Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Jun 11, 2009
11,488
5,413
How are you having zero root options? What carrier are you on? Samsung are easily rooted. I love how people love to blame Samsung when it's the carriers fault for a phone being locked down.

I'm on AT&T. Samsung released their KitKat update with a locked and new bootloader. There is NO root available for the AT&T Note 3 on KitKat, nothing, nada, zilch. But you are right, it may be AT&T's fault since I believe the S5 on KitKat also cannot be rooted.

Don't get me wrong, I agree it might be a bit unfair to complain about a "hack" like rooting. But at the same time it's important to me as a consumer and will make me put my money somewhere else. It's kind of funny that the only reason I need to root is to fix some of the issues I have with Android OS.
 

RMXO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 1, 2009
875
41
I'm on AT&T. Samsung released their KitKat update with a locked and new bootloader. There is NO root available for the AT&T Note 3 on KitKat, nothing, nada, zilch. But you are right, it may be AT&T's fault since I believe the S5 on KitKat also cannot be rooted.

Don't get me wrong, I agree it might be a bit unfair to complain about a "hack" like rooting. But at the same time it's important to me as a consumer and will make me put my money somewhere else. It's kind of funny that the only reason I need to root is to fix some of the issues I have with Android OS.

Fair enough. I'm sure there will be one soon for AT&T. I was once on AT&T and moments like this made me glad I switched. I'm not sure what your situation is on carrier switching and not sure if you've considered or not. But, this might be a good time. I honestly doubt it will ever get any easier as they once were many years ago.

TMO Samsung are very rootable and usually gets rooted after the International version gets there's.
 

spinedoc77

macrumors G4
Jun 11, 2009
11,488
5,413
Fair enough. I'm sure there will be one soon for AT&T. I was once on AT&T and moments like this made me glad I switched. I'm not sure what your situation is on carrier switching and not sure if you've considered or not. But, this might be a good time. I honestly doubt it will ever get any easier as they once were many years ago.

TMO Samsung are very rootable and usually gets rooted after the International version gets there's.

I regret not buying the Tmo version, I got it off swappa so that was a possibility. At the same time the proximity sensor failed and AT&T replaced it under warranty no questions asked, but they gave me a KitKat updated one.

I like AT&T as a carrier quite a bit. I would never touch Sprint again, I was on them for over 10 years. Tmobile has kind of spotty reception where I live and work, and in between. Verizon is good, but I hate their company and policies. I think AT&T's pricing and value for the money has never been higher though so I'm stuck here for a while.
 

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
I am with you and so over the Daily Adventures with my Note 3 reality show I am on.

I had the overheating issue too this week. One day battery is amazing, next day it drains like crazy with same amount of use and no new app additions or changes.

I am on the NEXT program and guess I am stuck in the meantime.

I am contemplating buying all my phones off contract going forward if at all possible and ponying up the cash so I can have more flexibility.
 

Fanaticalism

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2013
908
158
I am with you and so over the Daily Adventures with my Note 3 reality show I am on.

I had the overheating issue too this week. One day battery is amazing, next day it drains like crazy with same amount of use and no new app additions or changes.

I am on the NEXT program and guess I am stuck in the meantime.

I am contemplating buying all my phones off contract going forward if at all possible and ponying up the cash so I can have more flexibility.

I had to turn off Google Now to correct my battery issues. It all started with the play services updates with parking location tracking. I get 30 hours on average now before hitting 20%.
 

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
Ive shut off everything from location services to google now to anything else that has compromised the potential of this phone and it still sucks.

As someone has mentioned, maybe its a bad battery but I havent bought a new one yet to test.

Either way, just frustrated as the device is pretty awesome but the software is something that has left the experience with a bad taste in my mouth.
 

Fanaticalism

macrumors 6502a
Apr 16, 2013
908
158
Ive shut off everything from location services to google now to anything else that has compromised the potential of this phone and it still sucks.

As someone has mentioned, maybe its a bad battery but I havent bought a new one yet to test.

Either way, just frustrated as the device is pretty awesome but the software is something that has left the experience with a bad taste in my mouth.

A new battery should be free. Why not just get a replacement and see?
 

Cnasty

macrumors 68040
Jul 2, 2008
3,336
2,106
I just might and stop my complaining already huh?:)

Just venting really my frustration with android and this phone lately.
 

sentinelsx

macrumors 68010
Feb 28, 2011
2,004
0
A tip:

No need to turn off location services completely. Now if you do not use google now or find it useless, turn it off/disable it by all means.

Also, in your location settings, only select the GPS option, and leave cellular/wifi networks option unchecked. This actually disables a whole lot of apps continuously checking location which is a waste, and still lets you use location if you need it, for example in maps. On my GS4, gps alone locks me fairly fast on maps within seconds, and i keep internet location option off which kills every spammy app from spamming location requests.
 

RMXO

macrumors 6502a
Sep 1, 2009
875
41
I regret not buying the Tmo version, I got it off swappa so that was a possibility. At the same time the proximity sensor failed and AT&T replaced it under warranty no questions asked, but they gave me a KitKat updated one.

I like AT&T as a carrier quite a bit. I would never touch Sprint again, I was on them for over 10 years. Tmobile has kind of spotty reception where I live and work, and in between. Verizon is good, but I hate their company and policies. I think AT&T's pricing and value for the money has never been higher though so I'm stuck here for a while.

Yeah, if your able to get a TMO version then its your best bet for rooting. I was on Cingular for a while then AT&T bought it over hence the reason why I was on AT&T. I did switch over to TMO to save $$$ since their rates were better and haven't looked back. I'll admit when I first switched to TMO, i had bad reception in my area, 2 signals or less in my house. The only place where I could get more bars was in my bathroom, LOL. I had a rough first 4 months due to bad signal but glad I stuck with it since I now get full bars in my house now and don't have to go to the bathroom to make a phone call anymore. :D
 

Dontazemebro

macrumors 68020
Jul 23, 2010
2,173
0
I dunno, somewhere in West Texas
Here's battery life for the day. Just gawd awful. I charged up at midday to a full 100% when I ducked below 70. Same usage patterns and only 3hrs screen on time with under 30% left.

9a9a2y6a.jpg


bytumuzy.jpg


vy9aga2a.jpg
 

Robster3

macrumors 68000
Dec 13, 2012
1,987
0
Here's battery life for the day. Just gawd awful. I charged up at midday to a full 100% when I ducked below 70. Same usage patterns and only 3hrs screen on time with under 30% left.

Image

Image

Image

You must have a dud phone, my S5 stats are same as your except my screen time is 21% and are at 1d 3h 33mins and 58% left.

I had a note 3 on kitkat and was it good too.
 

mib1800

Suspended
Sep 16, 2012
2,859
1,250
Today I used my phone with airplane mode using wifi.

10 hrs since unplug with 5 hrs of screen time and I still have 50% battery left.

Use phone mainly for surfing, youtube and tapatalk.
 

pdqgp

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2010
2,131
5,460
Battery life is great on the note 3 so it must be battery related. There's no reason you shouldn't get 1 say at least if not more

^^ thus. Try turning off location service tracking. I really see no huge miss not having it on.

I did this after the most recent update as I too noticed an increase in battery drain. I really don't need google to track every parking spot or stop I make to remind me of anything. I have any number of apps that do this when I need it.

Back to 24-36hrs of life now.
 
Last edited:

Dontazemebro

macrumors 68020
Jul 23, 2010
2,173
0
I dunno, somewhere in West Texas
I think I figured out what's been eating my battery. After another abysmal day today, I had to recharge again around 3 PM but I only charged it up to about 64%. I noticed in battery stats that wifi was being used the whole time when I know that wasn't true. So I checked around the interwebs and noticed others complaining about wifi usage reporting. Under wifi settings, if you go to the menu and click advanced, uncheck always allow scanning. This would scan for wifi even when turned off.

So far, after I charged to 64%, it only dropped to 63% by the time I put it on the charger by 7pm. I'll also monitor it tomorrow to see how well it fares.
 

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,174
UK
I think I figured out what's been eating my battery. After another abysmal day today, I had to recharge again around 3 PM but I only charged it up to about 64%. I noticed in battery stats that wifi was being used the whole time when I know that wasn't true. So I checked around the interwebs and noticed others complaining about wifi usage reporting. Under wifi settings, if you go to the menu and click advanced, uncheck always allow scanning. This would scan for wifi even when turned off.

So far, after I charged to 64%, it only dropped to 63% by the time I put it on the charger by 7pm. I'll also monitor it tomorrow to see how well it fares.

Yeah it does make a difference. Hopefully that solves your issues as really the note 3 should be the best phone out there for battery life.
 

Switchback666

macrumors 68000
Nov 16, 2012
1,600
67
SXM
I think I figured out what's been eating my battery. After another abysmal day today, I had to recharge again around 3 PM but I only charged it up to about 64%. I noticed in battery stats that wifi was being used the whole time when I know that wasn't true. So I checked around the interwebs and noticed others complaining about wifi usage reporting. Under wifi settings, if you go to the menu and click advanced, uncheck always allow scanning. This would scan for wifi even when turned off.

So far, after I charged to 64%, it only dropped to 63% by the time I put it on the charger by 7pm. I'll also monitor it tomorrow to see how well it fares.

That does make a big difference, i never mentioned because i though i read someone already suggested that.

Honestly ive never use a phone with better battery, if you still get that massive battery drain try with a different battery before you ditch the phone; i was getting whole day battery and some with 6hrs screen time all 3g time with no wifi.

I dont understand why Samsung enable this intrusive options by default among other options.
 
Last edited:

The Game 161

macrumors Nehalem
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
30,991
20,174
UK
Normally mine is higher as well but I haven't been using my phone much.

managed to get 5 hours screen time and 1 day total today. Been on both wifi and H+.which is the average really sometimes if I don't use it alot I get about 1 day, 15+ hours.
 

andy2141

macrumors 6502a
May 29, 2010
503
686
UK
OK noob alert..

Will this work for a international UK unlocked model?

I'm running the official stock kit kat build.

Only ever unlocked, rooted and put a custom rom on my old Nexus 5 which by its nature was dead easy. From what I've read Samsung like to lock things down a lot these days.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.