Fire HD 8 battery dying fast - Prime Photos the culprit?

[DrInsomniac]

My Fire HD8 is dying when I'm not using it. For example, at 80% charge last night I went to sleep with the smart cover closed on the Fire and it was at 40% by morning (~5%/hr). For a few weeks now it's been dying, from full charge, within a day, without me using it. It also freezes a lot upon waking so I have to power cycle it before it's useable, which has made diagnosing what kills the battery somewhat hard.

However, I installed GSam Battery Monitor and what I've learned is that even when the smart cover is closed, most of the battery drain is due to the device being "held awake." And the "App sucker" shows Prime Photos as having used most of the power. For example, 18% out of 44% since my last full charge. The thing is I don't use Prime Photos, at all, for anything. I have no photos on the device. I've maybe used the camera once or twice. So it's not from active usage.

But Prime Photos can't be removed. I can't disable it. And I can't seem to figure out a way to stop the power drain. I've power-cycled dozens of times (not to mention the nearly daily 100% battery drain). I've cleared the cache and forced stop on Prime Photos a few times. And I'm at a total loss now as I can't seem to find anyone who is experiencing the same or even a similar issue with a Google search.

I'm current only OS 5.6. And I have added Google Play Store apps via APKs. The only option I see is a factory reset although I'd rather not do that if possible. Anyone have any suggestions about what to try? I know there's some work-arounds to remove pre-installed apps (although maybe more challenging on the latest OS). Is that the best route? Is there a better option? Or could Prime Photos be a red herring?

 

[DrInsomniac]

A few more updates:

I noticed that Prime Video was also sometime showing high usage (as had Prime Photos). So I decided maybe it was an ad locking up and holding the device awake. Based on tips I read here I contacted Amazon support to mention maybe that the ads were causing the problem and they immediately removed the ads for me. So that was nice, and my Fire immediately seemed more responsive and faster to wake.

BUT - the problem is not resolved. My Fire continues to freeze (often) with an unresponsive black screen (it's backlit, so it's on, it's just displaying black). The battery died 50% overnight while I slept. So I'm still basically facing the same problem.

Possibly unrelated is that Kindle Books seems to be re-setting to default settings often (shows the intro/new features screen as if the app was just installed/updated). This might be completely unrelated. Or maybe it's all of the Amazon apps that are causing issues.

 

[DyslexicPBJ]

Fire HD 8 battery drain (Fire OS 5.6.0.0)

I am also experiencing abnormal battery drain on my Fire HD 8 running Fire OS 5.6.0.0. I bought one on Thanksgiving and pretty soon after setting it up added and SD card and installed the Google Play Store and associated APKs. Shortly thereafter it started acting up - rapid battery drain, sluggishness, and difficulty powering off/on. I contacted Amazon and they processed an exchange. Since receiving the new one, I've done some reading and slowly experimented. First I set it up without adding Google Play Store or an SD card and it behaved as expected - relatively smooth performance and minimal battery drain overnight. After 24 hours I installed the SD card and immediately the rapid battery drain and rebooting difficulty returned. And, I periodically get an error message telling me the SD card has been ejected (which it has not). I believe there is a software issue with the SD card that is the culprit and is preventing the Fire tablet from sleeping - therefore the drain and performance issues. Anybody out there concur?

 

[mreasier]

I am also experiencing abnormal battery drain on my Fire HD 8 running Fire OS 5.6.0.0. I bought one on Thanksgiving and pretty soon after setting it up added and SD card and installed the Google Play Store and associated APKs. Shortly thereafter it started acting up - rapid battery drain, sluggishness, and difficulty powering off/on. I contacted Amazon and they processed an exchange. Since receiving the new one, I've done some reading and slowly experimented. First I set it up without adding Google Play Store or an SD card and it behaved as expected - relatively smooth performance and minimal battery drain overnight. After 24 hours I installed the SD card and immediately the rapid battery drain and rebooting difficulty returned. And, I periodically get an error message telling me the SD card has been ejected (which it has not). I believe there is a software issue with the SD card that is the culprit and is preventing the Fire tablet from sleeping - therefore the drain and performance issues. Anybody out there concur?

I am having the exact same symptoms with my Fire HD 8 running Fire OS 5.6.0.0. I got it in early October and it ran fine until the recent update. It runs great with no SD card installed. As soon as I mount my 32 GB Samsung Evo card, I get battery drain while sleeping and erroneous SD card eject messages. I also get intermittent sluggish performance. I have nothing on the card, just mounting it causes problems. I have tried erasing and remounting but still problems. As soon as I remove the card, all is well. I tried an old 2 GB Samsung card I had lying around. It worked fine with that card. I too have installed the Google Play Store and associated APKs but I don't think that is part of the issue. Perhaps there is an issue with larger SD cards.

 

[maly82]

Sometimes hot mounting sdcard works. I usually start device without it and then power off and insert card in. Then at first boot with SD card I usually format it in device to avoid those problems so maybe there is an issue. Play store it self is a battery hog in my opinion. I would deactivate automatic app update in play store settings as this can conflict in with apps from Amazon app store.
Also reboot now and then is a good option.
I had my fire HD 8 for few weeks it with latest update and didn't experienced any of those issues yet.

 

[mreasier]

Sometimes hot mounting sdcard works. I usually start device without it and then power off and insert card in. Then at first boot with SD card I usually format it in device to avoid those problems so maybe there is an issue. Play store it self is a battery hog in my opinion. I would deactivate automatic app update in play store settings as this can conflict in with apps from Amazon app store.
Also reboot now and then is a good option.
I had my fire HD 8 for few weeks it with latest update and didn't experienced any of those issues yet.

I have turned off automatic updates in both the play store and the Amazon app store. The issue appears whenever I mount the SD card. I have tried hot mounting, formatting in the device, external formatting, etc. It seems to be related to certain type(s) of cards. It does not occur with my old small 2 GB card but occurs every time with my new 32 GB card.

 

[maly82]

Where did you get your SD card. Some sources sell them dead cheap but they might be capacity hacked cards. I had one of those back in a day saying that it was a 128GB. But it was really 4GB after I used low formatting- which takes some time. Try repartition your SD card. See if that issue still appears. Usually there is a bit space left unpartitioned when they are new. I would try that and see if that works.

Also Amazon might be to blame as if you choose to use it to store all your content on sdcard it usually takes up some space with on deck content without you knowing it.

Also check in file manager on your SD card if you have folder called Android. Try to delete it and see if it asks you for special permission to access sdcard. Some apps require that and maybe this is a cause.

 

[mreasier]

Thanks for your suggestions. I bought my card through Amazon Prime. I borrowed a neighbor's 32 GB SandDisk HC I card. It ran fine with no memory drain or other issues. I deleted the partition on my Samsung drive and did a low level reformat. I mounted on my Fire HD 8 and memory drain occurred again. Battery level went down 7% in one hour while sleeping. It is definitely specific card related. If you are still reading this, would DyslexicPBJ post the make and model of your card? Thanks.

 

[mreasier]

I took a 64 GB SanDisk card out of a Dell Windows Tablet I have. It works just fine in the HD 8. After 2 hours no memory drain. I don't know if I have a bad card or if the HD 8 just does not like Samsung 32 GB Evo cards. I put the Samsung card into my Dell and it appears to be working fine.

 

[DrInsomniac]

I periodically get an error message telling me the SD card has been ejected (which it has not). I believe there is a software issue with the SD card that is the culprit and is preventing the Fire tablet from sleeping - therefore the drain and performance issues. Anybody out there concur?

Very interesting. I just got the SD card error for the first time yesterday. At the time I wrote this post I would not have connected the issues to the SD card. But now I wonder. I have this card in my Fire: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWZWYVP/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[mreasier]

Very interesting. I just got the SD card error for the first time yesterday. At the time I wrote this post I would not have connected the issues to the SD card. But now I wonder. I have this card in my Fire: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06XWZWYVP/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is mine. https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Micr...2768405&sr=1-3&keywords=samsung+32+gb+sd+card
Not the same, but similar. I have had no problem with 3 different SanDisk cards. Maybe the Fires just don' t like Samsung.

 

[DrInsomniac]

Well, it's confirmed. I unmounted my SD card and the problem is immediately fixed (I forgot how long the battery lasts. Over a day and a half of occasional usage and it's only dropped 20% and hasn't frozen a single time).

Is it possible to submit this as a bug report to Amazon? My girlfriend has the same SD card and is having the exact same problems, which further confirms it's the SD card at fault since my tablet has ads disabled and Google Play services, while hers still has ads and has never had Google Play installed.

I went ahead and bought the 32GB (more than enough size, for me, I think) that they recommend at http://amazon.com/firetabletstorage. Feels a little like they've duped me since I've now spent about as much on SD cards as I did on the tablet itself. But there's simply not enough storage on the device to go without any sort of backup memory and this card doesn't seem to be causing problems for people.

 

[mreasier]

I replaced my Samsung 64 GB card with a SanDisk 64 GB card and all is well. It is the card that Amazon recommends. Weird that the Fire does not seem to like the Samsung cards.

 

[Gregooverse]

I replaced my Samsung 64 GB card with a SanDisk 64 GB card and all is well. It is the card that Amazon recommends. Weird that the Fire does not seem to like the Samsung cards.

Just to chime in, I've had a similar issue with the battery draining super fast as soon as I installed the SD Card in the tablet. I also had the tablet running very hot and draining the battery down to 2% in my bad, which was kind of dangerous. I also randomly had messages telling me that the card was not properly removed, or simply the storage settings freezing and not recognizing the card.

My SD card is an UHS-3 Samsung Evo 64GB.

I installed BetterBatteryStats (https://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1179809 + https://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=67819528&postcount=4 to grant permission through ADB) on the tablet to check what was causing the battery drain.

This is what it looks like with the Samsung SD card (did not matter if it was unmounted or not, as long as the card was physically seated in the slot, it would cause drain):

The mmc1_detect process keeps the tablet awake while trying to interact with the SD card.

This is what it looks like without an SD card:

This is what it looks like with an UHS-1 SanDisk 64GB:

There was definitely some weird interaction between the Fire tablet and the Samsung Evo SD card.

 

[likimoki]

Hi, all.
I have the same issue with Samsung 64 Gb Pro and Fire OS 5.6.0
For now decided to use Fire HD without SD card. Unfortunately...

if someone find solution - please share it.

Thanks.

 

[mreasier]

Hi, all.
I have the same issue with Samsung 64 Gb Pro and Fire OS 5.6.0
For now decided to use Fire HD without SD card. Unfortunately...

if someone find solution - please share it.

Thanks.

Unfortunately, the only solution I know of is to find another use for your Samsung card and buy one of the recommended SanDisk cards for you Fire.

 

[likimoki]

Unfortunately, the only solution I know of is to find another use for your Samsung card and buy one of the recommended SanDisk cards for you Fire.

I can confirm that this issues fixed in 5.6.0.1 at Jan 23th.

 

[Anonymous Coward]

My HD 10 has recently begun doing the same thing. The only connection I can see to the posts above is that I recently transferred a few dozen ebooks from my computer to the 64gb Sandisk card via the notebook after the Humble Bundle app kept crashing. I'm now charging with the SD card removed and will remove Humble Bundle when I'm up to a full charge to see if there's any difference.

 

[RagManX]

I came to inquire as to this exact issue. I have a 128 Gig Samsung EVO which when installed drains my battery from 100% to 20% in under 36 hours. Without the memory card installed, it drops about 4% every 12 hours instead. Guess I'll be buying a SanDisk 128 Gig instead. Thanks for the advice from all who posted about this already.