Battery Drain and Location Ping Issues Hit Galaxy S24 and S25 After One UI 7

Some Samsung Galaxy S24 and S25 users are facing an unusual location services issue after recent software updates. Following the rollout of One UI 7 for the S24 series and the April update for the S25 series, many users have noticed that their phones are accessing location data far more often than expected, sometimes almost continuously.Reports across Reddit, Samsung’s community forums, and other platforms describe the location icon appearing in the status bar nearly every time the phone is unlocked. Some users have also observed through their settings that “Phone services” or Google Play Services are pinging their location every few minutes. This unexpected behavior has raised concerns, especially over its impact on battery life, as many users feel their devices aren’t lasting as long on a charge since the updates.Attempts to resolve the issue have largely been unsuccessful. Common troubleshooting steps like restarting the device, clearing the cache partition, or reinstalling updates for Google Play Services haven’t consistently worked. Some users tried disabling location features such as Google Location Accuracy or restricting permissions for apps like SmartThings, but the frequent location checks often returned regardless of these efforts.The growing number of reports suggests the bug is fairly widespread. Some users are encouraging others to report the issue through the Samsung Members app, hoping the company will recognize the problem and release a fix in a future update.Adding to the confusion, one user mentioned receiving a response from Samsung support suggesting that the frequent location checks might be tied to U.S. regulations. However, this explanation was met with skepticism. As another user pointed out, similar regulations would have presumably affected earlier software versions as well, questioning why the issue only appeared with the latest updates.In the meantime, users are trying various workarounds, such as manually disabling location services when not in use or putting certain apps into deep sleep mode to minimize location requests. Still, a proper solution remains out of reach for now, leaving many hoping Samsung will address the persistent location bug soon.