Issues I have with my S3

[CB19]

1.  Battery Drain even with Juice Defender.  I will unplug before leaving house and within an hour I will be down to 88%.  Maybe 10-12min use on the way.  This weekend I was using it with a twitter app in a strong 4g area and it was draining horribly fast.  Probably used 50% in a 2-3hr time span.  Phone got pretty hot too.

2.  Reception is not good at all.  Wifes Iphone 4s has no issue getting 3g (all we have in our area currently) at our house, but I cannot hold a call.  My signal ranges from -95dB 1asu to -105dB 1asu.  If I am in town with a strong signal I am usually OK.  Get to an "extended" area and it is horrific yet my wifes phone is just fine to use for voice and data.

3.  From time to time I try to use my phone or an app and I get "Mobile data network not available".  I usually clear this by turning Airplane mode on and off.  Should not have to do this especially if I am ever need it in an emergency.

4.  Camera app will close out frequently even before I try to shoot a picture.

5.  When I plug my skull candy earphones into the phone, one of my videos starts playing in the background and the sound comes out through the speaker not the headphones even...It is also annoying that I cannot use the headphones seemlessly with a phone call.

6.  Another biggy (since the forced Jelly Bean update) is the new notifications of a missed text or call on the Lock Screen will not open up to the missed call or the New Text but rather it will open up to the last person you texted or just the phone app in general (not the recent calls).  This is REALLY annoying as it was a great feature.

Does anybody have any fixes or suggestions?

Message was edited by: C B

[mdram4x4]

CB19 wrote:

1.  Battery Drain even with Juice Defender.  I will unplug before leaving house and within an hour I will be down to 88%.  Maybe 10-12min use on the way.  This weekend I was using it with a twitter app in a strong 4g area and it was draining horribly fast.  Probably used 50% in a 2-3hr time span.  Phone got pretty hot too.

a. uninstall juice defender

b. go to menu>settings>about phone>battery>battery use

     what is using the most battery?

2.  Reception is not good at all.  Wifes Iphone 4s has no issue getting 3g (all we have in our area currently) at our house, but I cannot hold a call.  My signal ranges from -95dB 1asu to -105dB 1asu.  If I am in town with a strong signal I am usually OK.  Get to an "extended" area and it is horrific yet my wifes phone is just fine to use for voice and data.

samsungs do not have the best reception. its a fact.

3.  From time to time I try to use my phone or an app and I get "Mobile data network not available".  I usually clear this by turning Airplane mode on and off.  Should not have to do this especially if I am ever need it in an emergency.

again, its a samsung reception thing

4.  Camera app will close out frequently even before I try to shoot a picture.

5.  When I plug my skull candy earphones into the phone, one of my videos starts playing in the background and the sound comes out through the speaker not the headphones even...It is also annoying that I cannot use the headphones seemlessly with a phone call.

6.  Another biggy (since the forced Jelly Bean update) is the new notifications of a missed text or call on the Lock Screen will not open up to the missed call or the New Text but rather it will open up to the last person you texted or just the phone app in general (not the recent calls).  This is REALLY annoying as it was a great feature.

Does anybody have any fixes or suggestions?

Message was edited by: C B

[CB19]

OK I uninstalled JD to see if that will help.  Here is a couple pix of the items consuming the most battery.  I have noticed the Android System eats more than it ever used to.  It only used to be in the 5-8% range before JB update

Message was edited by: C B

[mdram4x4]

i would change the screen brightness

set it to auto at the least

also change the timeout to a lower setting

from the looks the screen is on quite a bit

also change sync times to something longer, 15 min or een an hour

everytime it checks for mail/facebook/ect its using battery

it also looks like you leave wifi on

turn it off when not in use

[CB19]

mdram4x4

Thanks for the reply.  I keep my screen brightness at just a bump (like 0-5%) over the lowest setting already.  Time out is at 2min.  1 min just isn't enough when reading a story etc. and it gets bothersome.

I use wifi at work thinking data would go through wifi and save data usage.  I also think it would be less draining than searching and connecting (cell standby) to the 4g LTE network since that seems to be a big drain also. 

Do I need to set each app for the longer sync interval or is there a general setting in the OS?  I see in the notifications pull down that there is a "Sync" button... I don't remember that on ICS.  What exactly is that controlling?

Todays usage without Juice Defender so far:

Thanks

CB

[mdram4x4]

the screen is the biggest user of your battery according to your images

using it that much, see bottom of second image in first set, will drain your battery

looking at the usage stats everything is normal

18% in 4 hours is good imho, o dont think your going to get much more unless you just dont use it as much

remember the bigger the screen the bigger the power draw

[vzw_customer_support]

Hi CB19. That's quite the list of troubles with such a great phone like the S3! But mdram4x4 had some great suggestions. The first thing I thought of when readying your post was to uninstall Juice Defender too. Battery Saver, Task Killer, and Anti-Virus apps have been linked to doing more harm than good on most Android devices, so if you have any other apps in those categories, please uninstall them too. Phones are known to get warm when in use or charging, and based on what you've described the phone is being used by applications and background information which may be creating the heat.

For #2 & #3, was reception & "Mobile data network not available" on your S3 an issue before the Jelly Bean update too or, like most of the other things you described, did it start after the update? What's your zipcode?

For #4, are you using the native camera app on your phone or one installed from the app market? Many times resetting the application http://bit.ly/M6hG9B can help clear out quirks like force closing from occuring.

For #5, is the video that starts playing one that you recorded on the phone? Or a video from a webpage or application you recently accessed or downloaded? What happens to the audio in your earphones during a phone call?

As for #6, those application icons that show a number for a missed call or new text are shortcuts to the applications themselves and will take you to the dialer or last text session. If you'd like to see the specific text or missed call, you can pull down your notification bar from the lock screen and tap the notification of the specific message or missed call to see the information quicker.

Thank you
JenniferH_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

[CB19]

Verizon Wireless Customer Support wrote:

                 

Hi CB19. That's quite the list of troubles with such a great phone like the S3! But mdram4x4 had some great suggestions. The first thing I thought of when readying your post was to uninstall Juice Defender too. Battery Saver, Task Killer, and Anti-Virus apps have been linked to doing more harm than good on most Android devices, so if you have any other apps in those categories, please uninstall them too. Phones are known to get warm when in use or charging, and based on what you've described the phone is being used by applications and background information which may be creating the heat. I uninstalled Juice Defender.

For #2 & #3, was reception & "Mobile data network not available" on your S3 an issue before the Jelly Bean update too or, like most of the other things you described, did it start after the update? Happened before and after the JB update. What's your zipcode? 49646 - I can't believe the reception is THAT much different than my wifes Iphone 4S.  I cannot even take a call on it in my house!!  Is there anything that can be done with the phone, software or hardware?  Extremely frustrating.

For #4, are you using the native camera app on your phone or one installed from the app market? Native Camera Many times resetting the application http://bit.ly/M6hG9B can help clear out quirks like force closing from occuring.

For #5, is the video that starts playing one that you recorded on the phone? Or a video from a webpage or application you recently accessed or downloaded? What happens to the audio in your earphones during a phone call? A Video I recorded on the phone.  If a phone call comes in it does not come thru the headphones.  I have to take them out and talk on the phone normally or I did get the earphones to work by unplugging and replugging back into the phone.  But that process is pretty clumsy.

As for #6, those application icons that show a number for a missed call or new text are shortcuts to the applications themselves and will take you to the dialer or last text session. If you'd like to see the specific text or missed call, you can pull down your notification bar from the lock screen and tap the notification of the specific message or missed call to see the information quicker. I understand what it does now.  Previously in ICS (4.0) there would be a bubble in the middle of the lock screen that showed a new text or a missed call.  By swiping on that bubble it would open DIRECTLY to the new text or to the RECENT calls menu.  Now it is a multiple selection to get there (I heard this was a Verizon change).  Not sure why this would be removed/eliminated in an "update".  Things should get easier not more difficult.

Thank you
JenniferH_VZW

Please follow us on Twitter @vzwsupport

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