Galaxy S4 battery draining after NG6 update

Let's bring your phone back to perform as it did prior to the update d_a_parker! I had similar issues when updated mine and I resolved all post software update issues with a http://vz.to/1b59FYH hard reset, **uncheck at step 4, very important**. Give it a try and keep us posted.

AntonioC_VZW Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/VZWSupport

All comments

hrwthompson

I'm having the same problem. My battery drained whilst i was at work yesterday and i hardly used the phone.

I'm also really annoyed that I cant quickly toggle the gps on/off. I have to go into location settings and mess around in the menus there.

gpeterden

I found after the update that Verizon Support & Protection was using 45% of the battery before I turned it off. Now the battery life is back to normal. I found this under settings>More>Battery. Even if I rebooted my phone it still showed 45% battery usage.

Gregg

Lucygirl45

I am having the same exact issue. In fact last night I had to shut my phone down because I was worried about it being too hot. My battery is draining about twice as fast as before the update.

I was really hoping that there would be a fix without having to actually do a hard reset.

Support & Protection is using more than 40% of my battery. Will there be issues if I do turn it off as the warning suggests?

bbonz001

I am also having the issue. And it is really starting to wear thin.

I have tried all the steps mentioned. Even as far as a factory reset. Which is pretty poor. From 100% today it's been 4 1/2 hours and the battery is already at 20%.

Something is keeping the phone awake according to the battery stats. It can't any of my apps as I haven't installed anything new since before the update.

Please fix this! Or give us the option to go back to the previrus version. Clearly with this many complaints already it's something Verizon has done.

I can understand your concern if your phone is becoming too warm to handle, Lucygirl45. It's normal for a phone to get warmer while it's in use or charging. But if it's becoming so hot that you're needing to turn off the phone, I encourage you to bring the phone as well as all your charging accessories to a store http://bit.ly/3SdsA for a hands-on evaluation.

As for the Support & Protection application, try going into your application and checking to see if it's running a scan or has found something it's attempting to repair. You do have the option to turn off the app or uninstall it if necessary if it's not working well with your update.

JenniferH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/vzwsupport

napsfan

Yep, my battery has also been draining very fast since this last update. Very frustrating.

Will try another reboot to see if it helps.

rwhitten81

I just got this update this morning, does anyone know the link to release notes for this update so I can see what was in it? The only thing I noticed changed from this release was the removal of GPS toggle from the notifications. I would suspect this is why some people have a battery drain. This toggle is now related to location services not GPS, so now you have to go into your settings to turn off the GPS or High accuracy mode. I only used GPS when running navigation but now it is on all the time unless I switch it in the settings back to Power saving mode.

napsfan

Update: The OS restart seems to have made quite a difference.

There must have been some hidden things in the background following the update. I had done a "close all" on the running apps, but that didn't change anything. But thankfully, the phone OS restart seems to have had a positive impact. Seems to be back to normal again.

Funkatron

Also having issues after I did this update this morning. The phone will get an error on any app I try to run and shut it down. Then the phone will freeze with just a red Verizon screen showing and won't respond to anything. If I take out the SD card it works fine. It was not doing this before I updated.

This is quite odd, Funkatron! What is the exact error message you are getting?

Thank you,

MichelleH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

Funkatron,

I have the same problem at soon I updated my phone and I install Verizon Assistant and run the repair and backup all my important file and automatic re-install the system android again with NG6 and I don't have any more that problem. The only problem I have is my battery is drain so fast. I don't know why Samsung release a new updated without fix this first. I hope they can release a new update like Apple those. Take for ever to release a update and when we install has a lot of issue. That is not good.

verisan

I am having about 3 big problems with the latest update NG6 (Oct 14, 2014)

1. Battery drains like as if I never re-charged, it drains very fast and is gone in 4 hours tops without even using it.

2. the Phone often runs hot and displays the message which often does not go away even after re-starting

3. Ondrois Os and System seem to be consuming abnormally high Battery surpassing the battery usage by screen by big amount.

I have tried re-booting several times.

Please help.

ReleaseTheKraaken

Just adding my $0.02. I'm having the same experiences as others in this thread.

Very disappointed in the apparent lack of concern or interest in our overlord Verizon. Telling us to "bring the phone in" is clearly not a suitable response.

I respectfully request that Verizon take some ownership here and provide us with some useful information. Right now, it feels like we are being treated like airline passengers, in which we are kept in the dark even though the airline knows full well that they cancelled this flight.

temchik

Horrible!!! My extended battery doesn't last a day, more like half a day now!!! Android OS is now at the top of the list staying awake almost 100% of the time

2014-10-24 16.25.25s.jpg

2014-10-24 16.25.29s.png

timothyc74

Same here. Serious fast battery drain unlike normal since update. I'm also seeing the high usage by Android OS. Dropped from 99% to 65% in two hours and only received one text message, one Facebook message and I viewed a couple Facebook notifications in app. With that usage I would normally still be in the 90% + range in the same amount of time. Restoring phone to factory defaults, especially by not automatically restoring apps is not a good option at all.

I am also having major battery drain issues after the recent Verizon sponsored software update. I have an extended battery that I could often get to last me two days, depending on use. Today, I had 100% charge this morning at 6:00AM and by 1:00PM, my battery dropped to 19%. I have barely used the phone at all today. This is absolutely inexcusable by Verizon.

socalsti04

Just weighing in - yes I see the same issue: roughly 1/2 the battery life I used to have prior to the update. No, I won't do a factory reset and I don't think anyone's going to help me if I bring it in (it's not a hardware problem). Verizon - you need to address this.

bbonz001

Well after all these replies i think its fair to say that there is clearly an issue. Im hoping there is someone working on a fix!

If it keeps going on like this with no fix, then i feel sorry for the poor customer service and sales employees that will be dealing face to face with angry customers soon. We all know it isn't personally their fault, but customers blame the only person they can come face to face with.

Is the S5 community having similar issues?

This is an unmitigated DISASTER. Verizon forced me into this NG6 update and now my battery went from 70+% to 6% in just over FOUR HOURS. It is hot to the touch - has been all day, and Verizon will tell me some crap about my phone being "defective" and I should bring it in for service when it was perfectly fine just before the update.VERIZON: the NG6 update caused this, it is your fault, and you need to fix this.

I did a test last night; my G4 was at 100% battery, I turned off the Verizon Support and Protection/uninstalled the program, and left my phone unplugged and on all night (wi-fi remained enabled). When I woke up this morning (the phone was on battery power for approximately 9 hours) the battery was at 93%. I am hoping by disabling and uninstalling Support and Protection the battery drain issue might be mitigated. I am going to keep the phone on battery today (I re-charged it to 100% again this morning) and use it as I normally would to see how quickly the battery drains. Will post an update tonight/tomorrow.

Good luck everyone.

I did a full reset - again - and hopefully that will help. The phone is still getting very hot at times but it does appear to cool off in between now and then. I tried disabling Verizon Support and Protection last night and it made no difference in my case...but I hope that helps others.

The frustrating thing about this is that I read about issues with this update, so I did a hard reset before and after the update thinking that would help to flash a "fresh out of the box" (NG5) phone, and I still had issues. If the extra hard reset fixes it I'll know later today.

ttvick

I have the same issue with my s4. I uninstalled Verizon Support and Protection when i first got the phone about a year ago. And I checked after seeing your post, it has not been re-installed. I doubt that Verizon Support and Protection is the problem. I have got my phone to where (it says) the screen is using the most battery power. Still dead in about 4 hours.

VERIZON NEEDS TO FIX THIS NOW!!!

Yep - still experiencing battery drain and a phone so hot I can't hold it near the top. I'm basically tethered to a charger and not putting this device down on anything that could be marred by the heat (and I can't carry it in my pocket without turning it off). I can leave it on a cool surface (glass or metal) and it seems to be OK, but the second I carry it or put it in my pocket the rear top (near the camera) gets too hot to touch.

Hi,

I have the same problem and I run Verizon assisstant and after that my phone is not restart any more and don't getting hot any more. Still drain but not to fast like before.

I hope this can help a litter.

Juan

ttvick,

That's really interesting. As I said in my prior post, I would re-post the next day. Well, I went through a full day with the phone off the charger AND left it off overnight last night. Woke up this morning and my battery life is still at 49%. A reminder - I do have an extended battery and would typically last me 1.5-2 days before I needed to re-charge it. I would say it is still draining a bit faster than before, but nothing near like it was 3 days ago. I wonder what the true cause of the issue is. Either way, Verizon needs to figure it out and give us all a stable update!

Day 3 of Verizon's mess...hard reset, wiped app cache yesterday - getting tired of doing this, Verizon...to NO effect. Phone off charger at about 7am today, 10am I'm at 65% battery left. Android services taking the lion's share. I noticed KNOX was first in the list of items under "Android Services" - I don't know if that means anything. I have never used KNOX.

I have an Exchange account - does anyone else with this battery issue use Exchange?

jrd123

Same problem. Battery on my S4 is draining about 3 times as fast since the update. The battery life used to be one my favorite things about this phone. Hopefully the more people report it, the faster it will get fixed.

When I turn off master sync, the battery life seems to return to normal. I wonder if this update does something to email/exchange syncing that is causing a loop, running the processor all the time and draining the battery.

Leaving sync off isn't a long term (or even short term) solution, but I am noticing the battery graph stays flat when sync is off and drops like a stone whenever sync is on.

You can test this by pulling down the notifications bar, click the little notification squares icon in the far upper right, and tap "sync" to turn it off. See if that changes anything with battery life. Note that while sync is off you won't receive email (and possibly other important items) automatically, so this is only for troubleshooting.

I charged my battery full last night and turn off all the application and closed my phone and go to sleep. This morning when I check my phone the battery was 17%. How is possible that the phone with completed charge at night was drain from 100% to 17%? You can see the image. Something is continue running on the phone in the background and Samsung should know what it is. This is unacceptable for Samsung S4 user. We don't deserve this specially for loyalty user like us.

I hope they can come out with a fix ASAP.

Juan29

DinoDub

Well , i have been holding out , so a few specs on NORMAL battery use. (i dont do any video watching)

Screen 48 % --

Android System 14% --

Maps 9 % --

Android OS 7 % --

com.android.chromes.. 7 % --

Chrome 4 % --

Google Services 2 % --

Wifi 2 % --

Weather 2 % --

DinoDub

So far in this thread, I see 3 things that help somewhat according to the posters.
GPS Toggle missing after update - go into Location Settings- turn it OFF
Go to Application Manager - turn OFF Verizon Support & Protection (oxymoron)
Swipe 2 fingers down - turn OFF Sync
Hope this helps, ( i are not verizon employee )

bbonz001

Jruiz29, Try uninstall Transparent Weather and Clock. Its using a fair whack of battery life.

I also used TW&C and had it close to the top of the usage list. Noticed the phone was always "awake".

Got rid of it, and everything went back to normal-ish.

I contacted the developer and he sent me an invite to test the beta version. have been using it again for 24 hours and it doesnt even show up in the battery usage list anymore. Have it set to update every 4hours, or on screen unlock. No location following.

Worth a shot!:smileyhappy:

I have noticed that my 4G data arrows are constantly on during the battery drain. When I turn off sync, the data arrows turn off and the drain stops, so there's something trying to send data in the background constantly, but I can't figure out what it is.

jrd123

I turned off all of the Verizon apps (Cloud, "Support & Protection") and now my battery life is back to normal. They used to be just useless, now they're actually harmful. Nice job.

brianguy714

Turn Verizon Support & Protection off permanently. Use AVG instead. Problem solved...

vstjames

Nor will doing a FDR work for this problem. It might fix other update issues such as sudden multiple reboots (not a problem I've had, thank God!) but not this particular battery draining issue if it's related to the GPS/Location issue. Verizon (and maybe Samsung) really blew it this time and based on Verizon's history, I don't expect any fixes coming out anytime soon. I doubt those in Verizon who could make a difference pay much attention to these forums.

Disabling Support and Protection does not help in my case. I've done that and I still get the battery drain. The only thing I can do to get it to stop is to disable master sync. I've turned off GPS/Location and it still drains.

I guess it's time to root and go back to NC5. This update didn't even fix the Bluetooth issue I was having (random headset disconnects). Verizon clearly doesn't care and it doesn't seem enough people are affected by this for them to do anything about it or even acknowledge there are issues.

I would love to know if any testing was done on this release at all before they started pushing it out. If so, how could they not have caught something so obvious as the phone getting hot and the battery draining more than 10% an hour with the screen off.

Edit: I'm trying safe mode on and master sync on for the next few hours to see what happens. My battery is at 38% right now; it has never gone this low through normal usage - ever - and it's only 4:30pm here.

Katl

My battery was down to 68% after about 2 hours of doing nothing this morning. Unbelievable. I don't even know that I have Support & Protection installed... This is about to force me to root the phone. Absolutely unbelievable that an update would be pushed with this severe of a problem.

Just for kicks, since Verizon seems keen on telling people to run in safe mode to see if the problem still happens...the thin black vertical line is where I rebooted into safe mode. That's about 40% to 11% in just a couple of hours, in safe mode.

joonhyuk

It's ok just a new unannounced feature for this latest and greatest firmware.

Luckily for us, we are stuck with this awful firmware until Samsung/Verizon hurry up and push 4.4.4 AND THEN 5.0 to our S4 devices.

If we had unlimited money we would have already purchased an S5 or a Note 4 in order to received Android 5.0 this year, however, we are forced to sit and wait around for 5.0 while people who have an S3 and below are screwed out of seeing any update prior to KitKat.

*Thumbs Up*

I'm having the same issue. After almost a year of trouble-free operation with this handset, within a couple of days of the NG6 update I started having runaway battery consumption. This occurs once every couple of days and I have not been able to identify the trigger. Rebooting the phone fixes it for a a day or two. When it occurs the battery may discharge 10 percent an hour or more even while not being used and the display off, and the top 1/3 of the phone gets very warm, almost hot to the touch. Battery monitor shows the OS as the highest consumer. The last time it occurred I had a process viewer running and it showed a process called krtccd using a constant 25%-30% of the CPU time. All other running processes were 0 or in the low single digits. I don't know if that 25% is enough to explain the heating etc but after a reboot krtccd did not go back to consuming 25 or 30 %. Now shows 0-1%.

I have a short term solution - after another hard reset, I did not connect my phone to Google with a Google account (skip that step). Since "Android OS" appears to be the culprit, I figure maybe something is going on with Google's servers that is causing this. I also noticed under "Add Account" from the settings screen that I had a phantom "blank" account with no name; selecting it just made the app crash and go back to the settings screen. So after a reset and no Google account, so far my phone is working fine and there's no battery drain. I can't install any apps, but I have working phone/SMS/email and (it appears) a battery that will last more than a few hours now. After half an hour it's cool to the touch, too.

I can't edit my previous post - that didn't seem to help. After another half hour or so my phone started getting hot and the data arrows have been lit constantly.

There is another thread here that discuses this issue and a couple of others with NG6 that suggest that changes to the way the device now handles GPS/location services my be responsible for the battery drain. If/when mine goes into the rapid drain/heat-up mode again I'm going to try disabling all location services and see if there is any effect.

jrh4054

AntonioC_VZW, haven't you read the hundreds of posts saying the reset doesn't work? This is an issue with update itself. Your Customer Service folks are finallly admitting it. The update needs to be fixed. According to some Community posts, some users have actually found the error in the update code that is causing such issues as constant rebooting, etc.

temchik

Well, I downloaded System Panel and put it into Monitoring mode... Found the process responsible - krtccd

2014-10-30 14.01.03s.png

So yesterday morning I disabled Verizon applications "Cloud", "Sync Service" and "Verizon Support and Protection". I have not had a repeat of the battery consumption issue since. This may be a complete and total coincidence since this issue seems to occur completely at random, but I just thought I'd throw that out there. (Just FYI, the Verizon Backup Assist product requires "Sync Service" so if you need/want that you can't disable it.)

Yes, krtccd appeared to be the offending process on mine as well. Reboot returned it to normal CPU usage.

AntonioC_VZW, I have the same issue long time and I connect my verizon phone to my computer and install Verizon Wireless Software Utility Application for Android – Samsung and run repair. What they do is backup all my contact, SMS, Wifi and reinstal the OS and after that my phone don't restart again. Until today is working fine except that the battery is drain so fast. I disable the Verizon Protection, health app, and other android application and is much better.

I hope this can help you a help other.

This is a temporally solution in the mean time until they push the fix updated.

Jruiz29

Reboot does seem to help with battery drain. It must wipe out krtccd for at least a while. This morning (after leaving my phone on and charging all night) battery went from 100% to 83%, with extremely little use, in less than 2 hours. After reboot, drain appears to have slowed, as phone has gone from 83% to 81% in the next 2.5 hours.

You may be on to something with the reboot. My latest update is that this morning I hard reset (full data reset) the phone again for the 4th time since taking the update. I've set up my Google account, Exchange email, and an IMAP email account (both set to push), and my data arrows aren't constantly lit like they have been every other time since taking the update. Also the phone isn't hot (yet) after an hour. The only other thing I did differently this time was I deleted the partnership with Exchange before setting up the exchange account, but since nobody else here has mentioned exchange I don't know if that has anything to do with it. Going on three hours now without significant battery drain. I haven't updated any apps via Google Play, nor have I turned any apps off, including those from Verizon.

So all I really have so far is multiple full data resets and possibly deleting the exchange partnership beforehand seem to have helped for a few hours so far. I've done literally nothing else differently since all the other times I wiped the device and restarted from scratch.

afried89

AntonioC_VZW, or any other customer support, is there any plan to rollback, or fix this update in the coming weeks/months? If not please just inform us now so we can get on with other solutions such as installing another ROM.

medic502

I had the same problem. I can tell you what I did and it did help a great deal. I was having the same drain as most of you and what I did was with the phone still on did a battery pull and I also activated the power save which I had never used. It helped and I feel like I am back to where I was before as far as the battery drain being pretty normal.

medic502, we don't want this to be a problem for you too! Have you downloaded 3rd party applications to your device? If so, some applications can affect the performance of your device. Try uninstalling any unwanted applications and power your device off/on to soft reset. Keep us posted.

Here's a few tips to save your battery life: http://vz.to/RGq0QW

LasinaH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

Zudnic

Just to add my voice to the chorus, I just rebooted. In 10 minutes, 20 seconds I have burned 4% of my battery. So, by some 4th grade math, I would burn 100% in about 250 minutes, or just over four hours.

Android OS, 45%. Android System, 12%.

We all pay a premium to be on Verizon and we all expect an answer.

Well, I've now gone over 2 full days with no issue, which is the longest I've gone since I installed the NG6 update. I no longer have the device heating, rapid battery drain or high CPU usage for the krtccd process. The last change I made was to disable "Cloud", "Sync Service" and "Verizon Support and Protection". I can only guess that one (or more) of them was causing krtccd to get into some kind of tight loop. Just to be clear, this isn't a marginal change in battery life. This is the difference between going from a full charge to low battery alert in 5 hours before, to now going 10-12 hours and still being at 30-40% with the same usage.

Well crap. I spoke too soon. I just went to pick up my phone and it was very warm. Just out of curiosity I checked the temp on the surface of the screen with a non-contact IR thermometer. 105 degrees F. Yikes. I started CPU Monitor and let it capture data for a few minutes. Sure enough, krtccd again. Rebooted device. krtccd now back to <1% CPU. Waited about 15 minutes and checked screen temp again. 89. So disabling all those VZW apps apparently didn't do jack.

whaleswatch

Just logging my complaint about the battery issue. I have not added any apps and use my phone the same way each day. It went dead in 2 hours today, and I'm now charging it 2 to 3 times a day. I could go 12 hours prior to this update. It's certainly not an issue of a battery needing replacement as I've only had it for 4 months.

NYVET

Why is Verizon's answer ALWAYS to perform a hard reset? That's TOTAL BS!!!! Here's am idea for you... coordinate something with the manufacturer so that these stupid unnecessary ridiculous problems can be solved without having to reset our damn devices! It's so easy for you guys to sit behind your computer and tell us to hard reset our devices. Sure, we may have our important stuff backed up, like contacts, messages, photos, app data etc, but your one size fits all solution of a hard reset does NOT solve the problem of RECONFIGURING ALL OUR SETTINGS, WALLPAPERS, RINGTONES, PREFERENCES, ETC ETC ETC! This @!*# hard reset solution, your seemingly ONLY solution, is the EASY way out. Is there anyone working at Verizon that is actually a technician? Cuz it seems to me you're just reading your computer screen and following the prompts..."now tell our CUSTOMER to perform a hard reset...".

Just unbelievable!

whaleswatch, you've reached the right place to uplift your grievance. The software update may be conflicting with the applications that you previously downloaded to your device. Try uninstalling any unwanted applications and power your device off/on to soft reset.

Click http://vz.to/RGq0QW for more tips on how to save your battery life.

LasinaH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport