Solutions For Galaxy S5 Battery Drain Issue

Are you wondering why on earth your #GalaxyS5 battery power cannot even last until the afternoon? Well, this post may give some insights on what to do. Keep in mind that this is not an exhaustive guide on what to do to fully address the issue. Battery drain problem can happen due to a number of factors, some of which are mentioned here. Just continue to watch out for our posts in the near future for other tips on how to deal with this problem.

Below are the topics discussed in this post:

1. Samsung Galaxy S5 reboots when an app is running
2. Galaxy S5 loses battery power fast
3. Solutions for Galaxy S5 battery drain issue
4. Question after doing a Galaxy S5 factory reset due to battery drain issue

Solutions For Galaxy S5 Battery Drain Issue

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Problem #1: Samsung Galaxy S5 reboots when an app is running

About 2 weeks ago my Galaxy S5 started to reset itself automatically in the middle of using 1 particular game app which is very intensive on power. It started as just restarting itself once, then went to 2-5 times, some are partial resets, as it starts to reset in the middle of a reset, others it appears to come back online fully but I get a notice at the bottom that it cannot connect (presumably to the carrier).

Now it seems to want to continuously restart until I pull the battery out. The phone will now stop and freeze during this game app and today it did so during another game app, and start resetting, sometimes after only 10 or 20 minutes. The phone is 15 months old and I have never had any issues before.

I can wrap the phone in a cloth frozen chill pack (a corn bag) and that will usually stop it from resetting constantly. I try to let it get to 20% before recharging and I avoid the games if I know I need my phone.

I think overheating obviously, but from what? The phone gets warm but is never hot to the touch. The battery does not feel warm when I remove it and it is not deformed, but it does seem to require more frequent charging now than it ever has before.

The phone is fine texting and making calls it is only during at least 10-20+ minutes of an intense gaming app that it seems to start. I have started charging it off when possible and factory charger or USB into my computer makes no difference.

The problem did not happen with the Lollipop update.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks. — K

Solution: Hi K. An average smartphone’s battery lifespan is about 500 charging cycles. Assuming that you charge your phone once a day, that puts the phone’s battery in its final phase at this time. If you think that there’s no other software or hardware issues involved, try using another battery to see the difference.

Random reboots can be caused by anything at this point and you need to isolate the possible reasons first. Today’s smartphone batteries do not improve over time. In fact, Lithium-based batteries degrade after some time. Using a new battery may not only resolve the issue but is also highly recommended to ensure that your device has a new power source.

If you have read some of our related posts, you should know by now how to do the standard software troubleshooting when dealing with any power- and battery-related problems. Otherwise, you can start with this post first: Galaxy S5 won’t charge when it is on.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 loses battery power fast

Hi. I am experiencing a couple of issues with my S5 since the update.

1. My phone’s battery has been draining very quickly and the phone is freezing frequently when in use. I read that a factory restore may help sort these issues out. What programme should I backup with? I read that the inbuilt backup will not save folder and browser settings.
2. Numerous contacts have been linked together even though they are completely unrelated. I went through my phone to unlink all of them one by one. The next time I checked my contacts, they were linked together again.
3. There are 2 contacts linked together from all the different apps. E.g. Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, LinkedIn of Brian and Amy are linked into one entry. I tried to unlink the contacts by clicking one the – symbol, one pop up indicates the contact is separated but nothing happens.

Hoping you can help me with these annoyances. — Jannyfer

Solution: Hi Jannyfer. Before you consider doing a factory reset, we suggest that you try to clear the cache partition first and observe the phone for at least 24 hours. Also known as system cache, the cache partition is a special place in the phone’s memory that keeps files needed by the system to load apps efficiently. The cache usually retains old, irrelevant files from previous OS after an update so it’s a good practice to wipe it clean regularly. If you haven’t done this yet, you can follow these steps:

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume Down key to highlight wipe cache partition.
• Press the Power key to select.
• When the wipe cache partition is complete, Reboot system now is highlighted.
• Press the Power key to restart the device.

If you would like to proceed to factory reset and want to backup your phone, try using Helium – App Sync and Backup and other similar apps in the Play Store. We are not 100% certain if the features offered in these apps are what you’re looking for so try to do a little research for each before using them.

For your second and third concerns, the most likely reason why the same contacts were linked again after unlinking them may be due to an enabled sync option for your app or apps. Make sure that any apps that keeps contacts (like email apps, contacts, social media apps) have their sync option turned off to prevent the contacts from merging again.

Problem #3: Solutions for Galaxy S5 battery drain issue

Dear DroidGuy. My Galaxy S5 acts like its charging about every 30 seconds when it isn’t even on the charger and it drains my battery.  Not sure why it’s doing that.  I have had it for a few months now and it just started doing that within the last month.  It doesn’t always do it, it does it mostly when it has been on the charger for a while and battery life is at 100% and I take it off the charger. Please help me figure this out. Thank you. — Amanda

Solution: Hi Amanda. Your first task should be to isolate the real reason of the problem. This means doing a few things like booting the phone in safe mode, clearing the cache partition, doing a factory reset, uninstalling apps, and replacing the battery.

Software problems are usually the reasons why a smartphone’s battery power runs out fast so you need to do the troubleshooting steps below.

Booting the S5 in safe mode

Diagnostic mode or safe mode is a good way to determine if third party applications are to blame. When in safe mode, the phone prevents the apps you have installed, allowing only the ones that came with phone, to run. If the problem fails to occur when in safe mode, you must try to uninstall your apps until you are sure that the source of the problem is gone. To boot in safe mode, just follow these steps:

• Turn the device off.
• Press and hold the Power key.
• When Samsung Galaxy S5 appears on the screen, release the Power key.
• Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume Down key.
• Continue to hold the Volume Down key until the device finishes restarting.
• Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
• Release the Volume Down key when you see Safe Mode.

Wipe the Galaxy S5 cache partition

As mentioned above, deleting the cache partition is a troubleshooting step and maintenance procedure when dealing with possible software or apps issues. Please refer to the steps above on how to perform it.

Use another battery

We cannot totally rule out the possibility that the battery itself may be bad. We know that your phone is only a few months old but we’ve seen cases before of batteries going out in a matter of weeks. These issues may be rare but not impossible so make sure to try another one before doing a factory reset.

Uninstall app updates or apps

If you downloaded or installed an update or app prior to noticing the problem, that may be the cause of the battery drain issue. Try to uninstall it and see the difference.

Restore the defaults via factory reset

Factory reset is usually done after you have tried all the troubleshooting steps. Make sure to create a copy of all your personal data before proceeding. Here’s how to do it:

• Power down the Galaxy S5.
• Press and hold the Volume Up button, the Home button, and the Power button together until you see the Android on screen.
• Use Volume down to highlight the wipe data/factory reset option and press the Power button to select it.
• Use Volume down again to highlight Yes – delete all user data and press Power to select it.
• Use the Power button to select Reboot system now.
• When the S5 restarts it should be completely wiped and ready to set up again.

The issue may come back if you re-install the same set of applications after doing a factory reset. Try to observe and give your phone at least 24 hours (after doing a factory reset) before installing any third party app. If battery level returns to normal, try installing your apps again. Try to observe again how battery power consumption works after installing a few apps so it will be easier to isolate which app may be the culprit if the issue returns.

Problem #4: Question after doing a Galaxy S5 factory reset due to battery drain issue

Hi. My Samsung Galaxy 5 battery is draining real fast. It is also started to shut down by itself and restart itself. I would have like 35% of battery left. I noticed it would restart when a text comes in or if I have another app open and I would toggle back & forth between apps.

It’s like since the battery is low it can’t handle a few apps opened.

I read online that it was suggest how to do a master reset. 

Questions to you is: if I do a master reset do I lose my contacts (phone numbers), old texts, pictures, apps that were downloaded etc… — Dora

Solution: Hi Dora. A master reset will wipe everything that’s stored in the phone’s internal memory. If you are using the stock apps to store your contacts, pictures, and text messages, they will be deleted unless you create somewhere. If you have a computer, you can install Samsung Kies application to it and connect your phone to it so you can save backup of your files via Kies. For us, this is the most convenient way to create a copy of files before doing a factory reset.

You don’t have to worry about your downloaded apps as you will not lose them after a reset. Once you log back in to your Google Play Store app after a factory reset, you will have a list of all the apps you previously installed. However, app settings and game progress may be lost after a reset.