Battery was fine, now drains completely overnight

[Svidd]

Everything was fine with my Lumia 710 was fine until about a week ago, the battery started draining very rapidly. So rapidly that I can no longer rely on it as my alarm clock because the battery does not last through the night. (The problem started when I woke up one day and the battery had drained during the night. After I fully charged it, it drained completely again in about 6 hours with minimal use--I mean drained to the point of shutting off. Since then, it usually lasts a bit longer than that, but it still needs multiple charges per day.)

I didn't install any new apps, update any olds apps, or change anything about my phone usage in the past couple weeks.

I assumed the problem was the battery, so I ordered a new one. Just got that yesterday, charged it fully, and again the battery died by morning despite a mostly full charge.

What could this issue be? What should I try next?

 

[gpobernardo]

Everything was fine with my Lumia 710 was fine until about a week ago, the battery started draining very rapidly. So rapidly that I can no longer rely on it as my alarm clock because the battery does not last through the night. (The problem started when I woke up one day and the battery had drained during the night. After I fully charged it, it drained completely again in about 6 hours with minimal use--I mean drained to the point of shutting off. Since then, it usually lasts a bit longer than that, but it still needs multiple charges per day.)

I didn't install any new apps, update any olds apps, or change anything about my phone usage in the past couple weeks.

I assumed the problem was the battery, so I ordered a new one. Just got that yesterday, charged it fully, and again the battery died by morning despite a mostly full charge.

What could this issue be? What should I try next?

Since the battery and "new" apps were already ruled out as suspects, I'm suspecting that it's related to some network maintenance in your area causing your cellular antenna to work double time. You can try activating Airplane Mode for one night and see what happens - observe how much charge is consumed through the night while in Airplane mode.

 

[grantpwarren]

Apps/background data not syncing correctly?

 

[Svidd]

Since the battery and "new" apps were already ruled out as suspects, I'm suspecting that it's related to some network maintenance in your area causing your cellular antenna to work double time. You can try activating Airplane Mode for one night and see what happens - observe how much charge is consumed through the night while in Airplane mode.

Thanks, I will give this a try.

 

[Svidd]

Apps/background data not syncing correctly?

What should I do to figure out if this is the issue?

 

[Svidd]

gpobernardo, it looks like you were right. I tried activating airplane mode and after 9 hours, the battery was still at 97%.

If the problem is the network, what can be done about it? Should I expect this to resolve itself, or will the problem persist?

 

[gpobernardo]

gpobernardo, it looks like you were right. I tried activating airplane mode and after 9 hours, the battery was still at 97%.

If the problem is the network, what can be done about it? Should I expect this to resolve itself, or will the problem persist?

Thanks.

You can go to Settings > cellular+SIM > SIM settings and toggle your "Highest connection speed". 4G uses more power than 3G, and 3G more than 2G*. While this is mostly true while you're actually transmitting or receiving data, it is also true when your area "falls short of your phone's expectations". If you're phone is set to "4G", then it will "expect" to connect to a 4G-capable cellsite as much as it can. If your place doesn't have a 4G connection (or at least at the moment), then your phone will keep on "looking for" a 4G connection - this is power consuming. This is also true if your phone is set to 3G and only 2G is available.

You may try any of these three:

1. You can try calling your network service provider and inquire if they are taking some preventive maintenance measures in your area**. This way, you can let them know someone is concerned and is actually noticing whatever they are doing if they are indeed doing something.

2. You may try setting your phone to 3G for one night and observe the battery levels. Then move to 2G if 3G still performs badly - you may experience limited or no data connection with 2G.

3. Lastly, you may set "Network selection" to "automatic" or manually set a designated network (among those which are not forbidden). There is no definite solution in this aspect since it really depends on the availability and latency of the cellsites in your location, but you can try switching modes and experiment a bit here.:angel:

Please let us know what happens.

*- On a time-basis. 4G used for 30 seconds will consume more power than 3G used for 30 seconds. BUT 4G used to transfer 30MB will use less power than 3G used to transfer 30MB.

**- In my city, this happens once in a while and it does affect connectivity for a limited period of time.

 

[dzukela]

It is dead battery problem. yeah, bateries dies like that, without warning. Airplane mode test doesent prove anything, because even dead battery will last overnight in airplane mode.

 

[sufran]

On my Lumia 525, my battery drains even being idle. Loses 15%-20% in the night, where I don't even use for about 7 hrs! Is that OS problem or its common with 525 phones?

 

[gpobernardo]

It is dead battery problem. yeah, bateries dies like that, without warning. Airplane mode test doesent prove anything, because even dead battery will last overnight in airplane mode.

In behalf of Svidd, he got a new replacement battery. And, if the battery is dead, it will not even turn on or charge back.

 

[gpobernardo]

On my Lumia 525, my battery drains even being idle. Loses 15%-20% in the night, where I don't even use for about 7 hrs! Is that OS problem or its common with 525 phones?

This is common with most smart phones. I've posted a few methods above that may help you identify the cause of your battery drain. I hope you'll find them useful.

 

[Svidd]

Thanks again, gpobernardo! I will try what you suggested and keep you posted.

This might be helpful information: one of the locations where I work is about 30 minutes away from where I live. I couldn't let the battery drain entirely while at work, but while there I observed it drop 35% in the span of 3 hours 15 minutes with minimal use. (That's better than at home, but still quite bad and nothing like how it used to go.)

 

[gpobernardo]

Thanks again, gpobernardo! I will try what you suggested and keep you posted.

This might be helpful information: one of the locations where I work is about 30 minutes away from where I live. I couldn't let the battery drain entirely while at work, but while there I observed it drop 35% in the span of 3 hours 15 minutes with minimal use. (That's better than at home, but still quite bad and nothing like how it used to go.)

Thanks for this information, and you're welcome.

A lot of things can cause battery drain so it might be a bit cumbersome to identify all of the possible causes, but one of main causes is antenna activity, e.g. antenna is searching for networks or continually trying to connect to different cellular sites. This means that anything related to signal interference is a possible cause for battery drain. (Scroll down to the end of my post (before the footnote) if my post is beginning to become too long). :angel:

While traveling, depending on where you travel through, if there are places where there is poor reception then that will make your phone "search" for better connections more frequently.

In your office, if you're staying in a place where you are deep inside the building far from windows or at higher floors* and there are no signal boosters or mini-cellsites in your office (those inverted white cones that look like smoke detectors), that is also another suspect. "Signal jammers" (such as those in concert halls) are a definite culprit if you're near one - but I doubt this one in your case; signal jammers literally kill your phone within hours.

But given that the performance in your office is almost the same at home, looks like it's network-related.

There's one more thing I forgot to suggest: try connecting to a WiFi network as much as you can, and disable data connection in your SIM settings while you're connected to WiFi. If the problem is network-related, then connecting to WiFi will show you a marked improvement in battery performance.

*- Crazy enough, this is an issue where I live - certain buildings do not have those mini-cellsites in higher floors and cellular sites seem weak enough not to cover higher floors.

 

[Svidd]

Some more results:
-At home, with data switched off entirely (there is no finer-grained control in the settings), the battery drained 20% in 5 hours.
-At a second work location (even further from home), I never get 4G reception, only 2G, and the battery drained 25% in 8 hours.

So it's actually significantly better battery life with 2G in a different town than it is with data switched off entirely at home.

Based on this, I'm inclined to agree it must be network-related like you suggested. However, I called T-Mobile and they said no changes have been made to the network and since it's not the battery or the apps, it must be hardware.

 

[gpobernardo]

Thanks for these info. At the very lest we can eliminate "hardware" as a cause since you've changed batteries already.

Have you tried enabling WiFi instead of 3G or 4G? - at least while in 2G, because I think 2G is not enough for Internet data.

 

[Svidd]

I haven't tried switching to WiFi yet, because the battery performance has improved--some days. Other days the problem is still there. But as I write this, it has been over 24 hours since my last charge and the battery is still at 64%. (This was almost entirely at my home location where I was experiencing the worst problems, with some time spent at the work location where I was also experiencing the problems.) Not really sure what to make of this...

 

[gpobernardo]

64% remaining after 24 hours? I wish my phone could last that long!:grin:

At any rate, please let us know your observations when you try WiFi in case the problem "returns".