topic XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain in Other Smartphones

XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Zakalwe — Wed, 11 Nov 2020 07:01:38 GMT

Since the system update from 30 October my XCover Pro has excessive battery drain. The top ranking app in the battery usage listing is the CameraLightSensor system app, responsible for using the front camera as a light sensor for the Adaptive Brightness functionality. If I let it do its thing it will consume up to 20% of the power per day, even when the phone sees little active use.

I have followed the usual recommendations for battery drain, to no avail. There are clear indications this is a bug introduced by the update:

the drain started right after the update, there was none before
disabling adaptive brightness in the settings stops the drain, but of course, it also stops the adaptive brightness feature
I have configured Tasker to disable/enable adaptive brightness whenever the screen turns off/on. This greatly reduces the drain to less than 5% per day, which indicates that otherwise the adaptive brightness/CameraLightSensor is uselessly busy and draining the battery even when the screen is off.

While I can live with the Tasker "solution," this looks like a clear bug to me and there may be more wrong with this (5%/day still seems a bit excessive for what this does, so I suspect the CameraLightSensor is in some kind of "overdrive" whenever it is on). Also, Tasker is a paid app and users should not be expected to buy this as a workaround to manufacturer bugs.

I have sent error reports to Samsung support using the Members app, but never received any response.

Any suggestions?

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Muhammad1981 — Sun, 27 Dec 2020 15:50:43 GMT

I'm seeing the same problem 😕

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Helge Nicholson — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 03:44:01 GMT

Hello.

I have the same issue described here. Did you get any feedback from Samsung eventually?

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Mihai Octavian — Sat, 24 Apr 2021 12:55:32 GMT

Hello everybody,

As Helge Nicholson stated above, I same the same issue with adaptive brightness since the last update, when Bixby was replaced with Free. Does anybody knows of a solution to this problem?

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Ko van Z — Tue, 11 May 2021 09:03:52 GMT

Same problem (CamearaLightSensor) here. Battery drains even at night, with phone in Airplane mode.

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Ko van Z — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 07:33:03 GMT

Softwareupdate june, 2, 2021 fixed the problem. The battery usage of the CameraLightSensor is about 2% per day, now. Very acceptable for me.

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Zakalwe — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:31:17 GMT

Over the months I have been getting this intermittently. The monthly software update would fix this, but it has reoccurred later. The most recent one happened for me after a Zoom session on battery, which makes me suspect that maybe some apps can mess up something in the power control, and the software update just resets things? Eh, too little data to tell.

Either way, I have not been too happy with the effectiveness of the adaptive brightness feature, regardless of the power consumption. I know it is supposed to learn, but a year in I still found myself turning down the brightness when it is dark, or worse, struggling to turn it up when out in the sun. For the past week I have turned the adaptive brightness off and instead used a button remapper app to make the combination xcover-button + volume-buttons control the brightness. That way I can quickly adjust the brightness, even out in the sun when I cannot see the screen - and it will not pick weird brightness levels on its own, and no power issues. Should have done this months ago.

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Ko van Z — Thu, 03 Jun 2021 11:13:47 GMT

Thanks for your advice. I downloaded a button-mapper and it works very well. Just two key combinations and it's all in my own hands now. Never a too bright screen anymore.

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

LightGuy48 — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 18:23:42 GMT

I just upgraded to the XCoverPro from Samsung Active unit and I cannot get the Adaptive Brightness to work at all! I get blinded at night and can't see the screen during the day. The feature is turned on in settings but it's not working.

I'm on Kernel 4.14.113 dated Jul 13, 2021 and checking for system updates shows no newer updates.

How can Samsung break a feature that worked perfectly on previous models!

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Ko van Z — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 20:55:56 GMT

You are right. I finally bought button remapper in play store and remapped the top key in combination with volume up and down. This works for me, from complete darkness to full-bright light conditions. Not the way it should be, I know...... I punish Samsung with a new phone next year from another manufacturer.

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Beermeister — Tue, 22 Mar 2022 23:59:57 GMT

Well I just purchased a Xcover pro and worked great until the second update. Now the Cameralightsensor consumes 70 to 80% of my battery even with adaptive off the charge wont last 14 hours. First the dual sim was a lie now I'm ready to throw a new phone in the trash and vow never to purchase any Samsung products.

Does anyone know if i stick a screwdriver into the light sensor and destroy it will my phone still work?

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

LightGuy48 — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 00:19:55 GMT

I found I had to reboot after turning off the Adaptive Brightness before the battery usage would change. Right now on average I'm using about 30% of battery a day with it off.

HELLOOOOO SAMSUNG.... ANYONE HOME?!?! ANYONE CARE TO FIX THIS??

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

Zakalwe — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 07:05:17 GMT

The XCover Pro uses the front camera as the light sensor, so breaking it will at least break any selfies.

I have not had this runaway power drain in quite a while now. Last time I got it I cleared cache & data of the camera, that fixed it:

Settings -> Apps -> "show system apps" -> Camera Light Sensor -> Storage -> "Clear Cache" and "Clear Data"

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

LightGuy48 — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 21:45:33 GMT

I cleared the cache & data this morning and then rebooted, so far I'm about 50% battery. It's definitely using more battery than normal but so far it hasn't sucked it down to like 30% like previously but still it's a battery hog. Battery monitor shows CameraLightSensor has used 30% of my battery today, I think that's a pretty big usage hog. Clearly it's still running the camera even when the display is dark, that's dumb. It only need to worry about checking for the light intensity when the screen is active...

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

LightGuy48 — Thu, 24 Mar 2022 03:37:47 GMT

Nope still sucks... getting ready to go to bed and my battery is down to 24% and the CamerLightSensor sucked down 56% of my battery today.

Clearing the memory/cache did absolutely nothing...

Re: XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

WellWellWell — Sun, 02 Apr 2023 17:29:42 GMT

Hello, was there any update on this? My cameralightsensor has suddenly started using up more and more battery every day for the last week. I can't access the 'Show System apps' setting (I have an a50), but I have turned the adaptive brightness setting off.