LG G5 Nougat Battery Life

[wwhyte92]

Hello fellow Vodafoners,

I was pleased to see the notification for the OTA update to Android 7.0 Nougat for my LG G5 pop up a couple of weeks before Christmas and installed straight away. Although there hasn't been any major changes to the interface or day to day working, I've had major problems with the battery life ever since the update was installed.

As usual and following the advise of other online forums, I have factory reset the device (more than once) and also allowed it a bit of time to get used to my daily battery habits (as I believe the Doze functionality needs), however it is still appauling compared to before the update. Prior to updating I was able to leave the phone on my desk at work, auto-sync on and playing a bit of music in the afternoon and I would easily have 60-65% capacity remaining at the end of the day. Now, with less use (no music) the capacity is down to 30% by midday and I have to spend the afternoon recharging.

I've reached out to LG regarding this but they don't seem to want to give me any answers. Has anyone else had a similar experience since the software update?

Thanks all.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi,

Performing a Factory Reset as you have done is a good option if the phone is glitchy or battery is poor as this removes junk files. 

It can also take a short while for everything to settle. Something I refer to as the phone indexing after the firmware. 

I'm wondering if an app is not yet properly optimised for Nougat causing issues. 

Are you you able to check in any Battery feature to see what's using the battery. 

On my Samsung Galaxy s7 edge I can also clear the system Cache which does not require a back up. Perhaps check if you can on your phone. 

The phone one should be able to support Nougat as it's just recently launched and it's specs are good. 

A quick Google Search brings back some hits which suggest your not on your own with this. 

One example http://forums.androidcentral.com/lg-g5/753389-battery-life-nougat-7-0-a.html

[wwhyte92]

Hi @BandOfBrothers,

I've been keeping an eye on the battery usage by app and the main culprit for battery use is 'Android System'. Generally this is using anywhere from 3 to 6 times more battery than anything else shown/running on the phone.

I'll give the system cache a go, but wouldn't that have been cleared during the factory reset(s) I have already done?

And yes I've been having a look this weekend and found that there are several people having issues. I contacted LG again and their response was that although they are working on a number of fixes to the Nougat software, they were not aware of any battery problems. So not particularly helpful at all.

[BandOfBrothers]

Hello @wwhyte92

I've seen posts elsewhere that Android System can show high usage. Lots of different thoughts and opinions on why this occurs. 

It's always been around approximately 6% on my s7 edge on Marshmallow.

One aspect of upgrading firmware that always raises its head is battery life after updating. Swinging from posts saying my battery life it's lots better to my battery life is now dire.

Problem is people's usage habits, choice of apps, phone features and settings being set to different levels and the age of the phone and recharging cycles of the battery all play a part. 

None of the above is meant to detract from the issues you are clearly experiencing I assure you.

My thoughts are the manufacturers read tweets / feedback / field calls from users highlighting these issues and have a generic response, and one would hope they send this feedback to a relevant department and is followed by patches. 

I'm keeping a keen eye on valuable feedback like yours and generally hold back until the bugs have been ironed out more.

My phone is unbranded so as the Networks have no intervention in my version of firmware release I'm hoping nothing untoward occurs. 

[Vincerp]

I also got the OTA Nougat update from Vodafone for my G5 a couple of weeks before Xmas and since then I've got exactly the same problems 're: battery life.
Prior to the update I could get 18hrs of heavy use inc Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth enabled and playing games. Now I'm lucky if I get 6hrs doing the same. I've found that its always the android system using 21% or higher of the battery and at times tbe phone runs very hot.
I let it try to settle and some days I do ok with the battery but others I daren't leave home without a charger/battery pack!
I've tried all the hints and tips that everyone recommends but to no avail and judging from the number of people posting the same issues for both branded and unbranded LG G5's I'm guessing there's some dodgy coding in the update and we're just going to have to wait for a patch to fix it.

[wwhyte92]

@Vincerp

I must say I'm impressed with the battery use you were getting when the phone was on Marshmallow! I don't think I've ever been able to get anywhere near that timescale with anything close to heavy use.

As I just mentioned to @BandOfBrothers, having contacted LG again they didn't seem to be aware of the issue of battery life with the update (whether that is just their go to line to deny problems I'll leave to your humble opinion). So there's no imminent timescale on a patch/fix. Looks like we're both in the same boat regarding always having to have a battery pack close by.

[Nabs]

I have an unbranded LG G5 and i'd say my battery life has improved since installing the update before Christmas, I wouldn't say it's been a dramatic improvement but any improvement is good.

Mine was unplugged from the fast charger at 8:45 this morning and is still showing 100% (had a 10 min phone call, sent a coulpe of texts and found a cat). 

I wonder if there is some tweak Vodafone have made to the update that has caused issues. Recently Vodafone have been adding Rich Communication Services to all their own brand handsets, these do a very good job of draining the battery.

@Vincerp Have a look in your installed applications for anything that might names "RCS", "Rich Communication Service", or "Message+", does anything like this exist?

[Vincerp]

@Nabs, thanks for that info. Don't use the stock Vodafone bloatware so have uninstalled all that I can including messenger+ so will see if that makes any difference.
As for LG srating they're not aware of any battery performance issues, I expect thats their stock answer for total deniability 🙂
Till then will keep my charger and battery pack to hand!

@wwhyte92 can recommend this power pack as charges the G5 around 5-6 times: EasyAcc Rugged Power Bank Model PB20000TP - Capacity 20000mAh

[Nabs]

@Vincerp make sure you disable any you can't install as well. My old G3 kept reinstalling Message+ until I disabled it. 

To be fair to LG if there isn't a mass of users complaining about it, which there doesn't appear to be, then they wouldn't be aware of any "battery issues".

I've been saving up for an AUKEY PB-T10 (I'ts available on Amazon but can't post the link to that) as it supports QuickCharge3 so it'll charge the phone quickly as well as many times :smileywink:

[wwhyte92]

@BandOfBrothers

I wiped the system cache yesterday and will give it a couple of days to see if anything settles. However, since I took the phone off charge this morning and have only used it for a small amount of web browsing and updated an app or two, I've got the following (rather scary looking) statistics:

• Useage on battery: 1h 53min
• Estimated time remaining: 1h 38min
• Last 3h of useage: 43% used
  • Android system battery use: 22%

While I know everyone's useage will differ, this is massively different from what I had previously. LG have gone silent again and don't seem to want to respond more than once to an email, and none of the Vodafone tech support I've spoken to over Live Chat seem to offer any guidance other than pushing me towards LG.

@Nabs having looked through my Apps list there isn't any RCS or Message+ listed. The only thing I have of Vodafone's is the 'Start' app (which I can't get rid of or disable) and the 'My Vodafone App' which I downloaded to keep track of my usage. Do you have an upbranded handset? Can I ask what software version/build you are running?