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Recent Software Update - eats up battery

I uploaded and installed the recent software update for the Galaxy S4 this week. Since then, battery life has gone to heck! When I first got the phone, I disabled a lot of the bells and whistles in order to conserve the battery (I wasn't using them anyway). I could go about a day and a half before my battery would go from 100% to about 35%. Since the update, the phone loses its charge after about 16 hours. Has anyone else noticed this?

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Verizon_Support

Hi joschw. Sixteen hours of charge for many smartphones is pretty fantastic, but I can see why you want to get much closer to the amazing battery life you got before the update. Those updates are designed to make things better, not worse, after all. Many times when a software update triggers a change in battery life, it's a 3rd party application on the phone that's not functioning properly with the awesome new update. Try to put the phone into Safe Mode (see steps below) and run it for an entire day to see if battery life improves.

1) Power off Device

2) Press Power button Volume Down button at once and hold until you see Samsung logo.

3) Continue to hold Volume Down button and take out your hand from power button

4) Once the device is completely boots up, you will see safe mode text at bottom left corner.

After at least 24 hours, you can simply turn the phone off and back on to turn Safe Mode off. If you noticed that battery life improved while running in Safe Mode for a day, then try to uninstall http://vz.to/RzUXFh a few of the most recently downloaded applications.

Please keep us posted.

Jennifer_VZW

Please follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

dgabriel

Hi Jennifer_VZW...

I too saw dramatic battery drain after the update (I loved the great battery life on the S4 before the update, now battery life is worse than my old Bionic).

Your safe mode method didn't work for me. Instead of restarting in safe mode I received a warning that said something like installing another OS is not a good thing. It gave me the option to continue by pressing the volume up button or cancel by hitting volume down.

Also, I may try a factory reset on my S4 because I heard that has helped with the increased battery drain issue.

Thanks,

Don

Verizon_Support

Hi dgabriel,

We appreciate the additional response Don. Did you reattempt Safe Mode? How is the device after the factory reset? Please keep us posted, thanks!

Matthew_VZW

Please follow us on twitter @VZWSupport

dgabriel

Hello,

I never was able to do a safe mode start because I kept getting the warning about loading another OS. However, I did do a factory reset and that seemed to bring back my battery life. It may now be a little less robust than before the update, but for the most part I feel it’s back to normal.

Thanks for the follow up.

Don

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