Android
How to Fix Bad Galaxy S5 Battery Life After Lollipop
The Samsung Galaxy S5 Lollipop update delivers new features and enhancements to users. But according to many Galaxy S5 users, it also brings battery life problems to the former flagship. With that in mind, we want to take an in-depth look at how to potentially fix your bad Galaxy S5 battery life.
In 2014, Samsung introduced its Galaxy S5, a device that arrived with a number of high-end features including an upgraded design, improved camera, and Android 4.4 KitKat software. The device was considered, by many, to be one of the best phones of the year.
So it was no surprise when the Galaxy S5 became one of the first Galaxy smartphone to receive Android Lollipop. The Lollipop update brought Material Design, a new lock screen and more to the device.
For many Galaxy S5 users, Lollipop has been solid. For others, not so much. Complaints about bad Galaxy S5 battery life were loud at the beginning and we continue to hear complaints about bad Lollipop battery life in 2016.
Battery life issues always seem to plague Galaxy users though most of the time, it’s not the update causing the problems.
Apps and other services are usually the culprit. These Galaxy S5 battery life problems appear to be somewhat isolated though they could appear on your device at any time. With that in mind, we want to try and fix bad Samsung Galaxy S5 battery life for you.
How to Fix Bad Galaxy S5 Battery Life
This guide delivers help to get better battery life on Samsung’s current flagship. These fixes should work if you’re on Android 4.4 KitKat or if you’re on Android Lollipop. Most Galaxy S5 users, at this point, should be on Android 5.1.1.
These fixes should hold you over until Samsung and its carrier partners get around to updating the Galaxy S5 with Marshmallow.
Find Apps Eating Up Your Battery
The first recommendation that we always make is to check out your third-party applications. If you want to fix your bad Galaxy S5 battery life, you’re going to want to keep an eye on applications for potential problems.
Third-party applications have a tendency to put a huge dent into the battery life on the Galaxy S5, regardless of the software that’s currently running. If you use an application a lot, it’s going to drain your battery.
There are also times where bugs or issues might cause an app to go rogue and start abnormally draining the device’s precious battery life.
Head into your settings and start taking a look at the effect that some of your applications are having on your device’s battery life. If you notice anything out of the ordinary, it’s time to start taking a closer look at your applications.
If you think an app is draining more battery life than it should be, try reinstalling it to see if that corrects the issue. If the problem persists, try uninstalling it to see if that has a positive effect.
If you can’t figure out which app might be causing trouble, you’ll want to boot the Galaxy S5 into Safe Mode in an effort to single out potential troublemakers.
Booting the device into Safe Mode disables third-party apps and allows you to isolate apps that could be causing the problems.
Here’s how to boot the Galaxy S5 into Safe Mode:
- Power down the device. Then, press & hold the Power button and volume down key.
- Once it boots up, you can let go of the power button but keep the volume key held down.
- When you have successfully entered into Safe Mode, you will notice the text ‘Safe Mode’ at the bottom left corner of the screen.
Restart the Samsung Galaxy S5
If you start noticing weird battery drain and or your device starts heating up, you should try performing a simple reset to see if that returns things to normal.
Most of you know how to restart the Galaxy S5 but we’ll remind you anyway. Hold down the power button, confirm that you want to turn it off, and then hold the power button down to turn it back on.
Disable Unnecessary Services
If apps aren’t the issue, it’s time to start working on some of your habits. In our experience, disabling features when they aren’t in use tends to have a positive impact on overall battery life.
We recommend shutting off Wi-Fi connectivity when you don’t need it, bluetooth connectivity when you don’t need it, NFC when you don’t need it, GPS when you don’t need it, and cellular data when you don’t need it. You can turn all of those off from inside the Galaxy S5’s settings.
One thing that we’ve noticed is that poor cellular coverage is often to blame for bad Android battery life. When your phone needs to search hard for a signal, it runs the battery down faster, so keep that in mind when you’re in spotty areas. You may need to turn on Airplane mode when there isn’t a strong 4G or LTE signal in the area.
Other connections that are constantly working in the background can be a negative influence on battery life. Start toggling features off when you don’t need them. The gains might not be massive but you should start to see a positive impact.
Start Using a Black Wallpaper
Switching to a black Samsung Galaxy S5 wallpaper can help deliver better Galaxy S5 battery life thanks to the way the Super AMOLED display on the Galaxy S5 consumes power.
The device does not come with a default black wallpaper but you can search online for one. There are tons of them out there. After you’ve downloaded one, go to Settings -> Wallpaper -> Home and Lock Screens -> More Images -> set your black Galaxy S5 wallpaper.
Start Using the Device’s Built-in Features
You’ll also want to start using the Galaxy S5’s built-in battery saving features. Power Saving Mode is a good place to start, and Ultra Power Saving mode is an even better option when you need the Galaxy S5 battery to last longer than normal.
These features allow you to block background data and turn on grayscale mode which can help to limit the amount of juice being sucked up. You can also slow down the processor, reduce screen performance, turn off the lights on the buttons, and turn off GPS to save battery life.
We also recommend getting familiar with the the brightness slider. The screen can suck up a ton of battery life so you’ll want to monitor the brightness of the screen if you’re starting to notice bad Galaxy S5 battery life.
Replace Your Launcher
If none of these fixes work, there are three other drastic solutions to try. The first is to replace the TouchWiz launcher on the Galaxy S5.
The TouchWiz launcher has been known to hinder performance and it can be replaced. There are tons of different launches to choose from though the Nova Launcher is one of Android’s most popular choices.
Downgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat
If that doesn’t work, you could try downgrading to Android 4.4 KitKat. A Verizon Galaxy S5 user recently put together a step-by-step process on how to move back from Android 5.0 Lollipop and those interested can find the instructions here.
This isn’t guaranteed to fix your issues but it’s worth a shot if you don’t want to wipe the device or if none of these fixes have an impact.
Factory Reset the Galaxy S5
If you don’t want to downgrade to Android 4.4 KitKat and you can’t find any fixes for your battery problems, you can factory reset your Galaxy S5. This will wipe all of your files so you’ll need to make a backup before going this route.
To factory reset the Samsung Galaxy S5, go into Settings, User & Backup, and select Backup and Reset. From there, select Factory Data Reset. From there, select Reset Device and then Delete All.
If for whatever reason that doesn’t work, users can also factory reset using the hardware keys on the phone. Here’s how to do that. It’s a far more difficult process. We recommend the above route if possible.
- First, you’ll need to turn the Galaxy S5 off.
- Once its off, press and hold the Volume up button, the Home button, and the Power buttons together until you see an Android appear on the screen.
- Once you see this, use the Volume down key to highlight the Wipe Data/Factory Reset option. Use the Power button to select it.
- Use the Volume down key to select Yes – delete all user data and then use the Power button again to select it.
- When you see the Reboot System Now option, you’ll know you’re on track. Use the Power button to select that option.
- This will erase everything on the Galaxy S5 bringing it back to the state it was in when you first bought it. It also might fix the problems you’re having.
We’ve heard from several Galaxy S5 users who say that this fixed bad battery life on Lollipop though it should be considered a last ditch effort. It’s an extremely time consuming process.
If nothing here works, contact Samsung or your carrier. If you’re under warranty, you might be able to get a replacement.
Rob
03/12/2015 at 1:44 pm
How about this… give us the choice to keep the old system that worked!
Chris
03/18/2015 at 6:58 pm
All of these “tips” are industry standard for poor battery life. Nothing new or important, or even geared towards Lollipop at all.
agp
03/19/2015 at 9:19 am
Article is garbage and unhelpful. The problem is obviously with lollipop and my battery usage since the update has the top three culprits as android os, cell stand by, and android system…never seen that before the update. Also everything seems to have a delay that wasn’t in kitkat. Did reset, disabled apps, disabled all animations and still slow. Fix this Google you took one step forward and two steps back. I feel like I’m using an iPhone
Mike
01/08/2016 at 4:50 pm
Very true. Helpful and garbage. if the user knows the culprit behind the excessive battery drain or heating up then they will know the culprit behind the solution. is basically a trial and error.
nah
01/21/2016 at 9:47 am
If you feel like you were using an iphone you’d be getting good battery life.
Jamie
03/22/2015 at 2:29 pm
My Galaxy S5 (sprint) battery life was even better after 5.0 than before. Then after about a month I wake up 1 day and it’s dying super fast put of no where, I’m averaging around half the battery life I used to get running the SAME EXACT apps and settings..
I factory reset my phone and it seemed to fix my battery life back to its original AMAZING lifespan. But surely enough 2 weeks go by and I notice out of NO WHERE my phone dying fast again. Even while idling in my pocket it’s dying twice as fast as it used to.
After Weeks of trouble shooting on forums I found that turning off my “Always Scanning for Wifi” had fixed the battery life again back to its original amazing life span.
It’s been a week and I’m started to notice my S5 is dying Faster than usual. Not as bad as when I first experienced the battery drain but it’s definitely not like it used to be.
I’m convinced there is NO FIX seeing as how The Factory Reset didn’t solve the problem.
I doubt a 5.0.1 or 5.0.2 update will even come out this year seeing how I’ve had this problem for months now and NOT SAMSUNG NOR SPRINT have even publicly addressed this issue.
It’s pathetic.. I wish I still had 4.4 Atleast Kitkat worked properly.
JohnL
04/29/2015 at 4:58 pm
Sprint has a easy fix by clearing the cache and data on Google Services Framework.
Brook
03/27/2015 at 1:09 pm
All I know is that whatever is draining my battery is from the update. My phone dies twice as fast as it use to and I barely use it throughout my day. I close down all running apps, restart my phone, and by noon it’s at <50%. And most says that includes being on power saving mode ALL day. An update shouldn't force me to change the ways I use my phone just to save battery until I get home. Someone should not make excuses and fix the problem.
Gook Natelbalm
04/16/2015 at 9:26 am
Like other commenters, I upgraded to 5 lollipop on my galaxy s5. MISTAKE. I see NO BENEFIT from having applied the update and now (as others have mentioned) my battery drains in less than half the time than it was pre-update. Thinking about biting the bullet and going back to kitkat if that’s even possible. You’d think that android developers would have their act together better before releasing any upgrade, let alone a major one.
Tim
04/25/2015 at 7:18 am
I’m not happy with my phone now and I blame Samsung, I use to love my phone now I hate it. Tried all of your fixes still drains my battery … one of the reasons I got this phone was because of the long battery life, now it’s crap. Either YOU fix my phone or replace it … it’s that simple, customer satisfaction use to mean something let’s see how you handle it. Personally I don’t think you will do anything, I hope I’m wrong
jz
04/26/2015 at 6:30 pm
I downloaded DU BATTERY Saver. It has a battery optimizer. It finds all apps that are running in the background and turns them off. It also has an extended saver. I run it a couple of times per day and it really helps in reducing battery drain.
richard
04/26/2015 at 10:46 pm
Same as all previous , my battery is just draining after the update and I’m fuming as I loved my phone aswell , they need to sort this out ,
Kristine
04/29/2015 at 5:33 pm
This update is crap. I got this phone back in October because it had a great battery life. Now with the update I get to 50% in a mafter of like 3 hours when before it while using it the way I do it would only go to about 87%. Can we please fix this because when I’m at school and use my phone for school it is hard to find a place to charge it when I have classes all day. Then I can’t use it for class anymore. I’ve done a factory reset took off apps that might have been draining the battery. But the only thing draining my battery are android os, cell standby, and Android system. FIX THIS NOW!
Very Unhappy
05/06/2015 at 9:00 am
The kitkat upgrade whiped out all capability of my Galaxy S5 so I removed it. Now AT&T forced the update of lollipop or some other update yesterday and now my batter drains at 6% per 15 minutes even after trying all of the above. I had a great phone but thanks to Samsung’s update, then AT&T’s my phone is now worthless. Now I have to switch to iPhone. Thanks guys for not thinking this one through!
Sam sung
06/25/2015 at 7:26 am
Yes same thing happened to me on At&t with FORCED update. and also extremely slow to charge. used to take about an hour to charge now takes al night. Screen swings without moving phone and decides it likes it that horizonal way. I put it on ultrapower saveing mode and it charges faster.
David
05/07/2015 at 10:57 am
Very little of this is related to the lollipop download. virtually all of this cold simply relate to power management at any time. The question is – what did lollipop do that caused this. I am dead by 2:00 PM after starting at 7:00 am doing virtually nothing on the phone. Heavy usage in the past, (per-lollipop) would allow me to hit a full day (10-11:00 PM). The update is awful.
Walt
05/08/2015 at 7:59 am
I too agree this update was crap my phone ran fine with excellent battery life. now, since this useless upgrade my battery will not last through the day.
John raulston
05/15/2015 at 6:15 pm
This is possibly the most uninformative write up of all time. Seriously, give us something new and stop the 2 page intro.
tom
05/26/2015 at 4:36 pm
Battery life sucks after lollipop upgrade, never had an iphone but may be time to scrape This piece of junk
sandydv85venkat
06/05/2015 at 9:10 am
Never ever seen such a junk Article, 10 years Kid also know this.
greg
06/12/2015 at 11:46 am
I don’t think 5.0 is the problem. I believe there is another reason for the poor battery life. My wife and I both have the Galaxy S5, both running KitKat 4.4.2 with no battery problems until two days ago. The same day June, 10 2015 both phones started seeing the problem with the battery. The phones are charged overnight and by noon they are dead. Did I mention, we have not upgraded to 5.0.
dave
06/16/2015 at 11:49 pm
Same here Greg, got the phone about a month ago and although they were trying to force me to install Lollipop I resisted but a few days ago, around the 10th, the battery started draining, Ive tried just about everything to no avail, certainly don’t enjoy my phone anymore and will probably switch to iphone.
Maureen
06/16/2015 at 3:27 pm
Samsung is losing my support bc of this
Jecthofer Luzadas
06/18/2015 at 8:33 am
AT&T forced to push the update to its users for one reason: There’s nothing wrong with the update, in fact it was designed perfectly! this update is designed to “Frustrate Users” which leads to tweaking and find fixes till you break the phone, even if you dont break it, as the battery drains faster and needs to charge frequently eventually it completely dries up as batteries only have certain amount of charging cycles….and we all know what will happen next…..We need to buy new phones! This is just another marketing and/or public experiment stunt from the big corporations.
Phones now a days are built tougher than before and people tend to stay with their phones longer and advertising don’t entice the public much as before as people are getting smarter and less suckers. So big corps tend to find ways….Think about it!
Billy Bob Wikowski
06/23/2015 at 3:23 pm
I hate the battery life. I have to re-charge my phone like 2-3 times a day.
Emma Whatson
07/16/2015 at 2:18 pm
FIXED mine by un-installing some apps I didn’t need or use much, before Lollipop battery all day and some but after going to Lollipop battery lasted till mid afternoon only! my guess is as I read is it was an app that worked fine until lollipop!
Larry D
07/19/2015 at 8:55 pm
Last week I bought the S5 with Lollipop preinstalled. Battery life is excellent and no other issues either.
Dana Carfrey
07/26/2015 at 2:32 pm
I am so disappointed with my S5. I really miss my SIII & were it not for the bad charging port on it I would go right back to using it. The S5 has terrible battery life, no matter what I try to remedy it. Also, that charger is a joke, with the dual port. Mine has already gotten bent or something & can’t even plug it into the port as of today. Have had this phone less than 6 weeks, which means, too late to return it. Sigh. I am someone who is not hard on phones & tend to keep them at least 2 to 3 yrs. I do use my phone heavily for calls, email & texting because I am a Realtor, so having a phone that dies by mid-afternoon (when my business gets busiest) is unacceptable. I feel stuck.
chas521
08/01/2015 at 3:26 pm
Clear partition and do a factory reset. Trust me, it gives the battery life back and then some + MUCH faster performance (thank god)! Mine automatically re-installed all the apps and settings I had before so it took no time at all.
1. Turn phone off.
2. Hold power, home and volume up key until menu appears.
3. Wipe Cache Partition first.
4. Factory Reset.
Viola… faster performance and you get that awesome battery performance back. I didn’t think it would work but… it definitely does.
Shue
08/22/2015 at 7:39 pm
I completely agree with most of what others have said. I am a light user, NEVER streaming videos, or other content. When I first got the phone, it would go 2 or 3 days between charges. In the last month, after some update, it will now only go about 19 hours – at best. I have done two online chats with Samsung, talked to my carrier twice, turned off my 2 outside apps, did a factory reset, and took the phone back to where I bought it. The tech there tried to make me believe that the battery lift on my phone was normal. I guess he’s been taught to be “creative” in his answers. So far, nothing has done any good. The techs really have no idea what they are doing, just guessing at what the problem might be.
In the lengthy process of doing the factory reset I got to see how many Google apps and carrier apps are actually installed. There are DOZENS of them, two or three of which I use.
I have sent two e-mails to Samsung customer service and received NO reply at all, not even an automated one saying they got them.
In the past I thought Samsung was a reputable company. I’m now having big second thoughts.
Colleen
08/31/2015 at 6:02 pm
For a different approach to fixing the battery: https://galaxys5batterylifefix.blogspot.com/
Jennifer
09/21/2015 at 6:29 am
I have a Samsung Galaxy S5. I upgraded to the 5.0 version. Now my battery is draining ridiculously fast even when I am not using the phone. I have VERY few apps on my phone as I am not an app person. Viber, whatsapp, facebook that;s about it. My phone switches itself off when it is at 50% battery and needs a charge to come back on at all. Charges as normal only for the cycle to repeat itself. I am due an upgrade but not until late December and at this stage I am thinking of just buying a new bloody battery for my phone. VERY frustrating.
Space Man
09/22/2015 at 7:35 am
How to save battery life. Works 100%!! Put phone down. Put phone on charge. Go outside.
Mandie
10/02/2015 at 5:49 am
Space Man, how about this? I went to bed last night with my battery at 88% and woke up this morning, not having used my phone at all obviously, and when I woke up my phone had turned itself off sometime during the night and was at 9%. That’s not an issue of needing to just get off the phone and go do something else. My husband spent 2 hours doing a factory reset on my phone last week and my battery still continues to drain insanely fast.
skyrail02 (@skyrail02)
07/22/2016 at 9:19 am
Hi @Mandie,
I am currently facing the exact same issue, running under Marsmallow on my 19 month old G900F.
The problem occured after I made the OTA update from Lollipop to Marshmallow, on a XEF rom device.
I had no issues under lollipop, using Greenify to kill current apps, du battery saver to clean cache, junk files and wipe memory, Doze to cut power battery draining when in idle screen off.
And I really had no battery draining at night when screen off, unplgged and Doze enabled.
Now with Marshmallow, It is discharging at 1% every 5 minutes when screen off, phone signal on, data off, even when Doze on.
It is too much for me. Is this a normal rate?
I guess only the phone signal is responsible as all apps are closed, services have been hibernated either by Smart manager or Greenify., and for the other reason, everything is fine when in airplane mode.
Monica Cufino
10/30/2015 at 1:37 pm
Thank you Google for helping me make a hard decision. I’m never buying another android phone again. The Lollipop upgrade has been a disaster. You’re as bad as Microsoft in turning out bad product and hoping the general public will fix it.
Scam Sung
01/31/2016 at 7:59 pm
The PROBLEM is Lollipop.Its designed to work fluidly on over 2 gb of Ram.ONLY PROBLEM we have 1.6 or so.THATS why it WASNT released previously as scheduled.It will overheat youre phone,and destroy batteries.
It isnt u,or youre apps,its the operating system.Maybe this time you’ll actually leave my heartfelt reply here for folks to read.Its simple,youre(our) phone isnt compatible with the operating systems parameters.I purposely denied the update hoping to make it to Marshmallow,no such luck.Why would Samsung force software we dont want nor need,knowing it isnt a quality useable product?….GREED
johebe
04/19/2016 at 12:57 pm
Nice explanation dude… I guess you`re right.
What is consuming my battery now is: Android OS, Play Services… etc not a single third software.
By the way, what a lame article
Rick
02/07/2016 at 11:25 am
I’m not using an S5, but the Mlais M52, i upgraded to Lollipop as well, and like others said, among the culprates was Android OS, running at 30% of my battery life, second the screen (which i guess is normal) and standby mode. Also i was charging my battery today, and found it to be stuck at 67%. I restarted my device, and it jumped to a 100%, after i put it in airplane mode.
David
02/09/2016 at 12:14 pm
My first day taking mine to work it barely lasted till I got home. About ten hours. I Installed DU battery saver and today when I left work I had 83%.1
Mohammad Elyas
02/29/2016 at 3:32 am
My Galaxy S5 Is waesting to mach Battery charge infact it takes full charge of Battery in 1 H.
I chek the Battery Battery is ok
Jim
04/09/2016 at 9:28 am
I’ve just purchased a new Samsung Galaxy s5 , I’m finding that the battery is draining when it’s even turned off over night !…. Charged it fully to 100% ,turned it off ,9 hrs later turned it on to find that the battery had dropped to 89% !. I wondering what’s draining this battery over nt even when it’s turned off ???… Any ideas please .Jim .
Sean Jaxon
04/12/2016 at 2:55 am
my s5 was good now it dies so fast. got the super power saver mode on, see if that works. Will be switching back to iphone after this, was my first android and also my last
Richard Klein
04/15/2016 at 6:26 am
My s5 is crap now. Solution. If you have insurance on it, place it under tire of car and back over it. New phone arrives in mail. Gee I must have dropped it!
Richard Klein
04/15/2016 at 6:35 am
This phone was misrepresented as having an amazing battery life when purchased from VERIZON . I think a class action suit is in order replacing with a new phone or purchase price + money for aggravation!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Josh
05/17/2016 at 6:28 pm
I just bought my galaxy from Verizon and it’s good but it has terrible battery life. It said the battery life was suppose to be amazing but I sucks
Scott
06/29/2016 at 6:22 pm
I took my battery out for a different reason for about 1/2 an hour. Now my battery works fine. Just sayin’ may be worth a try.
Hess
07/14/2016 at 5:59 am
I’m from South Africa. Just got my phone back after handing it in at my service provider’s technical department for “repairs” a week ago. They did a factory reset and all sorts, also told me that they tested the battery and it’s fine. First day back and i HATE it – still drains completely like 5 times a day. Before this stupid forced update i loved my S5. I guess it’s useless venting here as Samsung won’t even read it….
Kenneth Flemington
07/31/2016 at 5:00 am
I have 3 batteries for my s5. I use two per day if I can’t plug charge phone. Its cheap and effective.
Daniel
09/06/2016 at 4:52 pm
Mine is out of solution
Jetskier
05/18/2017 at 12:44 pm
Lame article. Does not address the issue that the title of the article implies. Battery life was fine before all of the android operating system updates. Its not my screen brightness, app usage, or network connectivity that has changed. I literally noticed the battery difference that day after my first android OS update…. and it has gotten worse with each subsequent update.