[Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Galaxo60:
Google Services Battery Drain

To all of you having Google Services battery drain, I think I found a fix.

With last Google Services update and the last Google Maps update, sometimes it drains almost half of total battery.

I myself have spent the last week trying to see what is happening with this topic, trying to find in every thread or forum across the internet: XDA, HTCMania, AndroidCentral and even Google official forums for this annoying topic. Posted in every forum I could and tried to find an easy way, but for some people, this bug doesn´t exist.

When I write "No Google Services battery drain", I mean that this is not appearing in the battery graph.

I made a clean install of my ROM with no sync from Google, so I could see what´s the source of such battery drain. I started to disabled the "Location Access" at Settings.

I started to install only Google Search and use device a couple of hours with it. Google Search/Google Now ask for the Google Services, so I installed and used it. The Google Settings app(the one with the green icon) had disabled the "Location History" and "Reporting Location". No Google Services battery drain.

I enabled the last two to see if this could be the culprit of the battery drain and used device for a couple of hours more. No Google Services battery drain.

Then I installed Google Maps and just enabled GPS in "Location Access" and used the device again. No Google Services battery drain.

After that, I enabled "Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location" on "Location Access" and then... Voilà!. Google Services started to appear in the battery graph.

I discovered that the drain come specifically from this option in Location settings: Settings > Location Access > Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location.

I left GPS Satellites checked and even with that, no more Google Services drain. All the drain come from the other option, and is more noticeable when you are connected to WiFi.

No need to disable other Location services nor other settings about locations, just leave that option unchecked and Google Services won´t even appear in the battery graph.

I have been running my device with all Locations settings enabled except the "Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location" and Google Services is not even show on battery graph.

Hope it helps.

:highfive:

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Android System Battery Drain

About Android System battery drains, I have found 2 posts that could help of people who made tests and possibly resolved the issue:

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=44537106&postcount=7

http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=44541018&postcount=5

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UPDATES

Aug 01, 2013 - I tried to install new Google Play Store and new Google Services framework and still is the same.

Aug 07, 2013 - Updated Google Services Framework to 3.2.25(Although Play Store says 3.0.25 is the last one) to test if enabling WiFi location has impact on battery. Reporting Location and Location History are disabled for this test.

Aug 08, 2013 - The battery drain has decreased a lot with latest update, it is now just 5% of total battery life until now(22hrs since charged). I ´m going to leave battery discharges and then make a new battery cycle with Reporting Location and Location History enabled to see if the problem is totally gone about location battery drains.

Aug 09, 2013 - It´s been 5 hours since I unplugged phone from charger, I have Google Services at 10% of my battery and my Screen with 30 mins. At first, Google Services drain showed 20% on the battery graph for the first hour I think, and then it seems to decrease and stay normal again. I will post tomorrow the final results. Remember that for this test I´m having enabled all the possibly Location settings on phone(both Google Now settings and Location Access settings).

Aug 10, 2013 - The first battery cycle was ok, with all the Location settings enabled both in Settings and in Google Now, gave me a total of 8% battery drain in a full day, most of the time in 3G and not in WiFi like the other tests I did. It seems that new update of Google Play Services helped a lot with this drains, because the drain of Google Services is still below of the System itself. I will report later when the battery life improve, because first cycles are always bad in terms of battery life.

Aug 12, 2013 - It seems that the battery drain problem is fixed with last update. I made 2-3 battery cycles and the drain at the end is the same, around 7%-10%, something that looks normal and below when comparing to the "Phone Idle" or "Android System" battery drain. Of course you can disable the Location options, specially the WiFi Location option to make the Google Services battery drain be lower, but people is reporting Google Now and other apps not working properly. Maybe is the way that Android 4.3 works now. Still the battery is still improved from Android 4.2.2, so I´m quite happy right now with the tests and the results.

Aug 13, 2013 - Here are the results for the tests. I maybe should call these results the final ones, until something else happens. The screenshots are pretty self explanatory. The first one is about the battery drain over night, and the other two about the battery life at the end of the day.

Aug 21, 2013 - I made a full wipe and clean installation of PA 3.97 to test if drain could be also ROM sided fro any reason, but the news is that with a clean installation and latest updates for every Google product, the drain is the same fro Google Services(around 5%-8%). For all the previous test I was using pure AOSP build.

Sep 09, 2013 - Some users reported that latest updates are making the problem reappear, so I link the post with the latest free drain version of Google Now: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=45332135&postcount=161.

Sep 13, 2013 - I have installed PSX ROM with PSX GAPPS(based on BaNkS) and the Google Services drain is the same, around 5%-8% after a normal usage day. I don't report any problem.

Sep 20, 2013 - I have flashed Purity ROM and Purified Kernel and the Google Services drain is a little bit higher, around 10%, but still have good battery and performance.

Sep 24, 2013 - The opportunity now is for PSX v7 with default kernel(SiMa). Google Services drain is behaving normally, around 10%. It seems that the last update from September increased a little the Google Services wakelock. Still is performing well and it is a decent drain.

Sep 30, 2013 - Added some useful information and solution from user 511pf: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=46054200&postcount=227

Oct 24, 2013 - I flashed PSX 8.2 with default kernel, a very battery friendly and balanced kernel. Google Services drain is good, around 8%.

Oct 30, 2013 - I make a clean install of PSX 8.5 with new kernel and Google Services still are around 8%. No major problems with them.

Nov 12, 2013 - I came back to stock to wait for the Android 4.4 update, and the Google Services remain the same: around 7%. No major issues presented and battery drain over night is around 5% for 9 hours.

FINAL UPDATE: Nov 23, 2013 - I flashed stock image for Android 4.4 and Play Services drain reappeared. The problem is, after some researching, that KitKat has "modes" for location settings. There are 3 modes: high precision, battery friendly and device only. The first two drain battery as hell, but the third one makes the Play Services drain completely gone. With this in mind, widgets and Google Now are still fully functional, just Near Places is not available as well as some apps that need location, because it will work with just the GPS. My battery has greatly increased after I made this change.

I won't be continuing with this thread because I already sold my Nexus 4 and I got a Nexus 5, so I'm moving on. I will ask a moderator if it possible to make this thread a sticky thread so it will continue to be available to all the Nexus 4 users.

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NEW GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.gms

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Credits

[MENTION=4301564]elpino.rv[/MENTION]

[MENTION=1467226]Calebz[/MENTION]

[MENTION=2107172]agriff[/MENTION]

[MENTION=3713564]511pf[/MENTION]