Play Store has started draining battery lately

[arbarnhart]

Just started in the last few days. I am on 4.1.1, unrooted. Battery has started dropping more during the day than it used to, as in 20% when it used to drop only 5%. I leave WiFi on all the time (I know about the drain when you turn it off) and I am usually connected. When I look at what has used the battery, it is mostly Network. When I view data usage by aplication, it is mostly Play Store.

 

[leeshor]

It's true that the Store appears to be active but in reality it isn't using that much of the battery. Are you keeping it awake all that time or does the tablet get a chance to sleep, even if it isn't "off".

 

[arbarnhart]

It is mostly suspended. Normally I see the screen as having used 80% or more of the battery even if it was suspended most of the time. Not surprising since the drop is so low normally (under 5% during a work day) and the screen use if from intermittent use (so the screen would be 4% of that 5% drop). Right now I see the network using 55% and a drop of 20% or more during a work day. The reason I suspect the Play Store was that I then looked at data use and it was listed highest.

 

[leeshor]

I completely understand your concern about the Play Store app but I'm fairly certain I have a solution. Install Auto Airplane Mode (by DON) from the Store. It will automatically disable the WiFi when your system is suspended. It is a great battery saver. I think you'll see a big difference. Give it a day or two and report back.

 

[arbarnhart]

You obviously are not aware of the issue with turning off WiFi during suspend on an a2109 running JB 4.1.1. As crazy as it sounds, it uses more power with the WiFi off. There is a thread on this forum somewhere that details it; someone with various utilities tracked that down to being Play. The workaround is to always leave WiFi on. Besides, I usually have WiFi and I like it to get email and chime when it comes in. Leaving it on to do that all day only caused about a 5% battery drop until the last few days. Something has changed and now it drains over 20% during a work day.

 

[idontknow]

When this happened to me that all of the sudden my battery started discharging really fast,I thought of everything I got rid of apps and more to find out at the end that it was time to change the battery....now it's heaven again! Could it be the problem with yours?

 

[arbarnhart]

I charge mine every night even though it usually doesn't need it. Lately it uses much more per day than it used to, and I mean 4 or 5 times as much.

 

[leeshor]

I have seen the reports but if the reports were as you say then EVERYONE would be having that problem and I don't think that's the case. If you are convinced that the Store app is at fault, go to settings > apps > all, find Google Play Store and force stop it. (it will start again if you restart your tablet). With the service stropped it won';t do anything. One other thought, do you have all your apps set to auto update? That could be a problem as they would always be checking checking checking.

 

[arbarnhart]

With all due respect, you need to read more of the threads. Everyone does have the problem with turning WiFi off. Or at least everyone running JB 4.1.1. Most people seem to be leaving it on all the time since it lasts several days suspended with WiFi on, or at least it did until something triggered the recent drain for me.

I am testing now after removing some things that I really didn't use and doing a full power down and up. I avoid full resets because I am using Cloud Backup and to get a full backup on a non rooted device, you have to connect to a PC and run a special process after each full power cycle.

 

[arbarnhart]

The clean up and/or power cycle worked! It only used 5% of the battery the rest of the day.

 

[leeshor]

I knew you would finally find an answer as the 3 people I know using the same tablet with JB were not having the same problem. They all did factory resets after the upgrade. These users all work for a vendor who sells Lenovo tablets.

 

[arbarnhart]

Just another followup - it was definitely a hiccup that is now gone. I am back to around 5-8% drop per mostly inactive day. That's about 11 hours off the charger, 9 of which it is connected to WiFi, just getting flipped open to occasionally read mail, browse or whatever; probably only .5 - 1 hour of screen time.