Samsung Galaxy S7 battery drain after April update

[Ramzy]

Hey there,

Telus recently (April 18) released the April update for the S7 and the Edge. I own the S7 and installed it right away. Ever since the update, background battery drain increased significantly for me. The processes/services 'Android system' and 'Android OS' now account for 25-50% of the battery usage, whereas before they were barely listed. I've been reading online, mainly on xda, and many people are reporting this issue with Canadian, US and European versions of the phone. Looks like a Samsung issue, however I still wanted to post here and a) read what telus has to say, b) warn people who have not made the update yet (ignore it for now!) and c) whether it is possible to revert to the February/factory version of the installed operating system without violating the warranty. I would go as far as exchanging my phone for another unit even though I know Telus won't do it. It's really frustrating, the battery life was amazing before.
The issue btw extends to the deep sleep of the phone. Whereas it would lose around 1% over night, the phone now loses more than 10% (around 7h sleep).

Hope to hear from other users and especially telus.

All the best

[Lola]

I have the S7 as well. I just took the bug fix update this morning, about 2 hours ago. It wasn't a major software overhaul, just a couple of bug fixes to touch and something else, and a bit of stability--fairly small and quick. My battery is fine so far. It was at 80% directly after the update, it's still there, and I've been on the internet, etc. I know 2 hours isn't long, but with battery drain, it's long enough to notice if it's happening. On my S4 occasionally apps were sucking the life out the battery, dropping it 30% in 20 minutes of no use. That drain is not happening for me right now on the S7. My Android System is using only 10% of the battery right now. You can try power saving mode, but on the S7, power saving mode stops some apps from working properly, to save power.

http://www.gottabemobile.com/2016/04/12/samsung-galaxy-marshmallow-problems/  -- From this article you can link off to help pages, but if you're reading XDA, then you're likely already aware of everything in it.

Fingers crossed that if enough people complain now, a bug fix to your problem will arrive sooner than later.

And you can factory reset -- just Google that, lots of help around to walk you through it if you go that route.

[Ramzy]

Hello Lola,

Thank you for your response.
I've been watching the behaviour of my phone and I have found a few things that can help bring the battery life back to its excellence from before the update. And don't get me wrong, it didn't go from bad to worse, but rather excellent to good.
Anyways, there is four things that helped in my case. 1) uninstall all Samsung push service updates. Restore the app to its factory state basically. Reduces wake locks by a fair bit. 2) if you updated Samsung printer service make sure to deactivate the search for printers. Somehow the standard setting is 'on'. Optionally uninstall the updates to the app if you're not using wireless printers. 3) disable analytic reporting to Samsung and 4) to google.

These steps have reduced battery drain over night for me from around 8-10% to 1-3% depending on your WiFi setup and reception quality. I'm also not using always on display cause it distracts me.

I hope this helps anyone interested. I find it a little sad there needs to be so much user input after an update that is supposed to help.

Cheers

[Falcon]

Do you have any games on your phone? I find Angry birds even after you close the app continues to run in the background and it just drains the battery very quickly.

[Ramzy]

I have games but they're not part of the problem / those type of apps.

[Falcon]

Its just something I observed over time with my current phone.  Battery went faster then I expected it too and it's because I thought the game was shut down but it was continuing to run in the background, next thing I know the phone is close to being dead within a few hours.  Just an observation.

[Malek777]

I went back to the older firmware and my battery shot back up. I tried many things from xda to boost battery on the newer firmware but nothing worked. Looks like we need another update already haha

[Ramzy]

What do you mean your battery shot back up? And did you have to root/unlock the bootloader to get back to the February firmware?

[Malek777]

No need to root. Just download the firmware that ends with PB7 and flash with odin, Flash BL and AP.  I'm back to getting 7 hours sot with 23 hours stand by.

[Ramzy]

I read a bit about what you said online. Looks promising. I have never used
odin because this is my first Samsung. I used to tinker with my Motorola
all the time, but for a while now I haven't had time for such things so I'm
out of the loop.

Using odin with a factory firmware doesn't trip Knox then I'm assuming? And
would I need to flash a firmware adapted by telus?

Any chance you might want to put a step by step guide out there? Or refer
to an up to date one on xda possibly? Many would appreciate that imo.

Anyways thanks for the info!

[Malek777]

I ll try my best to list the steps. Flashing official firmware doesn't trip knox.

1- download odin and unzip file

http://www.filecroco.com/download-odin

2- Download official firmware and Unzip file. theres 4 or 5 files AP, BL,CP, CSC and HOME

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B40ItdHKfkyQTUszamxuRW04dGc&usp=drive_web#list

3- Open odin and load AP file from the firmware you downloaded

4- Load BL in the BL tab.

5-Shut down phone, then hold power button, volume down and home button together. download mode will appear. press up to continue.

6- Connect your phone to the computer via USB, odin should detect. Press Start.

Your phone should restart and erase everything.

Note: By flashing AP and BL only, your phone will not detect the new update PD3, which means if telus pushes an update in the future your phone wont detect it. The solution to this is you have to  flash the same firmware but this time with the CSC and CP.

The first time I flashed the 4 files, soon after the phone booted I got a message that theres new update that I couldn't swipe away, that's why I only recommend flashing AP and BL for now.

[Ramzy]

Wow Malek777, thanks a lot for your efforts! I will try this as soon as I
will be able to, probably some time next week. I have the regular S7,
SM-G930W8. Current firmware version is G930W8VLU1APD3.

If this works I gotta thank you for your time with a beer or smth! Where do
you live? Haha

One more question tho, the website to download odin does mention that it
roots the device in order to work. Is this a problem with warranty?

And how about the TELUS warranty/device insurance? Do you have knowledge
about how flashing stock firmware with odin would affect that?

Cheers for all your help!

[Malek777]

You're welcome haha. You don't need to root or anything even though that page says otherwise. Your warranty isn't going to be effected. Knox is only tripped when you root the device and install a custom rom and a kernel. Since this is an official firmware theres no worries

[Ramzy]

Hey, it's been a while however I finally got time and determination to do this. My phone is getting worse and worse, I have uninstalled all the apps - the system keeps draining the battery.

I downloaded everything so that tomorrow after work I can do this. However one last question, the downloaded firmware seems to be from. Bell Canada? I wonder if that is OK to use on a device purchased from TELUS. They might have different preinstalled apps going or other more important settings?

Cheers Ramzy,
Thanks for all the help and patience

[sonic007ca]

Samsung has released an update for nougat. It is 7.1.1 I think. It has been out for months. It tries to fix the problem with battery drain not sure if it works.

I haven't updated my s7 edge due to the battery drain. My phone is set to manual updates.

If there is any fault ithat lies with Samsung for pushing the 7.0 update. Too many problems with it.

[Lola]

I've still not had any issues with battery drain or any other problems on my S7 that's patched, mended, and surgically reconstructed to August 1, 2017.  I guess I've been lucky in that I've never had any issue with any mobile phone I've ever owned. Fingers crossed I haven't just jinxed myself.

[Malek777]

I don't know if you have edge or regular but this for the regular g930w8

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B40ItdHKfkyQTENDMExXZ0FYaUk&usp=drive_web#list

[Malek777]

After the update system android seems to be on top of the list. My battery drains much quicker now. I might go back to the previous firmware unless telus pushes another update sometime this month.