Android discharges very quickly, what should I do? Does your phone run out of juice quickly? We restore it ourselves! Small battery capacity

Increased energy consumption of mobile phones is a common problem for many users.

There are a huge number of factors that influence the rate of discharge of a smartphone’s battery and, accordingly, its battery life. In this article we will try to find out why modern phones discharge too quickly, and also give useful tips and tricks.

Display brightness

Strong screen backlight intensity (80-100% brightness) not only harms vision, but also causes accelerated battery consumption. Screen brightness within 50% is considered the most comfortable and safest for the eyes. In this case, optimal consumption of device battery resources will be achieved.

Many mobile devices have adaptive screen brightness enabled by default, which automatically adjusts to lighting levels. Firstly, the convenience of this function is questionable, since many users are annoyed by the constantly changing screen brightness. Secondly, the operation of the built-in sensor, which determines the brightness of the surrounding light, slightly consumes the battery reserve. To reduce energy loss, it can be turned off and the brightness adjusted manually.

Automatic rotation and live wallpaper

Automatic screen rotation also eats up the battery slightly. The fault is that it constantly determines the position of the phone in space. To save the battery, it is recommended to turn it off, but this is true for already outdated gadgets.

Some smartphone owners like to put wallpaper with spectacular and complex animations on their screensaver. Typically, continuously rendering beautiful 3D images requires a certain amount of battery life. To increase the autonomy of your phone, it is recommended to abandon live wallpapers.

In cases with OLED displays, installing a black theme and screensaver helps, since when using this technology, black pixels are not illuminated, and accordingly, battery power is not consumed.

Applications and background activity

Many mobile applications and games with advanced graphics load the processor very heavily, which is why the battery charge disappears literally before our eyes. To reduce battery consumption at least a little, it is recommended to set low image quality settings (where possible). If running serious programs almost instantly kills the battery, it is better to abandon them completely.

Also, various widgets located on the main screen place a significant burden on the device’s hardware. Constantly updating the weather, exchange rates or device status data leads to increased energy consumption. To significantly extend the life of your phone's battery, it is recommended to abandon a large number of widgets and keep only the most necessary ones.

Some services like to work unnoticed by the user, spending most of the time in . This applies to pre-installed applications from the manufacturer, as well as instant messengers and clients for social networks. By completely deleting them or, you can temporarily lose important push notifications, but extend the operating time of your smartphone without charging.

Communication modules and Internet

Most modern phones are equipped with several built-in modules for wireless data transfer: Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC. It is no secret that the functions of each of them consume certain reserves of battery energy. To a greater extent, this concerns the work of many applications. To reduce battery consumption, it is recommended to turn off communication modules when they are not needed.

However, the biggest drain on energy is the use of 4G Internet and cellular communications, due to which calls and SMS are constantly received. During a call and when connecting to the mobile Internet, battery power is consumed at a high rate, so it is recommended when it is not needed.

The battery is noticeably discharged in situations where the signal received from the nearest radio tower is too weak. Under these conditions, the transmitter tries to establish communication, which consumes battery resources. To avoid rapid battery depletion, it is recommended to turn off the cellular network when the signal strength is insufficient, or when traveling long distances on a train or subway. To do this, all modern smartphones have an “airplane mode” function.

Phone temperature

The operating conditions of a smartphone greatly affect the quality of its functions. As practice shows, leaving a mobile device in the cold for a long time quickly depletes its battery and leads to a sudden shutdown. To achieve normal energy consumption, you need to use mobile devices at a temperature of 10 to 30℃. Otherwise, the battery suffers.

What is typical is that overheating also affects the autonomy of the mobile gadget. It is not recommended to leave the device in direct sunlight or near strong heat sources. This can lead to an abnormal increase in the internal temperature of the battery, causing the smartphone to discharge very quickly. Using thick cases also speeds up this process, so try to keep an eye on it.

Viruses

Malicious programs can not only steal user data, but also fill the device with an excess of unnecessary information. Most often these are annoying advertising banners, notifications and various pop-ups. All of them are downloaded from the network, which means they consume not only precious traffic, but also the device’s battery energy.

Much more dangerous are applications that enable the launch of hidden processes in a smartphone. These programs run in the background, so many users are not even aware of them. Attackers like to use phone resources to carry out computational operations, for example, mining cryptocurrency through remote mining.

To prevent this situation from developing, it is recommended to download and install one of the antiviruses via Google Play. It is important to consider that running such utilities in the background will also not have the best effect on the autonomy of the device. The best option is not to install applications from at all, check and periodically scan your device for viruses.

Hardware and software faults

Increased energy consumption can be caused by various malfunctions in the operating system, when some functions begin to work incorrectly. In this case, you need to restart your smartphone and clear the cache through the Recovery () menu. If this does not help, you need to do a full reset.

In this article, I provide all the sources and reasons why your Android quickly discharges and what can be done in this situation to extend the battery life of the phone on a single charge.

This article is suitable for all brands that produce phones on Android 9/8/7/6: Samsung, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Sony, ZTE, Huawei, Meizu, Fly, Alcatel, Xiaomi, Nokia and others. We are not responsible for your actions.

Attention! You can ask your question to a specialist at the end of the article.

Reasons for fast discharge of Android batteries

There can be many reasons why your Android phone's battery is running low. These include a large load on the gadget and the presence of spyware in the device. Let's take a closer look at the problems and how to solve them.

Heavy load on the phone

Because the Android system is open and complex, it is prone to errors. System optimization is at a fairly low level. Several dozen applications can be running in the background at the same time.

Therefore, the battery is heavily discharged even in standby mode. This explains the nuance why Android phones run out of battery very quickly. Most of these programs are not used by the user in any way, they simply waste resources, so they need to be disabled.

Viruses and spyware

Android OS has recently become quite vulnerable to viruses. Even the best antivirus programs cannot detect them.

Under the influence of malware, the performance of the gadget drops significantly and the load on the processor increases. The following characteristic features of a device being infected with viruses are identified:

• The appearance of advertising where it should not be.
• An increase in the temperature of the gadget's body.

Defective battery

The battery charge may drain quickly due to battery failure. With prolonged use, it, like any other equipment, simply fails.

It is quite difficult to avoid such trouble. If you plan to use the same smartphone for three years, you will have to replace the battery at some point. This is necessary so that the gadget can be used comfortably in the future.

Battery usage rules

If a few years ago phone sellers advised “swinging” the battery - completely discharging it and charging it several times in a row, now this advice is useless. New Li-Ion and Li-Pol batteries use other technologies that are only harmed by such a process.

• It is highly undesirable to completely discharge your smartphone, as this will lead to chemical degradation and reduce its operating time.
• It is better to use only the original charger. Despite the fact that most gadgets have the same connectors, they have a slight difference in voltage.
• The phone should not be kept in direct sunlight. This minor factor may affect the battery life.

What to do if your Android phone's battery runs out quickly

Capacity has decreased over time

After 1.5–2 years of using the phone, battery wear becomes noticeable. This may happen earlier if:

• Charge your gadget near heat sources.
• Charge the battery with high currents and voltages.
• Allow discharge that is close to 0%.
• Use the device for a long time and often at very high and low air temperatures.

Frequent short-term recharging does not harm the battery. The charging current has a significantly greater influence. It is preferable to charge lithium batteries with low currents, although this requires more time.

If the capacity of the phone battery has decreased due to wear and tear, then the only way to solve the problem is to replace the battery with a new one.

High screen brightness

The main energy consumer on an Android phone is the screen. The brighter it is illuminated, the faster the battery drains.

Charge consumption can be reduced by using adaptive backlighting. It changes depending on the external lighting (the option is available on gadgets with a light sensor).

To activate it, you need to select the “Auto” checkbox in the brightness settings. When you are not using your device, its screen should not remain on. Therefore, it is worth setting the transition to sleep mode after 30 seconds - 1 minute of inactivity.

Communication modules

In the background, communication module elements consume power even when the display is turned off. Due to the constant loading of new data, charge is wasted.

Almost all the settings that relate to them are located in the “Wireless Technologies” menu. There are several ways to optimize this part of the system:

• Turn off mobile Internet if you are not currently using it.
• Turn off LTE if you are not in 4G range.
• Turn off Bluetooth. This technology consumes a lot of energy.
• Disable the Wi-Fi search option if you don't need it at the moment.

If you stay for a long time in a place where the phone has poor signal reception, the battery will drain very quickly. Maintaining a fading, unstable connection requires more energy.

The battery will drain faster if there is a problem with only one SIM card. To save charge, it is better to disable this SIM card for a while.

Sensors

Modern smartphones have many sensors, due to which the gadget can quickly discharge. When they are deactivated, the operating time increases several times.

Need to disable:

• The gyroscope and accelerometer are among the most energy-consuming sensors. One of the first things to do is turn off automatic screen rotation.
• Stop GPS operation. This option is placed in the top menu.
• Electric motor. The element is responsible for the vibration response, which discharges the battery.
• In addition, you can disable synchronization with cloud servers and delete unnecessary accounts.

The apps that use the most battery

Click “Settings”, select “Battery” to display a list with all programs and how much energy they use. If a program you rarely use is using up too much energy, you might want to consider stopping or uninstalling it.

Mobile virus infection

Viruses that attack Android gadgets do not always act openly. Quite often, they carry out their activities unnoticed by users, and their signs are empty accounts and fairly rapid battery drain.

To solve the problem, you need to download an antivirus solution, for example, Kaspersky, then launch the software and scan your phone. Then simply remove the dangerous components.

System or hardware failure

Laptop and PC users may experience an issue where the computer does not turn off completely. The screen goes dark when the OS shuts down, but some devices remain active - the indicators light up, the cooler continues to rotate, etc.

A similar problem occurs on Android phones, but it is not so easy to notice, since the gadgets do not have a cooler, and the indicator only shows the charging process. If such a malfunction occurs, the phone essentially remains on all the time, and battery power is consumed.

Any smartphone owner may one day encounter a problem when his device begins to discharge quickly. What to do, how to solve the problem, and what could this even be connected with? It is these questions that this article will try to answer.

The main reasons why your phone battery drains quickly

Battery power can quickly drain for various reasons. Conventionally, they can be divided into software and hardware.

Backlight brightness too high

Relevant for any smartphone or tablet, even if it is equipped with an AMOLED display. You could increase it completely by accident. Some applications are also capable of this, including all sorts of launchers.

It has long been possible to reduce the brightness of the backlight directly in the notification panel. Many smartphones support adaptive (automatic) brightness control - it is turned on in “Settings”, in the “Screen” section. Please note that enabling this feature does not remove the user's right to manually adjust the brightness of the display backlight.

Unoptimized apps quickly drain even a new phone

Many users wonder why the phone began to discharge quickly after they installed some not-so-well-known programs. The fact is that not all developers competently optimize their creations. As a result, their applications not only regularly freeze, but also place excessive load on the processor. This can even happen in the background, which is easy to notice by the heating of the smartphone in the chipset area. Of course, as a result, the phone will discharge very quickly.

Some programs are designed in such a way that they are constantly doing something in the background. For example, the client of the social network Facebook collects a lot of information about the user, including his current location. This is why experienced smartphone owners disable this application if it cannot be removed.

Don't understand which program can negatively affect the battery charge? Then go to "Settings". Find the Battery section here. It shows exactly what resources energy is being spent on. Among other things, the names of applications that have consumed more than 1% of the charge are displayed here. If something doesn’t suit you, then click on the program you don’t like. In the window that opens, you can delete the application, or at least disable it.

Viruses

It can also consume a lot of power by sending various information about your actions to the creators’ server. At the same time, such applications hide well, masquerading, for example, as Google Services. Remove all programs whose names mean nothing to you. Real Google Services cannot be removed from a smartphone. If the corresponding button is available, then be sure to use it. And do not download programs from third-party resources; it is better to limit yourself to Google Play and the device manufacturer’s online store.

If you still download applications using the pirated method, then install an antivirus on your device. It can be free Dr.Web or paid Kaspersky. If you are already thinking about why your phone is quickly discharged, then run an antivirus scan - it is possible that it will find the culprit of the problem.

Unstable firmware version

Large companies try to check in full. But even they have misfires. And what can we say about small manufacturers whose staff consists of a dozen and a half programmers... In short, updating the operating system does not always lead to improved performance and expanded functionality. Sometimes, after receiving an update, the user realizes that from now on his smartphone is quickly discharged. This may be due to poor optimization, new pre-installed programs, and even introduced viruses. Suffice it to recall the DOOGEE BL7000, the basic firmware of which contains three viruses that actively consume energy. Using standard means, it was possible to get rid of only one thing by disabling the Voice Recorder application. To be fair, software updates in the case of this device have increased the battery life, somewhat muffling the effects of viruses.

Unfortunately, going back is often impossible. Because of this, we recommend that you do not update immediately after a new firmware version becomes available for download. Wait at least one week. Read the reviews. If everything is in order, then most likely no one will write reviews. And if problems arise, complaints will not keep you waiting.

What to do if your phone gets hot and drains quickly due to a battery problem

Let's move on to hardware faults. The easiest way is to blame the battery for rapid energy consumption. And it may indeed be the cause of the problem. Especially if several years have passed since the purchase of the smartphone. The fact is that any battery ages over time, losing its working capacity. Some batteries age faster, some more slowly.

Nothing can be done about the loss of capacity; it cannot be restored. However, no one forbids changing the battery by installing a completely new one. Unfortunately, modern smartphones increasingly have a non-removable back cover. Because of this, you will not be able to remove the battery yourself unless you have special tools. However, this can be done at the service center. Yes, you will have to pay for the work and the battery itself. But you will return to the original battery life!

Do not install a battery with a high capacity inside the smartphone. Buying one may be a waste of money. The fact is that the power controller is tailored to the capacity programmed by the creators of the device; it will resist receiving more energy. Of course, these words apply to most, but not all smartphones. But why risk your money?

Problems with the power controller - the phone charges quickly and discharges quickly

A rare case, but it can happen. If you regularly change network adapters, then you may well have come across a low-quality copy. It could produce too much current or too much voltage. In this regard, the power controller either fails or begins to transmit incorrect readings to the system. In the latter case, it may not use the entire battery capacity. Because of this, the user will immediately notice that now 100% of the charge is flowing away somehow too quickly.

In many cases, the power controller has to be repaired or replaced, which is done by many service centers. You can try to calibrate the battery with a special application (you can easily find a lot of options). However, this action rarely helps.

Our tips on how to extend your phone battery life

A variety of factors could affect energy consumption. For example, a telecom operator may have rebuilt its infrastructure near your place of work. The cell tower is now further away, which means more energy is spent searching for a signal. And there is virtually nothing to be done about it. But you can use only one data transfer standard on a long trip. The fact is that the most energy is wasted when switching from 3G to LTE and back. If you are driving in a car, this process will be repeated regularly. But it can be disabled in the operating system settings, activating only 3G connection for a while. This is done as follows:

1. Go to "Settings";
2. Go to the “Connections” section (on some devices this step is skipped);
3. Go to the “Mobile networks” subsection;
4. Click on the “Network Mode” button;
5. Select “3G/2G (auto)”, or even “3G only” or “2G only”.

Do not forget that this should only be done on long trips (at least from one end of the city to the other). This advice will also be useful for those who do not need high data transfer speeds outdoors.

Disable those wireless modules, which you do not use. If it practically does not consume energy, then the same cannot be said about Bluetooth. “Blue tooth” can be turned off if you use wireless headphones extremely rarely, and you don’t have a smart watch or fitness watch at all. Many people prefer to deactivate the GPS chip, because it also consumes decent amounts of electricity. Although it is easier to prohibit them from using unwanted applications, leaving this privilege only to map services and, perhaps, the browser.

Avoid live wallpapers. Often they are the ones who devour energy the most. They also don't always turn out to be useful. It is possible that you downloaded a launcher that was not optimized or filled with advertising, and it is because of this that the phone is now quickly draining.

If nothing helps at all, then you will have to buy a new smartphone. Or get one. This accessory can be kept in your bag, on your desk, in your dresser at home, or anywhere. The convenience of an external battery is that you can charge your smartphone at any time. In 2016, such accessories were wildly popularized by the game Pokemon Go, which works in augmented reality and eats up the battery in just a couple of hours.

Summarizing

It is often extremely difficult to find out exactly why a smartphone began to discharge quickly. But we hope that our article pushed you to take the right action. Remember that high battery capacity does not mean that the device will work for a long time. The duration of operation from a full charge, in addition to the battery capacity, depends on the following factors:

• The technical process used to create the processor - the thinner it is, the lower the power consumption;
• Operating system optimization;
• Display technology - AMOLED certainly outperforms IPS;
• The design of the smartphone - the more difficult it is for the antennas to catch a connection, the more energy will be spent on it.

In a word, do not be surprised that the device will require regular connection of the charger, although inside it there is a battery as thick as the palm of an adult.

If your smartphone's battery drains too quickly, don't worry: you can probably squeeze more life out of it by optimizing some of your phone's settings. As part of the article, we will tell you what to do when your Android battery drains quickly.

Reasons why your phone runs out of battery quickly

There are two main reasons why your phone battery drains quickly:

• hardware - battery wear due to long-term use, overheating, malfunction of the power controller;
• software - flaws in the firmware, crooked software, unreasonable use of data transfer modules, etc.

It is very difficult to eradicate faults from the first category; you will probably have to change the battery or go to a service center. Yes, you can distort the contacts at home and remove the battery, but a mistake will lead to irreversible consequences.

With the second group everything is simpler, there is a lot in your hands, and we will tell you what to do if the battery on Android quickly runs out.

What to do when your phone runs out of juice quickly?

Let's discuss ways you can quickly reduce your energy consumption.

Check which apps are using the most battery

Tap Settings - Battery to see a list of all the apps and how much power they use. If an app you don't use often is consuming too much, consider deleting it, freezing it, or stopping it.

Remove unnecessary software and advertising

Programs often leave their services hanging in the background, they load RAM and load the processor, reducing the operating time on a single charge. Remove unnecessary applications, especially unnecessary instant messengers and anything that tries to connect to the Internet. To get to the uninstall menu, go to “Settings - Applications”.

It often happens that advertising built into software causes the smartphone to actively discharge due to additional downloads of material from the network. To neutralize it, use an ad blocker, for example, Adguard. You can download it from Play Market.

Never use task killers (CleanMaster)

Despite the popularity of killer apps for Android, they cause great harm to the phone, as they unload the necessary components and services from memory, which start again, forcing the processor to work at higher frequencies. And this goes on forever.

Even through the multitasking window, there is no point in constantly unloading processes. Unless they are the ones you rarely use. Android has already learned how to independently regulate background activity; there is no point in helping it with this, since Doze does an excellent job.

Uninstall unnecessary widgets from your home screen

Widgets drain your battery due to constant synchronization and update animations. They also litter the RAM. It's not worth getting rid of all widgets, but try to remove those that are not so important.

Turn on airplane mode in low signal areas

Smartphones use a lot of power when trying to connect in areas with low signal strength. Therefore, if you cannot get a stable network connection, activate airplane mode. To do this, roll the curtain down and tap on the airplane icon.

If there is no icon there, then go to “Settings - Wireless & Networks”.

Turn off data when not in use

Mobile Internet, especially over LTE, is committing total genocide of charge. Try to turn it off whenever possible. This will greatly reduce consumption in standby mode and give at least one additional hour of screen activity per day.

Disable GPS when not in use

GPS is the heaviest module on the battery (you've probably noticed this when using Google Maps). This is another component, in addition to 4G, that mercilessly kills charge percentage. Therefore, never forget to deactivate it on your smartphone.

Also follow the path “Settings - Location - icon with three dots - Search”, and now turn off both items that are responsible for constantly searching for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Turn on power saving mode

For Android 5.0 and later, this feature allows you to increase battery life. For example, animations will be eliminated, most background syncing will stop, and location services will be disabled. The operating system suggests activating this mode when the charge reaches 15% in order to extend operating time.

Reduce screen brightness

If you're using Android 5.0 or later, go to Settings - Display and turn on Automatic Brightness, which will allow the display to adapt to lighting conditions, ensuring the screen is never brighter than necessary.

But if your battery is in a bad state, manually dimming the screen is a good method to extend battery life until you can get to charging.

Remove live wallpaper

The system offers the flexibility to personalize your home screen, but try not to overuse it and avoid live wallpapers. They load the processor and RAM. It is better to give preference to a static picture on the desktop.

Reduce the time before the screen turns off

You can save battery many times over by reducing the time the display remains active. Open Settings - Display to set the screen timeout to 30 or 60 seconds, for example. It seems that this is not very important, but in this way you will significantly reduce energy consumption, because the matrix (especially IPS) consumes it the most.

Stop vibration

The vibration motor requires power to operate, not very much, but still. To disable it, go to “Settings - Sound - Other Sounds” and uncheck “Vibration Feedback”. Also turn off vibration in your keyboard settings.

Keep your phone cool

According to research, battery health deteriorates greatly when it gets too hot. Do not leave your phone on the car dashboard on a sunny day, on a windowsill, under a laptop cooler, etc. The most important thing is not to let the “can” heat up to 45 o C. Monitor the heating during games using the AIDA64 utility. Typically, heating under load is controlled by throttling (the process of lowering processor frequencies to reduce heating), but it is better to play it safe and control the heat dissipation yourself. It is very important.

Always download updates

Install firmware and application updates. They are often aimed at improving energy efficiency.

Keep charge between 30% and 90%

The best way to keep your battery healthy for a couple of years is to not discharge it below 30-40% and not charge it above 80-90%. This is not always possible, but at least try not to charge the gadget overnight, so that when it is charged, it does not remain connected to the outlet for 4-6 hours at 100%. All this reduces battery capacity.

We understand that you can argue “who serves whom: the phone is yours or are you the phone?”, so you shouldn’t obey the requirements of the battery so much, but try to discharge it to 0% as little as possible and leave it overnight.

Sometimes let the battery drain

Calibrating - completely discharging and then recharging your phone's battery to 100% every three months helps maintain battery capacity.

Destroy viruses

Malicious programs sometimes enter the system and affect the device in such a way that it starts to dry up faster. To remove them, check the list of applications for suspicious software. Also download an antivirus solution from the app store, for example, Kaspersky, launch it and let it scan the operating system. After this, remove the hazardous components.

Change the firmware

This is a rather radical method, which sometimes works best, because on stock firmware gadgets sometimes discharge too quickly. Read about the available custom ones, find out which one is the most stable and holds a charge well. Afterwards, carefully install the assembly. Often, firmware based on Lineage or AOSP is careful with charge, so over time many decide to switch to them from official shells.

Factory reset

If all else fails, the phone begins to consume unreasonably a lot, do a Hard reset to return the system to its original state. Go to “Settings - Backup and reset - Reset settings”. Read the warning, make a backup copy of the data that will be deleted, and start the process. This will help mitigate system failures that sometimes occur.

Troubleshooting hardware problems

Now let's touch on the topic of solutions to hardware problems.

Battery calibration using Google methods

We bring to your attention the battery calibration method proposed by Google. In some cases, it helps to normalize the behavior of the battery and power controller, which has begun to incorrectly determine the capacity.

1. Connect a completely discharged mobile phone to the power supply and charge it with it turned on for at least eight hours.
2. Unplug it, turn it off and charge it for another hour.
3. Disconnect the device, start it, use it for one or two minutes.
4. Turn it off and plug it back in for an hour.

The method looks strange, but it allows you to reset the controller statistics and adjust the real capacity to the software algorithms for calculating it.

Use only original charging components

This is important, since some devices with fast charging do not accept connection to third-party power supplies well. Also, too much power, for which the components are not designed for, can harm the battery, and it will begin to run out faster.

We have described the most important methods. Not all of them will be possible to accomplish, but the purpose of this article was also to explain to you what most affects the discharge, and you, knowing the reasons, could independently develop an energy-efficient and comfortable profile for working with the device.