A couple of things first: I have the Samsung Galaxy S3 ATT version. However, these fixes might also work on the verizon version.

Skip the fluff, go straight to the fix

I love the Samsung Galaxy S3. I upgraded from the original droid incredible so of course, any phone I got would have been like a dream come true but regardless I am very pleased. I personally have had very good luck with the S3 and battery life up until the point I forgot to plug it in one night. I woke up the next morning, well rested, although an hour late for work because my phone had died during the night. I went to bed with about an 80% charge. Ridiculous! So, like any good android customer (or smart person) would do, I set off to google the problem for possible fixes.

The Greatest S3 Battery Thread in the World

Thanks to the help of this thread, I found a lot of good information including how to diagnose battery problems, which may be covered in a future post. But to spare everyone else time, I thought I might consoldate this fix into a smaller, easier to digest blog post. So what do you need to do? Well, hopefully the fix that worked for me will work for you. You simply need to disable some of the preinstalled samsung apps.

Disabling Samsung Apps Saved my S3 Battery

Now step by step instructions for the easy fix:

  1. From the Home screen, click the "menu" button and then click "settings".
  2. Scroll down and click the "Application manager".
  3. Click the "All" tab at the top.
  4. Scroll down and find the following apps and disable them**:
    • Samsung Apps
    • Samsung Backup
    • Samsung cloud data relay
    • Samsung Push service
  5. Now if you have set up a samsung account, let's remove that from "Accounts and Sync". If not, restart your phone and then you're done!
  6. Go back to your home screen, hit the menu button and go to settings.
  7. Scroll down and select "Accounts and sync"
  8. Select your Samsung account and then click the "remove account" at the bottom right of your screen.
  9. Restart your phone.
  10. Now charge your phone up and then leave it off over night. See if your battery improves.

**I have been told that if you have installed any updates, you will have to uninstall the updates first before you can disable the app. So if you are having trouble finding the disable button, try uninstalling updates and then see if it appears.

Disable other apps while you are at it!

While you are diabling apps, you should go ahead and disable some other bloatware that you don't ever use. This is, of course, not required, but we all know you have been meaning to for a while now right? Here is a screenshot of the apps I have disabled if you want to follow in my footsteps:

Comments

Thank a bunch for the advice. It worked like a charm! It funny how the samsung apps would use up so much battery life even when the phone is in standby

I got to admit, I didn't think it was gonna work, I thought my battery was just toast. But I did what u said and I also went through and disabled a lot of junk that I never use, and my phone has been on for 12 hours and I still have 51% left. Worked great.
Thank you so much
And God Bless

If I remember correctly, if the apps are running, you do need to hit "force stop" and then the "disable" option should become available.

I tried, but I still don't see the ''disable'' option

it looks like when you click on

settings -> application manager -> all ->[the app you want to disable]

you should see 2 buttons at the top, force stop and unistall or unistall updates...you will need to force stop and then select "unistall" or "unistall updates" and then the disable option will appear. If that doesn't work, im not sure what to tell you. Good luck though!

If you have allowed the phone to update these apps, then you have to uninstall the update first. Then you *usually* see the "disable" option.

my s3 does not go into sleep mode.. its noit rooted.. i have chkd my stat on better battery stats so i came to knw my phoe doesnt enter deep sleep... i have to restart the phone to fix that.
i have disabled a lot of apps even turnd of the s voice ... still the issue remains

Thank you!

Great article. Have had battery issues but thought maybe I'd just been thrashing phone (probably a mixture).
To disable apps I think you need to remove all updates first - back to the factory settings for the app. Did this and it showed me the option to disable.

Thanks! I have added your recommendation about uninstalling updates to the article.

Thanks mate, really helpful advise much appreciated.

What does " 5.Now if you have set up a samsung account, let's remove that from "Accounts and Sync". If not, restart your phone and then you're done! " Do to my gmail account? Is it seperate? Why is there a Samsung account?

The samsung account is completely separate from your gmail account and is used for samsung services. If you do not use any of their services, you can safely remove it without it affecting anything. However, if you are unsure, you could always leave it there and see if your battery improves from just disabling the apps.

Good luck!