Sleuths may have tracked down the bug cooking Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra batteries

C. Scott Brown / Android AuthorityTL;DR Galaxy S25 Ultra and Galaxy S24 Ultra owners have been reporting battery drain and overheating issues after installing the July security patch. Users are noticing that the problem appears to be connected to WhatsApp. It’s reported that a bug in the update prevents WhatsApp from completing the backup process, causing it to run continuously in the background. Security patches are meant to fix bugs, not introduce them. However, the latest security update from Samsung may be causing trouble on some Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra devices. The affected owners now appear to have found the root cause of the problem.Samsung released this month’s security patch on July 7. After installing the update, an influx of Galaxy S25 Ultra and S24 Ultra users have been reporting (1, 2, 3) trouble with battery life and overheating. Initially, it was unclear what the problem was, but users have narrowed it down to WhatsApp.According to the reports, something with the security update is interfering with WhatsApp’s backup process. Users claim that their backups have not completed since the update was installed. This is causing the app to continuously attempt to finish the process in the background. If that is indeed happening, that would explain the excessive battery drain and heat.It appears that the problem cannot be fixed by force-stopping the app, deleting the cache, or uninstalling the app. Users say the solution involves forcing WhatsApp to create a fresh backup. After disabling encrypted backups, the affected users claim that their phones went back to normal.Samsung has yet to release an official statement regarding the bug. However, the company’s customer support team has offered some troubleshooting tips.Thank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.