Why does my phone battery drain quickly after charging?

Over time, many Android OS users encounter a problem where the phone charges quickly and discharges just as quickly. This causes a lot of trouble if you need to be constantly in touch, especially when away from home.

The manual is suitable for all models and brands (touch and push-button): iPhone, Alcatel, Asus, Lenovo, Phillips, Prestigio, Sony Xperia, HTC, Samsung, Xiaomi, Umidigi, Leagoo, Dexp, Oppo, Doogie, Huawei, HomTom, etc. d. In this context, it doesn’t matter what software is installed: iOS or Android.

The phone charges quickly and discharges quickly

This option most often happens with old batteries that have exhausted their service life. Each battery has its own expiration date, but, as a rule, smartphones last a long time without replacement. That is why problems with charging and discharging the battery are the most popular among gadget owners.

It should be noted right away that some gadgets charge quickly straight from the factory. They are technically equipped with this function, and in the box they come with chargers designed for this purpose.

But fast discharge is not typical for modern devices. Experts identify three main reasons why a phone quickly discharges:

1. All battery cycles have been completed, and it has become unusable. In this case, you can buy an original battery yourself and replace it, or, if it is non-removable, contact a service center.
2. Problems with the electronic component. It can be easily detected by repair point specialists after a little diagnostics. Smartphones are easy to repair and can be returned to their owner in a few days.
3. Calibration failed.

Step-by-step instructions for properly charging any smartphone

The smartphone is too overloaded

When using a gadget for a long time, the user usually “clutters” the latter by installing a huge number of not always necessary applications, games, etc. Such handling of the phone leads to excessive load on the hardware, which in turn leads to rapid discharge of the phone. Remove all clutter and unused apps and check your battery health.

Reasons why your phone takes a long time to charge and discharges quickly

When the phone begins to charge for a long time and discharges almost instantly, you must immediately “sound the alarm”, otherwise there is a risk that it will let you down at the most crucial moment, and you will be left without a means of communication for at least several hours. Battery life is reduced due to:

• Battery swelling. Most often it happens due to the use of unsuitable chargers with a different voltage and current.
• Mechanical damage: cracks, scratches, chips and others.
• Intensive energy consumption by communication modules. There are several nuances behind this point: poor communication when the modules work in intensive mode, unoptimized consumption, always-on data transmission, Bluetooth and sensors.

• Maximum screen brightness settings.
• Setting up applications, which causes them to constantly run in the background on their own and consume battery.
• Installed widgets that require constant updating, such as news or weather. This item can also include various live wallpapers, additional themes and “gluttonous” toys.
• Very often, programs from the Play Market designed to extend battery life, on the contrary, harm it. You should not rejoice at the ephemeral numbers of cleared data and agree to install additional extensions. Firstly, such programs contain advertising viruses, and secondly, having received full rights to manage smartphones, they begin to download third-party utilities, drain the battery, and even steal personal information. Be careful with Clean Master and similar products, and do not download them unless absolutely necessary. It has already been proven that in particular cases they can do more harm than good.

Possible solutions

As soon as you notice problems with the battery charge, you should immediately take the first emergency measures to solve this problem:

• Check the appearance of the battery for mechanical damage or swelling.
• Delete all Android applications that are responsible for charging and saving energy, including the popular Clean Master.
• Taking your phone to a service center is the best and safest way to solve any problems with gadgets. There they will diagnose it, understand the reasons, give advice and solutions.
• Calibrating the battery yourself will help. However, you should be prepared to lose your warranty if it is still valid. All calibration applications, including the recommended Battery Calibration, require root rights, that is, in fact, hacking the smartphone.

IMPORTANT! Sometimes the cause may be a third-party application that has nothing to do with the battery. Try to remember, perhaps the problems started after installing a specific program. Try removing it and checking the battery functionality again.

Poor quality battery that discharges quickly

Quite often, after the phone’s “native” battery fails, the user buys a cheap replacement battery made by an unknown Chinese manufacturer. This battery is characterized by low quality and a capacity less than declared. Accordingly, it will charge faster and discharge faster, and the quality of its work will be below the level of criticism.

A battery that is not native to the phone can cause dysfunction.

We recommend purchasing only batteries from the official device manufacturer with the required characteristics. Do not try to save a couple of rubles and buy a non-name battery - this can have the most detrimental effect on the further operation of your gadget.

How long should a phone charge?

It is difficult to give a definite answer to this question, since the charging time of the battery depends on the capacity, optimization of the Android operating system, the presence of Quick Charge technology, as well as the current-voltage characteristics of the charger.

Therefore, problems with the battery are most often diagnosed in comparison with the first experience with a smartphone. Do not forget that over time, the energy efficiency of any battery decreases, but only slightly, and in normal cases this has virtually no effect on performance. Only the battery life is reduced by a few minutes.

Which phones have problems with fast charging and discharging?

The problem can occur on any phone. More precisely, in many cases it occurs in the battery, and all batteries are produced using almost the same technologies - Li-Ion and Li-Po. Therefore, even the most advanced smartphone cannot exclude all situations in which the battery behaves abnormally.

Lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries.

Battery saving program

A great way to “support” your smartphone before replacing the battery is to install a special program designed for this purpose. There are several dozen of them in the Play Market, but we will talk about the three best that effectively prevent problems:

• Amplify Battery Extender is the main “enemy” of applications running in the background. Their work goes unnoticed by most users, but with the help of this program you can look behind the “veil of secrecy” and manually optimize Android yourself. Root rights are required to use.
• Greenify - the application offers a unique technology that “puts utilities to sleep” when you are not using them, thereby maintaining a full charge for a long time. Its main advantage is maintaining the functionality of applications at any time (which, for example, is not available in another application for completely freezing Titanium Backup). Also requires superuser rights.
• Servicely is an excellent program that helps to permanently overcome programs that stubbornly launch without the knowledge of the owner of the gadget. It works in the background, and at specified intervals checks the list of running and used programs, disabling those that the user is not currently using. Similarly, Servicely also requires root access.

The battery runs out quickly What to do

If your Android phone is quickly draining, try lowering the brightness of the screen backlight. This is done directly in the notification panel.

You can also go to Settings

", to the "
Screen
" section.
There you can find the item “ Adaptive adjustment
” - it is recommended to enable the checkbox next to it. In this case, the system will adjust the brightness itself, focusing on the level of external illumination. Unfortunately, such an item is not available in budget devices, since they are often not equipped with a light sensor.

Wireless modules also consume quite a lot of battery power. These include , Bluetooth, 3G or 4G (LTE), and Wi-Fi. The first two modules can be disabled, activating them only as needed. This is done in the same “ Settings”

", but already in the "
Wireless Networks
" tab.
Click on the “ More
” button - this will take you to the desired subsection.
Well, you will see a button leading to Bluetooth
right away.

In the “ More”

"You can deactivate NFC if your smartphone supports this technology.

Inexpensive devices are equipped with a budget GPS chip, which sometimes does not even support the energy-saving A-GPS function

If the navigation part of your smartphone is not particularly important for you, then GPS can also be turned off. To do this, in “Settings" you should select the item "Location"

Here you should be interested in the option “ Mode

"
Select " By network coordinates
". In this case, the smartphone will lose the ability to accurately determine your location, but its GPS chip will stop consuming energy.

To save battery power, you can stop playing games. The fact is that they consume energy most actively. And some shareware projects do this even in the background - evidence of this is the various notifications that arrive regularly on your smartphone.

Seriously reduce battery life and regular reboots. They are usually caused by unstable applications and should be removed. Also, something could happen to the Android operating system itself - in this case, you can try to return to factory settings

. But remember that in this case all user data will be deleted from the device.

Even root access can affect battery life. Try removing root rights

— it is possible that after this the smartphone will work longer.

It is quite possible that the problem lies in the software you installed. Some programs have terrible optimization or deliberately consume a lot of resources, which affects energy consumption. Facebook Messenger also belongs to the second type.

. The social network client and messenger get access to almost all the data available on the smartphone - along the way, these applications massively consume battery power, as a result of which it runs out very quickly.

In early versions of the Android operating system, the power consumption of each application remained implicit. But later in Settings

"The subsection "
Battery
" appeared. It details which programs and games are the most power-hungry.

In new Samsung smartphones, you can learn about the energy consumption of each application in even more detail. All information is located on the page of a particular program in the Application Manager

" Here you can find out how much CPU load the application creates, as well as other interesting information.

As mentioned above, malware also consumes a lot of battery power. Fortunately, downloading a virus via Google Play is not as easy as it seems. But other resources are literally replete with malicious applications. Therefore, it is recommended to prevent your smartphone or tablet from downloading games from the program from other sources. This is done by going to the “ Settings”

"titled "
Security
".
Unknown sources
checkbox .

It is also recommended to install an antivirus on your smartphone. You can get acquainted with worthy candidates for this role in the article “ The best antiviruses for Android

» .

Tips for efficient battery use

In order for the battery to serve for a long time, you must adhere to the rules for effective operation of the device:

1. It is forbidden to charge the phone to 100% and discharge it until it turns off. The lifespan of a battery is measured by the full charge-full discharge cycle. The most acceptable indicators are in the range from 20 to 80%.
2. Maintain the correct battery temperature. It’s not worth testing your smartphone with cold and heat once again. If there is a serious minus outside, you can turn off the gadget, but you should not abuse constant reboots - they also cause harm.
3. Buy only original chargers. Chinese copies can quickly render the battery unusable.
4. To prevent your smartphone from falling into a state of deep discharge, constantly maintain a small charge on it (30-40%), even if you do not use it.

What to do in such a situation: all options

Now let's look at what to do if the battery on your Android Samsung runs out quickly, and what to do to restore its previous performance.

The action algorithm looks like this:

• Check the operation of the device in safe mode. Its peculiarity is that after starting the device, only system applications work, and programs installed by the user are disabled. Use your Samsung smartphone during the day and see whether the battery is actively discharging or not. If the power supply does not drain as quickly, the problem may be some application installed since the purchase of the device. Uninstall programs one by one and observe the behavior of the smartphone. To activate safe mode, turn off the device, press the power button and when Samsung appears, press and hold the volume down button until the device turns on completely. Safe Mode should appear at the bottom left. If the battery is also draining quickly, try other ways to solve the problem.
• Disable any programs that are not being used. If you don't use any apps, turn them off or uninstall them. The first decision concerns system software, and the second - installed after purchase.
• Buy an extra battery. If your phone's charge runs out quickly on your Samsung, buy an additional source (external power supply). It can be used as a portable socket. Charge the external device first. Then connect your Samsung smartphone to it and thereby ensure long-term operation of the device. Such devices have a relatively low price and ensure long-term operation of the smartphone. They are especially useful if your cell phone battery is draining quickly.

Reduce brightness. As noted, operating at maximum brightness leads to increased consumption of the power source. The optimal solution is to set automatic level detection taking into account the light level outdoors or indoors.

• Take out the SIM card if it is not in use. If your Samsung Galaxy or other smartphone has two SIM cards, one of which is not used, remove it from the device. In this case, you can save the energy that the phone uses to maintain a normal level of cellular communication. This especially applies to SIM cards from operators that do not provide normal communications in your region of residence.
• Turn off unnecessary functions. It's no secret that the battery drains quickly if various functions are enabled on your Samsung smartphone - bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS and others. Turning off can be done through quick settings by lowering the “curtain” at the top of the display.
• Turn on airplane mode. If you often travel to areas where cellular coverage is poor, activate Offline or On Airplane mode. Their advantage is that the network turns off and the battery retains its charge longer. But, by the way, it is not necessary to use this option during flights. After all, many air carriers have WiFi on board their planes.

• Turn off synchronization. The Samsung smartphone automatically synchronizes with different accounts for sharing files. This feature is very convenient, but it consumes a lot of power, causing the battery to drain quickly. It is best to enable synchronization yourself, for example, once a week or a month.
• Reset your data. If OS errors accumulate, you can take drastic measures and reset the information to factory settings. In this case, the device software returns to its original settings. The manufacturer recommends doing this work every six months before updating the software.
• Change the battery. If none of the methods worked, and the phone has been running on the same power source for more than two years, change the battery.

Before purchasing a new battery, go to a service center. The technicians will conduct diagnostics and determine the real cause of the rapid discharge. The malfunction may be caused by a controller or board going out of order. In this case, replacing the battery on a Samsung smartphone will not work and will be a waste of money. If you cannot do without purchasing a new power source, you need to buy it at Samsung branded stores.

Additional hardware

Some smartphones are equipped with additional hardware, which affects their autonomy. Examples include Motorola or Google. Companies use special sensors in their phones that constantly listen to their owners. They are required for the Google Assistant to work. On the Pixel 4, Google uses a Motion Sense sensor. It analyzes the movements of the user's hands when using the device, which undoubtedly affects the autonomy of the phone. I propose to discuss the consumption of Motion Sense in Telegram.

The display also affects autonomy

The second most important source of consumption is the display. Smartphones offer QHD resolutions, OLED technologies, screens with increased image refresh rates - all this affects battery life. An OLED display with a large number of white colors can consume battery faster than IPS screens. If the smartphone screen diagonal is more than 6.5 inches and the battery capacity is below 4000 mAh, such a phone will most likely not last a day on a single charge. In addition, screen brightness greatly affects consumption.

Top up the battery

If you need to use your device for longer than the built-in battery allows, one option is to get an external battery. You can get an additional device of any power. The battery case keeps it tightly packed with the smartphone, but increases the size and bulk. This will make the iPhone too large to fit in your pocket, and it will generally not be able to control other devices as well. A battery bank can come in all shapes and sizes, and can often charge multiple devices at once.

Battery calibration

Battery calibration is the process of bringing the battery into an optimal state for use. This is done because the device may incorrectly remember the charge level and its consumption, as a result of which, even if in fact the level is 95 percent, the device perceives this incorrectly and the smartphone/tablet turns off. If you simply replace the battery, the problem will remain, which means that your efforts will be wasted.

To calibrate the battery on GooglePlay, you can download the corresponding application, but you can also do it manually. First of all, you will need to completely discharge the device, remove and insert the battery back without turning on the device, charge it to one hundred percent, carry out the actions with the battery from the previous point, and turn it on.

In fact, there are many calibration options; you just need to choose the one that suits you.

Battery Type

Why does my battery drain unusually quickly? Perhaps it's a matter of poor choice of power source. When purchasing phones, battery characteristics play an important role.

Among them:

• Capacity (unit of measurement - mAh).
• Type (Ni-Cd, Ni-MH, Li-Ion, Li-Pol).
• Operating period.

A battery with less than 1600 mAh is unlikely to last the whole day without recharging while actively surfing the Internet, making calls, and playing games. The relatively comfortable time of using a smartphone starts at 2000 mAh. Rugged phones have batteries with a capacity of 3000 to 4000 mAh.

The type of battery also affects how long it can be used without charging. Nickel-cadmium representatives (Ni-Cd) have become history due to their fragility, low energy intensity, and unjustified production costs. Metal hydride batteries (Ni-MH), which were built into old, large, inexpensive phones, have a relatively long operating time, but are inferior to other types.

Modern smartphone batteries are made of lithium (Li-Ion, Li-Pol). Both representatives are similar in their characteristics: high mAh numbers, stable operation, no “memory effect” (gradual loss of nominal capacity). However, they are sensitive to ambient temperature and prolonged periods of discharging/charging. How to properly charge Li-Ion batteries, read here →

The previous period of operation applies to used batteries. For example, on a modern Samsung smartphone, the battery normally lasts from 1 to 3 years (depending on the intensity of use and device model). The need to recharge a new phone more often is noticed after a year of use. You should not expect long-term operation if the smartphone battery has served the previous owner continuously for 4 years.

Lithium-ion batteries of smartphones are subject to the memory effect, as a result of which they begin to lose capacity over time. In such a situation, calibrating the battery on Android will help.