KitKat update killing battery
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With moderate usage, I usually end the day with about 60% left on the battery. After installing the KitKat update at 8 a.m., I am now down to 63% on the battery less than 2 hours later, and I suspect I will have to turn off the phone to ensure I have enough juice for the trip home. Location is turned off, I've updated all the apps and rebooted. Otherwise, I basically haven't touched the phone and it's still sitting there draining. What's causing this, and what can I do? This is immensely frustrating.
Solved! Go to Correct Answer
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Just to update - went into the Verizon store down the block from my office, and they were unable to figure out what was running the CPU continuously. So, as a last resort I did a factory reset and it has been fine since then. Still getting things set back up the way they were, so if it starts happening again I'll have a better idea which app might be the problem.
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KitKat is supposed to increase battery life and in fact my G2 has seen better battery life since KitKat. You know you phone will tell you EXCTLY what is using up all your battery. Right under Battery Use Details.
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I too noticed poor battery statistics following the update, but, I think the phone needs a few charge cycles in order to better estimate remaining charge... I think the "model" of the phone's battery remaining gets modified during the update, and a few charge cycles re-establishes a more accurate prediction.
See if a few charge cycles helps you too.
You could always perform a Factory Reset after backing up critical stuff.
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I am having the same problem as well as performance issues and my texts take forever to send and at time don't send at all unless I reboot the phone. Chatted with Support this morning who had me perform updates to whatever apps needed updates as well as try using the phone in Safe Mode. This has not helped. Battery was charged last night and earlier today and it's already to die again... very frustrating to say the least. Waiting to chat to support again.
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Run battery down. Turn off, and then charge fully. The battery stats will reset.
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I did that twice yesterday, burn down to 0%, power off, charge to 100%, power back on. I started charging last night at 77% and this am it is at 73%. I'm going to let it burn down again, and try again. Any other advice?
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Also, my WiFi is on constantly even with no apps running. I tried wiresharking my packets but nothing showed up. Just the icon for Wi-Fi states that it is tx nd rx constantly. I'm down 2% battery on the time it takes for this post.
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petersot, Saving your battery is important! It's good that there aren't apps running in the background. Wifi and bluetooth for long periods impact your battery, as well. Try to allow the battery to almost drain completely, turn off wifi, bluetoot etc, and place the phone on a standard wall charger. while the phone is charging, try to ensure that it is not in use until charging is complete. Keep us posted.
sheritah_vzw
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VZWSupport
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I am having the battery issue after updating. Battery life has been shorten and even when I charge overnight when battery life has been less than 10%, it charges only up to 16%. What is causing it and How do I fix it?
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Sorry to hear you are experiencing issues with your battery life, Privateloyal. We're here to help out! Just in case, have any of the tips that have been provided helped out at all? Do you receive any error messages? Are you also using the original charger and cable as well?
NicandroN_VZW
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I'm trying that. The initial charge after the update only lasted to 5 hours, so I turned it off and recharged. Turned it back on and the problem is the same. Will charge it again tonight after it runs out (currently down to 25% after 4 hours on standby) and hope for a miracle in the morning. Like another poster mentioned, I'm also having problems with sending and receiving texts. When I send, the message just hangs and eventually clears after 5 or 10 minutes, but the recipient gets 4 or 5 messages of the same text. And the phone is running much warmer than before, I can feel it in my pocket even though it's in a case. Probably related to this, everything seems to be running more slowly.
I'm utterly frustrated. None of these problems existed before the update, but I bought into the early reviews of faster performance etc. and didn't think twice about installing when I received the notification. Won't make that mistake again.
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You don't have a choice as to whether you accept these CORUPT-DATES! You will be tormented continuously until inadvertently accept it then your phone will be doomed as it is right now!
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People are probably not going to like the suggestion, but when an upgrade results in bizzare or unwanted behavior, the easiest, or perhaps even the only recourse may be to perform a Factory Data Reset after backing up your phone's storage to a PC, and copying down important settings for things like email, or online banking, etc, or just copying down what apps you downloaded and where you stuck icons.
Sometimes an offending program can be identified, perhaps uninstalled and re-installed, or perhaps it's cache cleared, and then it behaves, but not always.
I think upgrades are meant ideally to work and leave you as you were but with an updated OS. But it's possible, some programs, processes end up referencing memory that's not initialized properly, and only by doing a FDR is the phone set to a state that is deterministic. There are simply too many variables on what has been downloaded, installed, uninstalled, etc across the user base on all devices, and simply too much complexity to guarantee 100%success for all users, all devices.
Personally, in the past, having multiple phones and experiencing multiple OS updates, maybe 60-70% happen without me having to perform a FDR. I'm lucky this time with KK, but others have had problems, and FDRs have generally cleared those problems. The 30% of the time I had to do an FDR, the results were satisfactory, but I did have to do some work to get my phone back to a state I had it configured previously, and I know that isn't fun.
I bet this is what VZW or LG are going to tell you to try. Backup your photos and your music and other downloaded content that is important to you. Capture your account names. I think if you had it set properly, your contacts should be backed up on Google's servers.
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Thanks, you may be right. As it is I've installed the Windows 8 drivers and I can't view my files on my phone. I keep getting the vz installer folder but can't browse dcim etc to get My photos or videos off. Also, when I've tried copying my videos off in the past they always get ruined because they are in a different format. Any thoughts on these issues?
TIA
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Yes, go into Settings | PC Connection, and choose, select USB connection method, and choose Media sync (MTP). Then an icon for the device should show on your computer that will allow you to drag and drop.
There are other means to transfer files, FTP for example, but you need to be a little computer geeky to do so. I've had good success transferring files over WiFi for example using SwiFTP client (which you must side-load), and FileZilla on a PC. People with MACs already have an FTP client I think.
There's Bluetooth, and there's also Wireless Storage under Settings | Share & Connect | Wireless Storage (haven't used that but people say it's great).
I have no familiarity with files (names or types or extensions) getting molested during transfers. I guess you should Google that. Possibly you need to load a viewer that understands and can process that video when you transfer it back to the phone following a reset?
Good luck.
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Ok, I think I just found the culprit for my wifi being on 100%. Turns out that Verizon Cloud services are trying to backup my contacts, documents, messages, photos and videos. Looks like i have another 6hrs and 12.4Gb of 23Gb of data to complete. My battery is down to 25% again. I'm hoping that once this massive sync/backup completes that my wifi will return to normal. I believe that may be what is killing my battery. I can't stop the sync right now, so I guess I'm just going to have to let it run its course. In the meantime I'm going to get a beefier charger 😉
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Just a side note that I tried turning on the BT and I couldn't get it to pair with my laptop. Also, I tried to do the wireless storage and that didn't turn on either. Presumably because my wifi adapter is saturated with this other job...I tried to download and install a wifi file transfer and while it downloaded, it would not install. I think I'll be able to save off my important stuff via this Verizon Cloud sync.
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I'm having all the same issues. Can't back up to the computer any way I try. My phones charges roughly 10% an hour now and dies within 3-4 hours of getting unplugged. 2 days ago it would charge fully in 1.5 hours and last 20-24. I can no longer send or receive texts on either wifi or data. Can't install any apps from the play store. The lag is incredible and swype will no longer spell anything. it hangs up on the first letter then acts like i long-pressed it giving me symbols instead of words. Answering an incoming call is fun. When a call first comes thru, the light comes on and the phone does a little buzz thing, then about 10 seconds later it will start ringing, but it will never light up the answer call button or screen so I have to go to the power button on the back to turn it on then wait another 10 seconds for it to actually come on and hope by then that they haven't hung up or that vm has answered for me. I'm ready to set my phone on fire and I've only had it 3 weeks.
I just want to know how to back up my 1000+ photos so I can do a factory reset when I can't get it to communicate with anything. Comp doesn't recognize it anymore, no drivers work, Wireless Storage has failed completely, won't even turn on. I can't access the cloud storage which i tried using last night because i have to receive a text password from verizon to activate it and i cant get texts. Updating kitkat was the biggest mistake ever.
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The factory reset is NOT solving the problem on my phone - still no battery life now (used to get the better part of 2 DAYS out of it) and the PC now does not recognize my phone
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FDR did not fix. My replacement arrives today. I will not update, opting to disable the system update app until later on in the future...if ever.
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