Xperia Z extreme battery drain by Google Services

[jurchiks]

Hey, I just got a really weird problem with my Xperia Z (C6603) phone. I was sleeping when I heard my phone give off a notification sound (sound was turned off, no alarm). When I tried to check it, I couldn't turn it off; holding the power button for a second or two made one of the LEDs on the front blink red 3 times, but that was it. I also could not turn it off and on again.

I googled around and found out that there have been many people with the same or a very similar problem, but they solved it by either upgrading the phone (already done a month or so ago, no new updates so far) or hard reboot (power+volume buttons for 10 seconds, didn't do anything for me).

I plugged the phone into the PC via the USB cord, and it started showing some activity. After a few minutes I was able to turn it on, but the weird thing is, it showed me the battery was practically empty, but when I turned the phone off 9 hours earlier, the battery was at 50% and there were no applications running and mobila data was turned off to avoid receiving notifications.

Any idea what that was and if it's going to happen again? Because that was a very bad surprise. I have only had this phone since December, this is way too soon for a phone to break down, especially one that cost me ~440 euro.

[TonyMeo]

Hi, I have had the issue with my Xperia Z  turning itself off and only powering up by plugging into a USB or Charger.

I have tried the hard reset and downloading software via the Sony PC Companion  with no improvement.

I have had the phone since March 2013 so I am feeling a year is as long as a battery will lasts in this device?!

I have called customer services and they are requesting me to return the phone to be serviced.

What do I do without a phone in the meantime?

I will not be buying another Sony Phone that is for sure..

[TonyMeo]

Dear Customer services please read my message before sending an automated reply. It is not helpful

[Sam]

@jurchiks - Please try running a software repair as even though you have the latest version you can actually reload this on the phone to resolve an errors with the system:

1. Download the PC Companion software from http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/tools/pc-companion/
and install it on your PC.
2. Install and open PC Companion then select Support Zone.
3. Phone Software Update.
4. Start.
5. Repair Phone
6. Continue
7. Accept data removal
8. Next
9. Wait for prepare
10. Select Phone
11. Follow the connection steps

@MEOTONY - Any questions regarding warranty/service will need to be addressed by your local  Xperia Care team sorry.

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[jurchiks]

Haven't tried it yet, will try if this happens again (so far this has been the only time).

But I have new information regarding the battery drain issue. Yesterday evening, when I last checked my phone, the battery was at 99%. This morning it was at 63%. I checked battery usage, and it shows that "Google Services" has used 92% of battery. The rest was spent like this: 3% on "cell standby", 3% on "Phone idle", and 2% on "Screen".

Obviously, there is a glitch in one of the "Google Services" apps.

[Sam · Accepted solution]

@jurchiks Sony Mobile Communications would like to provide an update in response to the recently highlighted concerns regarding excessive battery drain on some Xperia models running android 4.4.1 or higher. We have identified that the root cause of this is related to the latest version of Google Play Services (4.4.52).

Until a new version of Google Play Services is provided by Google we urge users to either uninstall the latest update of Google Play Services (might limit use of Google Services like Youtube) or go to Settings > Google (accounts) > Ads > Tick the box for Opt out of interest-based ads, and also disable back up of your data by going to Settings > Backup & reset (Personal) > uncheck the box for “Back up my data”.

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[jurchiks]

Uninstalled it, thanks.

[Arnavzz]

A new version of Google Play services is out, 5+, still this battery drain is occuring on my Xperia ZR. Sony needs to rollout a fix for this soon. This has made my phone pretty much useless.

[SeVeMaS]

I confirm, the battery drain stills there after google services update. I tried to uninstall the updates and reinstall it. the only thing that works a little better is turn off the GPS and desactivate any demand of location services.

If you install from play store GServiceFix it will help in 3 simple steps to desactivate all those location services.

cheers

Oh, thanks SONY for your useless solutions that makes your costumers regreting the "Mooving to Xperia". Even when you go to the stores they propose you 1st Apple productus or Samsung, even Hawei commes 1st than Sony

Thanks to take "years" to "solve" some problems (like the wifi problem on Xperia S in some country's that still unsolved after 1 year already)

[moonsand]

Just disable Location from Qucik Settlings and problem solved. Enable this whenever things like google maps etc is needed. I did this and battery drain issue is taken care of.