Battery Drain on Lumia 950 Post-Anniversary Update

[ruchrana]

Hi all,

I've had my Lumia 950 since about April or so of this year (2016). My battery life when I first got it was pretty phenomenal, and the charge time was incredibly fast. Recently, I've felt that the battery life has *dramatically* deteriorated to the point where I can hardly even keep it going for a day.

For example, I'll charge it in the late evening around dinner time, then take it off the charger when it's at 100%. I'll go to sleep with only WiFi and Cellular data on, and no apps running in the background. When I wake up, sometimes the battery is at around 20-30%! When looking at the battery usage, it'll say "Start" or apps I used the previous day like "FB messenger, Edge" as the majority of the usage but I can't really change those.

I have checked the background apps that are allowed to run, and ones that I have are:
-Content Delivery Manager
-Email and accounts
-GroupMe
-Lumia Motion Data (the only app that uses this is Run+)
-Mail and Calendar
-Messenger (Facebook)
-Microsoft messaging
-Microsoft phone
-Microsoft Photos
-Run+
-Settings
-Windows camera
-Work or school account
-Your account
-phone update

I'm debating whether or not I should reset the phone and have it re-install from the Anniversary update.

As of now, it is running version 1607, build 10.0.14393.67 --> updated last night to 10.0.14393.189 (I have never used Windows Insider updates for this phone)

Any suggestions?

 

[abhishek singh21]

WiFi and Cellular data on

why would you leave both wifi and cellular data on?

sometimes the battery is at around 20-30%!

that is bad, with almost no usage the device looses more that 50% of its battery. Have you checked under battery settings, what apps are consuming most of the battery?

I'm debating whether or not I should reset the phone and have it re-install from the Anniversary update.

At the current rate, it wont be wrong in advising you to go ahead with a factory reset of your device, but once try disabling the cellular data and map the battery drainage then.

 

[obakir]

I have whatsapp, im+, instagram, and bunch of other apps on top of that list. Mine doesn't drain half of that.
One suggestion is to manually set email checking time to half an hour. But I doubt that would solve your problem.

 

[ruchrana]

So my email checking is on manual for my email account. The Microsoft email I can't put to manual checking but it's at once a day checking.

Any suggestions on a good app to map battery drainage? I am thinking about doing a factory reset but obviously that is a LOT of annoying work after the reset (getting all my apps back, settings reconfigured, etc.).

 

[abhishek singh21]

there are many apps available in the store for the purpose, like "save battery" which can show the statistics of the discharge of your device .

 

[pinolat]

Have the same issue.
It starts a couple of weeks ago. Suddenly my phone lost 20 - 30% over night (before it was around 7% - 9%) and I noticed in the battery option that "start" is using 10 - 15 % of the battery (whatever this is). At the time I was on release ring. Left the release ring and switched back to the official release. Still the same. Send my phone to Microsoft due to other errors and got a new phone (different IMEI) yesterday. I set it up as a new phone without restoring any data and installed the latest software (.189). Didn't put a sim in because I wanted to see how battery life is without using it. So only connected to Wifi and not using any messenger the phone went from 100% to 18% (battery saver kicked in during the night) in less than a day. And again Start is up to 15%. Would be happy for any advice. At the moment the phone is not really usable for me...

 

[Ariel Takom]

To the OP and @pinolat, jsut wanted to know what build are your phones in, and have you updated the firmware as well? The firmware update would normally show up as MICROSOFTDMG under the update download in settings.

If your phone has been completely updated to the latest firmware and software, a hard reset may be required. Try to perform this WITHOUT restoring from a backup (this is because, the backup might contain the cause of the battery drain in the first place).

And if the phone still face this problem, then you have to perform a reset via Windows Device Recovery Tool. This will re-install the old builds (TH2 builds, which is the 10586 builds) on your phone (firmware will also be updated if your phone's firmware is not up to date). After completion, do not set up the phone just yet. Update it to the latest build, and after this is done, perform another hard reset. Afterwards, set-up your phone as normal (without restoring from a back up).

Like you, I've recently owned my 950 (won it from a giveaway in this very site!) and the battery life was absolutely horrible. I did multiple hard resets, limited background apps and whatnot, yet the battery drain still occur. I finally fixed this by doing the reset via WDRT, and my battery has been phenomenal. On average, my phone lasts me around 19 hours, with about 6 hours of actual use.

 

[speccy]

why would you leave both wifi and cellular data on?

I doubt this is anything to do with the battery drain, I have WiFi, Cellular data and Bluetooth on all the time. I hop from car to street to work and to home all the time, if I had to worry about turning these things on and off all the time it would drive me nuts.

On a standard day, taking my phone off charge at around 7am, I still have around 60% left at 6pm.

 

[ruchrana]

To the OP and @pinolat, jsut wanted to know what build are your phones in, and have you updated the firmware as well? The firmware update would normally show up as MICROSOFTDMG under the update download in settings.

If your phone has been completely updated to the latest firmware and software, a hard reset may be required. Try to perform this WITHOUT restoring from a backup (this is because, the backup might contain the cause of the battery drain in the first place).

And if the phone still face this problem, then you have to perform a reset via Windows Device Recovery Tool. This will re-install the old builds (TH2 builds, which is the 10586 builds) on your phone (firmware will also be updated if your phone's firmware is not up to date). After completion, do not set up the phone just yet. Update it to the latest build, and after this is done, perform another hard reset. Afterwards, set-up your phone as normal (without restoring from a back up).

Like you, I've recently owned my 950 (won it from a giveaway in this very site!) and the battery life was absolutely horrible. I did multiple hard resets, limited background apps and whatnot, yet the battery drain still occur. I finally fixed this by doing the reset via WDRT, and my battery has been phenomenal. On average, my phone lasts me around 19 hours, with about 6 hours of actual use.

So I again had a night where the battery drain was strangely HORRID. I have attached a picture to show what the "Battery" app had monitored. I charged it to about 100% before hanging out with friends at night, left it off the charger the entire night just on WiFi + cellular (and like I said, removed a lot of background apps). I woke up and it was at 5% -- yikes!! When I got the phone back on the charger, it said that Podcasts took up a huge majority of the battery drain, so I looked at it and realized it was trying to download new podcasts. I never even opened the app within the last 2-3 weeks and it is set on "Never allowed in background" and yet all of its use was in the background. Anyways, I made sure every podcast was on Stream Only with no refreshing/downloading of podcasts.

HOWEVER, this is the first time I have ever seen that app be listed on the "Battery Usage by App" list. I still think something else is draining the battery terribly and I'm not sure what it is.

Also, not sure where to find the firmware update number or setting....
OS build: 10.0.14393.189 for a couple days now, version 1607.
Firmware revision #: 01078.00038.16025.39033
Firmware update notifier: 1.2.16.7

Halp plss.

 

[Ariel Takom]

So I again had a night where the battery drain was strangely HORRID. I have attached a picture to show what the "Battery" app had monitored. I charged it to about 100% before hanging out with friends at night, left it off the charger the entire night just on WiFi + cellular (and like I said, removed a lot of background apps). I woke up and it was at 5% -- yikes!! When I got the phone back on the charger, it said that Podcasts took up a huge majority of the battery drain, so I looked at it and realized it was trying to download new podcasts. I never even opened the app within the last 2-3 weeks and it is set on "Never allowed in background" and yet all of its use was in the background. Anyways, I made sure every podcast was on Stream Only with no refreshing/downloading of podcasts.

HOWEVER, this is the first time I have ever seen that app be listed on the "Battery Usage by App" list. I still think something else is draining the battery terribly and I'm not sure what it is.

Also, not sure where to find the firmware update number or setting....
OS build: 10.0.14393.189 for a couple days now, version 1607.
Firmware revision #: 01078.00038.16025.39033
Firmware update notifier: 1.2.16.7

Hurm. That's weird. Try reinstalling the podcast app and see if the problem still persists. If yes, try uninstalling it and see if that app is corrupted or not.

Anyway, I noticed your firmware version is quite outdated. Mine is 01078.00053.16236.35005. Try to check for update manually. If still unavailable, then I guess the firmware is still not available for your country, and the only way that I know to get the latest firmware is reset via WDRT.

 

[pinolat]

My phone should be up to date.
FW: 01078.00053.16236.35026
OS build: 10.0.14393.189

So far I didn't use the WDRT, as I have written the phone was changed by the MS repaire center and I set it up as a new phone and updated it OTA.

 

[feorwine]

I have a Lumia 1520, and I'm having a very similar problem. The battery life post-anniversary update is terrible (sometimes I have to charge the phone 3 times a day!)...I'm suspecting the device is not getting to a sleep state.
I use the Perfect Screen Tracker app, and I'm getting weird results. It says the screen is on at random times during the day/night, and for extended periods (1-2 hours). It's almost as if I was playing games. But the screen itself is off...
I'll be resetting the phone and updating this.
Thanks!

 

[uselessrobot]

It varies from day to day, but I've experienced the same problem. I went from battery life that would last comfortably into the second day to having to put it on the charge by the end of the first day. It wasn't a major drop, but it was definitely noticeable.

Interestingly, battery life on the Band was also affected by the update. I went from a solid 2 day battery life down to a day. I suspected that the phone was making more frequent connections to the Band. This is now confirmed by the fact that I have the Band paired with my iPhone 7 and battery life is back to 2 days.

 

[ruchrana]

Update to all:

So I used WDRT and nearly had a heart attack because the recovery failed in the middle and left my device in a red screen and continuously flashing. Thankfully, I used another laptop and was able to recover it. I then updated it to Windows 10 xx.189. And today, I have reset it via the settings app in the phone.

Currently reconfiguring my phone right now - battery life much better so far (am still waiting for the Battery third party app to track all of this after a couple of days of regular use). I have a lot of weird background apps that have random "X" marks next to them (i.e. Connect, MiraCast View, PrintDialog, RingtoneApp.Windowsphone) and also something called "Field Test" which I'm not familiar with.

Here are the new numbers on the phone:
OS Build: 10.0.14393.189, Version 1607
Firmware revision #: 01078.00053.16236.35035

Overall, it seems like doing WDRT to get a fresh firmware update --> updating phone to recent Windows 10 build .189 --> reset phone via settings does the trick

 

[ninefivezero]

Hi all,

I've had my Lumia 950 since about April or so of this year (2016). My battery life when I first got it was pretty phenomenal, and the charge time was incredibly fast. Recently, I've felt that the battery life has *dramatically* deteriorated to the point where I can hardly even keep it going for a day.

For example, I'll charge it in the late evening around dinner time, then take it off the charger when it's at 100%. I'll go to sleep with only WiFi and Cellular data on, and no apps running in the background. When I wake up, sometimes the battery is at around 20-30%!
..
As of now, it is running version 1607, build 10.0.14393.67 --> updated last night to 10.0.14393.189 (I have never used Windows Insider updates for this phone)

Any suggestions?

The same happened to me. Same bulid, same battery drain. 100 % when charging, then when unplugged shows only 33 % even without any use at all. And then won?t charge. Soft reset when plugged -> battery meter shows 100 % again but actually this is not true as the real charge is only 33 %...

 

[ninefivezero]

Update to all:




Overall, it seems like doing WDRT to get a fresh firmware update --> updating phone to recent Windows 10 build .189 --> reset phone via settings does the trick

I have the same battery problem since anniversary update. How do you exactly do WDRT (what is it? update and do you lose photos and videos saved in the phone?s memory when doing it?

I thing this must be a software (not hardware=battery) problem and Microsoft should address this.

How do you take a backup of large video files to Mac?

 

[ruchrana]

You can download it from this website by Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12379/windows-10-mobile-device-recovery-tool-faq

You'll essentially lose anything that's not on the SD card (all personal files, apps, etc.). I kept all of my photos and videos on my SD card so I had no issues resetting it. If you use the phone memory a lot, then back up your photos onto your computer first before doing the WDRT.

After resetting the phone via WDRT, don't bother putting in any account information for Microsoft or etc. -- just connect to a WiFi network, check for updates, and download the most recent build .189 for the phone. Once THAT installs, then go to your settings and "Reset your phone" internally. This helps clean up any issues that the phone might have had when updating from the fresh firmware early build to the most recent one.

I KNOW THIS IS TIME CONSUMING. But it actually did work! Here's a photo of my battery life now. It's not as fantastic as my best friend's Lumia 640 XL (which lasts her almost THREE DAYS with wifi/cellular on and pretty normal use), but it's WAY better than what it used to be. The discharging rate overnight was close to 2% per hour, and previously it was 8% per hour (sometimes more).

The other thing to note was that the battery life didn't improve immediately, I think it needed a few charges to kind of cycle through the battery again. I also turned off some background apps for the sake of seeing if it changed anything, and who knows if it did or not - but my phone is working normally so I don't think I need to turn them back on.

 

[swanlee]

My phone has really great battery life when I'm not using it. If I surf the web with Edge, use the sports app or use Tweetium I can literally watch the battery discharge. I wish the 950 would hold the charge better when you are actually using it.

 

[pinolat]

So I reset my phone with the WDRT and it seems that this really helped. Battery life has really improved in the last days. However, the firmware is the same as before. Doesn't make sense to me, but at least it helps

 

[randyoaks187]

So frustrated ... I was having these same battery drain problems (plus daily crashes/reboots) so I finally decided to reset using WDRT and things got WORSE! Like some others mentioned about problems with SD cards, I even removed mine. Now the phone is constantly rebooting. I am on my fourth WDRT, starting "new" each time. I am at my wits end. Anyone have any other ideas?