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XCover Pro Adaptive Brightness (CameraLightSensor) Battery Drain

(Topic created on: 23-03-2022 07:05 AM)
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Zakalwe
Apprentice
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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?

15 REPLIES 15
Beermeister
First Poster
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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? 

LightGuy48
Journeyman
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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??

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Zakalwe
Apprentice
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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"

LightGuy48
Journeyman
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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...

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LightGuy48
Journeyman
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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... 

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WellWellWell
First Poster
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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.
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