Tips in slowing down battery drain rate on Galaxy Note 4, more issues

Millions of #GalaxyNote4s are now over a year old on average so a lot of users may start noticing that their battery may appear to require more frequent charging than before. We hope that the solutions we provide below can give the general idea of how to remedy or resolve battery drain issue on this device.

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When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: Tips in slowing down battery consumption rate on Galaxy Note 4

I work in a big university hospital. I lose battery in an abnormal speed while on wi-fi at work. Yes, I can switch to 4G but it will cost me a lot.

AT&T changed it twice. The 1st one (new) and the 2nd one (refurbished) were losing power within 8 hours (although my shift lasts 10 hours) @max. Inside or outside work. I bought Zerolemon. I was getting the same time , although 3× the original battery. Everytime before changing the phone ATT would change the battery. Alas! Zerolemon change the battery for me 2 or 3 times. Same thing.

On my last phone: @ work it is still the same, although the only thing I use it for is reading news. I even stopped GSMarena. No video or socializing. Add Facebook and you will kill it in 6 hours at most. I went ahead and bought the Samsung 9500mA. Imagine tripling your phone size and still having to attach a powerpack to it!!!

Out of work I would get full day. YouTube on 4G in car, other stuff on wi-fi in house…etc. Of course I stopped using the Zerolemon the 3rd one as I was afraid it was causing problems.

When I asked IT in hospital about the wi-fi and why it sucks so heavily he said: My new iPhone has lost 80% but mid day or so.

We can blame wifi at work but definitely there is a huge problem.

How come the 1st 2 phones would get the same time whether I use regular battery or the 3 times bigger, at work or outside?

If they had bad batteries how come at work I'm not getting better rates with the new phone! Why is iPhone not suffering?

Actually how come my friend has exactly like my phone but Sprint, and doesn't lose power?

Since Note 1, Note 3 and now Note 4, I always suffered from the battery. Samis batteries suffer for sure. They need to give us better stuff. — Iyad

Solution: Hi Iyad. The main weakness of today's smartphones, including iOS devices, is poor battery life. The present Lithium-based battery technology is very limited cannot give any more capacity than what it is providing now. While all smartphone manufacturers keep emphasizing the leaps in technological advances the rest of hardware components are having, the power source remains the weakest link. There is no other way to increase a capacity of a Lithium-ion battery other than to enlarge the physical cell where chemistry happens. In other words, the only means of giving it a significant boost in terms of power capacity is to make the battery bigger. This is one of the reasons why smartphones, despite their many amazing features and hardware, still suffer battery drain problem day in and day out.

Apps can kill battery faster

Another reason why so many users lose battery power fast is apps. The quality and number of your apps can greatly affect how your smartphone spend its precious power every day. Poorly coded apps can cause conflicts with the operating system and other apps, which can result to poor power management or fast battery drain problem.

Sometimes, the type of apps you have can also determine the rate of battery discharge. Social networking apps like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, to mention a few, are notorious battery killers. The same can be said of shopping, email, and online gaming apps. These type of apps regularly checks with their remote servers for updates, which means that even if you're not actively using your Note 4, your phone is using precious resources in order to meet their demands. The more apps and their related services trying to update in the background, the faster the battery drains power.

You either need to turn off your Wi-Fi entirely when you're not using the phone, or uninstall apps that constantly need updates in order to work.

Try checking what apps are on top of the list under the Battery section on your device's settings and see if there's something that you can do about them.

If you really want to compare how your phone's battery fares with and without apps, try to do a factory reset and observe the phone for 24 hours without any third party apps installed.

Not all apps are created equal. Some third party apps may not be coded properly or may even be incompatible with the current operating system. Such situation can cause problems including power management troubles for your device. Make sure that you only install apps that you need. If you have some that you haven't used for at least two weeks, chances are you don't actually need or even want them. This can be the reason why your friend's Note 4 does not appear to lose power fast compared to yours. Try to stick to official or mainstream apps only and avoid those coming from unknown developers.

Disable unnecessary functions

Your Note 4 comes with an array of high-end functions or services but if you leave them enabled for long, they can also drain battery faster. Make sure that you turn off these services if you're not using the device:

Wi-Fi/mobile data connectivity
Bluetooth
GPS
NFC

Alternatively, enabling Airplane mode during your work hours can significantly improve battery life performance.

Tone down screen brightness

We know that a Note 4 is better appreciated if the screen is fully lit but if you want to extend battery life a little longer, lowering down screen brightness will prove an effective counter to battery drain. Keeping screen brightness to its lowest comfortable level will definitely help.

Also, try looking for other tips and hacks that you can do to improve battery life online. We do think that the things we outline above though will somehow slow down consumption rate every day.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 4 keeps randomly rebooting by itself after charging

I charge the battery to fully charged, 100%. The battery does drain fast. I did check for app running in the background. The battery will show a 50% or 45%, then suddenly it shuts down, reboot and startup again, then the battery show 0%. This started the last week or so. I am not sure if it could be the battery, or something else.

I have the Note 4 now for about 14-15 months. Should I buy a new battery? I don't know how to test if it is the battery or may be another problem. I did Google it. This is how I got your details] and see there is a lot of issues with power and the batteries.

Would appreciate it if you could help me with this issue. This issue started before I upgraded my phone to the latest software update. — Jan

Solution: Hi Jan. if you've been using your Note 4 hard every day for the past 15 months (meaning you charge the device at least once each day), the problem you're having right now may be battery-specific. A Lithium-ion battery can lose significant battery capacity after a few hundred charge cycles. This means that the battery right now is no longer working properly as expected as it may have lost its ability to hold a charge. By testing a new battery, we mean that you buy a new one and use it on your device to see the difference. If a brand new battery won't change anything though, that can indicate a software or hardware problem on your phone.

In order to identify if a power issue is due to bad software, we highly recommend that you do a factory reset so you can observe the phone. Doing a factory reset will erase everything in your storage device so make sure that you create a back up of your personal files before proceeding. Here are the steps on how to perform a factory reset:

Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Volume Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight 'wipe data / factory reset' and press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight 'Yes — delete all user data' using the Volume Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
When the master reset is complete, highlight 'Reboot system now' and hit the Power key.
The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 freezes, randomly turns screen to black, not showing correct battery level

Hello. I'm trying to describe my problem as clear as possible. So recently my phone has begun to (I wouldn't say shut down) but in that since. The home and power button become unresponsive after awhile of not using it. Not even putting the charger plug in wakes it. To turn it back on I would have to take the battery out and turn it on again for it to do it all over again minutes later.

When it does turn on the screen is black with only the top merging showing the battery life, Wi-Fi connection, time and so forth. If I press the power button to close the screen than press it again it opens to the home screen, although my phone has a lock pin on it. But after a few minutes or so it jumps to the locked screen for me to put the PIN in. It does it about twice even though I've already opened the phone. I thought after I did a hard reset things would be fine, but no. Same problems.

It also tends to crash and lag when I open certain apps like the settings. I've just now became able to put back in a security pin for my phone. It also reads the battery percentage wrong. I could be a 78% but when I don't use it and have to take the battery out…it reads 14 or lower %. But other than that the phone works perfectly fine when in use. I hope this isn't hard to understand. — Rachel

Solution: Hi Rachel. Your case is somewhat similar to first two cases covered above so some of the suggestions for them may work. The general idea in fixing this issue is to start checking if the problem is software-related. Potential solutions like wiping the cache partition or doing a master reset are things that you must do. If nothing improves even after a complete master or factory reset, you can assume that the issue is caused by some hardware errors.

Because we don't provide hardware troubleshooting and diagnostic tips, we highly recommend that you have the phone checked by qualified technicians or Samsung.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 won't accept master password for encryption

Encryption Lock. 2 years ago my work required a device password, to have secure easy access to email. Apparently I had an encrypted password, no problem. been using it over a year. About 3 weeks before my issue, i was prompted to change my password (thought nothing of it as my work email requires that every 3 months).

I had been using my new password, even just a few hours before, I turned off my phone (to save the battery-84%). 15 minutes later i turned it on, the same "enter encryption password" screen appeared. however it wouldn't take my password, any password, any pin.

I tried everything possible to the point where i now have 1 left attempt before all data, files, pic, memories….will be erased & lost FOREVER.

My super dependable, never had an issue with for 2 and a half years, so reliable i stupidly haven't backed up or saved almost anything in the last 2 years.

I rushed directly to Sprint (where I have been their loyal customer for 18 years) & they looked at me like i had 3 heads. even the repair staff had never seen this before (I've always had extended optional maintenance). They said NO, try Samsung Service Center.

i rushed there where i was assisted by a representative, who at least appeared to be trying to help me. However 30 mins later she said she had never seen this & there was nothing Samsung could do, even though she had been with them 3 years. She couldn't even give me an expert to email, a possible helpful website or forum.

So, after a week of mourning, (I was devastated, my memories may never be accessed again), I bought a new Note 5, where i only transferred my phone # to. Any suggestions for my device???

I did remove my SD card, which apparently i had only routed stuff there in 2 years. Thanks. — Kari

Solution: Hi Kari. Any third party interested in helping you with this issue, including us, can do very little to nothing. We know that a bug may have triggered the device not to recognize the master password, which is also the same reason why any input you tried did not work, but unlocking an encrypted Note 4 will certainly result to failure. For technical information how Android encryption works, this blog^[6] may be helpful.

Encryption starting with the release of Android 4.4 has moved from relatively easy to crack one to scrypt, which now makes decryption without the master password almost impossible to achieve. That even Samsung can't help you is an indication how hopeless the situation is.

The only way to gain access to a phone again to free it from encryption is by doing a factory reset. You don't want this of course, but unless you want that Note 4 to be an unusable relic forever, you just have to accept the fact that the personal data you're trying to recover are simply gone.

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link ^[7] and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

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