Android Marshmallow is one of the most sought-after mobile operating systems thanks to the fact that it comes with lots of goodies and improvements from last year’s Android Lollipop as well as fixes to bugs discovered in the previous OS.
Other than coming in with new features and bug fixes, the new OS also comes with problems associated to battery life. Not just Samsung Galaxy S5, Galaxy Note 4, or LG G3 – but this battery life problem seems to be affecting quite a number of devices out there right after the Android Marshmallow update.
Should you update to Android Marshmallow?
With the supposed battery issues affecting devices after updating to the latest Marshmallow OS, many users will be wondering whether to upgrade to the new OS or stick with the current and trusted OS. Well, one thing for sure is that these battery life problems aren’t affecting all handsets. To be specific, not all Samsung Galaxy S5, Note 4, LG G3, or LG G4 units, for example, are suffering from poor battery life after updating to Android Marshmallow. As a result, there is no need to be afraid of the new update.
New software updates are usually buggy and erroneous, something that can be said of the Marshmallow update. However, with Google coming in with monthly updates for Android devices, it is obvious that most, if not all, of these problems, will be ironed out with time, leaving you with a near perfect Android Marshmallow-powered phone.
How to fix poor battery life after Marshmallow update
As for those who have already updated to Android Marshmallow and are having issues with their phones’ battery life, we have lined up some possible fixes to this problem. Remember that these fixes will work out for all Android devices.
First and foremost, try finding out what’s really working out your battery. This can be done through the phone’s Settings and select Battery or Power option, depending on the device you are using. You will be able to see the battery usage of all apps and services broken down so that you can tell which is consuming too much power. From here, you can choose to remove it completely from your phone. If nothing changes, consider reinstalling it.
Another thing that might be a culprit in terms of battery usage is constant Wi-Fi scanning. Many users prefer using Wi-Fi to mobile data. They will thus leave the phone’s Wi-Fi turned on just in case a free Wi-Fi hotspot is discovered somewhere along the way. This means that the phone is constantly scanning for a free Wi-Fi hotspot to connect to, something that is proving to be a huge battery hog. Make sure you keep Wi-Fi turned off when not in use as this will help save your phone’s battery life. The story is the same when it comes to other features such as mobile data, GPS, Bluetooth and so on.
If none of these works, you may have to try a factory reset of your phone. But before doing this, wiping the phone’s cache might solve the problem. This can be done by restarting the phone via recovery mode by pressing up/down volume rocker plus the power button at the same time. Once in the recovery mode, choose the option to clear the cache. If this doesn’t work, repeat the same process, but this time, choose the option to factory reset the phone. Make sure you have backed up your data as this option will wipe everything stored on the phone’s memory.
If none of these works, you may have to sit back and wait for a software-based fix to come from Google. Android Marshmallow has already version 6.0.1 and while Google is busy working on the successor to this OS – Android N – there is no word on whether Android Marshmallow will get an improved version.