Solution to Google Services and Android System battery drain [UPDATED Nov 23, 2013]

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chainer22

Senior Member
Jan 29, 2013
66
4
This make sense, still could be an option for those who still have the wakelock. Personally I got ride of it, but it seems that is coming back since today.

:(


Don't use that charger, people reported using wall charger fixes this, I don't know if it is a workaround for using Qi charger.

:confused:

charger?! my wakelock is due to manual disabling of the SystemUpdateService using the Disable Service app.
 

adaway

Member
Sep 6, 2007
12
2
Thanks for all the testing/analysis of this battery drain issue.

After some testing, may solution/fix is simple, I disabled Google Now
Google -> Setting -> GoogleNow (All cards) -> Off (also turn off location history)

I know maybe I'm strange, but I always fond all those voice controlled things totally useless (Google now, Samsung Voice, Siri....)

I don't ask my phone to do something, "I" do it :)
 

kirastrike

Member
Sep 22, 2013
21
0
Hey guys, been looking up answers as to why my battery drains so quickly when I'm mostly idle. It drains maybe 12-15% in 4 hours after fully charged. I don't think I have the Google services problem. I attached a few pics below; hopefully, the community could help. Im running stock rom updated 4.3. Thanks
 

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Last edited:

brian88

Senior Member
Dec 21, 2012
553
96
Saigon
Is there anyone try to make Google Services hibernate by Greenify? Dóe it work for this problem?

Sent from my Nexus⁴
 

Galaxo60

Senior Member
May 25, 2012
2,315
872
charger?! my wakelock is due to manual disabling of the SystemUpdateService using the Disable Service app.
Shouldn't be a drain if you disable the whole process. Maybe you disabled something else or part of the whole task.

Thanks for all the testing/analysis of this battery drain issue.

After some testing, may solution/fix is simple, I disabled Google Now
Google -> Setting -> GoogleNow (All cards) -> Off (also turn off location history)

I know maybe I'm strange, but I always fond all those voice controlled things totally useless (Google now, Samsung Voice, Siri....)

I don't ask my phone to do something, "I" do it :)
People usually use Google Now, but if you don't use it, wakelock will disappear if you don't have have it enabled.

Hey guys, been looking up answers as to why my battery drains so quickly when I'm mostly idle. It drains maybe 12-15% in 4 hours after fully charged. I don't think I have the Google services problem. I attached a few pics below; hopefully, the community could help. Im running stock rom updated 4.3. Thanks
I don't see any problem here, your screen is the number one cause of drain which is totally normal. You have normal Google Services wakelock as well as radio wakelock(msm hsic wakelock). Your stats are really normal.

Is there anyone try to make Google Services hibernate by Greenify? Dóe it work for this problem?

Sent from my Nexus⁴
Haven't use Greenify, although I heard really good comments on it.

Tried that. The WakelockDetecter just shows 100% awake without showing a particular app that caused it...
You should look for kernel wakelocks, not apps.
 

511pf

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2011
81
19
All,

Just wanted to chime in with some additional results. I have an HTC First with Facebook Home turned off, making it a mostly stock Android 4.1.2 device. I have the same Wakelock issue that's been described here, where my phone was awake approximately 30% of the time while on Wifi and not touching it. I would lose 3% to 4% per hour while using the phone semi-regularly. I used BBS and Wakelock detector and the biggest hit was from the NLPDataCollector or NLP Collector (I forget the actual name).

I am not signed in to Google+. I disabled the option to Notify When an Open network is Available and Automatically connect to AT&T Wifi, but this made no difference.

Disabling Wifi and Location Access absolutely fixed the issue. However, this broke some Google Now functionality, so I was looking for another way. My next test was re-enable Wifi and Location Access and disable Location Reporting only, which let the phone deep sleep approximately 95% of the time on Wifi (from 70% prior to that). Google Now works fine. I'm still testing the battery life change, but so far it looks like I'm in the 1% to 2% per hour range, which would probably double my battery life.

Summary: Wifi and Location = On. Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On. Battery life (so far) in the 1% to 2% per hour range.

I will update this post with further results as I have them.

Edited: My phone has no 4.3 update or ROMs and probably never will, so I've got to work with the platform I've got.

-----

Just following up here. I'm losing less than 1% per hour after turning off Location Reporting, as noted above. The phone is deep sleeping 90% of the time, but this is during the workday, where it's picking up mail/calendars up from multiple accounts.

10 1/2 hours of fairly light use today and I've lost about 1.7% per hour total. Deep sleep time = 87% and awake time = 13%. This is a major improvement over the previous results.
 
Last edited:

Galaxo60

Senior Member
May 25, 2012
2,315
872
All,

Just wanted to chime in with some additional results. I have an HTC First with Facebook Home turned off, making it a mostly stock Android 4.1.2 device. I have the same Wakelock issue that's been described here, where my phone was awake approximately 30% of the time while on Wifi and not touching it. I would lose 3% to 4% per hour while using the phone semi-regularly. I used BBS and Wakelock detector and the biggest hit was from the NLPDataCollector or NLP Collector (I forget the actual name).

I am not signed in to Google+. I disabled the option to Notify When an Open network is Available and Automatically connect to AT&T Wifi, but this made no difference.

Disabling Wifi and Location Access absolutely fixed the issue. However, this broke some Google Now functionality, so I was looking for another way. My next test was re-enable Wifi and Location Access and disable Location Reporting only, which let the phone deep sleep approximately 95% of the time on Wifi (from 70% prior to that). I'm still testing the battery life change, but so far it looks like I'm in the 1% to 2% per hour range, which would probably double my battery life.

Summary: Wifi and Location = On. Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On. Battery life (so far) in the 1% to 2% per hour range.

I will update this post with further results as I have them.

-----

Just following up here. I'm losing less than 1% per hour after turning off Location Reporting, as noted above. The phone is deep sleeping 90% of the time, but this is during the workday, where it's picking up mail/calendars up from multiple accounts.

Added your post to OP.

:)
 

thegios

Senior Member
Mar 16, 2006
2,550
224
50
Latina
So where can we find thoese 2 things: Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On on the nexus?

There two places where locations can be configured

ANDROID SETTINGS > ACCESS TO MY POSITION: this controls location from 3rd party apps, leave always on
If this is on you have two options:
1) GPS
2)wifi and location

1) is controlled also by the GPS switch on the power control widget
2) can be left on as suggested

MAPS > SETTINGS > Google geolocalisatio: this controls location from google apps, leave always on
If this is on you have two options:
1) location reporting: leave this off as it seems the one causing battery drain, this reports your location to google at give time intervals
2) location history: up to you if you wnat to leave this on
 

Largamelion

Senior Member
Sep 10, 2010
552
240
I now have everything enabled in 'Location access' (both GPS and Wi-Fi & mobile network location) but completely disabled 'Access location' in Google Settings (it 's under 'Location'). I have always had 'Location reporting' turned off, so that 's not enough.

With the above configuration, all apps can access my location except Google apps but the drain of Google Services is gone. Of course there 's no way to use Maps with this configuration but that isn't really an issue for me as I barely use it. At least my weather widgets are now displaying the correct location again.
 

thegios

Senior Member
Mar 16, 2006
2,550
224
50
Latina
I now have everything enabled in 'Location access' (both GPS and Wi-Fi & mobile network location) but completely disabled 'Access location' in Google Settings (it 's under 'Location'). I have always had 'Location reporting' turned off, so that 's not enough.

With the above configuration, all apps can access my location except Google apps but the drain of Google Services is gone. Of course there 's no way to use Maps with this configuration but that isn't really an issue for me as I barely use it. At least my weather widgets are now displaying the correct location again.

are u saying that having google location on but location reporting and location history off is not enough and that we have to have the whole google location off?
 

Galaxo60

Senior Member
May 25, 2012
2,315
872
I now have everything enabled in 'Location access' (both GPS and Wi-Fi & mobile network location) but completely disabled 'Access location' in Google Settings (it 's under 'Location'). I have always had 'Location reporting' turned off, so that 's not enough.

With the above configuration, all apps can access my location except Google apps but the drain of Google Services is gone. Of course there 's no way to use Maps with this configuration but that isn't really an issue for me as I barely use it. At least my weather widgets are now displaying the correct location again.

are u saying that having google location on but location reporting and location history off is not enough and that we have to have the whole google location off?

I can only speak for myself, but yes that is my experience.
Will do more testing in the next couple of days.

Interesting finding, under Google settings it clearly states that the location is used by "Google Apps", so is pretty logical that the location just affect those apps. For every app, I think we would have to disable the location settings on general phone settings.

So where can we find thoese 2 things: Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On on the nexus?

This:

There two places where locations can be configured

ANDROID SETTINGS > ACCESS TO MY POSITION: this controls location from 3rd party apps, leave always on
If this is on you have two options:
1) GPS
2)wifi and location

1) is controlled also by the GPS switch on the power control widget
2) can be left on as suggested

MAPS > SETTINGS > Google geolocalisatio: this controls location from google apps, leave always on
If this is on you have two options:
1) location reporting: leave this off as it seems the one causing battery drain, this reports your location to google at give time intervals
2) location history: up to you if you wnat to leave this on
 

marcusdav

Member
Dec 3, 2010
20
2
I have been having this battery drain for the last couple of days under google services, i read the first post in this thread and thought ok, easy, just switch off wifi & mobile network location. I looked under location in the settings and guess what, the option isnt there any more??????

Am i just missing something, im sure it used to be there!!
 

Galaxo60

Senior Member
May 25, 2012
2,315
872
I have been having this battery drain for the last couple of days under google services, i read the first post in this thread and thought ok, easy, just switch off wifi & mobile network location. I looked under location in the settings and guess what, the option isnt there any more??????

Am i just missing something, im sure it used to be there!!

Can you post a screenshot?. Are you using a Nexus 4?.

It should be there, but also, some people is reporting that disabling reporting location makes the trick. Read the last update, very useful post.

:fingers-crossed:
 

marcusdav

Member
Dec 3, 2010
20
2
Can you post a screenshot?. Are you using a Nexus 4?.

It should be there, but also, some people is reporting that disabling reporting location makes the trick. Read the last update, very useful post.

:fingers-crossed:

Sorry, ive just noticed this thread is in the nexus 4 section, I have a htc one.

I have attached a screenshot

Also, it seems that in the battery usage in the android settings is reporting that the usage of google services has dropped from 99% to 23% since switching all location stuff off whereas battery doctor is still reporting 99%
 
Last edited:

henihazbay

Senior Member
All,

Just wanted to chime in with some additional results. I have an HTC First with Facebook Home turned off, making it a mostly stock Android 4.1.2 device. I have the same Wakelock issue that's been described here, where my phone was awake approximately 30% of the time while on Wifi and not touching it. I would lose 3% to 4% per hour while using the phone semi-regularly. I used BBS and Wakelock detector and the biggest hit was from the NLPDataCollector or NLP Collector (I forget the actual name).

I am not signed in to Google+. I disabled the option to Notify When an Open network is Available and Automatically connect to AT&T Wifi, but this made no difference.

Disabling Wifi and Location Access absolutely fixed the issue. However, this broke some Google Now functionality, so I was looking for another way. My next test was re-enable Wifi and Location Access and disable Location Reporting only, which let the phone deep sleep approximately 95% of the time on Wifi (from 70% prior to that). Google Now works fine. I'm still testing the battery life change, but so far it looks like I'm in the 1% to 2% per hour range, which would probably double my battery life.

Summary: Wifi and Location = On. Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On. Battery life (so far) in the 1% to 2% per hour range.

I will update this post with further results as I have them.

Edited: My phone has no 4.3 update or ROMs and probably never will, so I've got to work with the platform I've got.

-----

Just following up here. I'm losing less than 1% per hour after turning off Location Reporting, as noted above. The phone is deep sleeping 90% of the time, but this is during the workday, where it's picking up mail/calendars up from multiple accounts.

10 1/2 hours of fairly light use today and I've lost about 1.7% per hour total. Deep sleep time = 87% and awake time = 13%. This is a major improvement over the previous results.

Hi there
Can you give an update on your settings and battery usage?

Thanks.
 

511pf

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2011
81
19
Hi there
Can you give an update on your settings and battery usage?

Thanks.

Original post here.

Yes. I still have Location Reporting (only) off and all other settings as described in the original post, and I lose about 0.8% per hour when idle, screen off and on WiFi. I generally get 48 hours-plus of usage out of the phone, which is excellent. I haven't done extensive idle testing on LTE yet, but as I indicated in the original post, I had serious issues with battery drain on WiFi. (I'm on Wifi at home and work, so that was the most important scenario for my purposes). Again, this is an HTC First, so my solution may not work for everyone. My battery life is now better than it was on my iPhone, at least when connected to WiFi.

Hope that helps.
 

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  • 96
    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:

    = = = = = = =

    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

    = = = = = = =

    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.

    = = = = = = =

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

    = = = = = = =

    Credits
    @elpino.rv
    @Calebz
    @agriff
    @511pf
    6
    All,

    Just wanted to chime in with some additional results. I have an HTC First with Facebook Home turned off, making it a mostly stock Android 4.1.2 device. I have the same Wakelock issue that's been described here, where my phone was awake approximately 30% of the time while on Wifi and not touching it. I would lose 3% to 4% per hour while using the phone semi-regularly. I used BBS and Wakelock detector and the biggest hit was from the NLPDataCollector or NLP Collector (I forget the actual name).

    I am not signed in to Google+. I disabled the option to Notify When an Open network is Available and Automatically connect to AT&T Wifi, but this made no difference.

    Disabling Wifi and Location Access absolutely fixed the issue. However, this broke some Google Now functionality, so I was looking for another way. My next test was re-enable Wifi and Location Access and disable Location Reporting only, which let the phone deep sleep approximately 95% of the time on Wifi (from 70% prior to that). Google Now works fine. I'm still testing the battery life change, but so far it looks like I'm in the 1% to 2% per hour range, which would probably double my battery life.

    Summary: Wifi and Location = On. Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On. Battery life (so far) in the 1% to 2% per hour range.

    I will update this post with further results as I have them.

    Edited: My phone has no 4.3 update or ROMs and probably never will, so I've got to work with the platform I've got.

    -----

    Just following up here. I'm losing less than 1% per hour after turning off Location Reporting, as noted above. The phone is deep sleeping 90% of the time, but this is during the workday, where it's picking up mail/calendars up from multiple accounts.

    10 1/2 hours of fairly light use today and I've lost about 1.7% per hour total. Deep sleep time = 87% and awake time = 13%. This is a major improvement over the previous results.
    3
    So where can we find thoese 2 things: Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On on the nexus?

    There two places where locations can be configured

    ANDROID SETTINGS > ACCESS TO MY POSITION: this controls location from 3rd party apps, leave always on
    If this is on you have two options:
    1) GPS
    2)wifi and location

    1) is controlled also by the GPS switch on the power control widget
    2) can be left on as suggested

    MAPS > SETTINGS > Google geolocalisatio: this controls location from google apps, leave always on
    If this is on you have two options:
    1) location reporting: leave this off as it seems the one causing battery drain, this reports your location to google at give time intervals
    2) location history: up to you if you wnat to leave this on
    3
    Man, you can't be normal quoting the topic-initial message long as hell, just to give your 1 sentence credit.. :D can't believe my eyes..
    Just saw this thread today and had exactly the same reaction when I saw that post. I was just about to reply that it's not necessary to quote the ENTIRE OP post....then I saw your message. Cracked me right up.

    ---------- Post added at 07:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:50 PM ----------

    For anyone who's still having massive battery drain problems due to your phone not sleeping when the screen is off, here is what I did to almost eliminate the problem:

    1. Disable the Wi-Fi & Mobile Network Location (as per OP)
    2. Download the app called "Disable Service" from Google Play and in the system apps under Google Play Services AND Google Services Framework, tick the checkbox for SystemUpdateService (REQUIRES ROOT)
    3. In Settings>Wi-Fi use the menu button (hard key or 3 dots) to access the Advanced options. Then UNCHECK the option which reads Scanning Always Available
    4. Freeze (REQUIRES ROOT) or Disable the apps called Google and Google Search with the obvious consequence that you won't be able to use Google Search (which I never use...I simply fire up my browser if I ever need to search)

    the ideas are not my own. I simply used a combination of solutions that I found after days of scouring the internet and XDA. I three apps to see how the battery was performing in terms of app utilization and wakelocks:

    1. Better Battery Stats (it's a paid app but well worth the price) as it shows the source of wakeslocks and other great info
    2. CPU Spy (tells how long the phone is in various states of CPU mode including sleep)
    3. GSAM Battery Monitor (which offers much deeper insight into app use of the battery than the Settings>Battery tool)

    Hope this helps someone.
    2
    I now have everything enabled in 'Location access' (both GPS and Wi-Fi & mobile network location) but completely disabled 'Access location' in Google Settings (it 's under 'Location'). I have always had 'Location reporting' turned off, so that 's not enough.

    With the above configuration, all apps can access my location except Google apps but the drain of Google Services is gone. Of course there 's no way to use Maps with this configuration but that isn't really an issue for me as I barely use it. At least my weather widgets are now displaying the correct location again.

    are u saying that having google location on but location reporting and location history off is not enough and that we have to have the whole google location off?

    I can only speak for myself, but yes that is my experience.
    Will do more testing in the next couple of days.

    Interesting finding, under Google settings it clearly states that the location is used by "Google Apps", so is pretty logical that the location just affect those apps. For every app, I think we would have to disable the location settings on general phone settings.

    So where can we find thoese 2 things: Location Reporting = Off. Location History = On on the nexus?

    This:

    There two places where locations can be configured

    ANDROID SETTINGS > ACCESS TO MY POSITION: this controls location from 3rd party apps, leave always on
    If this is on you have two options:
    1) GPS
    2)wifi and location

    1) is controlled also by the GPS switch on the power control widget
    2) can be left on as suggested

    MAPS > SETTINGS > Google geolocalisatio: this controls location from google apps, leave always on
    If this is on you have two options:
    1) location reporting: leave this off as it seems the one causing battery drain, this reports your location to google at give time intervals
    2) location history: up to you if you wnat to leave this on