Signal draining battery in background

[ghost]

I have:

• [x ] searched open and closed issues for duplicates
• [x ] read https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/wiki/Submitting-useful-bug-reports

---

Bug description

Signal constantly running in background and using 21% of battery in Android 8.0 and ignoring Android 8.0 background limits

Steps to reproduce

• using hyphens as bullet points
• list the steps
• that reproduce the bug

Actual result: Describe here what happens after you run the steps above (i.e. the buggy behaviour) Expected result: Describe here what should happen after you run the steps above (i.e. what would be the correct behaviour)

Screenshots

Device info

Device: Manufacturer Model XVI Android version: 0.0.0 Signal version: 0.0.0

Link to debug log

[acct412]

I'm having battery drain issues as well.

Device: Google Pixel Android version: 8.0.0 Signal version: 4.11.5

12 minutes of signal/screen usage today and 18% battery showing up. I have very little programming experience (first time using github as well) but I'm happy to provide any info you think may be useful. I may need a bit of coaching (never used android studio either). A friend just got the same phone running the same signal version and is having the same issue. I can provide screenshots from my phone if required but they basically mirror what has already been posted. If I could get the profiler working I wouldn't know what to look for.

Thank you for your time and patience.

Edit: I might be jumping the gun a bit here but I believe the issue is somehow related to WiFi.

I turned wifi off this morning and my phone is at 85% battery with 1% of that being Signal.

I also experienced this a week ago when I was without wifi for a couple of days and was restricted to cellular data. I will continue the day without wifi and report back. I'll also turn wifi back on tomorrow and see what happens.

Again, thanks for your time.

Edit2: I don't believe wifi is connected to the issue any more. I've been getting some days with high signal usage (over 10% battery with ~9 minutes of use) and some days with low usage (3% battery with 20 minutes of use). I will keep trying to find patterns and report back.

[tcables]

@moxie0, thank you for what you do! Most people don't realize its mostly you doing all the work.

Everyone should focus on providing as much debugging/data as possible and if he has the time, he can get to it. Or others should try a pull request, I guarantee that he would appreciate the help.

[2zeroseven]

Echoing @tcables, thanks much.

Found this thread when I noticed the same issue as others. Pixel XL on stock 8.0. I have Signal's background activity limited as per app settings, and have been using the desktop app today, not the phone. Signal still shows 30 mins of background time during the 5.5 hours I've been off a charger. Worth it, but not ideal.

I haven't used Android tools in a long time, but I'll see if I can poke around and help track this thing down.

[2zeroseven]

Update: before I plugged in the tools, I R&Red the app. Didn't save messages, clean install.

It basically fixed my battery issue (so far), although I did still need to discourage background activity thru the system setting. (Before I did that, Signal was taking a lot of background time, but with much less battery drain than before the reinstall.) It's been a few days, with light Signal usage from phone and from desktop. So i'm not that helpful but it's something.

[MikkyDoubleB]

I have also massive battery drain on Android 8.0 pixel xl. Reported it here: https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Android/issues/6732

This has been going on for ages for lots of people.

[acct412]

I'm no longer having battery drain issues after updating to android 8.1. Can anyone else on 8.1 who was having issues on 8.0 confirm?

[MikkyDoubleB]

@acct412

Great! I have been thinking about doing a clean install for the 8.1. I'll reply here the results when I have done it.

[Tatoniss]

The latest version of signal and Android 8.1 has fixed the battery. Signal is no longer the main battery drainer. Granted I haven't been watching it lately so I watch it over the next few days and report back.

[Le1b1]

@acc412 Experienced the issue with Android 8.0, is gone after update to 8.1 without any action from my side. Device: Google Nexus 5X (stock firmware)

[jeremymasters]

Samsung S8 user here. My concern with this is that Samsung has been updating to the X.0 version of Android for awhile now and this might kick us where it counts when Oreo gets here for Samsung.

[MikkyDoubleB]

I can confirm that Signal is no more draining battery on Android 8.1.

[211217613]

I've been experiencing massive battery drain on signal. Feels like it has to do with signal calls. I thought maybe I was just imagining things but then I checked here and saw this issue.

I'm running stock android on a google pixel.

https://debuglogs.org/e89e19d93e458f0cce77f4702dcc592b7cc1577a9337328cb76ef053dad93b43

[ptc]

Same here. Signal is draining battery on Oreo 8.0. why is this report closed?

[BadFi]

I am curious why this was closed as well, I am having the same problem where signal drains more battery than any other app on Oreo 8.0. This thread is closed, but according to this thread the only "fix" for the problem is getting a device that uses android 8.1 or higher.

[prg318]

Having this same problem on Android 9 - even got an Android message warning me that Signal is using a lot of my battery in the background

[z4nD4R]

Hello All,

looks like for me the same issue. I haven't use signal for whole day and I could see singal as 2nd app in battery usage for that day (14%). Also I have noticed signal is consuming too much data on background - the same day I haven't opened signal for whole day it consumed 53MB. Looks a quite lot for me when haven't opened the app at all.

Anyone else experiencing such a issue in Oct 2019?

Thx.

Y

[aqzxt]

Mine's 58%!

Device: Xiaomi Redmi 4 Prime Android 9 (Lineage 16) Signal 4.48.17

Debug Log: https://debuglogs.org/fcffc49fb4b8f77a48691de20d534aff819685aadbc67dc1a8e7d4d15e182c44

Edit: Logs was generated just after turning off background services for Signal (w/ BackgroundRestrictor)

Another thing I noticed is that I cannot turn Battery Opmitization on again: it simply won't let me. For other apps it's ok.

For Android 7 and 8.1 with different ROMs I had, was running fine. On all of them I do not use Google Services or alternatives.

[BetterToAutomateTheWorld]

Same issue here, 48 percent used! Signal never on background, always active!

[pierre07]

Same issue with Signal 4.55.8 on my Nexus5X 1005mAh for 5h22min50s. This issue is written "closed" do we have to open a new one on the same purpose?

[eNTi]

I'm on 4.71.5 on my de-googled (no playstore) galaxy nexus (maguro) with lineage 14.1. Signal STILL uses around 30% battery. Which IS better than before (50-75%) but still unacceptable for a chat program.