Galaxy S5 Battery Drain, Running Hot and Signal

Ever since the lollipop update, my phone is a huge disappointment. Not only does the battery last approximately a quarter to half the time it used to, but it runs hot and is constantly connecting and disconnecting from WiFi and Bluetooth services.

One thing not discussed very often in the forums is also signal strength. My signal strength went from excellent to being lucky to have one maybe two bars. I have cleared my cache as well as completed a factory reset and have noticed little to no improvement. Does anyone have any other new information to share regarding Verizon's response to these failing updates?

I swear they do these updates to make your phone faulty after a year or so in your contract to force you into their stores with so much frustration that you are ready to buy a new phone. This is very disappointing and discouraging as my phone worked perfectly fine prior to their software update.

Accepted answers

Verizon_Support

Voodoo_Kitty

I am sorry to hear of the trouble you are having with your phone since lollipop. Software updates are rolled out to make things better rather than worse. Typically after a major os overhaul there are follow up patches which will no doubt tweak lollipop to help with all phone features. In my experience often times this abnormal behavior is responsible, at least in part, with a 3rd party app (or apps) not being quite up to speed with your operating system. Have you run the phone in safe mode for a day or two to see if it performs better? http://www.verizonwireless.com/support/knowledge-base-111483/

BryanS_VZW

If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

All comments

rusty41302

I am having the same issues. I am not a heavy phone user (talk, text, FB) mostly, and my battery life is at 20% by lunch. What's up??

MiiHere

"One thing not discussed very often in the forums is also signal strength."

In just a couple weeks of spending time of this forum I have seen 100's of messages saying just that. Unfortunately you've already attempted the one big thing everyone does in order to help resolve the issue which is factory reset.

Can both of you go into Settings>Battery and take a screen shot of the apps that are consuming your batter power? You must have charged your phone to 100% and then use it as normal throughout the day; taking a photo at 20% should be sufficient.

Verizon_Support

Voodoo_Kitty

BryanS_VZW

DMZMAN

The Lollipop update has been nothing short of a catastrophe. It turned mine and almost everyone else's Galaxy S5 into a brick, I got so fed up and screamed and screamed and screamed to VZW tech support over 3 dozen calls with problem after problem since Feb 3rd that they finally replaced mine with a 'recertified' unit. When I got the replacement 2 weeks ago, I was astounded to find it came with Kit Kat on it, Android 4.4.4. All is right with the phone and I'm back in love with my S5 all over again! Every VZW customer service rep I've spoken top ADMITS to this update being a complete, total, and absolute disaster that should have NEVER been allowed out the door. Shame on Verizon, Samsung, and Google for this.

I can't believe they're still pushing this joke of an upgrade as I still get notifications to install it.

:smileyhappy: Now

MiiHere

I have the s5 and G2 and have had to do minor things to help with the problems, but I thankfully still have the option to factory reset if it were to worsen.

Voodoo_Kitty

I have not run the phone in safe mode but I can tell you that my phone has not improved at all. I run the battery doctor and clean sweep and I could run it every hour and have 39 to 55 apps running that are not downloaded apps being used by me prior to optimizing. When I am using my phone for anything, I lose a percentage point of battery power nearly every minute or two. It's honestly insane. My battery used to last 1-2 days on a charge and now I am lucky to have it last for 1/2 - 3/4 a day without a charge. If I am actively using it, forget it.

Voodoo_Kitty

I did the factory reset... I have seen no improvement. It was a waste of time.

Voodoo_Kitty

How do I upload a photo for you?

MiiHere

If you're on the computer, hit the camera to upload. Or you can just report the top 5 things to keep life simple.

MiiHere

Did you go into back up and restore and disable data and restore back up? (uncheck both those boxes) before doing a factory reset?

Voodoo_Kitty

I am not on a computer... is their a method I can send you screenshots of battery info and app usage with my phone? I am at 60% right now. Turned my phone on at 10:30 am ish EST and have used the phone minimall today.

Ironlady37

Same trouble here. On another thread I replied to someone told me to do the factory reset. I deleted all my pictures, messages, moved apps to SD card etc. Still telling me storage full. Very frustrating to an only year old phone. I can't afford to go buy a new $600 phone. Worked great up until the lollipop upgrade a few months ago now nothing but problems. I guess I'll try the reset soon. :smileysad: