Massive Battery Drain - PlayStore Update (Aug 2020) [Merged]

pinkfloydian

For no reason that I can ascertain, my Samsung Galaxy S7 has suddenly started to get extremely hot and the battery is rapidly draining. It's not been a slow process, but just started suddenly 2 days ago. The device will just shut down due to lack of power.

Any ideas as to what is going on?

RebelButtMunch

pinkfloydian wrote: »

For no reason that I can ascertain, my Samsung Galaxy S7 has suddenly started to get extremely hot and the battery is rapidly draining. It's not been a slow process, but just started suddenly 2 days ago. The device will just shut down due to lack of power.

Any ideas as to what is going on?

Same for me since the latest update

Westernyelp

if you have the covid app on your phone there is an issue, Devs are aware and trying to get sorted. it's a playstore thing

John mac

yes same happened to me today after aug update . (one + 7 )

PhiloCypher

Same happened with my note 10 plus when I attempted to install the aug android update(it failed, throwing an error message at 26%). Later after 3 hours shopping with the misses and very little phone use it had gone from 87% to 15% battery , checking battery usage google play services was using 30% of battery, up from 3% the day before , and the covid app was the next highest using 11%. I tried all the suggestions , restart , clear Google play services cache , check for syncing issues , even deleted the covid app, to no avail , google services is still at 30% . That being said after charging the phone it doesn't seem to be burning through the battery as quick as before . We'll see what tomorrow brings I guess .

PTH2009

think its something to do with the latest software update for Samsung android phones

JustAThought

pinkfloydian wrote: »

For no reason that I can ascertain, my Samsung Galaxy S7 has suddenly started to get extremely hot and the battery is rapidly draining. It's not been a slow process, but just started suddenly 2 days ago. The device will just shut down due to lack of power.

Any ideas as to what is going on?

i had this - nightmare - save or
move everything from your phone. Now. Mine went from this to dead as a doornail & refusing to recharge & no further signs of life. Shop shrugged it off and said they’d had a lot of complaints with that model. F* all use to me. They didnt say that when the sold it to me.

Sniipe

Same thing happened my wife's phone directly after a Samsung update. She has a galaxy s8. I came to this forum to look up a replacement android and happened across this.
My s9 is also draining faster but not at the same rate as hers. In fact the wireless charging isn't even charging it fast enough.

sentient_6

JustAThought wrote: »

i had this - nightmare - save or
move everything from your phone. Now. Mine went from this to dead as a doornail & refusing to recharge & no further signs of life. Shop shrugged it off and said they’d had a lot of complaints with that model. F* all use to me. They didnt say that when the sold it to me.

Lol calm down!

This isn't phone specific its clearly a issue to do with the covid app and play services.

Uninstall the covid app for now. Clear the cache. Turn off the phone. Charge fully turned off. Should be ok on a restart.

Bluefoam

Google Play Services & the Covid App are both causing massive battery drain over the past two days... Phone depleting in the space of an hour...

Have deleted Covid app and uninstalled updates for Google Play Services...

Anyone else experiencing similar?

sentient_6

Yes practically everybody.

cyclocross!

Bluefoam wrote: »

Google Play Services & the Covid App are both causing massive battery drain over the past two days... Phone depleting in the space of an hour...

Have deleted Covid app and uninstalled updates for Google Play Services...

Anyone else experiencing similar?

Exact same thing happening to me. I thought it was the phone. Reticent to delete COVID App. Looks like it's Google Play Services causing most of the problem.

MrFireCoalMan

Found a solution to this on Twitter. Clearing the cache on Google play services and Covid tracker sorted it out.
Settings/Apps/Google Play Services/Storage/Clear cache, do the same with Covid tracker and restart phone. All good for me since.

Metric Tensor

Same here since yesterday. Found the fix above about clearing the data and cache of play services and it seems to have worked. (I didn't clear the covid app data because I was worried that would delete the tracking data.) The phone is now at a normal temperature and battery seems to be slower draining although I'll need a few hours to check that right.

The phone was like a hot water bottle all day yesterday. Had to charge it 3 times!!

XLR 8

My phone developed the exact same issue. I've followed the advice mentioned so I'll see how it goes. I'll post later about howit went.

errlloyd

MrFireCoalMan wrote: »

Found a solution to this on Twitter. Clearing the cache on Google play services and Covid tracker sorted it out.
Settings/Apps/Google Play Services/Storage/Clear cache, do the same with Covid tracker and restart phone. All good for me since.

Does clearing the cache on the covid app get rid of all the contacts for tracing?

ongarite

No need to delete COVID app or clear its data.
If you clear the data on Play Services it has fixed issue for many.

54and56

ongarite wrote: »

No need to delete COVID app or clear its data.
If you clear the data on Play Services it has fixed issue for many.

Do you mean clear storage, clear cache or both?

ongarite

54and56 wrote: »

Do you mean clear storage, clear cache or both?

Clear storage will clear everything including cache.

54and56

ongarite wrote: »

Clear storage will clear everything including cache.

Did that and rebooted the phone.

Was just about to use the phone (Google Pay) to pay for some coffees and it seems clearing Google Play Services Storage requires your to set up Google Pay again :-(

This always happens my 3a when there's a new update available. Update the phone to the latest FW and it should be back to normal.

Bluefoam

54and56 wrote: »

Did that and rebooted the phone.

Was just about to use the phone (Google Pay) to pay for some coffees and it seems clearing Google Play Services Storage requires your to set up Google Pay again :-(

Well caught, thanks.

pinkfloydian

sentient_6 wrote: »

Lol calm down!

This isn't phone specific its clearly a issue to do with the covid app and play services.

Uninstall the covid app for now. Clear the cache. Turn off the phone. Charge fully turned off. Should be ok on a restart.

Nope! Did all that and from fully charged it is now at 57% after 90 minutes while sitting idle on my table. Also getting very hot.

54and56

Bluefoam wrote: »

Well caught, thanks.

Had to re setup Google Pay and Google Backup.

30 seconds sorted both. No need to rescan your debit card etc, all that info is backed up so you just need to confirm everything, insert your CVV number, receive a text with a 6 digit PIN and you're back up and running.

The Black Oil

I was wondering what was going on, thanks for the thread. Down the 30% yesterday out of nowhere, I wasn't out an about or on data. 94% this morning even though I had it on charge over night, down to 82% in the length of time it took me to have porridge. It was very warm yesterday too.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

This always happens my 3a when there's a new update available. Update the phone to the latest FW and it should be back to normal.

That's not the issue, it's a well known global issue with the Covid app.

Source: have a fully up-to-date 3a.

XVII

Yes, same! Didn't realize it has something to do with covid app though.

Followed solution for Google Play services causes battery drain and seems no issues since then.

54and56

XVII wrote: »

Yes, same! Didn't realize it has something to do with covid app though.

Followed solution for Google Play services causes battery drain and seems no issues since then.

So after clearing Storage in Google Play Services can we relaunch the Covid app or keep it forced closed until there's an update/fix?

XVII

54and56 wrote: »

So after clearing Storage in Google Play Services can we relaunch the Covid app or keep it forced closed until there's an update/fix?

to be honest I haven't relaunched it since then, and probably not going to try for now.

Mister Vain

I thought it was just my phone. I was actually going to buy a new one. I'm glad I read this thread first.

RiseToMe

Sorry just to ask is it both storage and cache or just cache? Don't want to end up deleting apps or something

Clareman

RiseToMe wrote: »

Sorry just to ask is it both storage and cache or just cache? Don't want to end up deleting apps or something

You won't delete apps, i just did the cache and it seems fine now but to be sure to be sure I'd say delete storage as well, it'll rebuild the data it needs

ectoraige

Please, can everybody make sure to reinstall the covid app if they've removed it trying to fix this, the reasons for installing it haven't gone away!
It's a Google Play issue, clearing the data on it seems to resolve the problem.

Mister Vain

I cleared the cache on all my apps. That should make a difference.

Rigsby

ectoraige wrote: »

Please, can everybody make sure to reinstall the covid app if they've removed it trying to fix this

I have uninstalled the app and cleared cache as advised. Seems to be ok at present.

Just wondering when I go to reinstall the app will I have to go through all registration steps again ?

adox

I didn’t go near the Covid app. Cleared all data and cache on Google Play services which was the real culprit and that sorted it.
I have the Covid app running as normal without issue.

Mister Vain

You don't have to uninstall the app. Just click on Force Stop when you don't need it.

adox

Edit: will start a separate thread.

Ger Roe

HSE reporting a google issue - not specifically related to the Covid app
Details from Newstalk -

https://www.newstalk.com/news/covid-tracker-app-hse-working-google-amid-reports-battery-issues-1058201

Ger Roe

https://www.newstalk.com/news/covid-tracker-app-hse-working-google-amid-reports-battery-issues-1058201

HSE reporting issue with google - not directly related to Covid app.

Lyra Fangs

Hey guys for the google play app do you have to click into 'manage storage' and then 'clear all data'? Thanks

Royal Legend

Thanks, glad that is sorted.

Seems like some people tried to blame the Covid App for the issue, which does not appear to be the case

ectoraige

Lyra Fangs wrote: »

Hey guys for the google play app do you have to click into 'manage storage' and then 'clear all data'? Thanks

Yes, that's it, but note it's the Google Play Services app, not the Google Play app.

ectoraige

Royal Legend wrote: »

Thanks, glad that is sorted.

Seems like some people tried to blame the Covid App for the issue, which does not appear to be the case

It seems it's related to the mechanism that Google and Apple introduced to support COVID contact tracking apps, Google made a change in a recent update but it only affected people who were using contact tracing apps.

joebloggs32

ectoraige wrote: »

Please, can everybody make sure to reinstall the covid app if they've removed it trying to fix this, the reasons for installing it haven't gone away!
It's a Google Play issue, clearing the data on it seems to resolve the problem.

+1

My wife works in healthcare in one of the LOK counties.
She took many calls in the last couple of days from people who got notified by it.

Irish Steve

Note 7 started this yesterday, play services using 63% of battery, recharged twice in 12 hours,

Play services won't uninstall and revert to previous releases, so I tried deleting cache and data, had to do that more than once to fully clear things out, and for now, that seems to have solved it, play services is now down to less than 1% battery usage.

Watching it carefully to see if it remains stable

IvySlayer

Same thing happened with my s10. Google play services taking 63% of the battery by itself. getting cpu warnings, overheating and battery being drained.

I uninstalled the covid app and wiped the cache which seems to have solved it.

flazio

Did a factory reset on an Xperia XZ2 (before I saw this thread, thought my battery was goosed)
That should solve the issue as well?
Would a restore from back up put back the caches that caused the problem?

Galadriel

Bluefoam wrote: »

Google Play Services & the Covid App are both causing massive battery drain over the past two days... Phone depleting in the space of an hour...

Have deleted Covid app and uninstalled updates for Google Play Services...

Anyone else experiencing similar?

Yep, this just started happening on Friday night, I have had the app installed for weeks though.

PTH2009

what's the best option for the galaxy S8 ?

Tried this on my s10 and it worked

AlmightyCushion

I haven't noticed this issue on a pixel 3a for some reason.