Ramdom battery drain is getting annoying!

[boatsnbeaches]

It happened again this morning. I normally get 2+ days on a charge unless the battery bug hits which seems to be more frequent lately. Took phone off charger around 12am this morning with a full charge, left it on my desk, came back at 4am and the phone was extremely hot and the battery was showing 22% and 1 hour remaining. -- This is with NO use, just sitting on a desk. I've tried the factory resets, disabling various option, etc with no luck. The random phone heat/battery drain was happening every 4-5 days. It has now happened twice this week.
Still trying to understand what is causing the problem.

I have not only tried blocking nokia drive -- I uninstalled it a few days ago so it's obviously not the problem as many suggest.

WiFi and BT were both on.
NFC off
Advanced wifi features all disabled
Location services on

The only programs showing for "background tasks" are weather and USA today apps. Love the phone, but not sure how much longer i can live with the unreliable nature of the battery -- sometimes 2 days with moderate use, other times I get 4 hours with no use? Anyone know if the HTC is experiencing these random battery drains like the L920?

 

[ImAdrian23]

As far as I know it is not the apps that drain the battery but the OS. Microsoft is going to fix both the reboots and the battery drain bugs in december (or with Apollo +).
My HTC 8X never restarted so far, but I am also experiencing the battery drain bug. I didn't touch my phone for 6 hours and the battery dropped from 99% to 93%.

 

[conanheath]

I've been having the same problems. One day the phone seems to operate fine, the next my battery won't make it past noon. I have stopped all background tasks except weather and only turn BT on when I use it. Its nice to have all the features of WP8, but it would be nice to be able to use them without carrying around a cable. I'm beginning to wonder if it's a bug, minor tweaking still needed or if the OS is just bloated which MS has been known for. I bought phone off contract and have upgrade due in May. They have until then to get the problem resolved. I have a Razr Maxx for work. Far more use than my 920 throughout day. I know it has a larger battery, but I can make 10-12 hrs of hard use with no problem on a 16 month old battery. I hope MS can get it worked out as I love the OS and Hardware, but I am a function over form guy. If it doesn't work, I don't care how nice it looks.

 

[beachhoppr]

Its frustrating because it IS so random

 

[jsk0703]

How is your 4GLTE coverage? I had a problem with my HTC Thunderbolt where the battery would drain really fast when my phone would continually switch between 3G and 4G. Usually when Verizon was performing maintenance or when I was in an area with spotty coverage.

 

[boatsnbeaches]

Its frustrating because it IS so random

This is what bothers me most. I can deal with "A fix is on the way, blah blah..." but I can't depend on a phone when it sometime lasts 2 days and other times 4 hours. The fact it IS so RANDOM leaves no way to plan around it. If we only knew a workaround until they release the fix.

 

[anon(5348413)]

Yeah, mine seems to only do it when I'm in an area with low LTE coverage. If I have full bars LTE, my battery is fine. If I have any kinda 3G/4G(HSPA) then the battery is fine. If I'm in an area with like 1-2 bars LTE, it's draining. It cranks up the power to lock into that weak signal and it drops like a rock. Just what I've noticed.

 

[mgus]

Yeah, happened to me for 2nd time this morning. I use the phone (Lumina 920) as an alarm and normally I have 80% or so battery power left in the morning since I unplugged from work the previous day. As far as I know, I didn't leave any apps running and the 4G (not LTE) should be the same everyday, so doesn't seem to be reception related. On the bright side, at least its not just me so there's hope MS will fix this in the next update. Great phone otherwise.

 

[newfiend]

My battery issues started after the last round of updates from Nokia. It was fine until then. Battery would last most if the day and never drop much below 80% I was amazed how long it lasted as most times it was still in the 90% range now its at 50% used after 4 hours. Weird bug. I hope this gets handled soon!
Sent from my Lumia 920 using Board Express

 

[pieman666]

Is your email an exchange email? I have run into problems with iPhones where they go 'crazy' updating emails causing the battery to drain very quickly, changing the sync from push to 15 mins fixes it. (cba to look for the real problem and users were ok with 15 min syncs) it also fills up the log files on the exchange server, so ask your tech people if that is happening...

 

[Workshop2]

As far as I know it is not the apps that drain the battery but the OS. Microsoft is going to fix both the reboots and the battery drain bugs in december (or with Apollo +).
My HTC 8X never restarted so far, but I am also experiencing the battery drain bug. I didn't touch my phone for 6 hours and the battery dropped from 99% to 93%.

Where did you read they were going to fix battery issues?

 

[Rhuey46]

This is an interesting problem, I've been thinking about buying a Lumia 920, just waiting for my current mobile contract to finish next month. I am currently using a HTC Incredible S on a custom ROM, not sure if that has anything to do with it, but the other day my phone got really hot and the battery drained in a couple of hours from a full charge and minimal usage. I tried killin all app usage etc. but it still didn't work. I then discovered that my company's wifi password has changed, and I always leave wifi switched on as it connects to the work network automatically. The phone was obviously not connected to the wifi network, but when I went to wifi settings I noticed it was constantly trying to reconnect with the old password but failing. After switiching off the wifi the phone cooled down and now am getting my usual battery life (about 1 day) from the phone.

I wonder if the L920 issue could be something similar?

 

[conanheath]

I can buy the lte coverage sucking the battery dry. In Dallas, ATT has excellent coverage though and my BB9810 was lte and it didn't suck battery down even with usage. The screen is huge, so I can buy that as a huge battery drain, but not when its not in use. When mine drops like a rock it's not from use. WiFi shouldn't be a huge drain unless the antenna just sucks. I never turned WiFi off on my Razr or BB and they didn't suck the battery dry, randomly. With my trials, I have only had an issue with background apps running. If I only have weather on it seems to do ok. Every other time I try adding apps, seems to cut battery life in half. I've turned off all the "neat" things that I bought the phone for just to make it through a day without a charger in tow. I still don't know if it is the apps themselves or how WP8 is handling them. I've tweaked around and made in better for the time, but they need to fix it. I would like to have a few live tiles on, get updates and use the phone without the need of a charger twice a day. With the inability to use the neat things of the OS, I could have stuck with BB and been better off.

 

[karmamule]

My phone is generally great for battery life, but occasionally gets in a "bad mood" too and starts running hot & draining fast. Like the others I do the usual stuff of making sure nokia drive isn't active etc etc. It seemed to be getting worse/more consistently hot/fast the last few days, and it finally drained so fast that it shut down on me. After I recharged it I noticed battery life has been better than ever, even compared to its "good moods" before.

I was a bit skeptical of the "let the battery drain at least once" idea and hadn't done it before since I usually was getting very good battery life, but letting it fully drain really does seem to have made a significant difference. Of course it could be a coincidence too, but I'll be more likely to try that in the future if it starts misbehaving again...

 

[BeaverJuicer]

I can buy the lte coverage sucking the battery dry. In Dallas, ATT has excellent coverage though and my BB9810 was lte and it didn't suck battery down even with usage.

The BB 9810 is HSPA+, but not LTE.

 

[steeleblue]

Ok, I'm no more of an 'expert' than most folks here but the fact that it is getting hot would point to the phone is trying to do something over and over unsuccessfully (like trying to reconnect to a network, or download email etc.). Doesn't sound like a simple battery drain.

If I were in this spot I would try these things (in whatever order works best for you):
1). Do a hard reset. I know, I know it's not fun but it does fix a lot of issues. And if it bricks, you can exchange.
2). Try to verify cellular/wifi connections. This is hard unless you're monitoring your phone constantly but may very well. Be the source of your problems.
3). Double check your email accounts, especially if you connect to an exchange server. Try setting them to fetch every few minutes and see if you still drain.
4). If nothing else works, exchange for a new phone.

I would be most worried about the heat issue. This just isn't normal. If all your signals and connections are fine and a hard reset doesn't fix it I think you have a defective phone. No matter how many people report their phone heating up (at charging, on a call, etc) phones shouldn't do this because these aren't difficult tasks for the hardware (Videos, heavy games are different). My phone never gets hot, never. Nor does my son's. So don't think it's 'normal' for standard circumstances.

 

[irvin792]

Ok, I'm no more of an 'expert' than most folks here but the fact that it is getting hot would point to the phone is trying to do something over and over unsuccessfully (like trying to reconnect to a network, or download email etc.). Doesn't sound like a simple battery drain.

If I were in this spot I would try these things (in whatever order works best for you):
1). Do a hard reset. I know, I know it's not fun but it does fix a lot of issues. And if it bricks, you can exchange.
2). Try to verify cellular/wifi connections. This is hard unless you're monitoring your phone constantly but may very well. Be the source of your problems.
3). Double check your email accounts, especially if you connect to an exchange server. Try setting them to fetch every few minutes and see if you still drain.
4). If nothing else works, exchange for a new phone.

I would be most worried about the heat issue. This just isn't normal. If all your signals and connections are fine and a hard reset doesn't fix it I think you have a defective phone. No matter how many people report their phone heating up (at charging, on a call, etc) phones shouldn't do this because these aren't difficult tasks for the hardware (Videos, heavy games are different). My phone never gets hot, never. Nor does my son's. So don't think it's 'normal' for standard circumstances.

mine gets hot browsing mobile websites

 

[Kelvin Hsu]

mine gets hot browsing web as well. after the update the battery drains so fast. after full charge, estimated time remaining is only 15 hours. this morning it died w/in 4 hours. today is my 15th day of having the nokia 920. do u guys think att will exchange me a new phone?

 

[ZombieBacchus]

Up until this morning I have always had great battery life. The battery would last 18+ hours. Now after I updated the Nokia apps last night I am having horrible battery life. Could just be a coincidence though. I will see how it goes over the next couple of days.

 

[based_graham]

Don't let Nokia Drive run in the background drains up battery fast.