What to do if your Samsung Galaxy Note 8 charges slowly but drains battery pretty quickly [Troubleshooting Guide]

There are times when a phone starts to drain its battery quickly. In fact, some owners of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 have contacted us regarding this problem. We really don’t know for sure why it’s happening but we’ve already encountered similar issues in the past so it’s not really the first time we’re dealing with this kind of issue.

Based on our experience, the most common cause is when there are a lot of apps that run in the background especially graphics and CPU intensive game apps. As you know, apps aren’t closed when you hit the home button, they still run in the background and use resources. Well, this is just one of the possibilities.

But you know what, more often than not, the quick battery drain issue is always accompanied with a slow charging problem. When connected to its charger, your Note 8 doesn’t use the fast-charging feature and the time it takes to charge the battery at a normal pace is almost doubled. So when if the phone is powered on while charging, you can see the battery icon with a bolt in the center but the percentage doesn’t go up. Others may even mistake it for a “not charging” issue.

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I will tackle this problem in this article so if you’re one of the owners of the Note 8 that’s bugged by a similar issue, continue reading as this post may be able to help you. But before we proceed, if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, visit our Note 8 troubleshooting page as we have already addressed some of the most common issues with this device. Browse through the page to find problems that are similar with yours and use our solutions. If you still need our help after that, fill up our questionnaire and hit submit.

Troubleshooting Note 8 that charges slowly but drains battery quickly

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to determine why your Note 8 is draining its battery quicker than the charger can push electricity into its battery. I believe that the latter is simply the result of the former but then again, we have to do everything we can just to make your phone work flawlessly again. With all that being said, here’s what you should do about this issue:

Reboot  your phone in safe mode

This is based on our suspicion that apps running in the background are a cause of the problem. By starting your phone in safe mode, you’re basically running it in its bare bones with only the core services and apps are accessible. In this environment try to observe your phone if it still drains its battery quicker than it should be.

If it drains the battery normally or even slower than normal, then it’s confirmed that there are apps that suck up more juice than others. You have to find that app and never to forget to properly close it after use. In this case, there’s no issue with your phone, proper apps management is what you need.

However, if the battery still drains quicker even in safe mode, then you have to continue troubleshooting your phone to know more about the problem.

Before you proceed, here’s how you run your Note 8 in safe mode…

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

Wipe cache partition

Corrupt system caches may also cause quick battery drain and it’s one of the possibilities that we really have to rule out before we continue troubleshooting. Run your phone in recovery mode and then wipe cache partition so that all system caches will be deleted and replaced. After which, observe your phone if it still drains its battery faster than usual because if so, then you really have to reset your phone.

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Backup files and reset Note 8

If the cause of the problem is neither your apps nor the caches, then it’s time to bring the phone back to its factory default settings. We can do this by resetting all settings but at this point, I think it would be more practical to just resort to master reset which more thorough and effective. So, make sure you make a backup of your important files and data and then reset your phone from the recovery mode…

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

After the reset, don’t install or restore anything yet. Instead, observe your phone closely to know if it still drains its battery quickly and if so, the next step should be done.

Check phone for liquid damage

You only have to do this if the reset failed to make your phone charge normally. All you need to do is check the USB port for some traces of moist or liquid. Then try to check the device’s Liquid Damage Indicator to see if it’s tripped or not. If it’s tripped, the small sticker should emit red, pink or purple color. It shows white if it’s not tripped.

To check the LDI, remove the SIM card tray and look into the slot and then find the small sticker that would tell you if the phone suffers from liquid damage.

Should your phone show signs for liquid or even physical damage, you should bring it to the tech to have it checked out. However, after doing all these things and your phone still drains its battery quickly, then you should let the tech handle the problem for you because as far as basic troubleshooting is concerned, you’ve done everything you could to fix the problem to no avail.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you fix issues with your phone.

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