I'm having similar problems with my Galaxy S5 after the update. I can confirm that the WIFI system is a big part of the battery life problem. I have disabled it for several days and my battery life consumption has gone close to back to normal.
However, I'm plagued with numerous memory issues, significant performance loss (to the point where having more than 5 apps open at a time makes the phone almost unusable), and what seem to be app compatibility issues.
None of this is really unexpected for a release like this, but this is definitely a broken release and is not a function of caching issues. What really needs to happen here is that people who've upgraded need a supported route back to 4.4.4 because Verizon just broke our phones.
This update really is a mess. I've had it for about a week now. The phone got so hot the first day after the update that I thought it was going to spontaneously combust! I tried all the suggestions I found on the web short of a factory reset and turning off "Smart network switch" seemed to make the most difference as the phone was constantly scanning for and switching between networks. It still gets overly warm, though, and rips through battery life. My S5 used to have anywhere from 40% to 70% battery life at the end of the day, depending on how much it was used. Now it's now to 50% by noon, and that's without any use. I use Juice Defender and just turned power saving mode on as well to see if that makes a difference. The phone seems to work well otherwise - no issues with performance, etc., but yeesh - the battery life thing is killing me! At least I can use the phone as a handwarmer as it's about zero outside right now. Sure hope Verizon either comes up with a fix soon or lets us revert back to KitKat.
Hey everyone. I've been having a lot of the same issues as everyone else on this thread and have found some helpful remedies. YMMV, but for me I'll explain what I've done to rectify each of these. First let's start with the issues I have had. From most to least troublesome:
1. The phone would occasionally enter into a "reboot loop" where it would restart, and upon restarting would need to restart again.
2. Overheating issues - specifically, it would be warm/hot to the touch and would enter the "cooldown mode."
3. Severe battery drain - battery burn was at least a factor of 50% up from what it was just before upgrading to Lollipop
4. Severe lag on multiple apps
5. Increased hard drive space for the OS
6. The led for monitoring heart rate would go on whenever the phone was unlocked and I had my finger against it... regardless of whether any health apps were currently running.
I did some googling, and that led me to the following excellent guide to the upgrade and issues related to it.
S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide | Android Forums
This thread was incredibly valuable. It taught me a few key things. First off, the issues appear to be the fault of Verizon and not Google or Samsung, as other Lollipop releases appear to have been largely issue-free. Second, the increased hard drive space was an expected part of the upgrade. Basically, the phone does extra computations in advance (for compiling the apps) so it doesn't have to do them each time it opens the app. That makes for better performance at the cost of more hard drive space. So while 5. wasn't "solved" it told me this one was an expected cost of the upgrade. But the issue was that cost happened without the benefits!
So... I tried the things suggested there. First, I wiped the cache. That made the phone MUCH more stable, as it solved issues 1 and 2. No more resets, and although the phone still ran warm it wasn't hot enough to trigger the cooldown mode. And it was still a little laggy, but not as bad as it was before.
I gave the phone a few more days, as apparently adjusting to the new OS can take some time. But it was still a problem about a week into the upgrade, and I was stuck in the house today due to weather so I did a factory reset.
The factory reset was MUCH smoother than I anticipated. Because Lollipop backs up the apps and many of their settings, within a few hours I had a phone with much of my previous stuff in place... and without the lag!! Performance was significantly smoother than before the factory reset!! So far battery performance seems at least better than it was before the factory wipe, if not before the upgrade. And the heart monitor light no longer comes on spuriously.
So I'm declaring victory, at least temporarily. All my issues are now solved, except the hard drive space that is an expected cost of the upgrade.
Verizon, next time you push an upgrade please do one of the following three things (preferably all three):
1. Stop putting your bloatware and custom stuff on top of the stock OS. Based on the unique problems experienced by your customers compared to other carriers, I'm placing the blame at your feet here. You don't gain much as a company through this awful software. Relatively few people use it, and it only causes us headaches. Lots of pain, and no gain.
2. Test the stability of your custom release more, and make sure it doesn't cause major stability issues for those upgrading. Yes, you'll get some criticism for "stalling" on the release but it won't be as bad as it will be from customers whose phones are unstable.
3. Give your customers better instructions for dealing with and issues that crop up during the release. Will this take time? Of course! But you'll probably expend fewer resources than you will in the customer relations calls, and the replacement phones you'll send out during those calls, in the wake of these horribly buggy releases. Warn us that we might have to do cache wipes or factory resets, and give instructions on how to do those things.
Frankly, the fact that the my post here (and the post I found on another independent website) are much more informative than the customer care replies in this thread says a lot.
Actually, that's my opinion not a fact. But still troubling. Grammar-policing myself here. 😉
I just got off the phone with customer support. Needless to say, it was very frustrating. First, I called from my S5 and it said since I was calling for help with the S5, I needed to call from another phone. Okay - since I don't have another phone, I tried to call from Google chat. When I did that, it said I needed to call from another device...makes no sense at all but whatever.
The woman I spoke with on the phone was very nice, but had no idea what was going on. I said since the update I have had nothing but problems with battery life, slow performance, etc... at first she didn't know what update I was talking about. I had to remind her it was "Lollipop" which seemed crazy. She then said she was looking online to see what other people were having issues with. I asked her if Verizon had something within their technical support that said "we are getting a lot of compliants about the new update, here are some things to look for and take our customers through, or we're working on a solution with Android and expect a new update by X date" rather than have her searching online which is what I have been doing as well. She did tell me that there is a note in their system saying people are calling in with lots of problems, but they don't have a fix at this time. She also informed me that this is going to take Android doing something to fix the problem and there is little that Verizon can do. I understood that, but at the same time I explained I'm paying Verizon a lot of money for this service and it would be really nice to hear Verizon say "We hear you and this is what we're doing to fix it."
The only solution she gave me was a factory reset and I said I just didn't have the time to do that. If anyone has any solutions or if Verizon could get back to me on these issues it would be greatly appreciated.
BrioHondo THANK YOU!!! and i couldn't agree more!!! I'm gonna do the factory reset, I just hoped I wouldn't have to 😕 If it's ok with you, I'd like to copy and paste this into my post? (OR you could?) I want to be able to get this info out to the others!
Re: s5 lollipop update and draining the battery and slowing my phone down?
You bet! I logged in to share the info... so share as much as you like.
before you do a hard reset, go this web page and try clearing cache. I did
this yesterday and battery life is back to normal
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2015/01/26/samsung-galaxy-s5-problems-fixes/
On Sun, Feb 15, 2015 at 12:53 PM, angelinaOO7 <forums@verizonwireless.com>
DITTO.... SAME PROBLEMS.... VZW SHOULD PROVIDE A WAY TO GO BACK TO THE PREVIOUS RELEASE!!!
OK, I have downloaded the updates, I installed the first one, but not the actual lollipop install yet. I think I'm going to wait after reading these forums.
Now, my question. My phone wants to update and I can tell it to "remind me later". But I'd like my phone to forget it downloaded the update. Is there a file I can delete or something else I can do to make it forget about this update I downloaded? I want to rewind the clock a few hours, and since I haven't installed it seems like I have a chance.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
