Samsung j3 2016 battery issues

[Kachiu]

I work in a phone store, over the last week or so we’ve had at least 40 people come in with the j3 2016 having issues with the battery discharging rapidly. Some have bought replacement batteries and are still having the issue. Some have updates available, others are on the most  recent version of android for the phone. There doesn’t appear to be any app in the battery app that is misbehaving to suggest it’s the culprit. Can anyone confirm what would suddenly start all these phones discharging at the same time. Some phones are over 2 years old others have only been in use for about a year so there doesn’t seem to be any particular pattern that we can identify.

[Neil-Savin]

Having same problem on 2 off J3 2016. Spoke with someone called Jack at Samsung Milton Keynes 01908 978440 who said it was a known software bug, which they should fix by mid June. (ie 2 weeks from now)

[Phil007]

Having exactly the same issues with my J3 2016 - draining flat within approx 18 - 20 hours whilst not even using the device. Have sent it in for repair by EE  - total waste of time; comments from EE, with whom I have the phone on contract, range from "we are not aware of any such problem" to " the fault is a known issue with Samsung who are unfortunately unable to offer a solution at this time." My take on this is that I have a contract with EE who are not providing me with a device which is performing even close to the Samsung published specification of "up to 349 hours standby." Interesting conversations to be had methinks....

[IainClark]

Hi all.  I have the same issue, we have 3No Samsung J3 (2016) in the family, 1 of them is 2 years old the other two are approx 18 Months old.  All three phones had normal battery usage up to about 3 Months ago but now all discharge completelly after approx 16 - 18 hours.  A few stats:-

1) all 3 phones are on the Virgin network.

2) 2 of the phones connect to Virgin wifi in Warrington, the other one connects to Talk Talk wifi in Oldham.

3) All 3 phones are all lightly used.

4) There is no indication on the phone as to what is consuming the power and using power optimisation makes no difference.

Now the interesting bit which I hope may lead to an answer....We have just returned from a couple of weeks in Rhodes, the two phones that we took with us reverted back to normal battery usage when out of the UK whilst my Daughter (who didn't come with us) still had the battery issue.  Now that my wife and I are back in the Country we have the battery issue again.  Whilst away the devices weren't connected to wifi 24/7 but were connected for about 18 hours per day.

So my summation is that the problem has resulted from something that the device downloaded about 3 Months ago that is causing a constant power drain which isn't recognised by the device as being an App (as it doesn't show up when checking power usage).  Whatever this downloaded software was it is not active outside the UK despite being connected to wifi.

Any ideas???

[ChrisM]

Hi all. We've had some news back from our developers on this one. 

Recently, Samsung has been notified that some users with J3 2016 devices (SM-J320F), based on the ‘EE’ network, have experienced the symptom of rapid battery drain on their phones. For users affected by this, Samsung is scheduled to release a new software update which will be available in the coming weeks (hopefully by the end of June).

Please check for updates to your phone's software regularly, either through the menu of the phone or via the Smart Switch app for PC. Samsung encourages all users to keep their software and apps updated to the latest version wherever possible. We're committed to providing the best possible mobile experience to all our customers.

If the problem is still not resolved after the software update, please visit your nearest authorised Samsung Service Center to enable one of our engineers to give your phone a thorough inspection.

[IainClark]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the reply, that makes perfect sense as my devices are all on the Virgin network who use EE.  My phone has now updated and battery usage has returned back to normal.

Regards

Iain

[paul_bradford]

Same issue here too. Bought the phone in Jan 2018 and no issues at all until 2 months ago-the battery started to hold a charge about as well as a strainer holds water. Thought the battery might be a problem so bought a new one-still having the same issue. At the moment all I do is unplug from the charger as I get up and, as I make breakfast, the charge is down to 96-97% without me using the phone. On my commute I'll update the BBC weather app, check the headlines on the BBC news app and my e-mail account then my phone sits in my bag all morning; by lunchtime charge is down to 60-70% from a morning of doing nothing. Phone is on power saving mode with a timeout of 1 minute, if I had the screen brightness any lower I wouldn't be able to see it. To be honest getting fed up of having to re-charge every night and I can't trust the phone to make even a short call after 5pm. I use it for work and, compared to colleagues phones, it's an embarrassment. Went into my local Smasung store and the guy I spoke to was very helpful but he couldn't seem to figure the problem and the only advice he could give was to run the phone down regularly then re-charge to full; been doing that for 2  months now and it's no better. Looking around for a new phone and, after this experience, it won't be another Samsung. Strange how all the reported issues come after 18 months or so! Attempt by Samsung to force an upgrade?

[Mulubrhan]

I bought J3 Samsung(2016) phone in February 2018. At first it was working fine. But a year later, the battery started to act weird. It discharges very quickly. In addtion to that, the battery even popped and started to push the back cover of the phone. Then, I threw it and bought similar battery (Made in Vietnam) in Amazon. Uh.. still unlucky. I charged it fully yesterday and started to use it today. It worked very fine till the battery discharged to 60%. Then, suddenly it dropped to 20%. It started to fall by 1% every minute and when it reached 15%, the phone shutdown. What is really happening? I have heard some friends of mine also complaining about Samsung batteries. What is the matter?

[paul_bradford]

So.....
Local Samsung shop advised me to drain the battery completely & recharge to full - have been doing this for the better part of a month and it's made no difference
Assumed it was a battery issue so I bought a new battery - no difference
Checked my software - phone tells me I have the latest versions
Did a factory reset - no difference
Find it hard to believe that Samsung have "identified an issue" that only affects phones on a certain network
Looking at the broader picture there's a lot of threads about battery issues with other Samsung products on this site so it's difficult to come to a conclusion other that this is something Samsung are aware of but are choosing to do nothing about

Can't see any option other than buying a new phone that isn’t a Samsung...

[JayCG]

Is this software update available yet? (August 23rd 2019)

[MysteriousOne]

I don't know, but it better be, I have the same battery issue, and my phone is always the first phone in my family to die, and it's been like that for a little over a year now