google play services

amirage

Senior Member
Sep 1, 2010
1,342
255
103
Dubai
Hi,

How in the heck do I get rid of the google play services drain...The dang thing is the highest on my device followed by android system...Please help
 

quangtran1

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2011
621
274
0
Hi,

How in the heck do I get rid of the google play services drain...The dang thing is the highest on my device followed by android system...Please help
It's not the play services process that does the draining, but another app that uses the service. It's simply a vehicle. With well behaved apps, you'd rarely see play services in your battery hog list. You can begin by disabling Play Store's app auto-updating.
 
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amirage

Senior Member
Sep 1, 2010
1,342
255
103
Dubai
It's not the play services process that does the draining, but another app that uses the service. It's simply a vehicle. With well behaved apps, you'd rarely see play services in your battery hog list. You can begin by disabling Play Store's app auto-updating.
I have done it but I'm really not so hopeful. I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature. Apparently google play services is high on the list of activities that use the location services.

I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter...The phone was setup from scratch and all the apps were downloaded fresh... Besides, I don't have that many apps either just the usual gmail, google maps, chrome, Facebook, WhatsApp ...I have disabled movies, games, play stand and other rubbish apps...Can u please share your experience with the battery? What's ur setup? Do you have the google now feature enabled? How do I disable it?
 

quangtran1

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2011
621
274
0
I have done it but I'm really not so hopeful. I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature. Apparently google play services is high on the list of activities that use the location services.

I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter...The phone was setup from scratch and all the apps were downloaded fresh... Besides, I don't have that many apps either just the usual gmail, google maps, chrome, Facebook, WhatsApp ...I have disabled movies, games, play stand and other rubbish apps...Can u please share your experience with the battery? What's ur setup? Do you have the google now feature enabled? How do I disable it?
First off, I use the Dirty Unicorns ROM, but it shouldn't make a difference. Play services never bothered stock ROM either. I have 156 apps. Location, Bluetooth, WiFi are all enabled. I have 7 smart watches that are configured as well. NFC is the only sensor I disabled. I sync 4 mail accounts, 7 Google calendars, along with your FB, Twitter, Instagram crap. OK Google is always on. You can see in the screenshot that Play Services isn't on my list. I even use Gravity Screen that utilizes the gyro sensor instead of the built-in gestures. I like it better. I admit, my SOT is only about 4 hours a day on average, but my battery is off the charger for 26 hours. I do freeze marketing apps that came with the Pixel, unneeded keyboards, Verizon stuff (but leave the My Verizon app on though). I charge the phone in the car at 6:30am daily as I drive an hour and 20 minutes to work. If I were you, first, I would delete app cache in Settings/Storage. Then I would freeze a few apps at a time and narrow down your potential battery hogs.http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d32d248c9c/Screenshot_20170104-115902.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33248b82f/Screenshot_20170104-120311.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33514cbcb/Screenshot_20170104-120356.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d336274a12/Screenshot_20170104-120423.png?
 
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amirage

Senior Member
Sep 1, 2010
1,342
255
103
Dubai
First off, I use the Dirty Unicorns ROM, but it shouldn't make a difference. Play services never bothered stock ROM either. I have 156 apps. Location, Bluetooth, WiFi are all enabled. I have 7 smart watches that are configured as well. NFC is the only sensor I disabled. I sync 4 mail accounts, 7 Google calendars, along with your FB, Twitter, Instagram crap. OK Google is always on. You can see in the screenshot that Play Services isn't on my list. I even use Gravity Screen that utilizes the gyro sensor instead of the built-in gestures. I like it better. I admit, my SOT is only about 4 hours a day on average, but my battery is off the charger for 26 hours. I do freeze marketing apps that came with the Pixel, unneeded keyboards, Verizon stuff (but leave the My Verizon app on though). I charge the phone in the car at 6:30am daily as I drive an hour and 20 minutes to work. If I were you, first, I would delete app cache in Settings/Storage. Then I would freeze a few apps at a time and narrow down your potential battery hogs.http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d32d248c9c/Screenshot_20170104-115902.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33248b82f/Screenshot_20170104-120311.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d33514cbcb/Screenshot_20170104-120356.png?
http://cloud.tapatalk.com/s/586d336274a12/Screenshot_20170104-120423.png?
Thanks for the info...woah...you have a whole of lot of things going for and I must say you are really using your phone's potential...The only issue with the suggestion is that I need to unlock the boot loader and root the device..it's so very new that I'd like to have it running like this for a while till I get bored of the stock experience...but yes I'll surely try out all the suggestions u have made once I root.:laugh::laugh::laugh:
 

alluringreality

Senior Member
Apr 17, 2011
174
60
0
I have a regular Pixel, and Google Play Services is constantly at the top of my list. I'm often around a computer, so my phone primarily spends its time in standby or being used for calls. Even the times when I use the screen for hours, Google Play Services still reports as using far more battery than anything else.

EDIT: After using Tasker and Toggle Network Type 5.0 to switch to WCDMA only when my phone is in standby, Phone idle has went to the top of the list and Google Play services usage has went down significantly to second on the list.

I don't know if its the auto-update feature that's hogging the battery or if it has anything to do with the google now feature.
I have shut off Google Play auto-update and the Google feed. It's possible auto-update could be more aggressive than it used to be, but my previous phone with a smaller battery still could use about 1/3 the standby battery percentage as the Pixel, and I had auto-update over wifi on with that phone. I can't say how much affect turning off the feed had on battery life, but Google Play Services remains at the top of my list with it off. I haven't gotten around to seeing if something like Wakelock Detector could give me some clue about what is going on with my phone, but with auto-update and the Google feed off my battery usage is constantly being reported as primarily coming from Google Play Services.

I'm really not in a mood to factory reset but then I'm not hopeful that this would really solve the matter.
The only suggestion so far that I haven't tested would be the idea about installed apps using Google Play Services, because a reset alone certainly did not solve my battery usage when I reinstalled my usual apps. It looks like I put a few apps on the new phone that I hadn't used on my previous phone, and I never tracked the battery usage without additional apps installed. I may try resetting and see if I get different behavior by installing apps over time, so I can check for changes in Google Play Services usage as apps are added.
 
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quangtran1

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2011
621
274
0
Thanks for the info...woah...you have a whole of lot of things going for and I must say you are really using your phone's potential...The only issue with the suggestion is that I need to unlock the boot loader and root the device..it's so very new that I'd like to have it running like this for a while till I get bored of the stock experience...but yes I'll surely try out all the suggestions u have made once I root.:laugh::laugh::laugh:
Some suggestions provided here.
https://www.androidpit.com/google-play-services-what-is-it-and-what-is-it-for
 

alluringreality

Senior Member
Apr 17, 2011
174
60
0
The disable Auto-sync data suggestion from the link might save some battery, yet I've always turned that off, so it's not the cause of the issues on my phone. My prior Android phone had a short issue with Google Play burning through battery that was eventually fixed by an update, but I'm not sure what good it would do to uninstall Google Play Services updates, since all three OS versions have had the same issue. It's just silly that Google Play Services reports using more power than the screen, which is probably why I thought the iPhone 7 got a lot better battery life than the Pixel. Unfortunately Apple only provides Mac users a way to know notifications have been received without touching an iPhone, so hopefully I can eventually track down the Android battery usage to an app or some other similarly easy to correct problem. At this point I only have 5 apps from the Play Store installed, although it looks like safe mode also shuts off some of the default apps like Keep.
 
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alluringreality

Senior Member
Apr 17, 2011
174
60
0
My phone reported about 200 mAh from Google Services while in safe mode over the past day, which is also labeled Google Play services when not in safe mode. The Pixel was mostly just idle with the screen off and not doing anything, so that may be around the minimum usage per day I can reasonably expect from Google Play services on the standard Pixel.

Edit: I flashed the January update and allowed the wipe. After shutting off most of the options for Google, like Google Assistant, the phone reported nearly 200 mAh from Google Play services in a day, so that seems around the minimum I can get by using the options the OS provides.
 
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quangtran1

Senior Member
Aug 27, 2011
621
274
0
I seriously think it's a rogue app...I did a factory reset and so far it's been good.
Good for you. Play services doesn't drain battery on its own. Some app has to misbehave or demand exclusive control of the play store app to cause play services to run wild.