How to fix rapid battery draining on your Samsung Galaxy S9 after installing new update (easy steps)

Post-update issues typically occur to any device regardless of the operating system. Software updates not only brings in some goods but also bugs that inflict different kinds of problems on the receiving device and new devices like Samsung’s latest Galaxy S9 handset is no exception. And one of the widespread post-update problems is on rapid battery draining. In fact, you can see a lot of pertinent complaints raised by smartphone owners after a new software update rollout. Read on to find out what to do if an update caused your Samsung Galaxy S9 battery to drain so quickly. Feel free to troubleshoot your device with the following workarounds.

Before going further, if you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to your problem, then try to visit our Galaxy S9 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed most of the commonly reported issues with the phone. We’ve already provided solutions to some of the problems reported by our readers so try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit.

First solution: Manage display settings.

Adjusting some display settings like reducing the screen brightness can also help save up some power on your device. Some updates automatically alter current settings, therefore it’s possible that some of your phone’s display settings particularly screen brightness is set to the highest or optimum level. To make sure this isn’t the trigger, check and configure your display settings with these steps:

Swipe up on an empty spot from the Home screen to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings.
Tap Display.
Turn off Automatic brightness, if necessary.
Adjust the screen brightness by tapping on and moving the Brightness level slider down to the desired setting.

Also adjust other settings like backlight timeout, widgets, and wallpaper. If possible, use only static wallpapers as they use up less power than GIFs or animated wallpapers and moving images. As for the backlight timeout, select the shortest duration or idle time for your screen to time out. And if possible, minimize the number of widgets on your screen.

Second solution: Quit all background apps.

Keeping apps running in the background can give you an advantage when it comes to multitasking or apps reloading. However, keeping more apps running in the background also means more power consumption as these apps remain opened. As remedy, close background apps individually on your Samsung S9 with these steps:

Press the Recent apps button located on the left of the Home button. Doing so brings up all your recently opened applications.
Tap on the individual app’s preview to close them one by one.

You can also close all your recently opened apps to prevent any of them from causing conflict to other apps or phone functions.

To close all running apps at once, select the option to Close All.

Alternatively, you can use the Application Manager to force close apps that are misbehaving. Here’s how it’s done:

Go to Apps-> Settings-> Applications menu.
Then select the desired app from the list.
Tap the Force Close button to force the app to end.

This will likely fix the rapid battery draining problem if it’s associated with faulty apps on your device. Some updates can trigger any of your apps to crash or go rogue especially if there are any system conflict or if the app is outdated. You can check for any available apps updates by heading to Google Play by opening the Play Store app the access the Updates menu. If there are available apps updates, download and install them because these updates are most likely rolled out to keep certain apps keep up with and work smoothly with the new Android platform.

Third solution: Boot into safe mode and diagnose apps.

Booting into safe mode will help you determine if the problem is triggered by some third-party apps or not. Only the pre-installed or stock apps will load and in this mode as third-party apps and services are bypassed. Here’s how to enable safe mode on your Samsung S9:

Turn off your phone.
Press and hold the Power button past the model name screen.
Then release the Power button when the Samsung logo appears.
Immediately after you release the Power button, press and hold the Volume Down button.
Keep holding the Volume Down button until the phone completes the restart.
When it boots up, a Safe Mode badge should appear at the bottom left corner of the screen. At this point, you can release the Volume Down button already.

Use your phone as you normally do while in safe mode and see if the battery still drains faster. If it doesn’t then you’ll need to identify and remove the bad app.

Aside from enabling safe mode, you can also check the battery usage details and see which from your apps is consuming the most amount of power on your device. These apps might have gone rogue, if not needs to be reconfigured to lower battery usage when running or idle.

Last resort: Master reset/factory data reset.

Back up all your important data and reset your Samsung S9 to its factory defaults if none of the previous workarounds is able to fix the problem. A full system reset if often required to fix complex system errors including the ones inflicted by an update. Here’s how it’s done:

Swipe up on an empty spot from the Home screen to open the Apps screen.
Tap Settings.
Tap General management.
Tap Reset.
Select the Factory data reset option.
Scroll to the bottom of the screen then tap Reset.
Select the option to DELETE ALL.
If prompted, enter your credentials for screen lock and Samsung account verification.
Tap Confirm to continue.

Your device reboots automatically when the reset is finished. You will need to set up some features including network functions on your phone afterwards.

Alternatively, you can reset your Samsung S9 by accessing the Android system recovery menu using the hardware key combos.

Other options

Have your phone checked by an authorized technician for any indications of hardware damage. It’s possible that your battery is busted and needs to be replaced. If your device is still under warranty, contact your carrier first for official recommendations and likewise avail for warranty be it for service or unit replacement. Otherwise, contact Samsung Support to escalate the problem for them to rollout a fix patch.

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