How To Fix Fast Battery Drain Problem On Note 3

Even before Lollipop was released, there were rumors that specially mentioned battery issues being the main reason for the delay of the new OS. Now, several months later, it looks like Google is still trying to address the issue, which may confirm that those rumors may have been true in the first place. It’s not uncommon to encounter battery issues in many tech forums though, before or after Lollipop was introduced. That said, TheDroidGuy want to make sure that our readers with the same problem are aware of the issue and it’s trial-and-error resolutions. There’s no definite fix for battery issues due to a few factors one must consider.

If you have similar problems, just go over this short post on how to fix fast battery drain problem on Note 3, or let us know about it through our email (provided below).

How To Fix Fast Battery Drain Problem On Note 3

Problem #1: Note 3 loses battery fast when Wi-Fi and Sync are enabled

Hi. I am regular reader of your post of Note 3. I am a Note 3 user from India. I have noticed from last couple of days that whenever I turned on Wi-Fi and enable sync on…the battery starts draining super fast. However when Wi-Fi is off and sync is off too the battery works perfectly fine. Why so? I am running Android 4.4.2 and my phone is rooted. Can you please be so kind and revert me back the solution. I do not want to format the phone as i am having heavy content. Thanking you in advance. Your fan from India. — Ayaan

Solution: Hi Ayaan. We have no idea how fast the rate of your battery power loss is but it’s definitely a highly abnormal situation for a Note 3 to have this problem. Try to check if third party apps may be causing this by booting the phone in Safe Mode for a few hours. If there’s no significant battery loss when in this mode, please disable and/or uninstall third party apps until the issue is gone.

Problem #2: Note 3 battery drains faster after updating to Lollipop

Sir, I have recently updated my Galaxy Note 3 (SM N 900) to Lollipop version 5.0 after I got an update alert. Soon after the update I am facing some issues with the phone. None of the apps which were previously installed like Facebook, WhatsApp, Chrome, Gmail seems to work. The icons are also missing but under device manager the app are showing but the space is showing as 0.00 bytes.

I tried to download again from Google Play. But it is not opening as well.

Battery seems to be draining too fast.

The Lollipop update is causing great inconvenience in my work life. Will be grateful if you guide me with some troubleshooting steps. Thank you. — Ranotosh

Hi! I’M Mayank from India. I am using Note 3 N900 for more than 1 year. It always work fine for me but now I’m having a lot of problems after updating to Lollipop. I read your thread about these problems and I’m also having the same problems. I format my phone, wipe cache and data, factory reset. done everything. Gallery takes a lot of time to open, battery drain issue, hanging, keypad issue, etc. Today I thought I should root my phone. Should i do that? Or wait for another update?

I want to delete all useless apps from my phone like Chat On. I don’t know why it still exits when Samsung stops its service. Please give me suggestions. Should I root it or not? If yes then please provide tools for rooting. Thanks in advance. 

P.S. Hey! I want one more suggestion from you. I love to do photography. i want an app which gives me manual functions of camera like manual focus etc. Just like in G4. Is there such app? — Mayank

Hi. My name is Felipe and I own a Galaxy Note 3. Since the software update, the battery doesn’t last more than 2 hours, when it used to hold for the whole day. Another thing is that all apps seems to be lazy, like taking much longer to perform the action after the touch. Do you know how I could solve these problems? My main concern is regarding the battery.  I appreciate your help and support.  Best. — Felipe

My husband has been avoiding downloading the Lollipop update for his Note 3 for a while now because my Note 3 and my daughter’s Note 3 became very glitchy and both suffer from fast battery drain since we download the upgrade back in April.

He’s not quite sure how it happened but his phone downloaded the update for Lollipop. He’s been able to hold off the installation by rescheduling it to a later time. Is there a way to delete the update or prevent it from installing? Thank you. — Juliane

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read my email.

Since the new Lollipop update I have found that battery usage is not what it used to be. My husband and I both have Samsung Note 3s and they both use batteries very quickly now since the Lollipop update. It is strange that this only started happening since we did the update. I have tried to make sure that there are not programs running in the background as much as I could.

The second issue that I am having and also I know two other people having the same, so it is not exclusive to me. When I am sending and receiving text from someone oftentimes the text that I send appears on the screen after the one that someone else sent. Even though the text that they sent is in reply to my text. It is very difficult to have a conversation like this because I cannot keep up with what message came when. So it is if it is an active message back and forth within the same minute or two, it does this. Thanks again for your time. Regards. — Linda

Solutions: Hi Guys. Lollipop update has been known, for quite some time now, to cause all sorts of problems including the one you are experiencing. Sadly, even months after it was made available for public consumption some initial issues has remained largely unaddressed.

Due to a huge number of Samsung smartphone users around the world, it appears that most of the problems are due to poor hardware products rather than a software one. In fact, Google developers deserve a big part of the blame in this matter. It’s been observed that the new Lollipop operating system tends to prevent mobile data connection from being turned off completely in contrast to how KitKat managed this feature. The Google Play Services process as well as Google Now are some of the notorious native apps that causes some problems. Because they are tied to the core of the operating system, many internet-based apps manifest all sorts of problems. That said, their impact are usually manifested in severe slow performance as well as battery drain issues. Clearly, Google is aware of the issues surrounding Lollipop’s release and must be working on ironing out things. But when  an effective patch will be rolled out is still a question at this point.

Indeed, Google can be blamed but other factors may also be at play. Outdated apps designed for the previous OS can also play a negative role. The only effective solutions that both Google and Samsung suggest are clearing the phone’s cache partition and factory reset. We know that you may already have an idea that you will find these possible solutions in our forum but they are the only ones that can work things out. If these two will not return battery consumption rate to normal, a more drastic change in your usage habits may be needed. We have filed a short post on how to extend the battery life of an S4 and S5 before (the ideas can be applied to Note 3s as well) so try to make use of it.

Let us know if they will resolve your woes.

Mayank: Rooting your phone provides a slightly new firmware environment so if you have all the standard solutions, you might as well just try it. There are many root tutorials in the web that you can try but we recommend that you follow the ones being shared in XDA-Developers Forum.

There are many Android apps that gives you DSLR-like controls. Try Camera FV-5 and Manual Camera. Both are them are available in Google Play Store.

Juliane: To stop your phone from notifying you of pending Android OS update, just go to Settings>System>About device>Software update, then uncheck auto update.

Linda: Your second problem is caused by incorrect date and time settings. Select automatic date and time and time zone under Settings>System>Date and time section. This should fix SMS messages that are out of order.

Problem #3: Note 3 battery not charging after updating to Lollipop

Hi. My Samsung Note 3 updated to Lollipop earlier this week (Verizon Wireless) and since then, the phone simply won’t charge.  I’ve tried multiple USB cables and chargers, and the result is always the same: phone recognizes that it’s charging, but it doesn’t actually charge at all.  Instead, I think it drains the battery faster. My phone is officially dead since I can’t charge the battery, and I don’t know what to do. 

I read your latest article and the part about the charging was terrible advice, as it has nothing to do with the Lollipop update and effect on my phone’s inability to charge. Please help?

https://thedroidguy.com/samsung-galaxy-note-3-troubleshooting#qMIBJAK1AQxEVXhl.97.  Thanks. — KT

Solution: Hi KT. If you suspect that the battery may have died sooner than expected, try using another one and replace it if necessary. We haven’t heard of any firmware update damaging a battery to completely render it useless but it’s possible.