LG G2 kitkat SEVERE battery drain and performace issues

[aedinger]

After updating my LG G2 to kitkat the other day, my phone performance and battery life have been absolutely awful. Previously I could go 24  hours on a charge with moderate use, and now I'm lucky if I get 4 hours with it sitting on my desk unused with battery saver on. I also get stuttering while navigating, running apps, etc., and it freezes often. I can hardly even use my phone at this point. Anyone else encounter these problems? Anyone know what's wrong?

[darlintxmomma]

OK...tried the factory data reset and it get me to the erase everything button, i click it and it pops up saying it will restart twice and i click ok and then nothing. it just stays on the page with the erase everything button. I've cycled thru it like 15 times. Kitkat is a real winner isn't it?

Going to try it the other way and see what happens.

ETA: using the power/vol down buttons worked. it's still in the process. crossing fingers my phone gets it's head screwed back on straight.

[darlintxmomma]

OK the factory reset did help. Not sure about battery life yet as it's still stuck right around the 30% mark.

But I can tell that the kitkat settings have taken effect on the color scheme for the icons and stuff so maybe it just didnt fully come thru correctly the first time around. We shall wait and see.

[dianesef]

I don't even have Google now and my batter save is ON - still the same problem!

[vzw_customer_support]

I know how important it is to have reliable performance from your device dianesef. I'm sorry to hear about the battery difficulties. Are the overheating issues happening on the latest replacement as well? Have you tried completing a hard reset on it? If so, are you resetting with a restore or are you wiping the device completely? http://vz.to/1huDYPs

JonathanK_VZW
VZWSupport
Follow Us on Twitter@VZWSupport

[#6]

dianesef wrote:

I don't even have Google now and my batter save is ON - still the same problem!

Turn Location OFF. Battery saving still uses your mobile connection and wi-fi to determine your location and it's going to do that constantly. The only thing Battery Save does is turn off GPS.

[stef7]

My phone is setup so Location is High Accuracy and I can go two days on a charge. It's unlikely to be the poster's issue.

I recommend dianesef go to Settings | Battery, click on the battery then scroll down and see what is consuming most of the battery. If Screen, you might want to change your illumination level to 40-50% using Settings | Display | Brightness.

[#8]

Well I was making a suggestion since high accuracy uses GPS and that would drain the battery. Anyway I agree about the screen. That's my largest battery usage. I have mine set at 70%. I also notice some apps aren't actually close when you close them sometimes. That will show up in Battery they will have a STOP button next to them. I'm currently at 47% 24 hours into this charge with Screen being 42% of all my use. Dolphin Browser being next at 16%. Android System is down at 4%

[vzw_customer_support · Accepted solution]

aedinger,

Thank you for reaching out to us. I am very sorry to hear of your troubles since updating your device to kit kat. There is no known issues with this problem currently. We definitely want to find out what could be the cause of this. Normally with any software update we suggest doing a factory reset. All information should be saved by either your google account and or your SD card. Here is the steps to completing the reset http://vz.to/1ijaOhZ. Please keep us updated if you see any changes.

Thank you,

TonyG_VZW
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[dianesef]

I am having the exact same issue!  I upgraded my phone and ZAP - the battery life went to zero.  Did a factory reset - nothing.  After the upgrade my phone and computer do not recognize each other and the phone is VERY hot at the point of the camera.  Verizon gave me a new phone - brand new - it was fully charged.  The upgrade uploaded.  ZAP - SAME EXACT Problem.  This is AWFUL.  I run my business by this phone and I can't have three hours battery life!!!

[glenrob7]

After update to KitKat I was having the same problems...SEVERE battery drain, SLOW performance, erratic behavior, etc.  Difficult to enter anything.  As per advice here tried setting location to battery save mode.  This turns off GPS queries apparently, which helped tremendously.  Possible that problem lies in GPS realm.  Phone seems to be charging normally now and also acts normally, although I have not had time to try everything.  Also I did a couple of normal shutdowns and restarts which may have helped stabilize the new OS.  Will continue to monitor this site and report further changes.   Thanks to all for advice and symptom reporting.  I hope VZ Support finds the actual problem and fixes.  Shame that this update got released without proper vetting.  Also, my battery life was excellent, going up to 3 days with light use, before the update.  Will let you know if that still holds.  If not I will be VERY disappointed and probably try to revert to Jelly Bean, as I see no significant advantage so far to KitKat.

[cg379]

I'm also having SEVERE problems since the update.  At first the screen brightness was unstable and alarm clock working only sporadically.  Battery draining rapidly, tonight to 0 in no time and would only accept charge via USB connection, not from being plugged into the wall.  Phone is very warm at times.  Texts wouldn't send last night, using stock software.  Screen hangs when button is pressed except for Home button. When went to search in Google, wouldn't bring up keyboard so I could type in what to search for.  Turned off location at the beginning of this and Verizon customer service took out and put back in Sim card.  Did not help with touch screen problems as predicted.  Battery draining is getting worse, not better.  Have rebooted several times, but tonight the phone would just turn off immediately as soon as I tried to turn it on as it didn't have enough power to be on at all until I plugged it into computer after it wouldn't take charge from the wall.  This is ridiculous.  I bought this phone at Best Buy.  They say Verizon handles returns of defective phones.  The girl at Verizon store said no, it has to go back under Best Buy warranty.  Who is supposed to handle the return of this defective phone?  I'm very tired of having to fuss with it.  I shouldn't have to run a phone I paid $200 for on Battery Saver - that is not acceptable performance.

[mbanks21]

I'm in the same boat. Since the "update" my battery drains way too fast. It's only 8:30am here and I havent used the phone at all and it's down to 70% life left. The phone is slow and sluggish. If I hit the "home" button it could take up to 4-5 seconds to respond. Typing sucks, all the apps are slow. I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO RESET MY PHONE (and possibly lose hundres of pictures and vidoes) to get it to work. Someone needs to work on this ASAP!

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello mbanks21,

I want to make sure you get the most out of your LG G2. Let's find out what is causing this battery to drain so quick. Can you please put the phone in safe mode and test it out for a few hours? http://vz.to/1htJkdM This will block out any 3rd party applications and allow you to use the main funtions of the phone, such as calls, text, and using the internet. Please keep us posted on how the battery life stands up.

KevinR_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

[mdbratch]

Is Verizon aware of issues with Android 4.4.2 (KitKat) per this article on ZDNet? The article was published in March 2014. Google claims there's an issue with battery life on 4.4.2 and they say, in the article:

"High power drain on non-Nexus devices is not something we can help with. If you have a Note, or any other non-Nexus device, you'll have to reach out to your manufacturer," a Google AOSP project member wrote.

Verizon, I'm reaching out to you as representing the manufacturer of the phone you supplied to me, the LG G2, which shipped to me a couple of weeks ago with 4.4.2 already installed (it wasn't an upgrade that I performed). The battery life is dreadful on 4.4.2. According to this article, it's Android 4.4.2 related. There's no longer a need to claim that this issue hasn't been seen before.

[stef7]

Verizon, I'm reaching out to you as representing the manufacturer of the phone you supplied to me, the LG G2, which shipped to me a couple of weeks ago with 4.4.2 already installed (it wasn't an upgrade that I performed).

Verizon doesn't represent the manufacturer.

Did you try performing a FDR? Did you try your device in SAFE mode?

Did you manually monitor your battery usage, or download any sort of specialized monitoring program?

Did you contact LG directly on your issue?

People on all sorts of phones have had issues with Battery Drain post-KK. Most problems are solved by performing an FDR, identifying and eliminating a rogue program, turning off or limiting synch of data and messages...

You're not going to get somewhere asking Verizon what to do next, except perhaps asking if you can get a refurb replacement once you've done and documented trouble-shooting.

[mdbratch]

Verizon doesn't represent the manufacturer.

Sorry, poor choice of words on my part. However, if Verizon provides phones manufactured by LG, I would expect Verizon to make sure that they are getting properly functioning product. I am firstly a Verizon customer of the LG G2. It's what they shipped to me, and Verizon's service is where I would go with issues (and I do plan to visit them with this one when I free up).

Did you try performing a FDR? Did you try your device in SAFE mode?

No, I did not. But I can try the FDR. As I said: I just got this phone within the last couple of weeks. It's not like I've done a bunch of upgrades or anything. So FDR wasn't the first thing that came to mind as a solution. But sure, I'll give it a go.

Did you manually monitor your battery usage, or download any sort of specialized monitoring program?

I've only recently been monitoring battery usage using the built-in Android battery settings screens. If you can recommend a good battery monitoring program, I'll install it and try it out.

Did you contact LG directly on your issue?

I did not, per my comments above about being a Verizon customer first. But I can certainly do that. I thought my first path of support was supposed to be through Verizon.

As an aside, I pay a lot of money to Verizon for the use of specific phone models and service. I do expect them to know at least a little of what's going on with them rather than, "We aren't aware of any problems". I've done a lot of research on the battery drain issue and it's fairly pervasive with Android 4.4.2.

[mdbratch]

@stef7, I forgot to say: Thanks for all the good suggestions. I'm going to step through them in order of severity and observe results. One thing I had already just done earlier today was to uninstall Skype recommended by an article I read which had that recommendation directly from Google. I have, within that time, noticed the "Android System" battery usage drop from 30-ish% to about 15%. I don't think I have enough time on it to be totally conclusive, but I'm watching that before moving on to the other ideas. Thanks, again.

[stef7]

Believe me, a lot of customer's expect to take operability issues to Verizon, but it often gets them little results? Why? Because Verizon supports it's networks, but for device problems... you either have a self-help forum like this, or the manufacturer, or research from the web.

A lot of LG G2 owners when they updated their phones recently to 4.4.2 did FDRs. Note that when you do this, be careful to back up content important to you. If you perform a Factory Data Reset, you're going to toss all your settings and downloaded content, pictures, music, etc.

Running in SAFE mode will disable any downloaded programs, so that helps rule out something from the Market.

Sorry, I can't recommend a Battery Monitor. You'd have to try some stuff. In the past I've used Battery Monitor Widget to look at charging / discharging rates. I just downloaded GSam Battery Monitor. Don't know if it's any good.

[labaladeplata97]

i was having all these issues....plus alarm wasnt working. i thought i was going crazy ....no way i could sleep through 3 set alarms!!! well after i shut off the ok google  from lock and any screen checkboxes the alarm now works??? wtf i know, but also my battery is better and that "android sys" is sucking less battery also. i a m sooooo against FDR . not that they dont work. its just a TOTAL pain in the *** so, i try everything before doin that. lately tho....last 2 nights, over night at some point my phone sets it self to vibrate ? theres some SERIOUS bugs and mistakes with the last update. :[ i loved the ok google from lock screen. when my screen broke last month,,, its the only way i could call out to any one! OK GOOGLE CALL ..... from a black screen. now i cant use my fav feature. thanks LG and VZW....i ve always loved verizon and lg....my droid 4 had to be returned 9, yes 9 times ...for the same issue. in call volume so low u couldnt hear it. but VZW had never heard of such a thing. it must of been an app...well it wasnt. lol

thanks for your trial and error bro; keep it up your helping me at least

mdbratch

[stef7]

One cannot say the FDR will help you either.

However, on this device, I'm not sure there is a low level cache clear mechanism available. That is often at root cause for application and system interoperability issues. If you can't selectively clear that cache, your only option is the thing you and everyone hates....

Google and see if there is a means to clear the low level cache.

These sorts of problems post updates are not unique to LG devices or a particular carrier, but often are a result of the Android system. The more updates you experience, the easier the FDR process becomes.

Sometimes, its a good way to start over fresh and winnow the apps you rely on.

Good luck.

[JoeProcopio]

You shouldn't have to, but it works.  Luckily, I only got my LG G2 a few weeks ago and only have very little to back up....I also use Google+ with 100GB to back up all photos so I didn't worry about them....

I had the same battery drain....4% in 20 minutes from full charge. 

I reset my phone to factory stock, took all the updates to get me to get the KK update....then took the KK OTA...and I still had problems.  So it wasn't an issue of having anything on your phone....just the act of OTAs borked it.  I was showing 48% usage of my Bluetooth, and Bluetooth wasn't even on.  I did the factory reset and it's now working like it is supposed to...battery life is back.  I read somewhere about switching your location from Mode from High Accuracy (the default) to Battery saving, but if you use your GPS alot like I do, it must be in High accuracy mode....but turning those things off is like going back to Froyo....I bought a kick-butt phone so i wouldn't HAVE to turn all that stuff off...that is what these phones are supposed to do....Google Now voice control....that's just supposed to work!!!!!

well, after the Factory Reset, it does again!