| This is my experience with an app that has made me lose a lot of respect for Google - Google Play Services (labeled "Google Settings" in app drawer). |  |
On Tuesday, February 26, 2013, I checked my phone as I was leaving work to find it had only 5% battery left. Before I made it to my car, my phone was dead! My phone normally is no lower than 65% when I leave the office. I charged it back up when I got home and checked to see if all unnecessary features (gps, bluetooth, etc.) were turned off and they were.
I have deleted countless apps every day since trying to resolve an issue I believed had to have been caused by one of the apps I had installed recently, but nothing fixed this anomaly. It seemed like every day between the hours of 9am and 1pm, my phone would go from 80%+ power to dead, instead of the usual 80%+ to 65-70%.
After a few days, it seemed reasonable to assume my phone had some type of virus. I ran a couple different anti-virus apps on my phone and found no viruses. The only thing I found visibly strange was an app labeled "Google Settings" re-appearing in my app drawer every day after I turned on my phone. I didn't really believe this could be the problem because it is a Google app, but after scanning for viruses and searching the internet for answers, I have concluded this is absolutely the cause!
Every time I uninstall "Google Settings", my battery life acts normal again! And every day around 9am, "GOOGLE SETTINGS" REAPPEARS!!
I have deleted countless apps every day since trying to resolve an issue I believed had to have been caused by one of the apps I had installed recently, but nothing fixed this anomaly. It seemed like every day between the hours of 9am and 1pm, my phone would go from 80%+ power to dead, instead of the usual 80%+ to 65-70%.
After a few days, it seemed reasonable to assume my phone had some type of virus. I ran a couple different anti-virus apps on my phone and found no viruses. The only thing I found visibly strange was an app labeled "Google Settings" re-appearing in my app drawer every day after I turned on my phone. I didn't really believe this could be the problem because it is a Google app, but after scanning for viruses and searching the internet for answers, I have concluded this is absolutely the cause!
Every time I uninstall "Google Settings", my battery life acts normal again! And every day around 9am, "GOOGLE SETTINGS" REAPPEARS!!
| This is absolutely unacceptable and has tarnished my respect for Google. The fact that we are unable to stop Google Play Services from installing is bad enough, but top it off with a massive battery drain and its got me writing about it in my blog. Honesty, the installation of apps without user knowledge is probably more common than we might think. This installation just caught a lot of people's attention because it has detrimental effects on their phone's battery life. I do believe there's a good chance Google will rectify this issue soon. Especially if enough people make a lot of noise about it. That's why I'm writing this today. From the large volume of complaints relating to battery usage and Google Play Services, it looks like this problem hit Google Nexus 4 and Galaxy Nexus users first.* |  Google Play Services App Info |
Screenshots from my Sony Xperia LTE.
 Google Services used 59% of my battery  Battery used by Google Services App |  Battery life drained in less than 7 hours  Google Settings (Google Play Services) app magically re-appears daily |
I generated this report using Google Trends. Notice the recent sudden spike in Google searches for "google settings" and "google play services".
Here's a screenshot of the Google Play services app in the Google Play Store on March 02, 2013.
 See the correlation between the Google Trends data above and the sudden jump in app installations below. And look at the date when the app was last updated... February 26, 2013 (the same day my phone began losing an extra 59% of its battery to Google Services!) |  |
I will research ways to fix this issue, assuming Google doesn't fix it right away. When I have found a way to permanently uninstall or disable this "Google Settings virus" from my phone, I will post what I have found here. If you are reading this and you know how to fix this particular issue, please leave the details in the comments section. All input is welcome and encouraged. Google needs to feel this from all sides.
| My Android phone specs Phone: Sony Xperia LTE Android Version: 4.0.4 Manufacturer: Sony Model: LT30at CPU Processor: ARMv7 Processor rev 0 (v71) Battery: Li-ion Screen Resolution: 720 x 1184 |
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