Database Develop

[Q] Weird battery issue, Razr i, after Jelly Bean

Hi all,
I have weird battery issue with my Razr i xt890 and I'd like some help. I have tried googling for information, but there's too much noise and I can't find anything suitable.
I'm asking on this site because I know the people on here are really knowledgeable.
My Razr i (with Jelly Bean) seems to have erratic battery readings. Sometimes it'll drop to 6%, and then go up to 90%, and jump around to points in between. I have even seen it drop to 1% and then go up to 6% (or something like that).
Needless to say, this makes the phone unusable because I don't know when it's on low battery so I can charge it. Furthermore, twice, it has reported low battery and then automatically shut itself down.
I hope someone can help with this, because I'm really stuck. I bought this phone overseas, and I don't really want to send it back overseas for warranty repairs.
So, some history.
Before the issue:
This is a stock Razr i, running Retail GB software. When I bought it, it was running 81.5.31002.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4. I upgraded to 81.5.39001.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4 and it's been running fine until this issue happened. I normally get about 4.5-5.5 days of battery before I recharge the phone.
This is stock software. No root. No bootloader unlock. No custom roms.
The issue:
I charged up my phone yesterday, and unplugged it from the charger at 100% battery. There was a notification that 91.2.29001.Retail.en.GB 4.1.2 was available. I selected 'Later' because I was busy at the time.
A bit later (maybe about an hour?), I went back to the phone and checked for updates, and selected to download the update. After it was downloaded, I noticed the battery was about 95%, and then I proceeded to install.
I figured 95% power should be sufficient to perform an upgrade.
The install took, maybe 10-15 minutes? At first glance, it seemed successful, but when the phone started up again, the battery reading was at 100%.
I distinctly remember thinking 'This is impossible. There's no way it could be 95% before the install, and 100% afterwards'.
I played around with the phone a bit (to try out Jelly Bean), and after a few minutes, the battery reading dropped to 60% or something.
That's when I knew something was wrong.
Since then, the phone battery reading has been erratic. If I plug it into a charger, it takes a few minutes and then shoots up to 100%. Unplug it, and it drops to a low level within minutes, and then goes up and down like a yo-yo. Twice, the phone went to a very low level, and then shut itself off.
I've tried various charging/unplugging cycles, and nothing has worked yet (Although I didn't have the patience to try an 8-hour charging cycle yet).
Please see the attached images to see what I mean.
The graphs are just bizarre.
I also did a factory reset (from the Privacy menu rather than 'recovery') but that didn't help.
At the moment, I haven't tried to root the phone or unlock the bootloader. I am still keeping the option of warranty open.
I can't think of a reason why this is happening. It doesn't seem to be a simple calibration or battery stats issue. I think the battery is working okay (because it was fine before the upgrade), just that the readings are wrong.
The phone is operating okay in all other respects. If I ignore the battery readings and the 'low battery' alerts, the phone continues to work ... except when it shuts itself down.
Another theory could be that ... because I upgraded without plugging the phone in, perhaps there was insufficient power during the upgrade and caused some corruption, and I have a faulty software/firmware? Not sure how I could test that though.
Any ideas, any one? Please?

Possibly related:
[Q] Randomly auto shutdown (battery problem)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2195878
[Q] New phone battery jumping after JB
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2198772

MemendF Ranck
Looks like other people have a similar problem too.
Battery Fluctuation and Random Power off after JB
h t t p s:// forums.motorola.com / posts / cd3c7d3210

Jelly bean download issues
Hi, I have had exactly the same problem after downloading jelly bean. It even died when plugged in charging. As I had only had the phone for three weeks, I took it back to the shop, Phones 4 You, and they exchanged it for a new phone and told me not to download jelly bean until they let me know it's safe to do so. They said that it was a software problem. Prior to this the battery life was outstanding and I am very pleased with the phone. Phones 4 You gave me an excellent service.

Fixed!
For future readers ...
Someone on the motorola forums (see second reply on this thread) mentioned a possible solution which was to manually install the Jelly Bean version again. I decided to give this a try.
After some more research, I discovered that it should be possible to manually apply official Motorola (ie. OTA) updates using the stock bootloader (via the bootloader recovery feature). No unlocking, no root needed.
I gave this a try ... downloaded the software (keeping to the same version), placed it on an SD card, went to recovery and selected 'Updated from external card' (or something like that) and followed through ... and it has worked (Although this time I kept the phone connected to a usb cable throughout the upgrade). My battery readings are back to normal again. I didn't lose any data or apps as a result of this 'manual upgrade'.
And I am presumably still under warranty since I didn't root nor unlock the bootloader.
Other readers may consider trying this for themselves, however, I cannot guarantee that it will work for them. I can only say it worked for me.
Some references:
How to enter stock recovery in JB (razr i)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=38873652
(Apparently entering into stock recovery differs slightly between ICS and JB.)
The Unofficial Thread of Official OTA Updates
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2028814
I used the software package from the first post of this thread, labelled as 81.5.39001-91.2.29001.Retail.en.GB 4.0.4-4.1.2 (even though the filename is Blur_Version.81.5.39001.XT890.Retail.en.GB.zip).

I don't have the phone yet (supposed to get it tonight) but having read quite a bit it seems Moto suggests a factory reset after upgrading to JB in order to sort out battery drain etc. I think I saw it in the battery stats thread in RAZR i general.

I send my Razr I back to Germany (living in The Netherlands myself) yesterday! Had the same problem, only my battery get down to 0% all the time, so the phone shutsdown itself every 1 minute till 1 houre. (I'm from the topic: Auto shutdown (battery problem). I think i get my new one next week on wednesday. Dus the JB software manualy update works for more people?

mo976 said:
I don't have the phone yet (supposed to get it tonight) but having read quite a bit it seems Moto suggests a factory reset after upgrading to JB in order to sort out battery drain etc. I think I saw it in the battery stats thread in RAZR i general.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problems described in this thread are relating to strange battery spikes in percentage and not a general drain of battery.
The problem is that everyone seems to be different. Some people report these spikes, some people are reporting high drains (which turning off google now or factory reset seem to fix) and some people (luckily me!) have had no issues at all - just an even faster phone

I did do a factory reset, though not immediately after the first JB upgrade. It didn't help.
I think describing this issue as battery drain or high battery usage is not quite correct. The battery is actually okay*, but the phone's indication of the battery capacity jumps all over the place (and sometimes causing automatic shutdown). I can see how it can be confused with battery drain though, especially if people only observe the reading going down (but didn't see the reading going up).
* At one point, I kept the phone screen on as an attempt to drain the battery. I got about 6 hours screen time (ignoring the intermittent battery low warnings) before I gave up.
Since I now have a phone with JB which is working, my guess is that this bug may not occur in all phones with JB. Instead, it seems to be triggered by something that happens during an upgrade.

OTA to JB on xt890 = battery problems
flashsam said:
I think the problems described in this thread are relating to strange battery spikes in percentage and not a general drain of battery.
The problem is that everyone seems to be different. Some people report these spikes, some people are reporting high drains (which turning off google now or factory reset seem to fix) and some people (luckily me!) have had no issues at all - just an even faster phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same problem. factory reset did not help me and i feel i made a mistake i have choosen this phone.i had motorola mobiles before even bought one to my wife.i know that motorola has a conservative atittude.i thought giving them a last chance now i know it was a mistake

Thanks bengtan.
I was having similar issues and a manual install of JB appears to have solved the issue.

Have you had any luck fixing your phone? I have the same problem since a few weeks ago. Bought a new battery and tried two calibration programs, but the issue persists.

Same here. I am on KK 4.4.2 and have the problem since yesterday. What to do?

Same here, my ROM is cm-11-20160524. After 3 years of usage I thought it's the battery and replaced it with a new one but the issue persists.

This is very odd, I'm here after my dad has the same issue and it looks like I'm the 4th poster to report the issue within 50 days after the thread hadn't any replies for over 3 years! Did any of you recent posters resolve the issue? I had a spare Razr-i and my dad took it to a phone repair shop where they swapped both batteries and the issue was still the same with the other battery, so it seems it's nothing to do with the battery itself for all the posters here so far.
Was there some recent update that spiralled all the phones into the erratic behaviour recently I wonder?
I'm trying to advise my dad what to do:
Try fix the issue on his current phone and keep using relatively old tech phone
Use my spare phone (same type) and keep using relatively old tech phone and try sell old XT890 for parts
Upgrade to brand new phone with latest tech and do him for a few years longer than the XT890 would.
Any feedback appreciated!

The issue flatened a bit now. After 2 weeks of brave usage the phone keeps the charge now normally with rare drops in between. So it's still not on an acceptable level but improved magically. I do not understand the physics of this behavior.

I'm having the same strange behaviour since yesterday!!
battery level drops when pluggin the charger,
after several minutes level is jumping to 100%.
whith unplugged charger, level in general inconsistent jumping up and down...!
could this be SW related? planned obsolescence?
edit: android 4.4.2. systemversion 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU

I have the same problem following an update to JB I don't even recall authorising
I'm now looking for a copy of the new firmware: 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU to try to resolve. If anyone knows where it can be found I'd be very grateful if you could point me in the right direction...

Same problem here.
I bought a new battery. No changes.
I than did a complete wipe, unlocked the bootloader and installed CyanogenMod 11 (this one http://forum.xda-developers.com/razr-i/development/rom-unofficial-cyanogenmod-11-t2966855). No changes.
I than completely drained the battery (made sure of it) and left it on the charger over night. Now I don't get those weird spikes, the battery just drains really fast (about an hour an the phone is powering off).
Maybe I try a different ROM, or go back to KitKat

I found this but I dunno how to use it ??
h t t p s : / / forum .xda-developers .com /showpost.php?p=69816145&postcount=39
android 4.4.2. systemversion 990.43.74.XT890.Retail.en.EU

Weird battery problems

I have had my international unlocked M7 for almost 2½ years now. For the past 6 months or so I have had weird battery problems.
When on the lower half of the percentage, i.e. below 50%, sometimes it drops incredibly fast, and the phone just dies. At times it goes from 30% to nothing for instance. When I add the charger it lists the battery as 2-5% or something.
Nothing gets hot, and I have tried to use the saver functionality. I don't think there are any apps that cause this, I have tried to keep an eye on it.
I have also tried GSAM, but it didn't tell me anything new - I can install it again and post some logs, if that would be helpful.
What I have done:
* Recently I went to a shop and had the battery replaced, since I assumed this was the problem (battery getting old), but it didn't changed anything. There is, of course, a remote chance that the shop screwed up and didn't replace the battery and screwed me - I have no way of telling...
* I have also recently rooted/unlocked/wiped all caches and installed a ROM from here (Eragon), but that didn't change anything either...
My only conclusion is that this must be a hardware problem - am I correct in assuming that?
Any help/tips are welcome!
Thanks!

Battery issue and restoring completely to stock

Hello everyone,
I have been using a Xperia Z1 for around last 6 months and updated to Lollipop 5.1.1 two months ago. Everything was fine until last week when my phone started to get affected by the battery bug.
The phone works fine and the battery gets discharged in leaps. For example, when I use the phone from 100%, it goes down in the usual way, let's say for 1 hour usage it drops up to 90% which is quite normal. But, when lock the screen and keep it idle for sometime and when I take it back, the battery has dropped a leap, usually by 10-15%.
Yesterday, I was using the phone normally and kept it idle for the entire night and battery has been dropped only from 85% to 79% without stamina mode. That's good. However, when I restarted the phone in the morning, the battery suddenly dropped to 18%. :crying:
I tried calibrating the battery, charging/discharging cycles and removing batterystats.bin. But, the issue is still here.
I think my phone has been affected by the famous Xperia battery bug in Lollipop which means that my battery is damaged. But, before replacing the battery is there anything else that I could do to overcome the issue. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.
+ My phone is rooted on stock 5.1.1 (14.6.A.0.368) with XZDualRecovery and locked bootloader. If I repair the phone with PCC will it cause any harm or bricking since because of the customer recovery?
Claiming warranty is out of option since the phone has been rooted and flashed with custom recovery.

I don't know why people call it a lollipop bug. There will be a time a battery reaches its end of live. That's what has hit you right now. Your descripte symptoms are from a dying battery. I have seen some dying battery's from me or friends. The battery was holding the charge normally and suddenly no more.
Replace it and all should be fine again.

motorazrv3 said:
I don't know why people call it a lollipop bug. There will be a time a battery reaches its end of live. That's what has hit you right now. Your descripte symptoms are from a dying battery. I have seen some dying battery's from me or friends. The battery was holding the charge normally and suddenly no more.
Replace it and all should be fine again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But, can this happen on a phone that is just 7 months old? Thats what makes me to think that this could be a bug.

I have the same issue, but mine drops to 0% and after waiting some time and booting it the percentage is back up. I have my phone for 2 years now, and the problem appeared in Lollipop also.

aquaboy11 said:
I have the same issue, but mine drops to 0% and after waiting some time and booting it the percentage is back up. I have my phone for 2 years now, and the problem appeared in Lollipop also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's okay for a 2 year old phone as Lithium batteries wear out with time. In my case, it's kinda disappointing...

So, after searching the entire Internet, I can understand that this is a common issue with Xperia Z1 and Z1 compact and replacing the battery seems to be the only possible solution. I searched EBay for a battery but couldn't choose a good quality one. Can someone guide me on this please?

UnlimitedBB said:
So, after searching the entire Internet, I can understand that this is a common issue with Xperia Z1 and Z1 compact and replacing the battery seems to be the only possible solution. I searched EBay for a battery but couldn't choose a good quality one. Can someone guide me on this please?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your battery is definitely dying and it has nothing to do with roms. Get a battery that the seller claims to be OEM. That's your best bet...

optimumpro said:
Your battery is definitely dying and it has nothing to do with roms. Get a battery that the seller claims to be OEM. That's your best bet...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip. So, I searched for an OEM battery and ordered it along with some tools required for the disassembling. I will keep posted once I replace the battery.

UnlimitedBB said:
Thanks for the tip. So, I searched for an OEM battery and ordered it along with some tools required for the disassembling. I will keep posted once I replace the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think that it will resolve your problem.
I changed my internal battery about one month ago and when two weeks passed I started to experiment the same bug ? again
It's not only hardware problem, it also software problem, I believe.

D_Vovan_238 said:
Don't think that it will resolve your problem.
I changed my internal battery about one month ago and when two weeks passed I started to experiment the same bug again
It's not only hardware problem, it also software problem, I believe.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct becouse I experience som drops in the range of 5-20% in less than a minute and once 30%. All the time while the phone was in standby mode except once where it did it right in my face (10%). My battery status is reported being fine. I also forced shutdown the phone as per the calibration method for non-rooted phones. Though I did notice dalvik cache wasn't rebuilt and so there is no way to have it refreshed manually except system updates which does this.
Anyway I did remove some apps and did some changes and after this I have not had any sudden drop for weeks. Two of the apps where Truecaller and Facebook official app. Will check though if it was a third one to. I believe one of these or both where playing havok. Especially the Facebook app as it takes liberties I find suspicious, is buggy, can crash the kernel (any app that can do that is doing shady work IMO) and had the addition of a "Video Player" service that was running permanently after you launch the FB app once. I instead use Metal for Facebook now. Pretty much same experience, only 10MB RAM used instead of 90MB and no batter y drain either or any other problem. So in short I believe one of these where the culprits and since many use the FB app that might be the one playing badly with Sony Z1 system.
And If you use Adguard also check if there are apps getting high ratio of ads blocked (or analytics data blocked). Might be some dont get proccessed right in the battery system due to it calculating it wrong. Google Frameworks, Google Contacts, Play Services, Mobilestorage Checker and a few more I disabled the ad filtering for. Though this did not change the battery drop problem previously. It only went away when I uninstalled named apps above.

Z3 refuses to sleep. Tried everything

Basically, for a couple days, my Z3C battery drain graph is a straight line going down at 40 degrees. I'd post a pic, but I can't yet (new member limits).
It used to be mostly flat when the phone wasn't used, but not anymore.
What changed? honestly, nothing! I just woke up and noticed that it went down from 100% to 70% during ~7 hours of my sleep. And it's like that ever since. I'm struggling to use the phone for a full day (used to be 2-3 days). The phone is 8 months old.
WHat I did already:
1. Turning off/uninstalling various apps based on their % impact on battery drain
2. Clearing cache
3. Turning down wifi and internet
4. Factory reset with data backup
5. FULL factory reset without touching anything after it
NOTHING worked
My only theory is that battery became bogus and I have to send it for repairs... which means at least 2-3 weeks without the phone and a questionable result (they may as well not consider it broken at all).
Anyone have any ideas on what to do at this point? I'm getting desperate
I wanted to sell the phone in a couple months to buy the Z6 compact, but I obviously can't sell a phone with a faulty battery... which means I won't have funds for the Z6. Sigh..

Kapitanczacki said:
Basically, for a couple days, my Z3C battery drain graph is a straight line going down at 40 degrees. I'd post a pic, but I can't yet (new member limits).
It used to be mostly flat when the phone wasn't used, but not anymore.
What changed? honestly, nothing! I just woke up and noticed that it went down from 100% to 70% during ~7 hours of my sleep. And it's like that ever since. I'm struggling to use the phone for a full day (used to be 2-3 days). The phone is 8 months old.
WHat I did already:
1. Turning off/uninstalling various apps based on their % impact on battery drain
2. Clearing cache
3. Turning down wifi and internet
4. Factory reset with data backup
5. FULL factory reset without touching anything after it
NOTHING worked
My only theory is that battery became bogus and I have to send it for repairs... which means at least 2-3 weeks without the phone and a questionable result (they may as well not consider it broken at all).
Anyone have any ideas on what to do at this point? I'm getting desperate
I wanted to sell the phone in a couple months to buy the Z6 compact, but I obviously can't sell a phone with a faulty battery... which means I won't have funds for the Z6. Sigh..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And what about changing NOTHING but just turning the airplane mode ON?
edit: I made a mistake, not OFF but ON!
I had the same problem with my Xperia T and the cause was that I cut the SIM card by myself (from mini sim to micro sim) and I accidentally internally damaged the SIM card. The battery drain was TREMENDOUS and the phone was INCREDIBLY hot that time. I didn't know what was the cause and tried literally everything! Only turning on the airplane mode was stopping the battery drain so I thought maybe the SIM card is damaged. And it was! After replacing one, everything went back to normal.
But what I want to say - your case might be different but... just give an airplane mode a try.
If you are from Poland - check your private messages!

Flight mode does nothing. 100% -> 75% overnight.

Kapitanczacki said:
Flight mode does nothing. 100% -> 75% overnight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have u tried installing a new rom?
Or a factory reset because its easier?

kimon60 said:
Have u tried installing a new rom?
Or a factory reset because its easier?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, like I said in first post, I did factory reset. Twice, in fact.
The phone doesn't eat more battery - with Screen On, it works like it used to, but there is no "screen off" time for battery: the drain seems constant. The phone obviously doesn't go into sleep mode.

Then try Safe Mode in which all 'foreign' apps are not included in the startup procedure.
- push the power button
- long press the Power Off on the screen
- Then a option to restart in safe mode will appear on your screen
- Now you can chack whether your battery drain is a software or hardware problem

HvdW said:
Then try Safe Mode in which all 'foreign' apps are not included in the startup procedure.
- push the power button
- long press the Power Off on the screen
- Then a option to restart in safe mode will appear on your screen
- Now you can chack whether your battery drain is a software or hardware problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hardware sadly... the battery drain is exactly the same on safe mode+flight mode as with wifi+internet+all apps I have
I still have some months of warranty... should I send it?

Kapitanczacki said:
Basically, for a couple days, my Z3C battery drain graph is a straight line going down at 40 degrees. I'd post a pic, but I can't yet (new member limits).
It used to be mostly flat when the phone wasn't used, but not anymore.
What changed? honestly, nothing! I just woke up and noticed that it went down from 100% to 70% during ~7 hours of my sleep. And it's like that ever since. I'm struggling to use the phone for a full day (used to be 2-3 days). The phone is 8 months old.
WHat I did already:
1. Turning off/uninstalling various apps based on their % impact on battery drain
2. Clearing cache
3. Turning down wifi and internet
4. Factory reset with data backup
5. FULL factory reset without touching anything after it
NOTHING worked
My only theory is that battery became bogus and I have to send it for repairs... which means at least 2-3 weeks without the phone and a questionable result (they may as well not consider it broken at all).
Anyone have any ideas on what to do at this point? I'm getting desperate
I wanted to sell the phone in a couple months to buy the Z6 compact, but I obviously can't sell a phone with a faulty battery... which means I won't have funds for the Z6. Sigh..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem with my z3c when I went back home to Cyprus for the holidays. In Germany my battery drain during the night is 5-6% with Wifi on (no Stamina Mode), but when I was in Cyprus my battery drain went to like 40% over night. Bear in mind my phone is completely stock, with some disable apps here and there. I used GSam Battery Monitor to see what was going on and I saw that my Phone Radio was using almost the same % as the screen was. I'm thinking maybe this happened because of the firmware or something, I'm currently using .264 for Germany, but when I bought the phone it came with the Greek firmware, and I changed it to the German one during the Lollipop updates. Maybe if you tried flashing another firmware?

S5 Mini G800F Battery Drain Issue

I found another thread with the same issue but no satisfactory answer for me - http://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s5-mini/help/g800f-battery-drain-off-t3445071
A friend's S5 mini G800F suddenly started draining battery - it will completely drain in about 3 hours even when the phone is turned off. My friend claims that nothing changed right before the problem started - no updates, bumps, etc, but I wasn't using it so I can't verify that is the case.
Things I have tried.
- running in safe mode
- wiping the cache
- factory reset
- new battery
- installed cyanogenmod 13.0.1
- battery calibrator app
The other thread was resolved by installing a new mainboard which unfortunately is not an option as I am out of the country currently. With the things that I have tried I am fairly certain that software is not the issue, but I really have no idea where to look when it comes to hardware.
The phone charges normally and works fine as long as it is plugged in and does not overheat but as soon as the cord is unplugged the percentage quickly drains and will continue to drain even when the phone is off.
Any help would be appreciated.

You can install Ampere to monitor both charging and draining currents. But if even with a new and known good battery the problem exists then most probably it's a hardware issue... Good luck.

lfom said:
You can install Ampere to monitor both charging and draining currents. But if even with a new and known good battery the problem exists then most probably it's a hardware issue... Good luck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I'll give that a try and see what I can figure out.

Unfortunately I was unable to find any useful information with the app. I am left with the conclusion that there is a hardware issue somewhere draining the battery...

the same issue here
It's about two weeks my phone has the same behavior,
I've already tried two batteries from two vendors, but with no success,
In the service they refused to replace the hw, as it would be actually a "new phone"
So I was forced to buy a new one.

As you know, i have same issue. I posted a "fix" but it didnt really do anything.
It turns out its a issue in the usb circuit.
An possible problem-causer could be:
Bad battery
2. Bad sim/sd
3. Bad software (factory reset/reflash stock
4. USB circuit.
So, you would need an hardware repair. It wont cost much, as its only a circuit.
I am gonna repair my phone soon. Ill report what happened then.

Have you been able to fix the issue? Can you provide some details about it?