9.2 mapping apps causing crazy battery drain

[stevemiller]

at first i thought it was just waze. i drove in to work, killed the app from the task switcher, but it it continued to drain battery throughout the day to the point where it was in the red by the drive home. closed everything in the app switcher, plugged it in, and waze battery usage continued to climb. reset the phone. waze usage continued climbing. eventually i simply deleted waze.

used google maps instead for a couple days without issue, but barely a week later the same thing has started happening with google maps. which leads me to believe this is an OS issue with background processes not properly getting killed.

has anyone else encountered this? what am i to do? do i have to delete and reinstall mapping apps each time i use them?

ps. before anyone suggests apple maps, a) thats a non-solution to say that we can't choose 3rd party apps anymore, and b) apple maps has broken bluetooth support with my car, and i find the traffic information pretty terrible compared to others.

 

[rasputinj]

I felt I had issues with Google maps draining my battery so I uninstalled it. So far I think my battery is better.

 

[stevemiller]

I felt I had issues with Google maps draining my battery so I uninstalled it. So far I think my battery is better.

Agreed that's what I've had to do as well. But it's happening with multiple apps to the point that it feels like an OS issue. Im probably going to try a fresh install, but I seem to run into these issues that need resets and reinstalls frequently enough that I feel like I'm managing my phone more than using it

 

[Yun0]

maps, gps etc drain battery, nothing new, dont blame it on 9.2..really now?

think about it, features & hardware of *ALL* devices have evolved much faster than battery technology has in the last..decade(?)..we need a break through, thats affordable, in battery technology, & if u been into the news over the last 2 years, we're close to it..

till then, deal with it. like we all are.

 

[stevemiller]

maps, gps etc drain battery, nothing new, dont blame it on 9.2..really now?

think about it, features & hardware of *ALL* devices have evolved much faster than battery technology has in the last..decade(?)..we need a break through, thats affordable, in battery technology, & if u been into the news over the last 2 years, we're close to it..

till then, deal with it. like we all are.

You didn't read my post. The gps app wasn't being used. It wasn't even open in the background. This is not normal behaviour. It's a bug.

 

[Aston441]

Is your GPS icon on, in the status bar, a lot?

Have you gone through all of your privacy>location services settings?

My GPS icon is hardly ever on since I cut off access to the chip for most of the stupid apps that have no business using it most of the time anyway, and battery life improved considerably.

 

[stevemiller]

Is your GPS icon on, in the status bar, a lot?

Have you gone through all of your privacy>location services settings?

My GPS icon is hardly ever on since I cut off access to the chip for most of the stupid apps that have no business using it most of the time anyway, and battery life improved considerably.

Yep, thanks I have. Problem with that is maps do need access by their nature. And this issue is causing them to never stop running, regardless of changing settings, force quitting, rebooting etc. Uninstalling entirely seems to be the only solution. And it's definite the mapping apps that are the issue. Battery info shows them climbing in usage even on a fresh boot with them fully closed.

 

[Aston441]

Yep, thanks I have. Problem with that is maps do need access by their nature. And this issue is causing them to never stop running, regardless of changing settings, force quitting, rebooting etc. Uninstalling entirely seems to be the only solution. And it's definite the mapping apps that are the issue. Battery info shows them climbing in usage even on a fresh boot with them fully closed.

Neither Google Maps nor Here Maps ever touch the GPS unless I use them. You know about the color coding of the GPS icon in Location settings, yes?

 

[C DM]

Yep, thanks I have. Problem with that is maps do need access by their nature. And this issue is causing them to never stop running, regardless of changing settings, force quitting, rebooting etc. Uninstalling entirely seems to be the only solution. And it's definite the mapping apps that are the issue. Battery info shows them climbing in usage even on a fresh boot with them fully closed.

Sounds like something is wrong in that situation as not only should that not be happening it's also not something that seems to be happening for most.

 

[stevemiller]

Sounds like something is wrong in that situation as not only should that not be happening it's also not something that seems to be happening for most.

Agreed. It is abnormal as it was never previously an issue and I've used mapping apps plenty in the past without any problems. It seems like a bug that has recently cropped up on my system.

As I said. The app is killed from the app switcher, and even a fresh boot does not stop the battery section in settings from reporting sustained heavy usage by the specific mapping app (no gps indicator in the status bar though - whatever it is is stealthy to everything but the app usage list). The literal only fix is to delete and reinstall. But it then happens all over again a few days later.

As fate would have it, I was hit by a taxi the other day (unrelated to this mapping issue, I was a pedestrian and the other guy was at fault) but now I have a good week or two of mandatory down time that I guess I can try my luck with a restore as new. I'm betting I'll be back with fresh issues of iCloud or iMessage not authenticating though

Wish me luck, and that my foot doesn't fall off (it's seen better days..)

 

[gaanee]

Waze app forces to always use location service not just while using the app and also check your background app refresh.

at first i thought it was just waze. i drove in to work, killed the app from the task switcher, but it it continued to drain battery throughout the day to the point where it was in the red by the drive home. closed everything in the app switcher, plugged it in, and waze battery usage continued to climb. reset the phone. waze usage continued climbing. eventually i simply deleted waze.

used google maps instead for a couple days without issue, but barely a week later the same thing has started happening with google maps. which leads me to believe this is an OS issue with background processes not properly getting killed.

has anyone else encountered this? what am i to do? do i have to delete and reinstall mapping apps each time i use them?

ps. before anyone suggests apple maps, a) thats a non-solution to say that we can't choose 3rd party apps anymore, and b) apple maps has broken bluetooth support with my car, and i find the traffic information pretty terrible compared to others.

 

[stevemiller]

Waze app forces to always use location service not just while using the app and also check your background app refresh.

Background app refresh has always been off since they introduced the feature! I wasted no time in doing that! I can live with waiting 2s for my Twitter feed to refresh when I open the app!

Although, even if this was an expected consequence of that feature I'd be calling out apple on it. If their background features totally drain a phone that has been sitting screen off / app closed during an 8h workday, I'd say it's not a very well thought out feature.

But I don't think it's expected behaviour. Most likely a big or glitch. I just hope they can rein some of these in as I'm encountering a lot!

 

[Aston441]

OUCH OP! Glad you're still with us!

But yes, that's the bright side, now you can declutter all your devices!!!

 

[stevemiller]

OUCH OP! Glad you're still with us!

But yes, that's the bright side, now you can declutter all your devices!!!

Thanks