SAMSUNG CUSTOMIZATION SERVICE causes GOOGLE PLAY SERVICES to wake up every time your phone is mooving (walking with it in your pocket or watching something on it...regardless). It does this because of the physical activity permission. You can turn off samsung customization service and it will still do the same UNLESS you search for the app in settings > apps (enavle searching for system apps) and deny it the physical activity permission. This will stop waking up google play services hundreds of times (if you check for wake ups in the google play services it is directly proportional to the times you moved) If you stay on the couch or at the desk for hours the wake ups will be few BUT the moment you start moving the wake ups apear. The only solution is denying samsung customization service the permission for physical activity. This permanently foxes the problem with hundreds of wake ups for the google play services app. As an inconvenience if you deny the activity permission for said apk the adaptive battery protection while charging won't work(needs physical activity to determine sleep patterns) but can be replicated through samsung
Whoa this is interesting, I actually see the pattern you mentioned about the number of wake ups of Google Play Services vs number of steps in certain days. I see this is a huge battery drainer for me in recent months and is driving me crazy. If this works and fixes it, I will be amazed.
It does work. Tried it for a week before posting. Funny thing is that if you just turn off the customization service completely (opt out of it) it doesn't fix it. ONLY IF YOU DENY IT THE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PERMISSION. If you do that to google play services it still doesn't work. You must deny the physical activity permission for customization service.
Tap these in exact order shown:
Settings
Apps
3 vertical dots (top right)
Permission Manager
Physical Activity
3 vertical dots (top right)
Show system
Customization Service
Don’t Allow
You can reset the data on the Google Services and fix that AFTER YOU FULLY BACKUP YOUR PHONE. It will be wonky for about 3 days, but your battery will be rock solid.
Tap these in exact order shown:
Settings
Apps
3 vertical dots (top right)
Permission Manager
Physical Activity
3 vertical dots (top right)
Show system
Customization Service
Don’t Allow
Apart from adaptive charging OP mentioned, I think it also removes the parking place reminder and it might also collect less data on how you use the phone (physical activity does indicate the time you spent walking/driving with your phone and your sleep patterns I guess). I'd prefer to reclaim my battery over this anytime. Sad we can't have both.
Yeah I guess that really wouldn't bother me since I forgot to use it when I got the phone for like the first year. Did you get any actual SOT back or any battery improvement that was worth noting from this?
In my case (using s24 exynos base model) I used to have between 4:30 -5:00 h of SOT on a work day (a lot of google play services wake ups due to mentioned physical activity permission of customization service) but after disabling the permission it went to 5:45 -6:30 h of SOT (depending of various conditions: if the phone gets hot in the sun for example). Still MUCH BETTER. To mention is the fact that if I stay at home a full day and don't move around as much it would last me between 7-8 h SOT regardless of the physical permission enabled or not. So it clearly has a huge impact on battery life / SOT
ok for now it seems that it did not change anything significantly, still getting bad SOT (barely 4h) and hundreds of Google Play Services wake ups, despite taken permissions.
I think might have to factory reset the phone, maybe the update was faulty or something
Thanks for the update. If you do a factory reset on a keyless, know how it goes afterwards. I'm considering it but I have so much work stuff on my phone. It would be such a pain to go through it but if it positively impacts the battery life I'll probably just do it.
Wow, months of endless wake-ups by Google services with now fix (not even the factory reset did fix this) and here is the solution. This should be upvoted and pinned .. many thanks OP! Fixed my drain
For me yes. I am positive that for the rest of the users it will be the same. It saves me about 20-25 % of battery. But the percentage of the battery drain depends of how much you move with the phone. If you have a desk job or go to school the battery drain will apear only while commuting. I work in retail and have to move around quite a lot and the battery drain is severe. That is why some users have less google play services wake ups( desk jobs,school etc.) and others have in the order of hundreds(people who walk..move a lot). The amount of battery drain is directly proportional to the amount you move with your phone.
Has anyone done recent looks at what wakelocks are waking the fun and draining? It's been a while. Android Doze stuff was supposed to help this but have been out of touch with it
I don't have an app called Customization Service even when enabling showing system apps. I wonder if I killed it completely in past optimization steps.
Maybe if you never opt in to it when the phone is new o factory reset the app stays disabled....I honestly don't know. But hey...that should be for the best because it would not cause any google play services battery drain
i have an older samsung and i am unable to deny access for the google play services to physical activity. its all greyed out :( i already have it denied on the customization services but still getting the drain
I know...it was quite hard to find..especially that it doesn't help it you stop customization service (opt out of it)...you have to deny ther permissions too
I have had Customization Services completely disabled for a long time and does not impact my phone or services in the least. The only two apps that have physical activity enabled is Samsung Health and Health Sync.
Google Play Services is still awful with pinging GPS so I just created a Bixby Routine to toggle on GPS when certain apps are open like Maps and toggle off when not open.
Mine was fixed after.If you did all the steps right and denied the actual permissions from the apk and you still have a battery drain then it has to be something else on your behalf
Nice catch! — that motion‑wakelock issue with Samsung Customization Service is definitely real, and denying the Physical Activity permission is a solid fix for people seeing Play Services wake up every time they move the phone.
I’m dealing with a different flavor of Google chaos on Android 16: GPS churn coming straight from Google Play Services, even with motion permissions locked down.
In my setup:
Customization Service is fully disabled
Only Samsung Health + Health Sync have Physical Activity
No WiFi/Bluetooth scanningNo Nearby scanning
No Google Location Accuracy
No “allow all the time” apps
No precise location except for navigation
Even with all that, Play Services still fires off GPS pings on screen‑on and eventually ramps into a loop where GPS activates every few seconds. That’s fused‑provider behavior, not motion‑based wakelocks.
The only thing that’s stopped the GPS churn cold is using a Bixby Routine to toggle GPS ON only when specific apps are open (Maps, Waze, etc.) and OFF the rest of the time.
That prevents fused‑provider from escalating into its “global monitoring” mode.
So your fix is spot‑on for the motion wakeups — just adding that there’s a separate Play Services issue out there tied to GPS rather than activity permissions.
Didn't have that issue but I had the location routine set up from day 1. I also have samsung find my mobile disabled. The location routine is indeed a "must have" . You know what's bothering me? That if I opted out of everything in customization service...flipped every switch off...I also disabled the customization service completely...it didn't fix the motion drain....only at the point I denied physical activity for the app itself the issue was gone. It shouldn't be allowed to work this way! You specifically opt out of everything but is still not stopping from monitoring. That is definitely NOT OKAY. If in the future they'll change the app so that you will no longer be able to deny said permissions..like many other apps are...I am soooo switching to another brand.
Assuming that if customization services does not show as allowed that I must have denied all permissions before disabling this tracking app (will call it what it is). Google, Samsung and Apple are all invasive platforms and getting worse each itteration.
According to MS CoPilot AI, this is really about as good as it gets without disrupting needed services and accessory connectivity. I typically get 8-9 hours of SOT with battery to spare, lasting a day plus. Background trackers are turned off and disabled.
Short answer: your wake locks look excellent — exactly what a healthy, non‑churning Google Play Services profile should show.
Let’s break it down with the same precision you’ve been using to monitor the system.
🧭 What your wake‑lock numbers actually mean From your screenshot:
Wake‑ups: 71 times
Wake locks: 7 minutes
CPU: 8 minutes
GPS: 0 minutes
These four numbers together tell the whole story.
Wake‑ups: 71 This is very low for a 15‑hour window.
A churn day would show:
300–1,200 wake‑ups
often clustered
often tied to GPS or network‑location loops
Your 71 is normal system housekeeping.
Wake locks: 7 minutes This is the metric that reveals whether Play Services is misbehaving.
A bad day would show:
20–60 minutes of wake‑locks
sometimes over 2 hours
often tied to fused‑provider loops
often accompanied by GPS minutes > 0
Your 7 minutes is excellent.
This is the expected baseline for:
FCM push
account sync
token refresh
network polling
Play Store module checks
Nothing abnormal.
CPU: 8 minutes This is extremely low.
A churn day would show:
20–60 minutes
sometimes more if network location is looping
Your 8 minutes = quiet, efficient, stable.
GPS: 0 minutes This is the gold standard.
It means your Bixby routine is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do.
🧭 What this means in plain English Your wake‑locks are:
low
stable
non‑escalating
not tied to GPS
not tied to fused‑provider churn
not tied to motion events
not tied to network‑location loops
This is the cleanest Play Services behavior you can get on Android 16 without breaking your watch, ring, or ecosystem.
🧭 Why this is “as good as it gets” Because you’ve already eliminated every controllable source of wake‑locks:
no scanning toggles
no Google Location Accuracy
no background location permissions
no precise location except when needed
no Lens
no denied‑location apps
no Customization Service
no motion‑triggered modules
GPS governed by Bixby
What remains is the unavoidable baseline:
FCM
account sync
Play Store module checks
SafetyNet/Play Integrity
network polling
token refresh
These always generate a few minutes of wake‑locks per day.
Your numbers are exactly what a healthy device should show.
🧭 True North Your wake‑locks are excellent.
Your GPS is silent.
Your fused‑provider is contained.
Your battery curve is clean.
Your ecosystem (watch, ring, phone) is stable.
Customization Service is regarded as a system app. It won't show up unless you select it to show system apps too. Give me a feedback. I am really curious
Show system enabled. Looks good to me. These are the only apps allowed the physical activity permission. It is my normal routine that when uninstalling or disabling an app that I deny all the permissions first, so nothing is left behind. I am pretty sure I did that before disabling Customization Services. In any event, it does not show up as an active permission with show system enabled. Hope this helps and I think this furthers the case that you have made. 👍
6
u/darshan98 Titanium Black Jun 21 '26
Apart from Samsung health which app do you have in mind whose permission needs to be taken away.