.
Also. Might be a good idea to alter your system language from Dutch to English and check the battery info again to search for the duplicate running system on google. You'd expect "Android System" being enough, but who knows that a different language might show a different name.
Ok, I don't have the slightest idea what happened but my battery duration is amazing now. After installing Gsam Battery Monitor and charging my phone to 100% I went to sleep and after 10 hours of standby I looked at my phone and it was on 93%. My phone doesn't consume more than 0,6-1,0% per hour now in the last 3 days!!
I haven't changed anything except choosing to use Wifi and mobile network for location services but not GPS. Weird thing is that I tried that option before without success.
I'm happy now
I'm still confused about the 2 Android systems in my battery info screen though. That might be a good idea to try @Skyrider but I do remember that "Android OS" was displayed differently in Dutch a while back. I'm guessing you have your phone language in Dutch as well since you're seeing "Android Besturingssysteem" on the battery info screen?
JohnnyGui said:
Ok, I don't have the slightest idea what happened but my battery duration is amazing now. After installing Gsam Battery Monitor and charging my phone to 100% I went to sleep and after 10 hours of standby I looked at my phone and it was on 93%. My phone doesn't consume more than 0,6-1,0% per hour in the last 3 days!!
I haven't changed anything except choosing to use Wifi and mobile network for location services but not GPS. Weird thing is that I did try that option before without success.
I'm happy now
I'm still confused about the 2 Android systems in my battery info screen though. That might be a good idea to try @Skyrider but I do remember that "Android OS" was displayed differently in Dutch a while back. I guess you're having your phone language in Dutch as well since you're seeing "Android Besturingssysteem" on the battery info screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Kudos for the battery mate.
JohnnyGui said:
I'm still confused about the 2 Android systems in my battery info screen though. That might be a good idea to try @Skyrider but I do remember that "Android OS" was displayed differently in Dutch a while back. I'm guessing you have your phone language in Dutch as well since you're seeing "Android Besturingssysteem" on the battery info screen?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I'm using the Dutch language. But I'm not using the stock ROM of the phone, so hence I am seeing different systems running in the background. But I'm glad the battery is semi-fixed.
Ok, so I changed my phone to English and behold, one of the "Android Systems" indeed changed to "Android OS"
I could have sworn it was like that when my phone was in Dutch.
Perhaps someone with the stock ROM in Dutch could check that out?
No idea if this helps but i thought might as well contribute what it sais on my phone
Edit : i have a very high idle battery drain so any advice is welcome btw
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Free mobile app
Stefan0vic said:
No idea if this helps but i thought might as well contribute what it sais on my phone
Edit : i have a very high idle battery drain so any advice is welcome btw
Sent from my GT-I9505 using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for confirming this! I guess Android OS is indeed translated to "System" for Dutch S4's.
Have you tried my suggestions in the opening post?

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