Samsung Galaxy users report severe battery drain, heating, and power loss following the July 2026 security patch and One UI 8.5 update. Owners of devices including the S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra face rapid power drops during idle sleep modes, while Samsung has yet to issue an official acknowledgment.
Software updates are supposed to tighten security and refine performance, but for a growing number of Samsung Galaxy owners, the latest firmware has turned daily device use into an exercise in battery anxiety. Following the rollout of the One UI 8.5 update and subsequent security patches, user support forums and community boards are flooded with complaints detailing dramatic battery drops, abnormal device temperatures, and shortened charging intervals.
Severe Battery Drain and Overheating on Galaxy S25 and S24 Devices
The complaints span multiple flagship models, with owners of the Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra reporting reduced battery life, overheating, and slower charging speeds following the July security patch. One user on the Samsung community forum stated that their device was yielding just 2 hours and 10 minutes of total battery life since the update was installed.
“The device is draining roughly 5% to 7% of battery per hour while sitting completely idle on a flat surface. This means the vast majority of my battery drop (roughly 60%+) is happening purely when the phone should be in deep sleep.”
Samsung community forum user
The issue is not isolated to standby performance. Additional user reports point to hardware running unusually hot during routine tasks. Another forum post, first published on Tuesday, detailed a phone running remarkably hot even after the software installation was complete, with thermal output escalating beyond the minor warming users observed previously. Meanwhile, users of the foldable Galaxy Z Fold 7 are encountering similar power consumption anomalies.
Conflicting Timelines on Software Patches and Device Impact
While widespread attention centers on the July release, technical analysis from editorial testing suggests the root cause may trace slightly further back. A Galaxy S24 device in the editorial office suffered from increased heat generation and accelerated capacity loss after the One UI 8.5 installation. The affected colleague assumed that the bug was not introduced by the update to One UI 8.5 but by the last security patch from June 1st with patch level from May 5th, as errors only occurred after that. In the Samsung support forum, an affected user describes his experiences with his Galaxy S24: I recently installed the new update to One UI 8.5, and my smartphone's battery life has been an absolute catastrophe ever since.
Samsung previously faced similar complaints following an April update. In response to an inquiry from heise online, the company told them at the time that those specific issues had not been observed on devices in Germany. In the current instance, the brand has yet to acknowledge any issues, though inquiries have been submitted by tech publications seeking an official statement.
Troubleshooting Steps and Temporary Workarounds
While users wait for an official patch from Samsung, independent guides and community members have proposed several maintenance steps to help mitigate the drain. A video from Sakitech gives us more details on practical solutions aimed at curbing background power consumption, including clearing the cache for the One UI Home launcher to remove accumulated temporary files without touching personal data.
Additional optimization measures include disabling Nearby Device Scanning under connections settings, enabling Auto Optimization and Scheduled Restarts in Device Care, and utilizing Samsung’s Good Guardians app from the Galaxy Store to run the Galaxy App Booster and Battery Guardian. Users can also configure Background Usage Limits by going to Settings, tapping Battery, choosing Background Usage Limits, and enabling Put Unused Apps to Sleep or manually adding apps to the Deep Sleeping Applications list.
On social platforms, isolated workarounds have emerged for specific culprits. Reddit user dapotatopapi, who was experiencing battery drain, narrowed it down to WhatsApp after discovering a backup was stuck. While turning it off reduced the overheating, doing so meant they are now unable to restart the backup, so try it at your own risk.
Worth a look