Galaxy S4 Battery Drain Fix Google Maps service

I didn’t do a factory reset, but I did try to restore to factory settings all the possible causes for these, including google play, contacts and maps and google services itself. You have to go to application manager and ALL apps to find this.
They made me update google services but only so my google keep to keep working.
I also suspect is google MAPS. I restored it to the oldest version, and have not updated it and it helps a lot.

Check also your google sync settings
It’s trying to sync EVERYTHING to all your google accounts, eating up your data too. Check off only what you need (for me just apps, email and contacts)

Check also your mobile data and you’ll see google doing a bunch of background stuff eating up your data (and battery). Find it, and disable background data.

I have als downloaded something called “Automate It” which helps with issues like GPS being on all the time, and when Sync should be on. I’ve programmed it so that sync turns on only when the screen is on (helps a lot) and GPS to only be on when I’m moving in a vechicle. The app does a bunch of other cool hacks too.

see my replies above. try to uninstall all the updates to things like google maps and google now. make sure to turn off automatic updates to your apps first.

I had this problem with my s2, did a factory restore and did nothing for me. In my case it seems to be that thing that says “media” whenever i force stop it the heat of the phone goes down slowly and it conserves battery like crazy. It sucks tho because I haven’t been able to fix it yet.

Yes

Interesting. I have had my s4 for a couple of days now and I have noticed that the biggest user of battery is indeed google maps. I’m assuming it is because of location services. I left my phone unplugged over night and it dropped by 11 percent and I realized that google maps had been active for 1 hour and 50 minutes. I just did a reset, and after 30 minutes google maps was still using more battery than the screen. Hoping there will be a fix for this in the future.

UPDATE: So I think this actually worked. I am used to seeing google maps at about 40 percent battery usage. Now it’s 7 percent, and as time goes by, that number decreases.

no need to reset totaly, just delete maps application from “all” applications list.

or you could just disable it in application manager, just you know throwing that one out there

i uninstalled the updates, cleared cache/data! after that just update ‘Maps’ again from play store!!!! Give this a try before resetting it

So, here a fun fact. New S4, google maps doesen’t show up in battery use, haven’t even opened it since I got the phone, and yet battery life is worst than on my previous S3.
Even without wifi, just simple data connection, screen brightness on low, no gps enabled. Ideas ?

Thank u! I had just got my phone and I noticed the rapid depleting of the battery, this worked but all of my contacts were deleted and mu app history was deleted so that really sucked. But otherwise it worked so thank you very much

Let the battery drain till the phone turns off and charge it overnight. When you wake up in the morning unplug it from the charger and that should recalibrate your battery making it better than before.

The device Idle is using 27%

The battery drain is mainly caused by the weather-app which is on your home-screen.
After i removed the weather app from the home screen it stopped wasting my battery, so this issue was fixed, no more battery usage by maps. This means this widget constantly uses maps for searching your current location, it keeps maps active as long as it is standing on your home-screen or any other page. I don’t think that factory reset is THE solution, probably temporarily.
Anyways, thanks for the upload.

Thanks for the suggestion. Maps was the biggest drain on my battery. I tried your idea but after reset, Maps shows it’s running even though I hadn’t re-installed any apps.

Actually google maps ties in with Google Services soo technically google maps IS google services. But anyway, are you using air gestures and all that fancy stuff? If so, turn those off. Turn on Power Saver mode, disable apps you don’t use from the applications manager (i.e. samsung bloatware and verizon bloatware) but be careful when doing that. Uninstall any current google maps updates, restart the phone, then reinstall the update. Use a wallpaper with a fair amount of black in it.

In terms of contacts, you should back that up to google so the next time you have to do a factory reset, it’ll just sync right back onto your phone.

I didn’t have to factory reset for this. Just uninstalled the current updates for maps and then reinstalled then go into maps and disable “location reporting” and “location sharing” (that’s the main reason why maps is eating battery from what I’ve found). If you have Google Play v. 4.1.6, upgrade it to 4.1.10 (4.1.6 had battery drain issues). If you have things set to auto sync, reduce the time that the apps sync or just manually sync it.

Hey man, nice video, I did the same, now the percentage is like this

1% goes off in 4-5 minutes.
Is that good or bad?

Regards

I’ll have to tell my cousin about this. He has a GS4 and the battery life is horrible. With about 1.5 hours of heavy use, 30 minutes of light use and the rest of stand by he gets less than 9 hours.

Fixed it without restore, uninstall the google maps update, and then re-install the latest update from the play store!

+1 for the clear video and accent,will try it out.

thanks for the video , my battery went like 15% down in just 5 minutes !!

but i didnt reset ! just go to Maps > settings > google location settings > turn off the access location

i guess its working with me , what do u think androidizen ?

The biggest boost in battery performance would be from disabling Lumen Toolbar, S Voice, Samsung Link and Google Search. All of these run in the background and take up system resources but I never use them. If you link to any other Samsung devices like a TV leave Samsung Link enabled. If you use google now leave google search enabled. But I found S Voice to be the application that would cause my phone to heat up. Definitely disable this app! Your phone will run smoothly afterwards

Heres the problem disabling apps many are linked and piggy back each other. Hence the warning disabling may affect other apps. I fell for the disable apps trick to improve performance. At 1st I thought it worked. You can see the data transfer arrows in the top menu bar always lighting up. What is my phone downloading what is it uploading. Heres what I recommend before disabling any apps. Do not allow auto updates. Do not allow push notifications. Do not allow locations. Start there.

Do not disable any apps that are the same name. For instance all the att bloatware on the s4. If you use any 1 app do not disable the others bcuz they are most likely linked. If you dont use any of them go ahead and disable all. If you use google do not disable others that were already installed. If you installed seperately you should be safe from piggy backs. They link apps so they work as a whole or group so you have to have all of them in order for a function to work correctly. Its there way

The data junkies have a secret agreement to use cost eat up data with the user most likely not knowing. An app should not have an update every day or week. Not even months because they are just slowly milking the data used so you have to purchase a bigger data plan. Programmers make small changes then force you to accept the update when in reality they could have done a bigger better job then hit with an update. Look at your phone rt now. Its constantly updating or active and it doesnt need to b

Hi, I am going to buy a GS4 tomorrow and I am worried about the battery drain problem.
Do you suggest that I should do a factory reset of a brand new GS4 in order to reduce the battery drain??