If you own a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or S25 Ultra and have installed the July security update, you should check your battery level. Since the rollout of the July 2026 patch, there have been increasing reports of extreme battery drain, overheating devices, and slower charging. Some affected users are losing five to seven percent of their battery charge per hour while in standby—Samsung has not yet officially commented on the issue.
What’s Going Wrong with Samsung’s July Update
The issue appears to be caused by a software bug that prevents the affected high-end models from entering sleep mode properly. As a result, the device remains active in the background even though it should be asleep—with corresponding consequences for battery life. Complaints have been piling up on the official Samsung Community forums and on Reddit since the end of July.
A Galaxy S25 Ultra user describes a particularly drastic case: Overnight, the battery level plummeted from around 85 percent to about five percent—with only two hours of screen usage. Before the update, battery life had been completely normal. Other affected users report similar figures and a continuous drain even in standby mode.
Not Just the Battery: Overheating and Slower Charging
In addition to battery drain, two other issues have arisen. Many smartphones are getting noticeably warmer than usual during use, and some users report significantly longer charging times. The exact cause is still unclear. Some in the community suspect a connection to encrypted WhatsApp backups, which are said to get stuck running in the background after the update and constantly tax the system. This theory has not yet been confirmed.
It’s not unusual for an update to have such side effects in a system consisting of millions of lines of code. Even minor changes to power management can have unexpected consequences on certain hardware combinations—consequences that cannot be fully replicated in tests.
Here’s what affected Galaxy users can do now
There is no official fix yet, and users haven’t found a reliable workaround either. If you’ve already installed the July update, you can monitor battery usage in the “Battery” settings and, if necessary, temporarily restrict power-hungry apps—such as WhatsApp. In some cases, a restart provides temporary relief, but it doesn’t solve the underlying problem.
If you haven’t installed the July patch yet, you can wait for now until Samsung responds. The downside: Security updates close critical vulnerabilities, so putting them on hold indefinitely isn’t a good idea.
Waiting for Samsung’s Response
So far, there has been no official statement from the manufacturer. However, Samsung was able to quickly resolve similar issues in the past—such as charging problems with the Galaxy S25 series in 2025—via an update. It’s therefore likely that a patch for the current issue will be released in the near future. We’ll update this post as soon as there’s any news.
Are you affected by the battery issue following the July update? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments.
Summary
- The July 2026 security update is causing issues for the Galaxy S24 Ultra and S25 Ultra.
- The devices apparently no longer switch to sleep mode correctly.
- Users are reporting battery drain of up to 5–7 percent per hour while in standby.
- Additionally, overheating and slower charging are occurring.
- Stuck WhatsApp backups are suspected to be the cause—though this remains unconfirmed.
- Samsung has not yet commented; a fix update is considered likely.
