KitKat Battery drain / heating issue fixed (and numerous other problems

[GeoffH]

I can now say with some degree of certainty that I have fixed the KK battery drain heating issue and it does make sense and my thoughts on google profiling seem to be correct just that I didn't realise this particular issue could be disabled in settings.

Symptoms of problem

1. Phone not sleeping (staying warm on standby)

2. Not Charging correctly (longe time or not able to charge)

3. Media Server staying active (scanning SD card worse if you have large external SF loaded with files)

4. Sluggish performance

Simple cure

Go to settings/accounts/google/Ads  and tick box for "opt out of interest based Ads"

also note that the long named folder on your internal and external sd similar to this .hgsdgfasfueuedhfyjei  is your ads id that google uses to profile your content - this process requires that google scans your files and if you have nearly 80gb then it causes obvious problems, this folder only appeared after upgrade to KK

hope this helps a few people as I have struggled with this issue for weeks

[RobG666]

Hi,

Just done this and the phone is instantly faster I was experiencing sluggish screen transfers and confusing backgrounds where I have changed the wallpaper (to a, xperia option) but I always found the original screen came up first and then changed to the one I selected.  This seems a lot faster now.

When I first got this phone back in October, I absolutely loved it.  But Sony have messed about with it with upgraded and small bandage patches that don't integrate properly or run smoothly and the number of problems I've had since installing KK, I wish I hadn't.

Hopefully this will help loads.

Cheers for the advise.

[Jannwong]

i had a issue on my phone's battery charging too.. 

 charging my phone and video calling at the same time,my phone drains faster that it charges! 

does this have something to do whith the google ads profile?

[GeoffH]

although the Ads profile setting sounds innocent enough I believe when enabled you are giving google permission to scan every file - every activity - every text - every call - your location etc etc  in reality absolutly every aspect of your life that can be determined from your smartphone

This is the single most abhorrent thing I hate about my smartphone and google - I don't like being profiled, pretty soon there will be absolutly nothing that google doesn't know about you - make a list of things that you would like to keep private and you will find every one of them is compromised, just wait until technology extends to health monitoring from you device and that will be profiled too - for me is is a very scary concept - not that I have anything in particular to hide but I'd like to have the choice - I don't believe I have

oh and the Ads setting does help with the issues discussed on this thread but there are many it doesn't address, KK right now in my opinion is extremely flawed and a very poor and unstable FW, my phone randomly shuts down now and feezes up, there are still a long list of issues that need fixed and it's not all the fault of Sony

[Johan · Accepted solution]

We have investigated the issue with Google Play Services using alot of battery and we have identified that the root cause of this is related to the latest version of Google Play Services (4.4.52).

Until a new version of Google Play Services is provided by Google we urge users to either uninstall the latest update of Google Play Services (might limit use of Google Services like Youtube) or go to Settings > Google (accounts) > Ads > Tick the box for Opt out of interest-based ads and also disable back up of your data by going to Settings > Backup & reset (Personal) > uncheck the box for “Back up my data”.

If you are unable to uninstall the update for Google Play Services from Settings > Apps, go to Settings -> Security -> Device administrators and disable "Android Device Manager". Also check the settings in the Play Store so that automatic updates is not enabled as this may update Google Play Services again automatically.

[GeoffH]

Hey Johan not a word of Thanks - just kidding, Sony is not at fault here - Google has made a mess

I will list a couple of other issues

My phone refuses to wake up sometimes - unresposive, needs a reset - sometimes it reboots on it's own, I'm not ruling out an app causing this as I haven't investigated but it is still an issue that I bever had with 4.3

When using the camera and closing the camera - various random apps open

I am not blaming Sony for this - KK has been an absolute nightmare - I don't know what Google is trying to do but maybe time to move away because they have alienated a lot of people with KK including me

4.3 was perfect

[chriso1]

Normally when there's a major upgrade I think "wow, yea!" and everything works much better... this time tho... DISASTER

Without ANY OTHER CHANGES, my battery is suddenly draining super fast!!!

Even with Stamina Mode, Low Battery Mode, everything set to minimal usage!!!

Even when it shows the battery remaining time will be 10 hours, suddenly its beeping low battery and now there's only 3 hours left... look back after one mniute of being off on standby, now only 2 hours left... even plugging into a USB port on my PC, the phone is using more juice than the USB cable can provide...

WHAT IS GOING ON!!!??? How could Sony release such a major failure of an upgrade????

I've checked to see what's using all this juice, and for some reason Google Play Services is now using 95% of the power, when normally it should be and Android System, Screen, Phone, etc....

THIS IS A MAJOR FAILING ON SONY'S PART AND I WANT TO ROLLBACK TO THE PREVIOUS SOFTWARE WHICH WAS WORKING FINE ---- PLEASE PROVIDE INSTRUCTIONS

I DO NOT WANT THIS SOFTWARE ON MY PHONE

[chriso1]

I found this solution here... http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/Xperia-Z-ZL-ZR/battery-drain-issue-after-10-5-A-0-230-update/m-p/70637...

At the moment it seems to work ( - 1. Uninstalling Google Play Services Update and 2. Setting disable backup data etc)

HOWEVER... this is obviously a major issue that needs to be addressed, and were I not a search engine god, I might not have found the solution at all, so what about all the other people who are afflivted???

[GeoffH]

Just to add

Confirmed again after copying a new music album to my ext SD Card Music folder - over heating and servere battery drain for 2x days, if I put on internal SD - no issues

It has settled down again eventually

Mediaserver becomes overactive using 50% of battery

[Mtaras]

Hello, in my case I had such a strange situation. Everything started with battery problem. When i was charging my phone with a cable it was making a charging sound every 5 min since I put it on charge. Sometimes it was signaling every second. I thought my usb port was dead or battery was dying. At the same time my phone was starting heating as FU**CK so I searched for the answer in the support forum of Sony. They said restart the device, turn off google services and so on, nothing helped. Every time I was turning on WiFi it was starting heating. So I decided to make a full back up with help of Xperia Companion. I did it with a 3rd try because something was wrong with the system. After all, it worked but after that I instaled all the Apps and it started heating again. Facebook and instagram were crashig instantly when i launch them. Then I tried to log in to instagram with help of username and password because before that i did it with help of Facebook. After that Instagram did not crash but Facebook is crashing till now. Talking about charging problem I excidently was charging another smartphone with my cable and power supply and this phone started making charging sound the same as my phone did. I finally understood what was happening. Since then i charge with help of my laptop or different power supply. In my case this smallblack box shaped power supply was an issue of the battery drain. All these happened in June 2017. Have no idea what all these about. I am waiting for a new Facebook update maybe then it will FIX it.

So what I offer you to do:

1. Clear Facebook data and delet it. 

2. Restart your device.

3. Check if its heating again. 

4. If nothing helps delete all apps and start instling and using one by one to find out which one is heating your phone.

5. If #4 is not helping you have to backup your phone and reinstal Android with help of Xperia Companion. ( to back up your phone go to Xperia Companion -> backup all data)