Google Play Services - Battery Killer

[Woogy]

I got an LG G3 a couple of months ago nearly from Vodafone & have monitored the battery having heard about issues with the lovely big screen prior to purchase. But, it's not the screen killing the battery, it's Google Play Services & it's happening to my Mum's Samsung Galaxy S3 too.

It's not as though you can disable or remove this thing, it's a big app & I am less than happy. As a test I told my Mum to leave her phone with me & both ran out of battery in less than a day, mine quicker than hers, & Google Play Services is the culprit. What the hell have they done ?

I've tried turning off location reporting & Google+, Hangouts etc; none of those me Mum would have a clue to access or make use of & it's made no difference.

If you uninstall the Google Play Services updates & restore it back to the factory version then the system complains other apps need the new one to work & that's on both handsets.

I was getting on very well with the G3 & it's battery until this, version 6.1.09 (1459805-030). I know this isn't a Vodafone problem, it's Google's but, I was hoping to share with other users & highlight the problem.

[Retired-Sarah]

Hi Woogy,

Thanks for the update.

Since you’ve restored the phones, has any further issues happened or does the battery issue seem better?

Thanks,

Sarah 

[Woogy]

Hello Sarah,

It's still an issue for both phones. I'm going to do a factory reset on mine (G3) & see what happens but, Mum is panicking she's gonna lose all her photos. I've tried to explain they're seperate on a card that I put in for her, I'll back them up & I'll remove it before resetting but, she's still threating, bless.

Google Play Services is not letting the phones deep sleep & hammering the battery & both phones say that in the stats within the battery menu.

I'll update you once I've done the resets ;-).

[hrym]

When you've done the reset, try running the phone vanilla for a while, with no other apps.   If it's OK, put your apps back oone at a time.   If the problem recurs, you've probably found the culprit.

[Woogy]

That's what I was going to do ;-), that's why I've changed my mind & I'm going to start with Mum's phone before mine as she has far fewer apps on her's. Back up the photos but, not the phone or settings & then factory reset.

I found out the hard way restoring a phone before & during the sign in process with Google I inherited the same problem I had because it had backed up the settings, which I didn't want. Lesson learned.

It's not just our phones though, just look at the feedback on the app store & the problem is widely reported, both the system 'awake' problem & the space the updated app acquires https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms

[hrym]

If you want to avoid having your settings restored, the only thing I can think of is to disable backup to Google in Settings, then delete the backup in Google Dashboard on the website.   That ought to give you the "out of the box" experience.

I looked at the link and, yes, you're clearly not alone, but it also seems to be device-specific (Google even say that size and version are device specific).  I think the only thing you can do is wait for a fix.

[Woogy]

I think Google have to have a rethink on this thing. I've disabled & signed out of hangouts, google+, stopped location reporting & history & stopped maps & STILL this sole application (Google Play Services) is killing the phones.

It didn't do this to my G3 when I first got it & me Mum's Galaxy S3 has never had bettery issues as far as she's concerned & so no desire to upgrade. She was very happy but, neither are since the most recent updates.

The attachemtns are screen shots from my G3 & as you can see, the concern with the G3 about the screen is not an issue & never has been for me & it's got even better since I bought the circle case this week (which is also noticeable in the screen shots). It's all about Google Play Services.