February 2024 "Security" update Causes Catastrophic issues + March Update did not fix.

[KindlyThrive]

After the February update last night, my phone has become nearly unusable. No videos play, freezing in Duolingo, slowed performance, and glitchiness throughout. Can't use Facebook or Instagram due to the video issue—videos are frozen and won't play. Additionally, the phone is overheating, very hot to touch. This phone has been cool since I got it two weeks ago. Really upset. Hoping the March 2nd update will fix it. I have the 1TB unlocked version directly from Samsung.

3rd Update: 3/4/24 12pm:
The phone is nearly unusable post-March update. On the first day, it consumed nearly 60% of the battery while idle on my kitchen counter unplugged. The next day, with 1:30 of active screen use, it used 124% battery, reaching temperatures of 40-45 degrees Celsius. Videos on social media platforms and Talk-to-Text randomly fail. These issues, along with others, started after the March 2nd update. Restarting temporarily resolves the video and Talk-to-Text problems, but I need to restart the phone 5-7 times a day to keep it functional. Before the update, the phone worked flawlessly. I am hoping someone else has a solution. I don't think there is something wrong with phone but the software.

2nd update 2:30pm :I spoke too soon. Video has stopped working on Instagram and Facebook again.  I have restarted 3 more times in hopes it would resolve it. Everything worked flawlessly as of last night before the february security update.

One other issue, power drain. My cell phone is plugged in and it cannot fully charge if the screen is on.  IT has been stuck at 74% for a while now. Now at 73% after about 15 minutes of showing 74%.  If things were working correctly, it should be charging at 1% or faster per minute, and that is not happening. It is just stuck saying 7 minutes until full.  I have the advanced battery support turned on so it only charges to 80% max, but now it wont even do that. Currently it has no major apps running, it is just sitting next to me. The screen is very warm. 

1st Update, 11am : Phone has restarted after March 2 update and now videos will play again. That was very unsettling and I wonder how many people returned their phones because of the glitch with the February update. I am glad I only had to deal with it for a few hours. 

[rbth]

My A32 drains very fast, under 6 hours of battery life after the update...

[KindlyThrive]

I just did an extensive update and found the problems which were a couple of apps that caused a major background usage issue. It was causing the processors to run about four times higher at idle than they should be.

[KindlyThrive · Accepted solution]

I conducted thorough testing before addressing this community issue. On Wednesday, I experienced the worst battery life post the March 2nd update, causing immense frustration. To troubleshoot, I began uninstalling apps, starting with three:

1. Samsung Health
2. Synology Drive
3. Synology Photos

While Health and Drive had been on my phone for years, Photos was a newer addition predating the Feb/March update.

Initially, removing these apps didn't yield any improvement. With my phone's battery dwindling to 9% and refusing to charge, the processor worked intensively despite no active apps. The battery temperature soared above 42 degrees, as depicted in the image.

As my phone was on the brink of dying, I powered it down to allow for some charging. Due to the elevated temperature, the charging process was sluggish even in the powered-off state.

Upon restarting, a magical transformation occurred—the phone began to cool down and charge efficiently.

From Thursday until today, my phone has exhibited better performance than ever before. Discovering that one of the three apps ran in the background and drained the battery was a turning point. While suspecting Samsung Health, I can't be certain. I reinstalled Synology Photos, which operates flawlessly with no battery drain. It's configured to function only during charging and on WIFI. Samsung Health and Synology Drive remain uninstalled. Despite my fondness for Samsung Health over the past 4+ years, I'm exploring alternatives to retrieve my historical data. Nevertheless, having a functional phone takes precedence.

My phone now lasts 14 hours with constant use, even during activities like having Pokémon running in the background and engaging in a 4-hour conversation, resulting in a mere 10% battery drop per hour. When idle, the battery consumption is minimal, demonstrating improved efficiency.

Therefore, the issue is resolved—a conflict with one of those two apps after the Feb/March security updates.

I submitted my Note 20 Ultra for trade-in yesterday evening, feeling reassured about my phone's current stability. I have no intention of performing any more updates for an extended period. While this experience has left a bitter taste, I am relieved to have a functional phone. 🙂

Additionally, I identified the cause of the charging issues. If the battery exceeds 37 degrees, it struggles to charge rapidly. When it surpassed 40 degrees, it faced significant challenges due to an unstoppable background process. The processors were running at full capacity all day. Another factor was the Otterbox Defender Case I use for optimal phone protection. Despite its advantages, it acts as an insulator. Removing the outer case when the phone's temperature exceeded 40 degrees resulted in a gradual temperature drop of about 0.1 degrees every 20-30 seconds. The combined issue of the case and application conflict became apparent. If not for the case, the charging problem might have gone unnoticed. My solution has been to remove the outer case when gaming, allowing the phone to cool rapidly. Contrary to online claims, these cases can cause overheating issues. Without the case, the phone remains cool and charges swiftly.

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I sincerely hope these suggestions prove beneficial to others grappling with this immensely frustrating issue. It's my wish that Samsung addresses their software to provide insight into which apps are overloading the CPU and causing such disruptive problems. While I recognize the challenge of accounting for every software variation, the fact that the overloading app managed to elude the task manager-like software displaying battery usage exacerbates the problem. Fortunately, my fortunate guess among the 200+ apps on my phone averted sending it back. There was nothing inherently wrong with the phone, just an unforeseen glitch or conflict among these three apps. Now, I contemplate whether the battery issues on my recently returned Note 20 Ultra were influenced by the Samsung Health app. A notable clue surfaced when my S24 Ultra displayed a persistent notification from Samsung Health, asserting its continuous activity tracking despite my efforts to disable every related feature in the settings. I share these insights with the hope that others won't be plagued by this problem, and that these tips may offer some assistance.

[KindlyThrive]

Here are a couple photos of what the phone is acting like today. You can see I got a full day of use without any issues. Nice slow battery drain. You can also see that the CPU usage is much more reasonable. The processors were running at about four times the speed of what it is at idle now. And the battery temperature is right in the range that it should be. When I wake up it's normally around mid-20s instead of over 40 and overheating. So all is well in the world.

[Greg123gg]

I don't even have these apps and am experiencing the problem. It's definitely software, but the exact cause is still unknown.

[fu7]

update has rendered my phone unusable I hAad a stroke am alone cannot reach anyone Samsung verizon usekess

if I die ,,, alone this is why

[Nick Sloan]

Just updated my s24 ultra, and similar issues.... warm screen and charging lag.

[KindlyThrive]

Try my recommendations. It was an app conflict. Possibly the Samsung health one. Something is causing a background application to use almost full battery all the time.

[KindlyThrive]

I am sorry to hear that. These sorts of issues are so frustrating because Android/Samsung have not given us proper tools for diagnosing. Somehow certain apps can get behind the "background app" system and run without knowing. I am now nearly 2 weeks without this issue. The phone is fantastic, but Samsung definitely has a bug. I wish I had known to delete the health app from my Note 20 Ultra, or I would have uninstalled it too. Do you have Whatsapp running? I know that also causes these sorts of issues, or it has for me. The S24 has been able to handle the extra battery usage of Whatsapp. I am fine with a 14 hour battery, a 5-7 hour battery is not acceptable. 

What was crazy is that even in ultra low power mode where there are "no apps" running, the battery life would not increase. It would say 2 days of battery and then 2 hours later it would say 18 hours and then it was dead. This was before my fixes. The ultra low battery mode works good now. I wish I could be of more help. 

[HansonESH]

I updated my S22 Ultra personal phone to the march update 2 days ago and immediately on reboot started having the lag issues and overheating.  First time I've ever had it pop up a warning saying the multiple apps function would turn off because the phone was over heating.  I was watching youtube and had the video minimized while looking at chrome. 

It seems to over heat every reboot, and at random times during the day.  Video and UI actions are laggy. 

I did open a ticket and they are asking for steps to reproduce to investigate.

However, my company uses samsung S22's and almost every single one of them is having this issue after the march update. There are hundreds of phones in use at my company.